posted on October 10, 2001 01:22:31 AM
Well, at least I hope I am not the only one
experiencing this.
Whenever I ship an item I always e-mail my buyers with a "Your XXXX Ebay Item has shipped"
notice.
I always include the shipping method (usually Priority), the date shipped, the Delivery Confirmation #, and the insurance provider in case there is a problem---also so that people don't assume that I use USPS to insure and get angry when there is no blue/green sticker.
Tonight, I included this statement in my shipping notice:
"Please be patient with the USPS. It appears to be running slower than normal."
I had a auction winner contact me a week after I sent her item. She still hasn't received it and she is in Utah not
California or New York. I basically,
wrote her a nice, kind, e-mail saying that the USPS seems to be real slow lately and gave her examples from other packages I had sent out. I apologized to her, mentioned that it was insured, and that if there did
in fact turn out to be a problem I would "address it, fix it, and make it right."
I asked her to please wait an additional week.
I'm praying the item will arrive by then.
Anyone else having problems with USPS as well? What do you say to your buyers
if or when they e-mail you?
posted on October 10, 2001 01:52:24 AM
I have not noticed a delay in USPS shipping, althought I do only ship by Priority Mail. My shipments are still being delivered in 2 to 3 days, no matter where in the country I'm shipping to, including a shipment that just went to Alaska. BTW I'm shipping out of central Texas. I have not really been watching closily my inships, but none seemed to have gotten to a point of worry, yet.
My local Postmaster did say 3rd class mail, and I guess that includes media mail, is slower now.
posted on October 10, 2001 04:55:29 AM
I always use Delivery Confirmation so that I can answer the question of Where's my package?, when asked. It just worked on a $400. order that took 2 weeks to get to PA from NY, sent Bound Printed Matter. Should have been 4 days according to the PO.
posted on October 10, 2001 05:19:19 AM
I'm in Wisconsin, had someone receive a priority package to Texas last Saturday which was sent out September 25th, and I just received a payment yesterday from California which was pastmarked Sept. 22nd. I'd say they're very slow. Unfortunately I'm going out of the country for a week later this month, and timed my last batch of auctions to end 10 days before I left - thinking I'd get all the items out before I left....now I'm not sure I gave them enough time to pay.
posted on October 10, 2001 05:35:42 AM
Maybe it's certain pockets around the country because I'm not having any problems getting my stuff out from the south to other locations in a very timely manner.
posted on October 10, 2001 06:35:34 AM
I haven't had any recent slowdowns with USPS at all recently. Things were a little slower for about a week after New York but then everything went back to normal times. I ship around 200 items per week using First Class, Media Mail and Priority.
Apparently UPS had some kind of snafu this week though. I ordered a book from Amazon on Sunday and got an email Monday that it had shipped. Yesterday I looked at their tracking information for UPS and the UPS website said it had been shipped on November 3, 1999 and was scheduled for delivery today. Talk about bad delivery times!
posted on October 10, 2001 11:01:27 AM
Mark090....LMAO!
We just had a priority package mailed from Detroit to Atlanta on 10/01 show up yesterday. DC showed it mailed on the first. Before midnight on 10/08 it showed that it was delivered on 10/08....a postal holiday.
I emailed the buyer and asked them to confirm delivery. here is the reply:
We finally received the collar this (Tuesday) morning! A number of items of
mail seem to have gotten held up last week, as a bunch of things we were
expecting all suddenly showed up.
And he isn't the only customer that this seems to be happening to. Makes you wonder. It was in a plain Priority Mail Box and weighed around a pound, metered with endicia, and dropped off in the bulk mail area of the local post office...nothing special or out of the ordinary.
posted on October 10, 2001 01:34:30 PM
The shipping time has been just fine, shipping via priority, parcel, and media mail items...but it's the higher fees that are getting me down!
'ladele' here only
posted on October 10, 2001 01:54:15 PM
Oddly enough, my iems that I ship via media mail are getting to their destinations before the first class items.
posted on October 10, 2001 02:48:03 PMprofessorhiggins - great thread! I have been dealing with the slow shipping fine until today! I am normally a very understanding, calm, and happy person; but as of today I am about two days past happy...
I mailed approximately 25 items on Thursday, September 13th (should have been a Friday!)- a mix of Priority, First Class, and Media Mail. As the postal worker was processing all my packages, we were talking and he said that the packages were not going anywhere right then. Apparently they were accepting packages, but holding them until "further notice".
We then were discussing Express Mail and pretty much laughing at the fact that I had mailed three Express packages in the past 5 months, and was refunded the shipping charges on all 3 since the guaranteed delivery time had not been met. (FYI - he indicated that the PO was no longer going to guarantee overnight delivery on Express because they were losing too much money). This led us to Priority. I was concerned because I had at least 10 Priority packages, and didn't want to pay for Priority if they were going to sit in the PO for a few days. He informed me that 2-3 delivery for Priority is on estimated and there is no guarantee on Priority ever.
I know I am rambling, but I am just so @#$#@ frustrated right now. Long story short, I have customers emailing me wanting to know where there packages are - and all of them were shipped on the 13th. I have asked several times at the PO, and have now been told that since the bombings, the only mail that is going via planes is letter size; everything else goes by ground. Apparently some a little quicker than others, because I have shipped things since then and they have already arrived.
Probably the most frustrating of all is I have a few buyers who are being absolutely obnoxious about the whole situation. I had one today that actually emailed me and said that if she didn't receive her package in the next two days, she was going to leave me negative feedback! Not one of these packages had delivery confirmation. Only a few had insurance. This woman's package had neither.
My TOS clearly state that both insurance and delivery confirmation are optional and available and specify the costs for it. The most I can do is file for some type of tracking for lost packages (as I understand, again from the PO), but still have to wait 30 days from the date of mailing.
I went to the USPS website and they clearly state that all mail is running "normal" (and I realize that is probably relative); and asked again at the PO when I went it today.
I can only explain this to these customers so many times and then I start getting really frustrated - to the point I don't even want to check emails! The particular woman above emails me every single day, today twice. And I tell her the same thing every day...
Any words of encouragement? Any tips on how to deal with this? Perhaps a bottle of wine (yep, BOTTLE) to calm the last nerve I have left?
posted on October 10, 2001 03:19:51 PM
Nanandme - I just wanted to address the fact that you mentioned a 30 day wait to file the form for missing mail. I do have a piece missing and had quite a lengthy talk with my Postmaster today. He felt very strongly that there IS NOT a 30 day wait to file. He showed me the book where all it says is "after a reasonable amount of time". He also said, if I sent priority mail from the midwest to California and it was not received in 10 days, I should file the form. Take this for what it is worth, but the Postmaster said that the 30 day wait is a myth of some sort.
posted on October 10, 2001 03:20:32 PM
I ship everything Priority w DC and I have the same problem. I've had stuff go from LA to NY take from 2-8 days. My PO says it's because of Sept 11... most package mail is being sent by truck or train. I just put a note in my EOA email letting them know of the problem and if anybody asks I give them the the DC # to show when I mailed it. After that it's a Postal Service problem. Based on the current situation I don't see things getting better anytime soon.
posted on October 10, 2001 03:30:37 PMshamrock41 - thank you so much for telling me that! I have been all over the USPS website trying to find information on this, and come up with nothing. I am just going to request the forms tomorrow to file them - and take the negs as they come, I guess...
blacklabel - sorry you are having problem with slow moving mail also. The guy at my PO also had told me that from now on, every single package is x-rayed somewhere in route to its destination, which could account I guess for a day at the most, but what is the deal with the rest of the week?! I am seriously considering charging an additional .50 on shipping and adding DC on every package. Would sure help in a time like this!
For what it's worth - I have checked other sites - UPS, Airborne, FedEx. For larger packages their service would be great; but is expensive for smaller packages.
posted on October 10, 2001 04:59:50 PM
I have been only using priority mail with the free delivery confirmation. I send an email to the buyer with the confirmation number as well as instructions on tracking package.
Things are moving slowly due to heightened security. This is a small price to pay. Please remember that the Anthrax in Florida arrived in the mail....
posted on October 10, 2001 05:05:13 PM
I just had a priority w/ DC arrive today from a supplier in CA (I am in NH) and it was postmarked 10/01/2001 I do think that 9 days is a bit much when we are paying for 2-3 day. I could see 4 or maybe 5 at the limit because of 9/11 but my customers just think I am slow shipping...c'est la vie
posted on October 10, 2001 05:45:22 PM
I am having a lot of problem with First Class Mail going to and from California. I'm on the East Coast.....in Maine, and every letter or thick bubble mailer I send to California takes at least 10 days to get there. I had a buyer in Southern California e-mail me a little while ago wondering where his item was. I mailed it in a bubble mailer by First Class Mail 13 days ago, and it is still AWOL. The checks sent to me by First Class Mail from California winning bidders are also taking 10 days to reach me. A postal clerk told me that most of the mail is being sent by ground these days from coast to coast. I've had three California bidders complain about missing First Class mail items in the last week.
posted on October 10, 2001 05:54:53 PMnorthwoodsguy - I am in SC and having the exact same problem. Payments, also, are taking an extremely long time to reach me. The guy at the PO said that everything is going by ground except letter-sized mail which is supposedly going air. But with the delay in payments, I am guessing the government rethought the latter.
I have been extremely understanding with my buyers who mail payments; and I fully understand the additional precautions the USPS is taking. I only wish buyers could. Some do, some don't - and the ones that don't are the ones that really push you to the limit...
posted on October 10, 2001 08:34:22 PM
It's slow here too...Took 8 days for a small package to go across the country, but 2 of the days were non business days, but still. Also, priority mail from 1000 miles away has taken as long as 4 days...Oh well, Everyone has understood it is out of my control.
posted on October 11, 2001 01:14:51 AM
This has gotten to the point where I am seriously considering dropping media mail, or only making it available by special request - with full understanding on the buyer's part that it could take a while.
Thankfully, I ship everything with DC so I can at least try to figure out what's going on by tracking the packages.
Priority seems like it would be much less of a hassle, as I can print a label online with free DC and get free packaging supplies from USPS.
The problem I have is, I don't want to scare bidders away by only offering a shipping method, that on many of my items, costs more than the item itself may close at. I know also that some bidders are specifically looking for media mail.
I may give FedEx Ground a trial run - I was at their office today and picked up a brochure.
Yahoo ID: grantje
posted on October 12, 2001 01:33:05 PM
I use Priority with DC on everything but international and it has saved me several times in the last month.
One buyer in Phoenix complained after 5 days, I checked DC and copied the info to the buyer that delivery had been attempted on the 2nd day. He checked PO and they had the package.
Another Priority package took 9 days from Seattle to Fresno. PO had no excuses.
The worst case was a shipment to England that I mailed at 0930 September,11. It took exactly 30 days.
Things seem to be getting back closer to normal recently.
posted on October 12, 2001 01:41:26 PM
Most of my SLOOWWWWW ail has been going to California, it seems. I had one with signature confirmation ( it still doesn't say it was delivered, but it has been) that took over 2 weeks to arrive. Another 9 days. I just recieved a payment, sent in a priority envelope that took 6 days to reach me. My worst case. A priority package to Guam (USPS Priority) that took 20 days to arrive. My media mail seems to be arriving a lot sooner than the priority. Go figure?
posted on October 12, 2001 01:47:41 PM
Well, I just got my first one.
A customer notified me yesterday that he'd not received his package (which went out on Sept. 12th). Fortunately, I was trying out the free DC at the time and had used it on a bunch of Priority items going out around that time. The customer told me he would take the matter up with the post office because he'd already checked the DC and it shows as having been received in Washington State on Sept. 14th, not bad from Ohio and the day after the attack I'd say, but it sure hasn't gotten to him in Alaska yet.
posted on October 12, 2001 02:06:25 PM
Placed an order with a company in California on Sunday, it shipped Tuesday priority mail, it is Friday and has not arrived. I'm in the Pacific Northwest too, not exactly too far. It's really starting to annoy me how slow the mail is! I understand that the few weeks after September 11 things were going to be slow, but this is a month+ later, mail has been flying on planes for a while, I think it is more the incompetence of the post office than anything else at this point.
posted on October 12, 2001 02:32:23 PM
This is all really very odd. I just had a media package delivered across country in under 5 days. Yet some of you aren't getting that kind of delivery w/priority.
Just had payments arrive, one from TX in 3 days & one from FL in 2 days, so not sure why some are having delivery problems & others aren't.
posted on October 12, 2001 02:52:06 PM
I guess folks should be patient. My Air Mail lots to Miami took nearly a month. Check out the UK eBay message boards for similar problems.
posted on October 13, 2001 06:27:16 AM
It is odd to hear of all these slow shipments. I paid for two auctions I won this week, via PP, and both arrived within 2 days. I even sent the sellers a "WOW" on how fast they arrived. Both were sent by PM.
Just type in [$URL]http://www.usps.com/cgi-bin/api/shipping_label.cgi[/URL$]. Be sure to remove the $ signs.
[ edited by Linda_K on Oct 13, 2001 06:34 AM ]
[ edited by mark090 on Oct 10, 2001 09:13 AM ]