What has happened to the U.S. Postal Service?

[Chuck Nessa]

A case in point; I ordered a CD set from Avid in England on Sunday, April 7th, it was shipped on Monday, April 8th, and I received it here in Toronto today. Meanwhile I'm still waiting for two items that were shipped from importcds in Irvine, California over a month ago. I've found importcds to be a very reliable company and such delays only began happening in the last few months or so, therefore I assume the problem must be with the USPS.

I believe importcds is now using DHL Global Mail which slows things down even more.

On the upside you do get a tracking number.

The inclusion of DHL in the mix slows shipments by about 4 days in my experience.

[king ubu]

DHL sucks!

Swiss post had them do the door delivery for international parcels for a while. They'd always come when no one's home, you'd arrange for a second delivery a day or two after, they'd pull a no show and instead come one day later or some such ... seems Swiss post had so many complaints that they themselves are doing all door deliveries again, DHL is kept away from contact with customers (unless of course you're using DHL as a courier, but we're talking of regular postal services partly sourced out to DHL here).

[seeline]

About Canadian mail: I've always had a problem (in the US) in terms of super-slow delivery of *anything* from Canada - parcels and letters alike.

And some friends who live in Canada will deliberately drive across the border to the US to mail things that are important, like wedding invitations, because they have their own horror stories about important things getting lost en route from Canada to the US. (This has been a problem since the mid-1980s, if not before, according to them.)

So... I think there are problems with both countries' postal services, not just ours.

fwiw, when I was really small, there were still two mail deliveries a day (US) and stamps were 5 cents or so.

[Head Man]

Seems like those who have it the easiest tend to whine the loudest, doesn't it?

It was ever thus........

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Got my black Jazz CDs today - posted in CA 1 April.

Pretty slow, but whose fault? US or UK systems or both?

MG

[erwbol]

Got my black Jazz CDs today - posted in CA 1 April.

Pretty slow, but whose fault? US or UK systems or both?

MG

I've been waiting on Bobby Hutcherson's Total Eclipse since I got a shipping notice on 2 April from its UK seller. A CD sent from France can be here within 1 to 2 days. Crazy. Even a CD sent on the cheap from Japan can be here in 4 to 5 days.

Edited April 15, 2013 by erwbol

[mjazzg]

Got my black Jazz CDs today - posted in CA 1 April.

Pretty slow, but whose fault? US or UK systems or both?

MG

I'm still waiting on the new Steve Coleman CD posted by Amazon.com on 26/3. I'm begining to think this may have gone down over the Atlantic.

Meanwhile received LP from US within 10 days which has been about average. On the whole I'm not disatisfied with the USPS service until now. With the new prices I'll not be finding out what it's like in the future very much at all

[erwbol]

Got my black Jazz CDs today - posted in CA 1 April.

Pretty slow, but whose fault? US or UK systems or both?

MG

I'm still waiting on the new Steve Coleman CD posted by Amazon.com on 26/3. I'm begining to think this may have gone down over the Atlantic.

Meanwhile received LP from US within 10 days which has been about average. On the whole I'm not disatisfied with the USPS service until now. With the new prices I'll not be finding out what it's like in the future very much at all

Amazon.com standard shipping of a single CD to The Netherlands takes 4 weeks without exception. I wonder who they use for this States side.

Edited April 15, 2013 by erwbol

[Sundog]

Constantly amazed by the good service I receive. The logistics are mind boggling to me. No complaints- not one.

[JETman]

Constantly amazed by the good service I receive. The logistics are mind boggling to me. No complaints- not one.

Surprising, considering I was told by the good folks at Dusty Groove that Chicago's postal service is known to be among the worst in the nation.

[Chuck Nessa]

Constantly amazed by the good service I receive. The logistics are mind boggling to me. No complaints- not one.

Surprising, considering I was told by the good folks at Dusty Groove that Chicago's postal service is known to be among the worst in the nation.

Better you should speak from experience.

[ejp626]

I lived the Chicago postal experience. Most of the time it was fine. Sometimes mail was slow. We had one carrier who was great, replaced by one not so great. Again, most of the time it was fine. I did occasionally lose mail, and once I mailed a package that was severely damaged and someone on the board got some CDs they didn't order -- as if two boxes broke at the same time and they just shuffled what they could back into one.

On the rare occasions I actually had to pick up a package, that was bad, because I had to go to this kind of remote post office where the customer service was truly abysmal.

I did note that with the various cut-backs the counter service at the main post office downtown had gotten noticeably worse from 2005 to 2011.

[Sundog]

Constantly amazed by the good service I receive. The logistics are mind boggling to me. No complaints- not one.

Surprising, considering I was told by the good folks at Dusty Groove that Chicago's postal service is known to be among the worst in the nation.

I guess I have fairly reasonable expectations that are always surpassed.

[JETman]

Constantly amazed by the good service I receive. The logistics are mind boggling to me. No complaints- not one.

Surprising, considering I was told by the good folks at Dusty Groove that Chicago's postal service is known to be among the worst in the nation.

Better you should speak from experience.

With mail, experience is both dispatch and receipt. As I mentioned earlier, I've had some packages dispatched from Chicago that ended up taking ridiculously circuitous routes to me in NY. So now we're about taking insults against our post offices personally?

[JSngry]

True story - Last summer, I was negligent about a letter out to the mailbox in time for the day's pickup, so when I saw the postman drive by, I put on some pants and a t-shirt and ran out the door hollering "WAIT A MINUTE MISTER POSTMAN. PLEASE, MISTER POSTMAN"

The guy not only stopped the truck, but he was laughing when I got there. At me or with me, I couldn't tell. But he stopped and took my letter, and I had the good sense not to tell to to deliver the letter, the sooner the better. All that for less than half the cost of a convenience store hot dog.

If there's a better reason for loving America instead of leaving it, I don't know what it would be.

[Larry Kart]

True story - Last summer, I was negligent about a letter out to the mailbox in time for the day's pickup, so when I saw the postman drive by, I put on some pants and a t-shirt and ran out the door hollering "WAIT A MINUTE MISTER POSTMAN. PLEASE, MISTER POSTMAN"

The guy not only stopped the truck, but he was laughing when I got there. At me or with me, I couldn't tell. But he stopped and took my letter, and I had the good sense not to tell to to deliver the letter, the sooner the better. All that for less than half the cost of a convenience store hot dog.

If there's a better reason for loving America instead of leaving it, I don't know what it would be.

If I didn't already know you were one of nature's noblemen, this post would prove it.

[John Tapscott]

Well, here's a good news story. Ordered the last chance Paul Chambers Select last Sunday afternoon (the 14th). Mailed on Monday the 15th. Here in my hands in Southern Ontario on Friday the 19th. Fastest in a long, long time. Congrats to USPS and Canada Post. Excellent service, I would say. This one was mailed from a different postal outlet in Stamford, it appears, and was also in a typical long padded mailer rather than the regular Mosaic mailing box.

[jlhoots]

I still think the USPS stinks.

So - I order the Pepper Adams book & a Dave Douglas CD from Amazon.

I track the package & it says "delivery attempted, notification left".

No delivery, No notification.

I contact my local USPS office.

"We'll call you right back".

After 2 hours I call them back.

"We were just going to call you."

The delivery person couldn't open the bank of boxes.

They send "maintenance" out to fix the problem.

Eventually the package does get delivered.

Maybe you young guys think that's good service.

I'm not so sure.

[Dan Gould]

The first week in February I purchased an LP on Ebay with the express purpose of using it in the March BFT. On February 13 it was shipped, Media Mail, from NY. Amazingly, for weeks on end, the tracking information had it scanned in New Jersey, outbound. I contacted the USPS and was basically told, its only been three weeks, its Media Mail and that's the slowest service, if they run out of time in a given day, it just waits until the next day so sit tight it will get there.

After another two weeks wait the seller cheerfully and promptly refunded my full payment of $13.50.

Imagine my complete shock to find the LP sitting on my doorstep last night, three months and ten days after it was shipped.

Then imagine my greater surprise that the box was pristine (but very wet from the rain we've had, and because the seller packaged it so well, completely safe and dry inside.

So, I couldn't program Ed Bickert on my BFT but all is well, and I've settled up again with the seller.

Oh, and the USPS still SUCKS!

[Ted O'Reilly]

So, I couldn't program Ed Bickert on my BFT...

OOH...Ed Bickert! Wonderful musician, so good for you! What was it going to be? Or are you saving it for the future?

[Dan Gould]

On Concord, The Ed Bickert 5 with Scott Hamilton and Warren Vache.