USPS " misshiped" firearm and now its lost.

[Member 38805]

All I can say is you're extremely lucky it showed up at all! I've had a nice 1880's Marlin Ballard stolen last fall by USPS, and beyond losing the gun, USPS did everything possible to avoid paying my claim! Their system is setup to deny the first claim, no matter how much documentation the insurer shows. And once it's gotten to 45 days, or 3 denials, it's automatically not paid.
I had to be very careful and eventually contact (of all people!) Earl Blumenauer's office and tell them USPS was avoiding paying my claim, without mentioning what was in the package. They actually helped me fight USPS, and got my claim paid.
On another recent gun shipment, the seller sent a gorgeous old Rolling Block to me via FedEx, even though I requested UPS. That rifle got to the Troutdale FedEx depot last Monday at 2:49AM, again at 2:50AM, again at 12 midnight that night, showed out for delivery on Wed., then returned to FedEx for "security delay"?, then finally delivered Thu. around noon. So four days in town, before it got delivered, and nobody could tell me what the heck a "security delay" was?
I was just thankful it arrived unbroken, or at all! My record with FedEx is two rifles broken that were shipped in custom built wooden crates, and one stolen. UPS has stolen one also. And USPS has stolen one, and another USPS scope went missing for a year, got paid off on insurance, and arrived at my house 13 months after it was shipped, with a stamp on it saying, "undeliverable".
All the major shippers are worthless in my opinion.

 

[Diamondback]

I'd LOOOOVE to go "armed courier for everything," (in no small part because it would let me go armed lots of places we can't) but I simply can't afford the charter jets and overnight lodgings.

 

[NonServiam]

I used to work for USPS (call center capacity) and this sounds incredibly fishy. Mailing of firearms -- especially handguns -- requires the shipper to jump through multiple hoops to get it done.

See https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c4_009.htm#ep350867 for full details.

I'm going to break my NDA here: if you are provided with the phone number to Consumer Affairs, that's the USPS' backhanded way of saying "we've done all we can and now we're passing the buck." C/A can not an will not assist you in any way.

Best of luck, I hope you get it sorted.

 

[OneArgus]

My apologies to any postal workers.
But I deal with deliveries all week long.
Here is the percentage reliable deliveries.

DHL 90%
UPS 98%
FedEx 95%
USPS 70%

Even off name deliveries fair better then USPS.
Example:
For three weeks a package was to arrive.
They show not shipped. Label Only.

Then Yesterday, got a notice out for delivery.
Never arrived. Tracking still shows no label.
No delivery today either.
And this is typical of the service.

But when I have anything of value, the last place I consider is USPS. The never get back to you.
Never follow through. And this is the exact experience, I also hear from those I do business with.
They need to really disband the USPS. They simply are not reliable and each year they get worse not better.

Sorry for the Rant, but many of us are sick of the service at USPS.
Makes me think huge theft is going on with employees to see so much just go poof into thin air.

MHO

Sorry to hear the OPs issue. Thats not cool to have to go through.


Argus

 

[The Heretic]

Fedex has been out of my graces for a long time. My main complaint, very long shipping times. Some items crazily routed as documented by their tracking system. Example: Package sent from Calif. to Wash. by way of Florida. Every time it landed someplace in the system, it sat for days. It's a "hub" system, which may be to the advantage of the company but isn't always the fastest route to the customer. I get batching things by destination but at some point it comes at cost of speed.

It isn't just USPS/FedEx/UPS/DHL/etc.

Amazon also has problems.

I am not sure if it is just Amazon's methodology for their shipping, or the shippers they depend on for some of their shipments, or a mixture, but they seem to be exhibiting many of the same issues with some of my orders from them. Something as simple as a case of tuna fish cans (50 cents per can) has been held up (not yet shipped) since I ordered in February.

I've seen other issues like those described. Many of them were during the pandemic, many were when we had a month of snow, but the old 2 day shipping of Prime orders has slowed down for 3-4 days at most to a week or more. This hasn't been an issue for me, but stuff goes somewhere into their system once shipped and often gets held up somewhere.

 

[Alexx1401]

It isn't just USPS/FedEx/UPS/DHL/etc.

Amazon also has problems.

I am not sure if it is just Amazon's methodology for their shipping, or the shippers they depend on for some of their shipments, or a mixture, but they seem to be exhibiting many of the same issues with some of my orders from them. Something as simple as a case of tuna fish cans (50 cents per can) has been held up (not yet shipped) since I ordered in February.

I've seen other issues like those described. Many of them were during the pandemic, many were when we had a month of snow, but the old 2 day shipping of Prime orders has slowed down for 3-4 days at most to a week or more. This hasn't been an issue for me, but stuff goes somewhere into their system once shipped and often gets held up somewhere.

One of my kids works for Jeff now. Tells me one of the "hold ups" can be the difference between when product is at a place like he works at trying to get to the place that actually ships it out. He works at a place where trucks unload stuff. Its sorted and sent on to fulfillment centers that actually pack and ship it to the customer. He said often trailers are backed up for a LONG time waiting to be unloaded and the stuff sent on its way. I have noticed now and then something shows they have it in stock yet does not ship when ordered. "Guessing' the system shows they have it to sell but its caught in the pipeline and not getting to the people who actually pack it up and send it on. It has not helped in states that are supporting rampant theft. A LOT more people are fed up with stores that have to lock up everything and just ordering stuff from Amazon. The one kid tells me they are busier now than they were during the rush before Christmas. No doubt Jeff is LOVING this allow the scum to steal. It is kicking a LOT more business to him as stores close and become a hassle to shop at.

 

[eustace_stelio]

Regardless of delivery service the main problem is employees. Not a lot of people take pride in their work/job performance. For whatever reasons ie low pay, no bennies, bad work environment/boss or just never had a strong work ethic.

Instead of going above and beyond the new trend is "fudge it, I don't care or not my job..."

A lot of this is a direct result of how companies are ran nowadays but also how folks are raised. Not a lot of pride taken in one's work and companies could care less as long as profits/investors returns are there.

 

[The Heretic]

One of my kids works for Jeff now. Tells me one of the "hold ups" can be the difference between when product is at a place like he works at trying to get to the place that actually ships it out. He works at a place where trucks unload stuff. Its sorted and sent on to fulfillment centers that actually pack and ship it to the customer. He said often trailers are backed up for a LONG time waiting to be unloaded and the stuff sent on its way. I have noticed now and then something shows they have it in stock yet does not ship when ordered. "Guessing' the system shows they have it to sell but its caught in the pipeline and not getting to the people who actually pack it up and send it on. It has not helped in states that are supporting rampant theft. A LOT more people are fed up with stores that have to lock up everything and just ordering stuff from Amazon. The one kid tells me they are busier now than they were during the rush before Christmas. No doubt Jeff is LOVING this allow the scum to steal. It is kicking a LOT more business to him as stores close and become a hassle to shop at.

Yeah - there is a fulfillment center not that far from me. And sometimes it comes next day or two days from there. I sometimes can tell that it is Amazon shipping - at least when they are doing the last mile.

I do shop regularly (every 2 weeks or so) at local WinCo & Costco, I get the bulk of my groceries there. But sometimes Amazon has stuff like cases of canned food on sale for half price so I go ahead and order it. They also often have stuff (like dark chocolate) that the brick & mortar grocery stores don't have on their shelves.

 

[The Heretic]

Instead of going above and beyond the new trend is "fudge it, I don't care or not my job..."

When they are overworked for minimum wage and/or the systems/processes/management at their work is dysfunctional, I don't really blame them.

I've heard some horror stories of what it is like to work in Amazon's fulfillment centers and/or be one of their delivery drivers.

I took pride in the quality of my work at Daimler and really tried to leave the code better than how I found it, but they were so behind the times technology wise, so bureaucratic, did not listen to their engineers, made so many bad decisions that cost tens of millions of dollars, made noise about being a "best place to work" when the opposite was true, then at the end, laid off hundreds of people with a few hours notice. Most of the people I worked with there really tried hard to do a good job, but some just did not care and did not try - it was hard to get let go there because of the bureaucracy.

 

[Flopsweat]

When they are overworked for minimum wage and/or the systems/processes/management at their work is dysfunctional, I don't really blame them.

I've heard some horror stories of what it is like to work in Amazon's fulfillment centers and/or be one of their delivery drivers.

I took pride in the quality of my work at Daimler and really tried to leave the code better than how I found it, but they were so behind the times technology wise, so bureaucratic, did not listen to their engineers, made so many bad decisions that cost tens of millions of dollars, made noise about being a "best place to work" when the opposite was true, then at the end, laid off hundreds of people with a few hours notice. Most of the people I worked with there really tried hard to do a good job, but some just did not care and did not try - it was hard to get let go there because of the bureaucracy.

I've had bosses who would tell me not to create tools or resources that improved the team's efficiency, and then other bosses who would go out of their way to make sure upper management knew how much I had saved them by creating this sort of thing. I had a lot more fun working with people who wanted to get things done and done right than I did with the "not my idea" folks. Morale seemed to be a lot higher around them too.

 

[gmerkt]

Amazon also has problems.

Problems beyond delivery issues, for sure. My biggest consistent issue with Amazon has been poor packing and sealing of cartons. Like one course of packing tape to seal the flaps, no matter what the weight of the contents. It could be a pillow or an anvil, one strip, that's it. Maybe or maybe not centered on the crease.

Internal packing, very often poor to non existent. Objects rolling around inside like a BB in a boxcar. Worst case, Mrs. Merkt ordered a dozen bottles of salad dressing. In glass, which obviously needs better packing than say a pillow. What came was a sopping wet cardboard box, the dozen glass bottles of salad dressing had been bagged together in a single plastic bag, then placed in an oversized carton with no dunnage or separation. Several survived but most were understandably broken. I wrote a scathing complaint to Amazon and they quickly replaced the product no charge. The second batch was properly packed, in their own box with cardboard separators between each bottle. Which was how they should've done the first time around. This entire thing was all about common sense.

Ever since the Covid event, food item prices that I've looked at on Amazon have been close to exorbitant. They took the opportunity to boost and never looked back and in my limited observation, it continues to this day.

Amazon has tried all kinds of different methods of delivery in their quest to find the cheapest way. Special arrangements with USPS, gig job private hire delivery drivers, now they have created the fleet of gray delivery vans. Which as I understand it are franchises of owner operators. Amazon set up a system whereby they offer financing for franchisees. So they avoid the liability for the fleet, get a work force without the downside of employee overhead, yet are still able to exercise control due to scheduling. And debt slavery which is another form of control. As in, "Do what we say or we will deny you loads, you won't have work and you will lose your truck."

Overworked warehouse employees, yes, there has been some of that story going around. BUT: How is that doing in a labor market that is shorthanded of that kind of work? The concept seems like a contradiction. Maybe they stick around for the stock options.

 

[gmerkt]

While on the subject of delivery vans. With so many shoppers buying online, the package delivery business has flourished. There are a lot more vans from various systems out there, clogging up the streets and roads. All burning up valuable fuel. Driving skills vary widely. I don't know that online shopping has reduced traffic on the roads around here in my area, what with all the people "working from home" these days.

 

[The Heretic]