visioneer_one
Heliman
Location: St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
| Problems With The USPS? Hardly Ever.Those of us here in the islands have a unique situation. UPS & FedEx consider us to be an international destination, and charge beaucoup $$ for items coming here. As a consequence the USPS handles 90% of incoming parcels.
They are sorely overloaded and understaffed for such volume.
Couple of issues.
Sorting of mail is not handled locally - its handled in Puerto Rico. Express/Priority/First Class items are flown there, then sorted, then flown to the VI, then trucked to the individual post office locations where items sit for a day or three before being distributed to the consumer on a class-based order. This translates to a lot of handling, and a lot of time spent in areas where things can be damaged or stolen...
Parcel Post items are shipped here via surface means only, once per month. Items are loaded into RORO trailers in Miami where they sit for up to thirty days, then are shipped to Puerto Rico for sorting, then shipped to the VI, etc. etc. I've had several projects held up for a month or more becase of cheapskate schiesskopf e-bay sellers trying to make an extra $0.25 in profit by shipping on the cheap...
Their tracking system is nonsense, as it is only designed to notify when items are received and delivered. Hardly anything in between.
Theft and damage are constant problems. I once decided to give my brother one of my old laptops - gave it to my Dad for mailing. He marked the box "FRAGILE" and "COMPUTER EQUIPMENT INSIDE" and posted it... My brother received a box with a huge hole in the side covered with tape, containing nothing but foam peanuts. I also have a clubmate that decided to purchase a T-Maxx from Tower... they Priority-Mailed one which never arrived. 35 days later they Priority-Mailed another one which also disappeared. After waiting another month they shipped another one via FedEx, which arrived next day.
My favorite USPS story involves my small Ultimate Bipe. After waiting three weeks for it to arrive I picked it up at the post office... the lady behind the counter retrived the brightly-colored ARF box with a huge crushed-in corner, handed it to me and said, "Don't worry about that. It's insured." 
Tio my amazement the plane was undamaged - the punched-in corner stopped just short of the wings.
These days I use Priority Mail for "unbreakable" items, and Express Mail for fragile things. Anything larger has to come via ship. |
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