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Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
The USPS is a disaster right now. I have been selling for about 10 years now and I have never seen it this bad. Packages are severely delayed or lost on a regular basis. Worse than any holiday shipping season I have seen. So when the holiday crunch comes on right after thanksgiving, what is going to happen then? Will it be 3 x worse than it is right now. Someone needs to fire this new Postmaster General. He is not making it better he is making it 10x worse. No experience, and with that he doesnt listen to any advice. Thats smart and makes sense. Dope!
So whats the new Postmaster General’s plan? Regular mail volume is going down, and package volume going up. Screw it up so nobody uses USPS for packages. Thats what it’s coming to. Thats real smart!
Amazon really had good fore sight. They are doing their own logistics because the USPS cant be relied on.
I have been selling on eBay since 1998 and on Ruby Lane since 2000, and of hundreds of packages, my experience is ONE lost, ONE delivered to the wrong house (recovered at a different number, same street) by a new carrier and maybe several insurance damage claims. I am a diehard USPS user who has made an effort to understand the service. I gave up a UPS account after reading the back of the waybills; FedEx drop off is 30 miles one way; most of my packages are under 10 pounds and I do not ship enough packages via couriers to afford pickups.
YES, during the pandemic there have been USPS delays. I think I hold the “world record” Pandemic era delay – six weeks to get a package from upstate NY to midwest PA and then only after I intervened and filed a “return to sender” claim (it was not, it was sent on and delivered). The sorting facility where all my Priority Mail must go through has seemed to be a trouble spot. Packages may sit, but eventually reappear and move along. All of my Priority packages must go through there, and some are delayed slightly, while others pass through normally, no way to figure it out. I would not call this a “disaster.” I am surprised, given the covid problems, that things are not worse than they are.
Now that the election is behind us I hope the gossip about deliberate slowing down mail delivery will stop. With “SmartPost” being increasingly used by FedEx and UPS, there should be more revenue coming in. But USPS has a reputation of being so top heavy and not making effective management decisions. I don’t know about Amazon – my sister works for USPS and says their truck comes in daily and they have to plan on an additional hour to handle it.
Honestly, I had significantly more problems several years ago when USPS apparently was figuring out what kind of mail should go to which sorting facility. Scans were showing my packages going crazy places even retracing their steps (but they were all eventually delivered). My experience is that it got figured out and has worked smoothly, until Covid hit.
On the contrary, I have had almost nothing but trouble lately with FedEx (the last incident being a package that was never delivered, except the driver scanned it as “Delivered, Front Door”. Our UPS drivers are terrific but the sorting facilities seem determined to smash every box that goes through. Accordingly, I use USPS exclusively except for perhaps a few shipments a year.
In almost 20 years of selling online with thousands of packages shipped, I don’t even need both hands to count how many packages were completely lost. I rarely have one damaged. My PO is the BEST! I have a great relationship with my regular carrier, and when she sees how many outgoing packages I have today, she will be pleased for me.
Instead of the $10-20/year I used to spend on FCM, now I spend $1000s/year for FCM packages. I don’t understand with so many people selling online, how and why the PO is boohooing their lack of income.