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  1. #1
    QiWiz's Avatar
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    Postal Service Extreme Delays, coming to your town - I hope not

    As a cottage gear maker, I use first class mail for 95% of my shipments. Things are getting really crazy with the postal service. Only one of 18 packages I’ve mailed in the last 10 days has been scanned as received by USPS. I’m actually considering closing shop until the holidays are over. When packages have not been scanned, the tracking info makes it look like I have not sent them out. Northeast Ohio, where I am, is apparently one of the worst areas. See this from the front page of our newspaper today: https://plaindealer-oh.newsmemory.co...link=10e5850f6
    Unfortunately, USPS is normally understaffed, but now also has additional staff out due to Covid, record holiday mail volumes, and overflow packages dumped from FedEX, UPS, and even Amazon. Packages are piling up all over the country and scanning of tracking numbers is often skipped. I’m seeing usual 3-5 day delivery times take up to 3-5 weeks in some cases. Terrible, terrible, terrible.
    I know that complaining won't help me, but I feel better now.
    Find the LIGHT STUFF at QiWiz.net

    The lightest cathole trowels, wood burning stoves, windscreens, spatulas,
    cooking options, titanium and aluminum pots, and buck saws on the planet

  2. #2
    New Member PirateDude's Avatar
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    I appreciate all the cottage vendors out there.. producing well-designed, high quality gear right here in the USA! Thank You for all your time and efforts!

  3. #3
    Senior Member OneClick's Avatar
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    I have 4 packages in limbo, nothing too important but I was planning before christmas.

    Meanwhile, the Amazon guys have been tearing it up. They just started delivering in my area with the vans about a month ago. Some (all?) UPS guys working 12-14hr shifts. I think I'm going to get some scratch-off lotto cards and put them by my door as a little thank you. They need a tip, not the waitress that carried out a plate of food and glass of Coke 25 feet one time. Or give it to the cook who prepared food I'm putting directly into my body to keep me nourished. Tangent over.

  4. #4
    New Member PirateDude's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OneClick View Post
    UPS guys working 12-14hr shifts. I think I'm going to get some scratch-off lotto cards and put them by my door as a little thank you.
    Terrific idea!

  5. #5
    New Member
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    Don't blame you. I'm also experiencing issues with missing and delayed USPS mail (from the receiving end) for the last couple of weeks.

  6. #6
    TallPaul's Avatar
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    Folks.. lets keep politics out of this. I've removed some posts.

    QWiz.. thanks for the update.

  7. #7
    Phantom Grappler's Avatar
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    TallPaul, politically, I’m two steps to the right of Genghis Kahn
    As I lay here in my hammock, I run ad copy through my head for Christmas toys
    “Be the first kid on your block, to own the new Ronco DeathRay...batteries not included”

    QiWiz, thank you for making fantastically top quality titanium windscreens that are durable and fit right in my mug for easy packing.

    Our guys and gals in Post Office and package delivery are getting slammed with a Herculean onslaught of packages. Way more volume than in past years. More stuff is got online than ever before—just a trend that’s here to stay and made even more gigantic due to COVID-19
    This causes more online shopping and less in store shopping. And many employees are sidelined if they exhibit symptoms or a fever. For some this is an automatic two week time out. Also at least some drivers, trucks, logistics are being used for vital timely shipments of vaccine.

    Visualize this tidal wave of packages as a small deer traveling through the interior of a large boa constrictor. This will take time, but I’m confident our guys and gals will get this all done before a party boy can recover from a New Years Eve hangover.

    Back to politics, sometimes in casual conversation with people I’ve either just met or see from time to time—I say to them
    “If you were King, you’d get this place straightened out.”
    I say the same to girls-women
    “If you were Queen, you’d get this place straightened out.”
    The ladies smile, and say “Yes!”

  8. #8
    Senior Member
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    I had two packages from USPS basically just lose shipping and then arrive about a week later than expected, thought it was just me. Your saw looks awesome! Once the postal service is running smooth again it will be hard to resist ordering one.

  9. #9
    Senior Member
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    Yar- Same problem all over.
    I spoke to another vendor who was driving a few towns over to bypass his local PO as it shaved several days off his shipping time.
    I had a package take double the time to make a three hour drive across Indiana than another package took to reach Canada.

    One minor insight; my understanding is that USPS uses passenger flights for a large portion of their infill air movement. Nobody flying- no planes to pack in the stuff. While they all do that- FEDEx and UPS have their own planes.
    On my end- The stuff makes it from NW Indiana up to Elk Grove Village IL- which is the sorting facility for O'Hare Airport where it goes to sit waiting patiently for someone to board a plane and invite a bridge hammock along. These days it can sit there for some time... and while Atlanta has technically taken the 'busiest airport' title away... it's not like Chicago is a backwater. So if O'Hare and Midway are backed up- I have to imagine every local air hub for USPS is under similar circumstances.

    On a local level- any long distance hiker who has dealt with the reduced hours/part time/one man band rural post office when picking up a mail drop can easily imagine that final leg of the journey breaking down quickly.

    Of course the phantom grappler seems to have grasped the problem in his usual way- VOLUME!
    I dropped a few bridges the other day towards the end of the day and the desk clerks were literally standing in piles of packages. The carts were full, bins were filled and stacked on bins, shelves were piled with piles of piles. They couldn't clear the front desk fast enough to even move from their postal windows and it was clear that someone from the back would literally have to 'get them out'. This was earlier in the month..

    Honestly- It would take a holiday miracle to ship anything in time at this point. I would just be honest with folks and offer them the option to wait until after the holidays... if nothing else nothing worse than obsessively clicking a tracking number as if it would make a package travel faster. Holding their order might be the nicest thing you can do for them

  10. #10
    Senior Member OneClick's Avatar
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    I have a package sitting in NY since Dec 8. I wonder when I start to worry?

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