USPS Is Broken

Beyond words. USPS is broken, just like that. Sold a $2k guitar on Reverb just a while back, USPS Priority came to $100 with Reverb Protection. This time last week, I sold a $1500 guitar. All the sudden USPS had jumped up to $156 for less insurance coverage, vs UPS was only $100 but 5 days + Ground overland in summer, I really wanted the guitar to get there faster, so went USPS $56 out of pocket, and it never got there, and there is no tracking whatsoever. It doesn't show ever leaving the 1st depot it went to after leaving here. 1 stop, that's all they have.

But you can track it for three years, or 5, up to 10 years, and it's not like Carfax where you pay a fee and get unlimited use for a month or whatever of tracking for all packages, this is for single items. Maybe it's for lost ballots, who knows, up to ten years... this is a new level of insane I never saw coming.

That seems to be the trend these days. Everyday, some new shocker even the best of fiction novelists couldn't envision...

And the odd thing I'm seeing now is that Reverb never paid me, so I'm out $1500. And here I thought they said they pay out once your item is on the way, that's what they say, but not quite so.

Anyway, the real heartbreaker here is what's happened to the PO. On it rides all of the VA's meds, SSI checks, survival supplies for millions of people stuck at home, nevermind the crippling of commerce.

REM had it right, end if the world as you know it.

The all caps screaming title doesn't help anything.

All shipping through all carriers has gone up
If USPS lost your package go talk to your postmaster
If USPS is no longer providing tracking go talk to your postmaster

This kind of thing has happened before - I seem to recall an expensive guitar that was never delivered, not tracked as expected and speculated to have been stolen (not necessarily by a PO employee) or buried in the back of some PO warehouse. I mention this so that people are NOT tempted to relate this incident to current politics and thereby think they can express a political opinion This does not happen often but it has happened before

@Default works for the PO and in the previous discussion he told about a sending method that essentially made the last employee to sign off on the item financially responsible for non-delivery. Paychecks would be docked etc. So the PO employees have an additional incentive to maintain a good chain of custody. I will ask him again what the service is called next time I send a high value item.

fronobulax said:

This kind of thing has happened before - I seem to recall an expensive guitar that was never delivered, not tracked as expected and speculated to have been stolen (not necessarily by a PO employee) or buried in the back of some PO warehouse. I mention this so that people are NOT tempted to relate this incident to current politics and thereby think they can express a political opinion This does not happen often but it has happened before

@Default works for the PO and in the previous discussion he told about a sending method that essentially made the last employee to sign off on the item financially responsible for non-delivery. Paychecks would be docked etc. So the PO employees have an additional incentive to maintain a good chain of custody. I will ask him again what the service is called next time I send a high value item.

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Express mail I believe requires such a chain. It's expensive, though.

Edit - it's Registered - see below.

Here in the east, a guitar that goes to Fla, or anything east of the Miss River, rides for around $60 before insurance, but about double that for anything west of that. I only ship USPS because they aren't hurried like the other two, and FedEx and UPS have low insurance limits, 500 or 999 bucks max.

The PO has ALWAYS gotten my gits to where they're going, though they do 'warehouse' or pause shipments and neglect scanning occasionally. Recently, I put a 9 instead of a 7 at the beginning of a zip, and the guitar ended up in Wa instead of TX. The recipient filed a 'where's my pkg' claim and some postal worker forwarded it to the new owner, with no additional fee on my part. My postmaster noted that scanning seems to be skipped at certain intervals.

It will prob get there, my PO is on it, has the container # it left the airport in, will follow it up, small town PO. Don't know who all here is shipping guitars, figured a heads-up PSA I needed to do. I don't want this to happen to someone else guitar, not at this shipping price. I been doing this for years, and like everything else, PO is going down the toilet.

Gal says she's never heard of 3 to 10 year tracking of items, didn't think I was on the official USPS website, but yes.

Sorry about caps, keyboard was stuck ;}}

Insurance available at FedEx goes way higher than $999, unless they changed something.

Express isn't what it used to be either, overnight is gone. Express is 2 days, probably no guarantee. It used to be "by 3pm at a big city PO, delivered the next day", and it worked. I sent a Burst to a guy in the "Wandering Heard" a Beano album copycat band, and he said an unmarked van with guys in sunglasses delivered the guitar the next day coast to coast. The price then, $100.

I was quoted $999 over the phone, but I found it hard to believe.

As we are all seeing, it's getting easier and easier to quote non-factual facts. I'm a die-hard athiest, but I'll say it anyway, God help us all.

Guildedagain said:

unmarked van with guys in sunglasses delivered the guitar

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That's the norm in this small town. The local PO seems to be subcontracting to get help with their deliveries and subcontractors don't get logos or uniforms. That said I don't really care about that when someone brings a package addressed to me at the correct address.

I'm going to check it out through my FedEx account, will post.

Shipping services are all pretty taxed right now. I've had a number of bizarre experiences with FedEx over the last two months, including a package getting effectively abandoned at a post office because FedEx couldn't figure out what had happened to one of its own drop-off locations (a Walgreens that had moved four months earlier). This was after the package had sat for 8 days at a FedEx shipping facility less than 20 miles from me with a "delivery pending" status. The post office (not my local PO) eventually called me and recommended I come pick it up, which I did. A few other times FedEx has delivered packages way early, with no prior notification. Once I happened to be at home but the other two times not. These were packages I had to receive at home due to seller mandate. I think all the shippers are scrambling a bit due to increased volume and decreased workforce.

-Dave-

GA, I hear you - ain't a one of us who wouldn't be alarmed / frustrated to see a just-shipped guitar
submerge, especially that soon after shipping.
Question - did you use Click-n-Ship label (generated online @ USPS)
or was all paperwork done at the local post office?

And yeah, what Quantum Strummer just wrote, too. Have seen some strange shipping
things recently, I figure it's the pandemic pandemonium hitting just like it has everywhere
and to everyone.

Registered mail is what you want for a full chain of custody. Not Express, not certified.
Also, fwiw, depending on location, many stations have been hit very hard by covid19, and are missing substantial amounts of both clerks and carriers, while getting slammed by truly horrific volumes of packages. I have been averaging 80-90 hours a week.
I will be working til 930-1000pm tonight, will read the whole thread when I get a breather. Pm me the tracking number and I will see what I can dig up.

Default, can a guitar-sized package be sent registered mail?
And if so, is the delivery time generally longer?

The mail service in the states is heavily bogged down. Japan Post shipments to the states is halted indefinitely as with many other overseas mail carriers. It’s really a worldwide thing. As for the delayed payment Reverb has this payment system that just sucks because instead of payment going straight to PayPal and from there your bank which for me took a day for it to be transferred Reverb holds payment until the item is shipped and from there it can take a few days. At least that’s in my experience.

Also I don’t ship guitars VIA USPS due to the unpredictable pricing to ship it. UPS has been fairly consistent price wise.

B88 Right through Reverb so it has all the Reverb protection. At this point, even if the guitar never shows up, I should get paid.

I guess it doesn't matter what the FedEx insurance limit is anymore, my account refuses to even calculate shipping at any insurance price, some goofy message about Express and Ground don't reliver to that address, repeated over a few different addresses, and finally to where I shpped the guitar, it won't even calculate, looks like FedEx is out. I generate all labels from home, not going to step back in time 15 years...

My son's truck last week.

Default said:

Registered mail is what you want for a full chain of custody. Not Express, not certified.
Also, fwiw, depending on location, many stations have been hit very hard by covid19, and are missing substantial amounts of both clerks and carriers, while getting slammed by truly horrific volumes of packages. I have been averaging 80-90 hours a week.
I will be working til 930-1000pm tonight, will read the whole thread when I get a breather. Pm me the tracking number and I will see what I can dig up.

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Cripes! Take care of yourself, Default!

walrus

Guildedagain said:

...And the odd thing I'm seeing now is that Reverb never paid me, so I'm out $1500. And here I thought they said they pay out once your item is on the way, that's what they say, but not quite so.
...

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They pay once you supply a tracking number, which indicates the item has been sent. It usually takes a few days for the money to show up, though, and they mention that.

I sold four things that week, three pedals and a guitar. Everything else got paid right away, I think even before the item ever lands.

They are definitely not paying me for the guitar. I'll just have to trust that it gets there and they'll pay out, but even if it vanishes into thin air I should get paid, since I paid for Reverb Protection, paid plenty. I haven't bothered Reverb with it.

D thx for the offer, will take you up on it if things don't clear up soon, thx.