I live in Florida. I ordered a DD LPK from Rainier Arms (in Washington) on June 22 at 8am. It arrived at my doorstep at 3pm on June 24th.
I ordered a UBR stock and some other goodies from Bravo Company (In Wisconsin) Thursday. According to USPS tracking, this package has already been routed through my local post office and should be arriving Saturday afternoon.
Adco (in Ohio) completed some barrel work and shipped my uppers back on Wednesday. UPS Ground won’t be delivering it until Thursday, and it cost $20.
No wonder the USPS is broke. They get packages 3000 miles away in 48 hours for $7 when UPS can’t do it in less than a week for 3x as much. I’ve used the USPS alot and its never been this fast. I honestly have had a guy 100 miles away ship me a package that took 3 days to get here. There must be direct flights to this area that USPS uses as opposed to trucking packages through the UPS hubs.
Not only that, but its saying alot about those two companies that they ship the same day the order is placed. Now if BCM would just get some damn SS 1:8 uppers in stock.
I recently bought a car from a guy in Texas. Shipped the vehicle to Montana and the title and paperwork were sent USPS Priority Mail.
Title didn’t show up, called the seller, he confirmed that it had been mailed and tracking number indicated the letter had been delivered! :no:
With all the delays that had accompanied this transaction, I had visions of a total cluster fuck trying to chase down a lost out-of-state title.
I contacted the USPS, a postal inspector called me back the same afternoon, and they located the parcel and had it to my door the next day.
I know a lot of folks like to bitch about the post office and I’m sure some of those gripes are legitimate. But, by and large, my transactions with the USPS have been positive and my neighborhood carriers have all been great guys and gals.
A lot of USPS mail either travels by air commercially or goes by air FedEx via a contract. As a result USPS priority usually gets where it is going in short order.
I know that UPS will purposely hold or delay items shipped via ground in order to be delivered on their guaranteed delivery date. This is so there remains a price discrimination between their standard delivery and more expensive options.
It can be argued that allowing thousands of companies to send meaningless junk letters to every house in America every day for virtually no cost while giving them 1st Class Mail status is a bad financial decision.
For the consumer, you cant beat a 70lb flat rate box going cross country for $12 in 3 days.
I wish it was like that for UPS. Placed an order the 21st, from MA to CO, Delivery on the 27th. Another one from WI. to CO, shipped the 23rd an delivery on the 28th. And not only that, our driver for UPS that is here everyday at 10:15am on the DOT, has been late alot lol. WHY!
This doesn’t make sense to me? They give you a tracking number but they don’t?
I have shipped all over the world like you with USPS and never had a problem. I ship nationally too with them. The problems I have had have always been with UPS and Fed Ex both of which charge an arm and a leg, and love to fuck shit up on my dime. Not to mention that their employees are about as intelligent as my friends 5 year old (usually less so).
The US mail system is fairly secure, and especially with priority mail they do seem to deliver pretty darn fast. FedEx is good for me, and UPS just really went downhill in my area lately. I did have a bill payment end up in the dead letter file years ago, and was “found” more than six months after mailing, but that’s the extent pretty much. If more people would send bullets via flat rate the shipping costs would go down a lot for me…
For the money, I use USPS PM whenever possible. UPS is dead last of the three, I won’t even mention DHL :mad:
I use USPS all the time and it has always been reliable. I’m currently living on a random rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and USPS is all we have out here, typically takes 10 days for packages to/from the mainland USA.
I’ve only had one problem in my entire life with USPS and that was when I shipped an electric guitar body that I sold on eBay. The buyer received it broken, how the post office managed to break a solid piece of alder wood is beyond me. The buyer agreed to half a refund since he could make the repairs but I was still like when I was looking over the pictures of the damaged package. Lesson learned, get insurance.
My only peeve is not with USPS but with buyers. As a courtesy I pay for Delivery Confirmation and provide tracking number on ANYTHING I ship. But some buyers don’t realize that the USPS tracking page is not a real-time tracker, it even says on the page that it can take up to 48 hours for USPS to update. I’ve had a few buyers threaten me with chargebacks and disputes all because USPS didn’t update and they tried to tell me it was my fault the package was lost or I didn’t ship anything in the first place. Last guy that did this e-mailed me that received his package before the tracking page even showed that it was in Honolulu, HI, the first hub after it leaves this island, much less updated to show the package as delivered. So their tracking can suck at times. And what’s worse is eBay doesn’t even allow me as a seller to leave negative feedback for a douchebag buyer, and nothing pisses me off more than non-paying buyers, so I leave a positive feedback with a very negative comment.
I haven’t done much this year, but from Denver it seems that USPS shipments take twice as long as UPS shipments. Don’t know why. The odd thing is that a first class letter from Ohio gets here faster than a priority mail small box. I guess they must drop some letters on aircraft with Denver being such a big hub???
It’s a confirmation number. Only Express Mail has tracking. People not understanding the products is the biggest problem USPS has imo. Most of the time the counter people don’t even know the difference between the shipping options they offer. There are at least 6 different international shipping options, first class, priority, priority international, express, global express, global overnight.
Back in the day when you could I bought some boolits off ebay. The seller in Anchorage AK, evidently a gun shop going out of business had grouped them in approximately 50 pound lots. I bought three or four lots. They shipped priority mail. I expected them to arrive in ten days or two weeks. They arrived next day, for $12 each. No wonder they are loosing money. USPS has an arrangement where UPS takes their small, light parcels to the Post Office and the mailman delivers them the next day. Midway ships that way.
when I was looking over the pictures of the damaged package. Lesson learned, get insurance.