What do I do about USPS?

[tmw4h5]

On Monday, I gave four packages to our USPS guy, including a 49-inch tube with a shaft in it. Yesterday I received a PM from the member who purchased it from me and to my surprise, it shows it has not been scanned into the system yet, like at all. So I assumed that maybe all four packages had the same fate. I checked the other three and they are all on their way to the destination. The shaft is the only one not on its way. Hell, it's not even scanned in yet. So, I talked to our USPS guy today and he told me that he knows it got scanned in, because he scanned it in. Well, he told me that he didn't actually scan it, but instead had to type it. When I attached the label, I did it vertically rather than horizontally, so the barcode wasn't scannable. So, he had to physically enter the numbers and when he arrived at the post office, he sorted them into the appropriate bins.

My assumption is that he mistyped the numbers. I don't know what to do in this situation. Any advice?

 

[sethdavidsdad]

I'm having a similar problem with them. Wife dropped off a club for me at a shipping place. I have the drop off receipt and the shipper confirms that the post office picked up the package. At this point the package has not been scanned, so tracking just shows a label created. It is frustrating for me and the buyer. I went to usps.com and filed a form for them to look into the matter. I was told by the shipper that this is a common occurrence and packages are just sometimes being delayed. 

Good Luck

[Howshameless]

Happens all the time. Not a single line of tracking status/update until "Out for Delivery" or "Delivered"

[nsxguy]

24 minutes ago, sethdavidsdad said:

I'm having a similar problem with them. Wife dropped off a club for me at a shipping place. I have the drop off receipt and the shipper confirms that the post office picked up the package. At this point the package has not been scanned, so tracking just shows a label created. It is frustrating for me and the buyer. I went to usps.com and filed a form for them to look into the matter. I was told by the shipper that this is a common occurrence and packages are just sometimes being delayed. 

Good Luck

 

I use a "drop off" place as well. It's a desk in a jewelry shop but it IS an "official" USPS drop off place.

 

They SCAN the item in and the tracking number is on the receipt so it's "logged" into the system immediately.

 

One time a year or 2 back, mid-week around 2 PM or so, the line was too long at the post office and I placed my package on the drop off counter and left without a receipt.

 

Late that night the package still didn't show at all and I began to get a bit nervous. The next morning it showed up in tracking though.

 

No more leaving it without it being scanned in right then and there.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2020 by nsxguy

[ASN21]

Always gotta go horizontal with the label on those tubes. Thankfully I learned about this when I dropped off some stuff at the post office. 

[GoldenBellGW]

Same here - shipped a return to a vendor. Did USPS pickup at the mailbox and watched all four packages be picked up. Others moved no problem through the system, but this one (item I was returning was for a $400 refund) didn't update for 4 weeks. Supposedly sat in a distribution center and under the status "Awaiting Pickup." Status didn't changed until I got an "Out for Delivery" notice. USPS service in both terms of speed and package care has unfortunately dropped through the basement in the last couple months. I always try to use their service to support, but will probably be switching to another carrier just for the sake of knowing my packages are tracked and make it there in one piece.

[sethdavidsdad]

13 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

 

I use a "drop off" place as well. It's a desk in a jewelry shop but it IS an "official" USPS drop off place.

 

They SCAN the item in and the tracking number is on the receipt so it's "logged" into the system immediately.

 

One time a year or 2 back, mid-week around 2 PM or so, the line was too long at the post office and I placed my package on the drop off counter and left without a receipt.

 

Late that night the package still didn't show at all and I began to get a bit nervous. The next morning it showed up in tracking though.

 

No more leaving it without it being scanned in right then and there.

 

 

I got a drop off receipt from the place but they aren't linked with USPS according to them. So, if the post office doesn't scan it at the time of pick up it won't show. 

Luckily I just got an update and it's almost to destination. No movement for almost 7 days now it's in NY first time it was scanned according to tracking. 

[Taylormadehunter1]

43 minutes ago, TheButteryCut said:

Same here - shipped a return to a vendor. Did USPS pickup at the mailbox and watched all four packages be picked up. Others moved no problem through the system, but this one (item I was returning was for a $400 refund) didn't update for 4 weeks. Supposedly sat in a distribution center and under the status "Awaiting Pickup." Status didn't changed until I got an "Out for Delivery" notice. USPS service in both terms of speed and package care has unfortunately dropped through the basement in the last couple months. I always try to use their service to support, but will probably be switching to another carrier just for the sake of knowing my packages are tracked and make it there in one piece.

I had something similar myself. Item I ordered was dropped of at the post office, tracked to the regional distribution center then never updated for 22 days. Showed up at my door on day 23, box mangled and item missing. I never ship using Usps anymore and a lot of times I ask the people I’m buying from to use ups or FedEx. 

[14max]

I had this issue recently and resorted to contacting my local post office.  They ran a trace on it, contact the destination hub, and the club was delivered today.  It wasn't painful, just annoying...

[third-times-a-charm]

Happens all the time. USPS tracking sucks.

[golffeen007]

2 hours ago, sethdavidsdad said:

I got a drop off receipt from the place but they aren't linked with USPS according to them. So, if the post office doesn't scan it at the time of pick up it won't show. 

Luckily I just got an update and it's almost to destination. No movement for almost 7 days now it's in NY first time it was scanned according to tracking. 

I run into this all the time. First class generally doesn't scan for me until it's nearly at destination , but this has been happening a lot with priority packages too. 

OP - A couple of weeks ago , I had a priority tube that should have delivered to Cali in 2 days , but the label never got scanned in. After two weeks and out of the blue , I get an alert that the package had been scanned at destination and was about to deliver. Bad as it is , I would just hold tight , I'm sure it'll get there. Albeit , later than expected. Good luck. 

[golffeen007]

1 hour ago, Taylormadehunter1 said:

I had something similar myself. Item I ordered was dropped of at the post office, tracked to the regional distribution center then never updated for 22 days. Showed up at my door on day 23, box mangled and item missing. I never ship using Usps anymore and a lot of times I ask the people I’m buying from to use ups or FedEx. 

Although UPS and FedEx generally cost more to ship with , I try to use them instead of USPS right now. BUT , I've had issues with FedEx lately too. 

[DFW Snowman]

I always get my packages scanned at the post office when I send something.  It lets the buyer know that it is definitely with the USPS and not still in my possession, and because there is a paper trail showing the exact moment USPS accepted the package, I feel like they try harder to deliver it on time.  Though who knows if that's true.

[cvhookem63]

A few months ago, I shipped out a package with Mizuno MP-18 iron heads, a TM M1 T3 tour head, Rombax P95 shaft, Tour Nike/Artisan Engage 46*, Taylormade tour wedge heads off to get a set built up. I printed the label at home, took it to the post office, and the line was long inside and I had stuff to do. There is a spot to drop off pre-labeled packages that I use from time to time. I dropped my box off and went on my way. I keep up with the tracking and see it arrived. I get a DM saying "hey, when is the rest of your stuff supposed to be here? Only a few things from your list are in this box." After some investigation, it turns somebody as USPS opened up the box, took out the heads and small items that could be carried, left the fully assembled clubs with shafts on them, and taped it back up with new tape. I did not include enough insurance, so I was out that money even though the items weren't damaged, they were straight up stolen by USPS. The item was never scanned here in Texas - the first scan was somewhere in Florida. Fishy all the way around. 

 

Moral of the story: from that point forward, I take everything inside to the post office, wait in line with my mask on, watch them scan the item and get the receipt, and put the appropriate amount of insurance on everything. It is a pain because I ship quite a bit of stuff with my ball marker, divot tool, headcovers, etc side hustle - but I need the peace of mind that the items were actually scanned in.

[cvhookem63]

4 hours ago, tmw4h5 said:

On Monday, I gave four packages to our USPS guy, including a 49-inch tube with a shaft in it. Yesterday I received a PM from the member who purchased it from me and to my surprise, it shows it has not been scanned into the system yet, like at all. So I assumed that maybe all four packages had the same fate. I checked the other three and they are all on their way to the destination. The shaft is the only one not on its way. Hell, it's not even scanned in yet. So, I talked to our USPS guy today and he told me that he knows it got scanned in, because he scanned it in. Well, he told me that he didn't actually scan it, but instead had to type it. When I attached the label, I did it vertically rather than horizontally, so the barcode wasn't scannable. So, he had to physically enter the numbers and when he arrived at the post office, he sorted them into the appropriate bins.

My assumption is that he mistyped the numbers. I don't know what to do in this situation. Any advice?

 

I'd contact the local post office if you know which one he took it to and ask them about it. They should be able to help locate it. 

[MaineMariner]

I've been on both ends of this problem.

 

Even if you bring the package to the post office, hand it to them to scan it in, and get a receipt, your package will occasionally just drop off the map. It'll get the initial departure scan and you'll see it arrive at your regional sorting center, but then it just disappears into the ether and you get stuck with an "In transit to the next destination" message for who knows how long. Sometimes a day, sometimes weeks. Then one day it's out for delivery and shows up.

 

I had this happen recently with FedEx, too. I don't think any carrier is immune.

[cvhookem63]

5 minutes ago, MaineMariner said:

I've been on both ends of this problem.

 

Even if you bring the package to the post office, hand it to them to scan it in, and get a receipt, your package will occasionally just drop off the map. It'll get the initial departure scan and you'll see it arrive at your regional sorting center, but then it just disappears into the ether and you get stuck with an "In transit to the next destination" message for who knows how long. Sometimes a day, sometimes weeks. Then one day it's out for delivery and shows up.

 

I had this happen recently with FedEx, too. I don't think any carrier is immune.

Yeah, there is no way to avoid the "In Transit to Next Destination" message which really means they don't know where it is and they hope it will eventually show up, but if you get the initial scan you at least have a record of when it was accepted. Like I said above, when I dropped a package off without a scan, the first scan I saw was halfway across the country. YMMV, but I tend to like proof of acceptance - even it it just makes me feel better about it and doesn't actually make a difference. 

[Carolina Golfer 2]

4 hours ago, Taylormadehunter1 said:

I had something similar myself. Item I ordered was dropped of at the post office, tracked to the regional distribution center then never updated for 22 days. Showed up at my door on day 23, box mangled and item missing. I never ship using Usps anymore and a lot of times I ask the people I’m buying from to use ups or FedEx. 

This. Im just not going to trust USPS on an $800 or set of irons.  I always ship UPS and will pay the extra shipping for s seller to do so as well. 

[Taylormadehunter1]

51 minutes ago, Carolina Golfer 2 said:

This. Im just not going to trust USPS on an $800 or set of irons.  I always ship UPS and will pay the extra shipping for s seller to do so as well. 

It’s just not worth using Usps to save a couple bucks. The headaches are just too frequent any more. 

[Carolina Golfer 2]

17 minutes ago, Taylormadehunter1 said:

It’s just not worth using Usps to save a couple bucks. The headaches are just too frequent any more. 

Agree complefey!

[bladehunter]

Came here to gripe as well.  Bought a set of irons here Sunday .  Member was / is great. He shipped them first thing Monday morning. Texted me a pic of the counter receipt with tracking.  Turns out. He’s 2 hours away from me.  Direct interstate route.   Big city hub to medium sized city hub then to my house.  Monday morning before 11 it was in their hands.  Today is Thursday.  It’s not here.  The tracking said thursday delivery ... which is already 1 day late for a 2 day service , which priority is.  
 

so now that it didn’t arrive , I check the tracking and it now says “ your package is late.  Don’t worry , it is still on the way “ with no new expectation of when it will arrive.     Now I know that there has to be more than 1 truck that rides I85 from Atlanta to Greenville SC for the us mail every single day and night.  It’s the main artery of commerce in the southeast.  How on earth has one box not made it 2 hours in going on 5 days ? It’s pretty comical at this point.  
 

needless to say. This guy has zero confidence in the USPS and I won’t be sending anything I want to arrive that way.  
 

( Seller if you see this don’t worry.  I don’t blame you one ounce. I’m good ). 

[tmw4h5]

9 hours ago, ASN21 said:

Always gotta go horizontal with the label on those tubes. Thankfully I learned about this when I dropped off some stuff at the post office. 

Absolutely rookie mistake on my part. I've been so busy with work + school that I can't think clearly most of the time.
 

7 hours ago, 14max said:

I had this issue recently and resorted to contacting my local post office.  They ran a trace on it, contact the destination hub, and the club was delivered today.  It wasn't painful, just annoying...

This is probably what I'll attempt to do.
 

6 hours ago, third-times-a-charm said:

Happens all the time. USPS tracking sucks.

Oddly enough, I haven't had any major issues with USPS in years. It's just these past couple months that have been awful and for anyone following the news, it is apparent that these issues are at least semi-intentional, which is extremely unfortunate for a business that's been so reliable and affordable for such a long time.
 

5 hours ago, cvhookem63 said:

I'd contact the local post office if you know which one he took it to and ask them about it. They should be able to help locate it. 

I'll probably have to use my lunch break to go to the local post office tomorrow to (hopefully) resolve this.

[nsxguy]

I sold about 10 putters on eBay in the last 12 days. Pretty much all of them were delivered in 3 days.

 

As I recall the estimated delivery time when I purchased the postage was between 5-7 days.

 

I was a bit surprised at that until I remembered the issues with the Fed gubmint recently.

 

 

[bladehunter]

Forgot my favorite part .... USPS is now selling subscriptions to “ premium tracking “.  Presumably you can view your box sitting in a hub , or get the scanned info before it’s delivered.  Lol.    I almost paid the fee just to report what happened.  But.... I know it’s a Lucy and Charlie Brown football scenario.  

[nsxguy]

5 hours ago, cvhookem63 said:

A few months ago, I shipped out a package with Mizuno MP-18 iron heads, a TM M1 T3 tour head, Rombax P95 shaft, Tour Nike/Artisan Engage 46*, Taylormade tour wedge heads off to get a set built up. I printed the label at home, took it to the post office, and the line was long inside and I had stuff to do. There is a spot to drop off pre-labeled packages that I use from time to time. I dropped my box off and went on my way. I keep up with the tracking and see it arrived. I get a DM saying "hey, when is the rest of your stuff supposed to be here? Only a few things from your list are in this box." After some investigation, it turns somebody as USPS opened up the box, took out the heads and small items that could be carried, left the fully assembled clubs with shafts on them, and taped it back up with new tape. I did not include enough insurance, so I was out that money even though the items weren't damaged, they were straight up stolen by USPS. The item was never scanned here in Texas - the first scan was somewhere in Florida. Fishy all the way around. 

 

Moral of the story: from that point forward, I take everything inside to the post office, wait in line with my mask on, watch them scan the item and get the receipt, and put the appropriate amount of insurance on everything. It is a pain because I ship quite a bit of stuff with my ball marker, divot tool, headcovers, etc side hustle - but I need the peace of mind that the items were actually scanned in.

 

Question and observation. You said upon investigation someone at the P.O. opened the box and took stuff out. How did that come discovery come about exactly ?

 

But that aside, and while I agree you should wait in line and have them scan it right then, I'm not sure that helps you out any in this instance.

 

I'm sure someone with more experience than myself will chime in but as shippers we're still very much on the hook regarding buyers, as in your case.

 

I believe your insurance with the P.O. only covers confirmed delivery to the address OR damage to the shipment(s). I don't believe it covers missing contents. If that's correct you'd be on the hook anyway. And if the buyer is dishonest and says some contents are missing, as in your case, I'm not sure what you could do about it.

 

 

[cvhookem63]

1 hour ago, nsxguy said:

 

Question and observation. You said upon investigation someone at the P.O. opened the box and took stuff out. How did that come discovery come about exactly ?

 

But that aside, and while I agree you should wait in line and have them scan it right then, I'm not sure that helps you out any in this instance.

 

I'm sure someone with more experience than myself will chime in but as shippers we're still very much on the hook regarding buyers, as in your case.

 

I believe your insurance with the P.O. only covers confirmed delivery to the address OR damage to the shipment(s). I don't believe it covers missing contents. If that's correct you'd be on the hook anyway. And if the buyer is dishonest and says some contents are missing, as in your case, I'm not sure what you could do about it.

 

 

To answer your question: I opened a case with the United States Postal Service Inspector General's Office and worked with an investigator there via phone calls and test conversations. That was the assumed result from that investigation, but nothing was done about it to correct it financially and I did not pursue it past that. 

 

On your observation: You may be right, but I do think there would have been less opportunity for the item to be tampered with had I had it scanned at the counter instead of leaving it sitting on the counter where one of the guys from the back came and picked it up and put it in a crate later, and who knows where it went from there (obviously did not get scanned/weighed at that location at all) . I don't know that there is anything can be done to keep that from happening without a shadow of a doubt. For my own peace of mind now, I try to always take the items to the counter and have them scanned/get a receipt. The investigator couldn't even tell me which location the item was accepted at because there was no scan at all until it was in Florida (I am in East Texas). In this case, I wasn't shipping to a "buyer", I was shipping to a business who was performing a service of club building. I trust him to tell me the truth, and I know if he says they showed up missing pieces then he is not lying. The packaging was noticeably tampered with. I was on the hook for that just the same as I would have been shipping it to a buyer though. 

 

I ship a lot of items for the aforementioned side hustle, and most of them are small items in padded mailers. I ship everything through USPS using Stamps.com to create pre-paid shipping labels. I very rarely have problems with items being delivered domestically (international is another story.) I sold a handful of putters as well recently (some here and some on ebay) and shipped them all USPS with no problem, but I took them to the counter and made sure to get the scan receipt. 

[tmw4h5]

On 10/1/2020 at 11:51 AM, tmw4h5 said:

On Monday, I gave four packages to our USPS guy, including a 49-inch tube with a shaft in it. Yesterday I received a PM from the member who purchased it from me and to my surprise, it shows it has not been scanned into the system yet, like at all. So I assumed that maybe all four packages had the same fate. I checked the other three and they are all on their way to the destination. The shaft is the only one not on its way. Hell, it's not even scanned in yet. So, I talked to our USPS guy today and he told me that he knows it got scanned in, because he scanned it in. Well, he told me that he didn't actually scan it, but instead had to type it. When I attached the label, I did it vertically rather than horizontally, so the barcode wasn't scannable. So, he had to physically enter the numbers and when he arrived at the post office, he sorted them into the appropriate bins.

My assumption is that he mistyped the numbers. I don't know what to do in this situation. Any advice?

 

An update. I've been checking tracking periodically. I was in contact with the post office late last week. 

I looked this morning and the package was delivered yesterday.