Mad as &$##... not going to take it anymore!

[HuubL]

Tragically I have to agree. They really do make USPS employees look like diligent, hard working and dedicated individuals.

I lived in Japan for a couple of years and still wish that the Japanese government would just openly take over every postal system in the world. We'd be much better off...

Japan is best. Packages from the US take about 14 days to arrive in the Netherlands. Farther away Japan gets them at my door in 4-5 days (that includes a weekend)!

 

[IGMeanwell]

I sent an ebay item out... on the 12th with insured (no delivery confirmation 🙁 ) Priority Mail

Well I just got an email today from the buyer asking for the the tracking number!! I am thinking oh God that camera better be getting to California soon or I'm going to go Postal @##$!!!

I have the insurance receipt but now I am very nervous

Edit: For the record USPS tracking is a joke, it will say scanned for delivery but nothing else (it even says on the site that it means the postal service received the shipping information but does not mean delivered)... hell I just check the tracking number on an item that was delivered on monday and it says its still out for delivery? really nice

 

[matt fury]

Seriously, as far as it goes, USPS Priority & Express Mail is pretty damn reliable. Yes, things happen, but overall your packages are usually pretty safe. I'm involved with a few cigar bulletin boards, and over there they basically always use Priority Mail with DC, and it's VERY rare for a box to disappear. And when you factor in the low low price you pay for the speed of delivery, it's an impossible deal to beat.

Delivery Confirmation is not supposed to be tracking, however, which is why it sucks for tracking. If you send something Express Mail however, it will be tracked. Express is another awesome service. They will deliver just about every day of the year, Saturdays & Sundays included for no extra charge. Try sending a letter out on a Friday via FedEx or UPS overnight service and see what that will cost you..if they'll even do it.

 

[Marc-A.]

DHL, Fed-Ex... i find them worth the extra bucks for important stuff. Admittedly, I have been lucky with the USPS

I second that. DHL is great, not too expensive. Fed-Ex is also great, but way more expensive. Ukrainian Post is the best .... 😀
Marc

 

[rxmd]

Ukrainian Post is the best ....

Actually Gevorg Vartanyan told me that UkrPoshta (http://www.ukrposhta.com) has a lower loss rate on parcels than USPS.

I wonder if this is before or after you've bribed your mailman, though. When I tell this to any of the Ukrainians I know they all shake their heads and burst out laughing.

Philipp

 

[fgianni]

Only nonindustrialized countries are supposed to have a postal system that is as efficient as plotting fractals using an abacus.

LMAO, that's a good one!

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I'm planning to EMS internationally next week as it's much cheaper then DHL and easier to access. Has anybody used EMS?

 

[Trius]

Green delivery conf. only (bloody cheapskate... me!)



It was scanned in here in Portland and that is all.

Ron

Call me stupid, but if you mean that USPS only has a record of it being accepted in Portland, and doesn't have a record of it moving any further through the system, then .... yeah, I'll bet it was snagged right there.

If that is the case then unfortunately the suspiciion that the insruance value alerted a thief may be correct. While this can happen with any carrier, I'd be surprised if USPS weren't the "leader", and it does seem that posts in forums confirm that collecting is a long, frustrating process. Maybe you should go get a root canal to put it all in perspective! :bang:

40oz: With all due respect, why would any service even THINK of stealing something that's been touched by a lawyer? 😀

Earl

 

[kshapero]

I was in an unnamed country, not US of A, and the mailman had just picked up a package from me to go back to the States. A couple minutes later I left my apartment to do errands. I turn the first corner and what do I see? The Mailman is negoiating the sale of my parcel to some unsavory person. I yell out and the mailman, thankfully, drops the package and he and the other guy run off. Luckily I found a FedEx later that day.

 

[shiro_kuro]

Japan is best. Packages from the US take about 14 days to arrive in the Netherlands. Farther away Japan gets them at my door in 4-5 days (that includes a weekend)!

lol ...I sent a package from Japan to Boston 4 months ago .....never got there ... They told me to please wait sometimes it takes extra time ..... anyway hope things work out for you .

 

[Pherdinand]

Huub,
Depends, what kind of package. I ordered the LensWork CD and arrived in FIVE days. It was a small package (not a letter)...

 

[raid]

I "lost" one time a Tele Rolleiflex TLR camera sent to Germany. It arrived broken in the mail.We had a hard time getting any money from the USPS. First,we were told that the German Post should take care of it, then we were told that the camera should be repaired. I still had the ebay ad online so I made a copy of the selling price as my "receipt". Then USPS paid $300 or so.
I was baffled that even though I had all receipts and had the item insured, this did not mean much.

There is no replacement for collector's items at market value. As you know, a mintish Rolleifelx can bnng in twice as much as an excellent Rolleiflex. Now consider a broken Rolleiflex!

I heard that UPS pays up much more readily the insurance amount than USPS.
Of course, for best results, use Express Mail [as mentioned above].


Raid

 

[JoeFriday]

my experience has been that the USPS is just like any other government agency.. forever passing the buck, and the service is only as good as the least dedicated person directly involved in your transaction.. I used to send paperwork via their Express Delivery until a postal worker I knew explained that it was mostly a scam where they charge extra but treat it exactly the same as any other package

every package I send by USPS is considered 'lost' from the moment I hand it over until the moment I get confirmation from the recipient that it arrived in good condition.. if I need to be absolutely sure a package will arrive, I always use FedEx, or occasionally UPS.. neither of them have ever lost a package of mine, or even delivered one late.. whereas the USPS offers only the guarantee that you might be compensated months later if (or rather WHEN) they screw up.. and only if your DNA sample matches their dubious records

 

[dostacos]

oH JOY Stephen just told me the camera is fouind and repaired yeah....😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

 

[dostacos]

You know, the thought has crossed my mind that insuring a package for a certain amount of money might actually alert unscrupulous people and convert an amoral bugger into a thief. :bang:

Ron

and that is why I send a brick insured for $500 twice a month, just hoping they loose it😱

 

[John Camp]

My daughter has a friend in NY working as a photographer's assistant. She wanted to get started in digital, and I had a Kodak SLRn that I wasn't using because I'd upgraded to a D2x. So I sent her the SLRn via overnight USPS Express Mail. The tracking service showed it leaving St. Paul, but never showed it arriving in NY. The next day, it was no-show in NY. I went to the local post office to inquire and was told that they'd had a big snow storm in NY, everything was snarled up, and if I waited a couple of days, it'd show up. I waited; no show. Then I called the USPS Express Mail center, and was told that I was calling too late -- they could only try to track it if I reported it lost within a day or two. I told them that the local PO had suggested I wait, and their basic answer was, Tell it to somebody who cares. I hadn't insured it because, to tell the truth, I was afraid it'd be stolen. That might sound like weird logic, but I as a kid, I worked as a PO substitute carrier, and one heard strange stories about Chicago and NY mail handling...

In any case, we'd all given up, and exactly one month to the day later, it showed up in New York. The package was pretty beaten up, but the camera was in perfect shape. Who knows where it'd been -- probably on a banana boat to somewhere...



JC

 

[ray_g]

Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with Kramer and Neuman taking a joyride in the mail truck.

 

[eli griggs]

I bought a FED 2 last month off a US seller, no insurance offered, never arrived and seller only refunded purchase price; no postage.:bang:

Overall I've had good luck with the mails so I guess I was due...oh well...🙄

Cheers,
Eli

 

[visiondr]

update... with feeling

update... with feeling

Happy days! The package finally arrived in NYC. Let's see... Left at the post office in Portland, OR on 8/30 and arrives in NY, NY on 9/22... that's 24 days. Way to go USPS.

In the end, I don't think I'll be trusting valuable packages to the venerable USPS in the future. They'll continue to get my basic post.

There's nothing to see here ladies and gentlemen, please go about your business.

Ron

 

[anabasis]

I ordered my 35 f1.2 Nokton from Stephen at Camera quest in early August to Dallas, TX. A week later USPS tracking had it at my post office after a failed delivery attempt. After about 10 trips to the post offices of record, and no one ever seeing the package, i had to go to school for 3 weeks. Well the package arrived the end of August and I picked it up the day after Labor Day (early September).

The box was perfectly labeled and readable. After a month in the postal service the corner was bashed it. Fortunately the lens and finder were in good shape. All this was priority mail ("3-5 day delivery" yeah right! it should be 3-5 weeks) insured, tracked, etc.

I like dealing with Stephen, but seriously, I don't want to buy anything from him unless he ships with some other carrier. The idiots between Cali and Dallas just can't be trusted.

JCA