Large Scale Central

USPS "tracking" -- totally useless!

General Discussion
#1

Everytime I’ve used the tracking number provided by USPS, I just get the same basic message:

“The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on February 16, 2009 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.”

What a joke! Why do they even bother to give you a tracking number if they aren’t going to track the package or provide any information??

#2

I had a similar experience a few months back. I was tracking a package and got a message that it had been sent to my house, but was unable to be delivered and that I could get it at the Post Office. So off to the PO I went. Got to the PO and was then told it WAS delivered to my house and low and behold was sitting on my front porch. I hardly ever use the front door, so I missed it.

#3

Ray,
large volume sellers purchase shipping online from USPS. When they do so, a message is generated telling the post office to expect a package. The message is simply informing that the seller has notified the post office to expect a package from the seller. The seller may not actually ship the package to the post office for several days. When the package is received by the post office, then entered into their computer system, the message is updated. Each time the package code is read at intermediate destinations, the message is once again updated and continues to do so until it reaches its destination.

#4

Just another example of how government is letting us live in a better World.

#5

Tim,

That may be how it works for you over there… The way it works here is they scan it in when they get it & again when it is delivered… They only scan it twice here…

#6

USPS tracking tells me my parcel is in “Foreign Customs”. :wink: :slight_smile:

#7

It’s a USPS trick why do you think the postmaster gen. get over $800,000 a yr? It’s called charge em until it breaks the bank, and give em less service, raise rates, they’ve operated in the red for decades? The above would be one of the reasons why? How many of you would work for a 1/4th of his wages and live happily everafter? The Regal

#8

According to my mail man, after postage/tracking purchase by the sender, the packages are (only) scanned (one more time) by the carrier with a hand held scanner for a “tracking” entry at delivery.

So, as a receiving customer, the only thing it tells me is whether my package is in my mailbox or not.

I don’t need to pay for and maintain a computer, internet service and e-mail account to tell me that a package is in my mailbox. All I have to do is walk out to my mailbox and look.

Totally worthless. To the sender, it is a not infallible (theft, e.g.) delivery confirmation.

#9

USPS tracking never has been progress tracking. There are only two states ever entered into the system. Once when the package is scanned into the processing post office, and once after the package is delivered. It is frustrating, but I’ve used USPS for all my eBay sales and they have never failed me.

#10

By the time you pay for tracking and insurance plus the shipping, I found the cost was a lot less using UPS or FedEx. USPS really gets you on insurance fees especially on high dollar items. The mail system is fairly good for regular mail but even that gets screwed up too. I get mail frequently for the next door neighbors.
Choose the lessor of the evils eh?

#11

International tracking provides transit points for packaging. If the package does not exit the States at the point of lodgement, then tracking shows the interim airports the package is scanned at. It tells me the time and date it left the States and the time and date that the package was cleared by Australian Customs. Works well for international customers.

#12

Don’t you wonder what this poor excuse for an alternative to the private sector tracking programs cost the taxpayers to be dismissed as “good enough”?

#13

UPS might surely work well internally in the USA.

In Australia, no one in their right minds would consider using UPS, Fed Ex or any of the other private shippers.

I can guarantee you the USPS is way less expensive and faster than UPS when shipping to or from Australia.

#14

I avoid the USPS at all costs. Everything they deliver to me is folded in half, torn open, missing half the pages (magazines) or it simply doesn’t show up. I can get insurance on anything I send via UPS, FedEx or DHL but not using the USPS. I have no use for the USPS. It also takes too long for the USPS to deliver anything, assuming it will actually make it to the correct destination.

I tried to insure a package at the post office for $600.00 a few years ago. They wouldn’t insure it because the contents was made of paper. What? The “paper” contents were in fact original one of a kind documents I was sending in to claim a rebate. If the contents of the package were missing or lost I wouldn’t get my rebate check. They also gave me a hassle when I tried to send in oil test samples for my trucks. UPS, no problem…

So, it doesn’t surprise me a bit that the USPS can’t even update a web page.

Jon.

Edit: The USPS doesn’t deliver our mail if it snows more than a few inches either.

#15

Jon,
what about the old slogan about, through rain, hail, sleet and snow, the mail always gets through??? Maybe they were talking about UPS and not USPS?

#16

I have used USPS Priority Mail for selling on eBay and elsewhere, and am very happy with the service. Of course I am selling HO and On30 items, not F scale; and shipment pricing goes up fast with size and weight.

#17

I have no problems with their service, and especially like Priority Mail. I just think the “tracking” is joke.

And if they do cut back deliveries to only 5 days a week I’ll be pretty cheesed.

#18

Yes, tracking only shows delivery…most of the time.

#19
Jon Foster said:
I avoid the USPS at all costs. Everything they deliver to me is folded in half, torn open, missing half the pages (magazines) or it simply doesn't show up. I can get insurance on anything I send via UPS, FedEx or DHL but not using the USPS. I have no use for the USPS. It also takes too long for the USPS to deliver anything, assuming it will actually make it to the correct destination.

I tried to insure a package at the post office for $600.00 a few years ago. They wouldn’t insure it because the contents was made of paper. What? The “paper” contents were in fact original one of a kind documents I was sending in to claim a rebate. If the contents of the package were missing or lost I wouldn’t get my rebate check. They also gave me a hassle when I tried to send in oil test samples for my trucks. UPS, no problem…

So, it doesn’t surprise me a bit that the USPS can’t even update a web page.

Jon.

Edit: The USPS doesn’t deliver our mail if it snows more than a few inches either.


They don’t ship packages over 108" in total size either.

#20
TonyWalsham said:
UPS might surely work well internally in the USA.

In Australia, no one in their right minds would consider using UPS, Fed Ex or any of the other private shippers.

I can guarantee you the USPS is way less expensive and faster than UPS when shipping to or from Australia.


I agree with Tony, with one caveat. A year or so ago, Trainworld was using DHL, and their rates were slightly cheaper than USPS to Perth from NYC.

Tim’s comments re USPS reflect my experience. Aside from one or two delayed items (both out of O’Hare), all packages have reached Australia in timely fashion, intact and undamaged.

As a kid growing up in New York, I think we used Railway Express. Remember them? When they went under, we used UPS. I distinctly remembering asking my Dad why he tipped the driver, and getting a reply along the lines of “You get what you pay for.” Mmmm!