This is interesting. I ordered some Nespresso capsules before Christmas directly from Nespresso, to be shipped from Fort Worth and arrive in Houston in a guaranteed (by Nespresso) two days. They shipped it USPS Priority Mail.

Well, they didn't show up so Nespresso resent the package, this time using UPS ground and that arrived within two days. But, the USPS shipment finally arrived about a full week later, though the tracking at that time (and even today) still only shows that the package was accepted at the Fort Worth post office.

Second experience: I sent something I sold on eBay by Priority Mail, Signature Confirmation, Insured yesterday morning. Printed the label online and then personally handed the package to a postal worker at a local office.

The "tracking" on that package only shows that there has been "electronic notification" of a shipment yada yada yada. At one point, for one brief moment, there was an additional line stating something like, "manifest acknowledged" at so and so post office yesterday morning. But, that's disappeared from the tracking info since then.

So, I called USPS this morning (tip: just keep pressing zero until you get connected to a heartbeat) and she tells me that this tracking is not tracking in the FedEx/UPS sense of the word. In other words, if the postal worker "just so happens" to scan the package at each stage of the route, then that progress will show up on the online tracking. But, they don't always scan the package nor do they have to.

It's all just a freakin' crap shoot!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2011 02:24PM by pinkoos.

Given their volume of tracked packages, vs. the other two, you'd think they'd have it down or at least
easier...

Recently had a priority mail take 5 days to finally show up at post office. Since it req a signature, tracking
said it arrived, but mail lady had no mail for me. I called the P.O. and the supervisor told me it was sitting
on her sorting station with the rest of my mail.

Fatass didn't want to get out in the rain to bring it to me. I made it to the P.O. with a print of my tracking
that showed it as "arrived at post office" (but NOT 'out for delivery') - and got it before they closed at noon
on a Saturday.

she had no intentions of delivering it - and it was already on the fifth day, and that Monday was a damned
holiday! Had I not gotten it, Priority Mail would have taken 8 days.

The only real tracking from USPS is with Express Mail. Priority Mail offers Delivery Confirmation for $0.70, but it only acknowledges that the item was delivered.

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fmgtech
The only real tracking from USPS is with Express Mail. Priority Mail offers Delivery Confirmation for $0.70, but it only acknowledges that the item was delivered.

Yup, that's what she told me this morning. If I want real tracking, I gotta ship it Express Mail. What a scam.

Priority Mail does not state Priority for Whom.

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billb
Priority Mail does not state Priority for Whom.

LOL. That was awesome.

True ... USPS does not offer "tracking" per se, but only delivery confirmation. What'ya want ... they're losing billions!

Don't ship via usps unless you have LOTS of time to wait. There's a reason they are losing money hand over fist.

Shipping USPS is the easy part. Standing in line is not for the squeamish. Excuse me, could I borrow your gun?

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fmgtech
The only real tracking from USPS is with Express Mail. Priority Mail offers Delivery Confirmation for $0.70, but it only acknowledges that the item was delivered.

I had to ship a hard drive back to Hitachi for warranty exchange, and I was trying to decide how bast to send it. It was a 2.5" drive and the whole package weighed less than 8oz. I finally settled on sending it First Class, Certified. It cost a total of $5.21 ($2.41 postage + $2.80 certified). It has tracking and you know that it really was delivered because someone had to sign for it. And it was cheaper than a Priority Mail flat-rate box + delivery confirmation.

Mailed on a Friday afternoon, was delivered Monday morning.

USPS Priority Mail is useless tracking.

Even USPS REGISTERED Priority Mail is useless tracking. Even though Registered mail requires multiple scans at every point during the delivery route/plane/truck/carrier etc.. the scans did not show up on the site until AFTER it was delivered. And because of the extra scanning it slows down the delivery. What was supposed to usually 2-3 days for Priority Mail. Ended being a week for Registered Priority Mail. On the USPS website, according to the incorrect tracking info, it said my package was sitting at the local post office for 4 days! Even though in actuality it was enroute. The scans just didn't update on the tracking site.

USPS Express Mail (and Registered Express) is good tracking. It's guaranteed overnight. It's there, or it's not. LOL In hindsite I should've ponied up a few more bucks to upgrade Priority to Express for this one package. It was a very stressful week

I find that I get 2 day first class from California and sometimes the above 8 day "priority."

The inconsistency is the most irritating part.

I dunno, I think the USPS tracking is just fine. Here's a recent example of one of mine:

It's amazing that the Postal service is still surviving at all, what with the staffing shortages. Letter carriers and clerks are are being overwhelmed and harassed by (mis)management.

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tronnei
I dunno, I think the USPS tracking is just fine. Here's a recent example of one of mine:

That's my point exactly. Total crap shoot. One time I'll get detailed tracking like that and another nothing except for electronic notification and then few days later, "delivered."

I must just be lucky then, because all the items I send with tracking are equally detailed.

USPS rates are going up in April!

Fred

In my experience, delivery confirmation makes a package much much less likely to go missing, even though there's no signature required.

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tronnei
I dunno, I think the USPS tracking is just fine. Here's a recent example of one of mine:

In my experience all of my USPS tracking pages are as detailed like yours EXCEPT what annoys me is that it's not in real time. It all appears AFTER it's been delivered. As a sender of expensive, irreplaceable packages once in a while, i want to know exactly where it is at any given moment. And it hasn't been the case with my packagea unless I send it Express.

Total crap shoot.
Very true, as I observed last month....
[forums.macresource.com]

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3d
what annoys me is that it's not in real time. It all appears AFTER it's been delivered.

Not in my experience. In the example I posted, I could see each day's entries at the end of that day.

USPS Priority Mail is useless tracking

Stupid talk.

Priority Mail does not use tracking. It offers confirmation. It's not a scam.

The Postal Service does not advertise tracking for any service except Express Mail. It's in print. It's not a scam. It's not a secret.

I must have the greatest luck. I've never had a faulty scan and I use Delivery Confirmation on every Priority Mail package. I count on two scans- one when I pay for the postage, and one when it's delivered. Anything else is unexpected and unneeded.

If the price of my great service is your missing scans, I can live with that.

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must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

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I don't use Priority Mail anymore because of the lack of tracking. Nor do the final scans mean much where I live. Packages will be shown as "delivered" when they are in fact sitting on a shelf in the local post office branch. Unless you know what the deal is, they can sit there for weeks. Eventually, we realized that we have to go to the PO and ask them to look for the "delivered" items. I refuse to spend my time that way. I won't buy anything from people who only offer USPS as a shipping option.

Just returned from USPS. Sold an item on eBay and they paid on Friday night, so I thought I would try to get it there faster by using USPS. Same ZIP codes, weight (4 lb. 8 oz.) etc. USPS Priority Mail with $100.00 insurance and Delivery Confirmation was $18.40. Same thing with FedEx Ground (which I normally use) would have been $13.39. That's approximately 38% more for USPS. And USPS is getting ready to raise the rates once again. Goodbye to you.