Topic: Think twice about sending parts Priority Mail

[Powderman]

The poor member here who I coated a CB350f top triple tree just hasn't had any luck with this part. He had a friend coat his original and unfortunately it broke when he was installing it. So after a long search for another one he found his coater was no longer in business so he took it to another coater in the L.A. area who charged him $120 and did a piss poor job coating it with out the proper masking and plugging of holes and it started to chip and flake off. He sent it to me to coat for my standard rate of $45. I promptly coated it in gloss black and sent it off to him from Ga. to Pasadena,Ca. on the 15th of Aug. It finally arrived today after traveling the country for 47 days. He said the box looked like it had gone through hell and back but the tree was intact and  a perfect powder job was not marred. We followed the package through tracking everyday and am absolutely amazed at how incompetent the USPS is. On one trip to Santa Clarita the postal employees pulled it from the line to inspect it, knowing it had been across the country a number of times already, and then sent it right back out with the existing label instead of generating a new label to ensure prompt delivery. Every postal employee that looked at it said the label was all correct. No one can tell me how this happened. Check out the tracking schedule to see the frequent flier mileage racked up on this package. I'm sticking with FedEx from now on.
September 27, 2014 , 4:18 pm
Delivered
PASADENA, CA 91101
Your item was delivered at 4:18 pm on September 27, 2014 in PASADENA, CA 91101.
September 26, 2014 , 11:52 pm
Departed USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
September 26, 2014 , 1:09 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
September 25, 2014 , 3:12 am
Departed USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
September 20, 2014 , 6:45 pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
September 19, 2014 , 2:24 am
Departed USPS Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30369
September 18, 2014 , 1:28 pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30369
September 17, 2014 , 9:58 pm
Departed USPS Facility
COLUMBIA, SC 29201
September 16, 2014 , 10:18 pm
Arrived at USPS Facility
COLUMBIA, SC 29201
September 15, 2014 , 5:52 pm
Departed USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
September 15, 2014 , 12:00 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
September 13, 2014 , 11:41 pm
Departed USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
September 2, 2014 , 3:23 pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
August 31, 2014 , 1:24 am
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30369
August 29, 2014 , 6:05 pm
Departed USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
August 29, 2014 , 2:57 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
August 27, 2014 , 1:09 pm
Departed USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
August 27, 2014 , 1:44 am
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
August 26, 2014 , 11:08 pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
NORTH METRO, GA 30026
August 25, 2014 , 4:24 pm
Departed USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
August 24, 2014 , 9:26 pm
Arrived at USPS Facility
SANTA CLARITA, CA 91383
August 23, 2014 , 1:17 am
Departed USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
August 19, 2014 , 3:30 pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
August 19, 2014 , 12:06 am
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30369
August 18, 2014 , 7:48 am
Forwarded
DAWSONVILLE, GA
August 17, 2014 , 12:18 pm
Departed USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
August 16, 2014 , 9:03 am
Forwarded
DAWSONVILLE, GA
August 16, 2014 , 8:49 am
Arrived at Post Office
DAWSONVILLE, GA 30534
August 15, 2014 , 8:13 pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
ATLANTA, GA 30320
August 14, 2014
Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS

[Stev-o]

Unreal.   I've got the RD parts ready to send to you, Powderman.

[Mo]

I had about 5 parts set to be delivered about 2 weeks ago. Two of the five were lost by USPS. They even marked one of them as delivered, but when I called the told me that it wasn't but they had no clue where it was.

On the other hand, I've ordered dozens of things over the years and haven't had an issue, so sometimes bad luck just happens.

[Powderman]

Unreal.   I've got the RD parts ready to send to you, Powderman.

I wondered why I hadn't heard back from you.
What pisses me off about the tracking is it will say it left Atl. at 3:42pm and then the next day it says it left Atl. at 2:47, then the next day it says it left Atl on that day at 7:54. To me this is just plain fraud.
I bought a set of wheels off eBay from a guy in Idaho, they made it to Colo. where they disappeared, never did find them. I mean how do you lose a pair of motorcycle wheels? About 6 months ago I sent an alternator to a customer in Calif. After 5 weeks I filed a claim, in the 7th week they paid the claim and 2 days later the package arrived completely intact, I kept the money.

[Bailgang]

I've had good luck with priority mail at least so far. It's pretty common for a package whether it be UPS or USPS to start say in Ohio, go right across Indiana into Illinois or maybe Missouri then right back to me in Indiana, the only thing I can figure is that it has something to do with their distribution and sort facilities, but to have it go coast to coast over and over again is unreal.

[goldarrow]

I've had package shipped to Colorado, but delivered to I don't know who in Illinois.  Filed insurance claim and lost.  Super unreal

[dave500]

sounds like a plot from the seinfeld show?maybe cramers in charge?ive had good service in australia using just our regular postal system,ive sent small but heavy items and light but larger stuff all packaged to withstand abuse and its always been fine right across our country and even over to tasmania in prompt time.

[dhall57]

I guess I've be lucky so far. No problems with the USPS. But I can see if what happened to Powderman happens often nation wide than I can see why their $$billions and $$billions in debt and struggling to stay a float.

[Stev-o]

Unreal.   I've got the RD parts ready to send to you, Powderman.

I wondered why I hadn't heard back from you.

Bought a clutch cover off eBay but the seller wouldn't ship to you so I waited for it to arrive and planned to ship all together. He sent the wrong part, not as pictured, so I'll have to find another and plan to ship it direct to you. Thanks.

[Tews19]

Atlanta is the headquarters where they send all boxes that have been severely damage during transportation.  I learned this when I sent a set of early K1 forks to a member. He sent me.pics of the box that was torn in half, empty and came with a card stating your item may have been damaged during transportation.  I never send anymore without insurance to cover the cost of the buyer and the cost of the part so neither side lose out.

[seanbarney41]

yup, Seems like once the package gets damaged, it goes into postal twilight zone and has a hard time getting out, as the one time (out of hundreds)I had a package get damaged, the tracking looked similar to what Powderman has posted.
     But then comparing one bad experience out of hundreds to FedEx and UPS's record of #$%*ing about about 8 out of 10 deliveries, I will stick with usps.

[rtbmrgl]

Ive never had problem with USPS, But i did send a package from Sacramento to San Fransisco which is 90 miles away. The package made its way down LA, San Diego then up to SF, 1200 mile trip.

[Don R]

My wife does art supply orders all day, some of the stories are amazing.

[harisuluv]

Yeah that is pretty comical tracking history.  I have had good luck with USPS though.  I also prepare each parcel like it's going into battle though.

[Dunk]

Had an issue once with a package I was receiving and was sent USPS, never got it. Checked at post office and they gave me the shaft. Weren't holding it, never seen it, didn't know where it was or what happened to it and would not reimburse anything for either shipping costs or value of the item. So that experience was not any different than when thieves broke into my garage and stole some stuff.

Anyhow these days I've been selling off stuff here, ebay, nad a few other places. Trying to clear out and declutter, so been shipping a lot. I've mostly been shipping USPS as much as it pains me to voluntarily support anything government run. They are much cheaper than UPS or FedEx for most things. It's a shame because I'm sure many others use USPS for the same reason, when USPS is cheaper because they hold a monopoly on some services which others will go to jail for providing and they are subsidized typically in various indirect ways. In any event, I haven't had an issues with lost or damaged packages through USPS recently.

[cherbear]

I actually found FED-EX to be cheaper here in Colorado.  They had a hard time with a package sent to rural texas, outside of Fairfield where the street names are all #s and arent proper on google maps. For all the other packages sent there was no problems. It does however suck you have to pay $3 more to have it shipped to a house. Bussiness discount = sending the package to their work. lol I'm not selln parts though just, family, friend & return merchandise packages.

cb750 k6

[tomk1960]

Wow, that sounds like a real shipping nightmare.  I only use USPS for flat rate shipping of small parts.  Any large orders go through FedEx and I've never had an issue with them.  USPS has been fine, but their tracking isn't that great and they'd cost way too much for a large box of parts.  One time a fellow member shipped me a padded envelope with a few parts in it.  It went on a similar trip around the world and we gave up on it.  It finally showed up weeks later.  Luckily it wasn't anything critical.

The powder coating story sounds pretty ridiculous too.  Glad you were able to get things straightened out for him.

[cb650]

At 3 diff addys had nothing but problems with fed ex at all.  One the delivers for usps was a bitSh . But another was a bike guy.

[MoMo]

Sent hundreds of items Priority and only had one that did not make it, and that was to AZ .   Considering the volume of mail shipped through the post office I think they do a very good job...Larry

[HondaMan]

I have had lots of USPS packages disappear in January-February this year, never to be seen again (6, I think?). Some said they were delivered (weren't), some said they never shipped (?) despite my tracking number, and one, which had a $20 bill inside a Flat Rate Box with a part inside, showed "Sent to...", and that was it. It never showed up, and they have yet to pay a single claim back to me: every one of these is in 'limbo" somewhere in their claim system.

In 2011, USPS lost 5 packages to/from me that year. None ever reappeared. Only one claim was paid that I know about.

With UPS, I quit using them. They can't get anything right, ever, it seems, going out of Colorado. Fedex has been pretty good, if I over-insure it (which I usually do), as apparently they don't wish to pay a big claim upon loss. They have only lost one package for real in the last 6 years, a swingarm that was probably beamed aboard a flying saucer and went to Mars....   

The last grear SNAFU with UPS was a set of rare, early K1 carbs from TX to here: UPS showed "delivered" to my house, with a satellite photo of the driver's truck sitting in the street in front of my house. No, the package did not arrive. After 10 days of calling them, "tracing" the package (what a myth!), and telling me it had to be in the bushes in front of my house (I don't have any bushes!), I was home one afternoon and the preschool across the street from me happened to be open that day to prepare for the upcoming school season. I walked across the street to their office, just to look around, and there were not one, not two, but all 3 of my long-missing deliveries from the last month, all sitting in the Preschool's office. Never mind that in ALL of the metro area, on the south side of Ellsworth (that's the north-south division street), all odd addresses are on the north side of the street and all even numbers south: the preschool is 8902, I am 8903. The preschool people had no idea the packages weren't theirs, as they had not yet opened them.

As it turned out, the investigating woman at UPS was the wife of the guy who delivered these boxes. I told her what to tell him, then called her back to make sure she did. 

[Wobbly]

Being stationed overseas at a military APO address (handled as a domestic U.S. address), I depend on the Postal Service, use USPS Priority Mail every day because I make most purchases for me and my family online. Overall, my experience over the past decades, has been very positive. It seems though, that certain senders get Priority. Amazon packages usually make it here (I am stationed in Germany) within a week (and in as little as three days). However, Priority Mail sent by private senders, often ends up on a boat (as if they be mailed "Surface") which takes up to six weeks before the package will arrive. All mail, regardless how it is mailed, from overseas to the Continental U.S. goes by airplane. Anyway, only USPS will handle military mail, and I am grateful they do. But I have to admit, that USPS packages are sometimes travelling in mysterious ways. On occasion, I also have seen them mysteriously disappearing, and then being delivered when all hope was long gone. But while I mailed and received thousands of packages send by Military Priority Mail during the past decades, I have not lost more than two or three.

[70CB750]

Wow!

[ekpent]

Sent hundreds of items Priority and only had one that did not make it, and that was to AZ .   Considering the volume of mail shipped through the post office I think they do a very good job...Larry

Same here. I have sent antique items all over the US and different parts of the world via USPS Priority, Parcel Post, First Class etc.  with very few problems for years. Print my own postage and labels and my lady will pick it up at my house if I don't want to make the drop. It works well for me.

[Rocky2010]

I have just received a part from UPS but when I looked at the tracking it stated that is was delivered 3 days ago. Not sure what happened maybe the driver wanted to go home early that day and couldn't be bothered with delivering the package

[ekpent]

I always hate seeing those news camera footage pieces where it shows some lowly piece of crap petty thief running up on peoples porches and stealing their packages. Probably some videos of that out on the net.