USPS Package Tracking



  • I know I’ve said it before, but USPS’s package “tracking” is worthless. Apparently my newest package has died and gone to Purgatory. But at least I know it arrived there safely on June 1 at 11:29 AM.USPS

     



  •  I know a guy who was trying to get a laptop shipped to him from Hong Kong a few months back. During the shipping process, a volcano exploded in Alaska, stranding a number of aircraft whose flight paths would have brought them near the volcano. The online tracking system gave the date and time that the plane carrying his package was grounded, with a location of Anchorage, AK and "details" reading "NATURAL DISASTER".



  • @Someone You Know said:

    I know a guy who was trying to get a laptop shipped to him from Hong Kong a few months back. During the shipping process, a volcano exploded in Alaska, stranding a number of aircraft whose flight paths would have brought them near the volcano. The online tracking system gave the date and time that the plane carrying his package was grounded, with a location of Anchorage, AK and "details" reading "NATURAL DISASTER".

    The USPS is a man-made disaster.



  •  I once had a laptop hard drive on it's way to me via UPS that ended up with a status of "Delayed due to train derailment." It actually did eventually make it to me, in perfect working condition.



  •  @morbiuswilters said:

    @Someone You Know said:

    I know a guy who was trying to get a laptop shipped to him from Hong Kong a few months back. During the shipping process, a volcano exploded in Alaska, stranding a number of aircraft whose flight paths would have brought them near the volcano. The online tracking system gave the date and time that the plane carrying his package was grounded, with a location of Anchorage, AK and "details" reading "NATURAL DISASTER".

    The USPS is a man-made disaster.

    To be fair to them, my friend was actually using UPS. I only just realized that this post was about the USPS, not UPS. It's been a long day.



  • If you think the USPS is terrible, there was the time I tried to buy something off Newegg and got DHL shipping.

    If I recall directly, it shipped form Memphis, TN, wandered around Kentucky and Georgia, before finally being mailed to me via USPS.

    Needless to say, I got it the day they put it in the mail.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    The USPS is a man-made disaster.
     

    Not for bear-land.  UPS = Absolute hell (they rape us for an incredible amount in extra costs to process taxes), USPS = Flat rate brokerage, or $0 if the package is under $60.

    It's so bad I actually refuse to buy anything from sellers that ship via UPS. In fact, I won't even take free gifts that arrive internationally via UPS, either. Not that that's happened yet.



  • With most USPS-shipped packages I've seen, they give 2 tracking events: billing info received (that is, seller told them there would be a package), and package has been delivered. UPS on the other hand, lists every time the package is scanned entering or leaving a facility.

    Where I live (Mass), both UPS and USPS are fast and reliable -- USPS tracking just doesn't inspire confidence the first few times you use it...



  • @shepd said:

    Not for bear-land.

    What?



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    The USPS is a man-made disaster.

     

    As opposed to UPS, which is clearly the work of Satan.

     



  • @bobzilla said:

    I know I’ve said it before, but USPS’s package “tracking” is worthless
    It's not really a tracking service -- hence the lack of the word "tracking" anywhere in the name "delivery confirmation".  They offer no garantees of updates.  I've seen hundreds of packages with delivery confirmation that never got a single scan during their entire trip through the postal system.

    You get what you pay for.



  • @SQLDave said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    The USPS is a man-made disaster.

     

    As opposed to UPS, which is clearly the work of Satan.

    I've had better luck with UPS than USPS, honestly.  Though, I am still resentful over the UPS strike that took place when I was a young lad.  I ordered new computer equipment just before school let out for the summer, mere days before the strike took effect.  Unfortunately, my package was already shipped and stuck in a UPS facility hundreds of miles away for months.  I didn't get the package until after school had restarted in the fall.  Motherfuckers.

     

    Of course, FedEx is the best, period.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Of course, FedEx is the best, period.
     

    Exactly.

    You get the package even if the plane crashes near an uninhabited island along with the director and has to wait for years until he builds a raft and gets passage on a ship, and then he delivers it in person. Insane!



  • @dhromed said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    Of course, FedEx is the best, period.
     

    Exactly.

    You get the package even if the plane crashes near an uninhabited island along with the director and has to wait for years until he builds a raft and gets passage on a ship, and then he delivers it in person. Insane!

    Well sure, so long as you weren't waiting for a volleyball or ice skates.  If so, you'll be pissed when that fucker opens your packages, shoves the ice skate in his mouth and turns it into a knife and bloodies up the ball before losing it.


  •  bear-land == old internet meme for Canada


  • Garbage Person

     That's DHL's bottom tier - they provide carriage and then hand off to USPS for final delivery. Nobody fucking uses it (though in some areas where DHL doesn't own facilities, they will ship other tiers that way, too)

     

    DHL's only real purpose in life is to ship Dell gear. Seriously. Has anyone ever used them for anything else? I mean, Dell doesn't even do the initial shipment with them anymore, but DHL all the way for return service (Back when I worked helldesk, I called the same DHL guy in to pick up parts THREE TIMES in one day. It was pretty awesome.



  • I had that lovely experience with Newegg just last month.  It was even more inexplicable in that they went to all that trouble to get it from Memphis to Kentucky, in order to mail it back to Memphis.

    I just cant' fathom why DHL's North American operations never caught on.



  • @merreborn said:

    It's not really a tracking service -- hence the lack of the word "tracking" anywhere in the name "delivery confirmation".  They offer no garantees of updates.  I've seen hundreds of packages with delivery confirmation that never got a single scan during their entire trip through the postal system.

    You get what you pay for.

     

    That's funny because at the top of the image it says "Track Your Package".



  • I fairly regularly send things out with USPS. I find that if your just using normal shipping or the lower teir ones, then yes, the tracking is beyond uselss. For priority or first class mail though, it seems to show pretty much every hop the package takes. I don't use UPS enough to have an opinion, but I can't stand DHL. They've managed to loose my package within the service center twice now (at the time, I was living in a college dorm, and it made it difficult to schedule a pickup and meet the guy so I would drive to the service center, and wait an hour to find the package. Although on the other hand, I didn't have this issue with the DHL in NYC when I lived there). I miss Airborne Express; they were so much better :-/


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