I have some odd faith in USPS

"Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura" (sundowne36) 01/04/2014 at 04:16 • Filed to: USPS, Two Wheels Bad, Honda 919

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Partly because they actually ship and deliver stuff on time (UPS and FedEx - which I will be covering in a bit - I'm looking at you!) but mostly because their postmen are so absurdly courteous!

That oddly boggles my mind, and it still has when I came out of Uwajimaya's in Seattle only to be stopped by an old lady who was kind enough to tell me what happened. Now, if this was any other bloke, they'd be livid but me? I could have basically told her no need to and send her on her way without caring but no. She chose to stay back and wait for her boss.

Hopefully, I hope she doesn't lose her job for this because if she did, my faith in USPS just sunk.

Anywhoo, I found out that a FedEx truck just so happened to be parked right in front of the entrance to Uwajimaya - overlapping 1/4ths of the space from the USPS van she was in. With no choice, she backed up into my Honda and clipped my bike's front fender. She couldn't see it at the time and I can't really blame her; more of a design fault on the car. The only damage the van did to my bike was a slight chip on the front wheel fender, so I wasn't really worried. Hell, even if she dropped my bike, I wouldn't really let it get to me.

We exchanged details and I hoped that she got off with little to no punishment in the future. I hope.

IDROVEAPICKUPTRUCK > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 04:19

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I've never understood all the hate that the USPS gets. Their shipping rates are competitive, especially with the flat rate boxes, stuff arrives fairly quickly and you never have to worry about getting into a building or anything. At the apartment I lived in for most of college I hated when I couldn't ship something USPS because UPS/Fedex didn't have a key to the first door of the building but USPS did, as a result with UPS/Fedex normally I'd end up with one of those annoying little "attempted to deliver" stickies on the door.

offroadkarter > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 05:49

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I think it depends on where you are in the country with how any of the shipping companies are. On one of the forums I visit we had a "Who do you like best, UPS/USPS/Fedex" thread and most people had good things to say about FedEx. Meanwhile, I hate them the most. Twice, TWICE, they delivered my stuff to the SAME wrong house on the other side of main st. I didn't even realize it until the second time when I had an elderly gent carrying my 15" alcoa wheel up my front walk, and he told me a few weeks ago the shackles I ordered for my friends explorer also showed up at his house.

UPS is usually fine delivering to me, however I sent 2 boxes of dash trim to a friend in Washington and the long box got lost for 3 weeks. It went from NJ to WA back to NJ then back to WA where it sat for a bit then eventually got to his house, 2 weeks after the first box. I also shipped a set of projector retrofitted headlights to a customer out in MI and he got them broken. I thankfully took out insurance on them, so I got them back, fixed them, and sent them USPS.... They still got there partly broken again.

Fuck shipping things in general, period. When I had my eaton supercharger polished by someone in the marauder community, I met him at a meet down in maryland, gave him the blower, and I drove to VA to pick it up from his dad at their shop. I didn't need something stupid happening to that.

JACU - I've got bonifides. > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 08:04

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I work at a local Pack and Ship, so I deal with the shipping triumvirate every day. The three choices one really has in shipping (at least here in NA) is fast, cheap and/or reliable. Pick any two.

Other than the price of postage (and it's going up after the 15th of this month BTW), we rarely get flack about the USPS. We do have occasional issues with FedEx and UPS. If you ship something next day, 2nd day or 3rd day air, they both guarantee their deliveries. They will quickly invoke acts-of-god for ground shipment delays.

In the end, no one is perfect and mistakes get made by all three carriers. Most of the mistakes we have to correct are at the client level though, as many are ill-prepared when they get ready to ship. Some come in not even knowing the zip code of the place they want to ship to.

Eric the RC guy > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 09:03

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I used to love USPS until I move into the place I live now. Because we have group mailboxes they won't put packages by the mailbox, which is awesome because I don't want my things stolen. However they also won't drive an extra hundred feet or so to deliver it to my door, they'll leave a tag saying I have to pick it up from the post office between 8am and 4pm and then mark it as "undeliverable" for tracking purposes. I work from 8 to 5, every fucking day. So if you have a normal job you're basically fucked. Because of this I refuse to use USPS for anything anymore.

JACU - I've got bonifides. > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 09:29

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Just found on Cracked...

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-…

iDriveCode3 > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 09:35

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She absolutely will not lose her job. My dad's a mail carrier of 30+ years; it's near impossible to lose a USPS job. Minor, non-injury collisions (sorry to call it minor, I know it doesn't seem it to the involved parties, but it is) are the least of concern to their supervisors.

Clown Shoe Pilot > Eric the RC guy 01/04/2014 at 09:42

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Group mailboxes? So, you get the mail out of the box, sort through it to get just yours and then put the rest back?

Or do you have a "mail hotel" where there are 20ish letterboxes on a post and you have your own private keyed box, surrounded by other private keyed boxes?

I have a "mail hotel" in my neighborhood, and we also have a package box. If you get a USPS package, the letter carrier puts your package in the special box, locks it, and then puts the key in your letterbox.

Eric the RC guy > Clown Shoe Pilot 01/04/2014 at 10:08

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Sorry I didn't describe it well, it is like the mail hotel that you mentioned, but no package box and USPS flat out refuses to deliver anything that doesn't fit in the (tiny) mailbox. UPS and FedEx deliver right to my door though.

mikeluscher159 > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 12:31

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Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > mikeluscher159 01/04/2014 at 12:32

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It's a lot worse when you try the other two - you don't get tracking information.

M54B30 > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 01/04/2014 at 12:48

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Other than over Christmas I've never had issue with UPS or FedEx. I buy a lot on amazon and they ship UPS Fedex a lot. I ordered baby monitors on 12/19, expected delivery 12/23, real delivery 1/2. Not a big deal though, life goes on.