The Postman

[gwendally]

On Sunday, September 22 a client in a suburb of Dallas mailed me something important via snail mail.  On Saturday, Oct. 6, two weeks later, it became time critical that I have that piece of mail.  (It wasn't before that.) Yet it had not arrived.  Much drama ensued and the client stopped payment on the check that was in the envelope and reported the

Comments

[allyphoe]

We've started mailing certified, after an event in which having proof of mailing benefited us. I never get all the green cards back; about 10% of them go missing between the envelope destination and us. The nice thing about certified is that you can track your package online, and at least know it got there, even if the card didn't make it back.

IMHO it's abnormal, but not unusual. It got stuck to the back of some other mailpiece when it went through a sorter. It fell behind a machine. It fell out of one box and put into a different one. Happens every once in a long while with UPS, too.

[exvapi]

I think you are figuring out why FedEX makes so much money. "If it absolutely needs to be there...", they have never failed me.

[coercedbynutmeg]

There ya go!

The shitty thing I've had happen more recently (and happens all the time with overseas military families) is when you pay for something to be shipped Fedex or UPS and it is.... right to the local post office. Never failed to lose a day or two over that transfer. No idea how to keep that from happening. I could understand it if I lived in the sticks but it's happened in a big city and my current (smaller) city, and Fedex and UPS still deliver some things right to my door. It just feels like cronyism to me, when it happens.

[gwendally]

Wait: Fedex ships things to the post office? I don't understand.

[coercedbynutmeg]

Google "UPS to USPS" or "smartpost." I think it was originally allowed to keep fedex drivers from having to find unfindable places (rural route whatever, APO whatever), but it's broadened a lot over the past few years, I'd guess due to the budget woes of the USPS.

Some of the things that are shipped to you come with a UPS tracking number, and even if they have your address on them, they are just transferred to your local post office and your mailman delivers them on his regular route. I don't know if this is a decision made by the shipper or by the shipping co, but it's a great way for your package to make it all the way to your town on time and then disappear. On the upshot, I think you can track it all the way to actual delivery, but you still lose a day or more.

Here's a thread where people gripe about it on amazon.
We've had it happen to us both in 23456 and in 93940. Even if you pay extra for shipping, they can still transfer stuff to USPS.

[ford_prefect42]

Thing is, that was pretty much always the way of it. You should try *actually* living in a third world country. Their post simply fails to arrive more often than not!