Cost of shipping USPS

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jnyork
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Cost of shipping USPS

Post by jnyork »

The cost of shipping something USPS has simply gone out of sight. Even the Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes are outrageous. I'm 27 miles one way to the UPS station so that's not much of an option. Shipping a rifle is now right at 50 bucks. I just mailed a little package about the size of a cigar box or a little bigger, over 12 dollars!!

I sell a little stuff now and then over the internet boards like this one, I try to provide the buyers with free shipping , people like that, but it's getting so it's hard t
3leggedturtle
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by 3leggedturtle »

Thats why i dont sell alot of stuff anymore. We have to pay for amazon customers free shipping, cause they dont.
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Marvin S
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by Marvin S »

And their money orders are a little rubbery. I received a 600 dollar USPS money order a few days ago and had a very hard time getting it cashed. They all claimed to not have enough money. The fourth PO I went to finally cashed it. Attitude at US post office is about like the DMV I’ll try my best to not do any business with them.
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jeepnik
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by jeepnik »

If you've been following the USPS is going broke. Reasons are many but the most is that they failed to compete with commercial carriers. They sat back fat, dumb and lazy thinking that they were "protected". A bit of background. The US government "spun" off the postal service decades ago. It was going to be self supporting. That idea failed miserably and the Feds have had to bail it out many times.

Recently the Postmaster General started taking aim at the citizens when congress wouldn't give him all the money he wanted. Slower service, increased costs, closing of mail centers and talking about reducing staff. Frankly, the USPS has reached the end of it's lifespan. It should just be allowed to die and let commercial carriers take over. They must make a profit to stay in business. To make a profit they must please the customers. The last is something the postal service, once justifiably proud of their service, has long forgotten.

As a kid there were two mail deliveries Monday through Friday and one on Saturday. Many time the kids in the neighborhood would walk around with "Red" and help deliver the mail. Today, there are times on regular delivery days when no one on our entire block receives mail (when the mailman didn't show up on my cameras from time to time I queried my neighbors). I confronted the local postmaster and he denied that no attempt to deliver took place. Pretty much like any politician, when caught he lied.
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COSteve
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Done

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Done
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by Sixgun »

My experiences have been the opposite...I love USPS and their flat rate boxes......only had maybe two issues in many years.

Maybe having a one room post office with one worker a few hundred yards down the road has something to do with it.......convenience at its finest.

Like any carrier you have to be willing to spend the extra $4 .. :D ...to have it insured......lot of guys are cheap but think nothing of giving Ford 70K for something that's going to be junk in 10 years.

I don't care about what happens behind the scenes as long as my stuff gets there or makes it here.....shipped a 4K rifle halfway across the country a couple of months ago and it costs me $145....another one went to Alaska....3 or 4 days and they arrived at their doorstep......that's cheap as I would have got my money even if they ended up in Mexico...

Did ya ever go to a UPS store and have something shipped? Wait in line for an hour and spend $50 for something that USPS charges $17 for.------006. secret agent man
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GunnyMack
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by GunnyMack »

I too had a problem cashing a money order, then I found out they can be cashed at your BANK.

The USPS signed their own fate when they unionized, they are the slowest,laziest bunch after DMV for sure !
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lthardman
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by lthardman »

I have been subject to many ridiculous delays in shipping vis USPS. Many of them due to the absolute mess that must exist in the Detroit Distribution Center. I just had an item that reached Detroit on August 13 sit there until August 23 with no movement.

That said, the purpose of this particular post is to caution everyone out there to be very skeptical of USPS package insurance. I shipped an item on March 10 that has not been delivered and has not even been scanned into the system since March 14. I purchased $200 of insurance at the local post office at the time of mailing. I filed a Missing Mail Search, which turned out to be a waste of time. I filed an insurance claim to get my $200 of insurance (that I paid extra for) on April 7, and it was denied on May 22. I filed an appeal on June 1, and it was denied on August 4. This is despite the fact that I have provided them with all requested receipts, proof of value, and even photographs of the items lost. I have now filed my second and final appeal. I doubt it will be successful.

I believe USPS package insurance is a scam. They gladly charge you the extra fees, but have no intention of paying you for your loss after THEY lose your package. Buying the USPS Shipping Insurance gives you a false sense of security, but absolutely no real protection. I believe they sell the insurance fraudulently. I have contacted my Congressman and Senator and asked for help. But as I am NOT a Democrat, I don't hold out much hope for assistance.

I no longer ship anything by USPS. If it is valuable enough to require shipping insurance, I will use UPS. That's my choice.
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Sixgun
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by Sixgun »

Ithardman.....A VERY BIG THANK YOU!! Dang....I never knew that......a year or two ago they lost a flat rate package of mine that I failed to insure....comes with free $50 worth ......I made the claim as to the loss only as $50 was not worth the aggravation.....they called me and talked it over and seemed concerned.....it never was found.....a few t shirts one of which was an original 1980 Phillies World Champ that was my son's when he was little and I was shipping it to him....some brass and a few gun parts...maybe a hundred dollars worth....

Another time they lost a NIB Remington 1100 that was made in the first months of 1964...hangtags and all....I had that insured for a bit over a G and after making a claim they called me and asked a mess of questions...blah..blah...the man I talked to told me he was going to look into personally and two days later they found it, hidden in the mail distribution area. End of story.----006
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Rockrat
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by Rockrat »

If they won't cash it, you could just get smaller denomination MO's (say 4 x $150) and then cash the smaller ones, maybe a couple at a time.
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KWK
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by KWK »

USPS is carrying pensions and a physical plant sized for a company twice its current business. Letter volume has crashed due to electronic transfers of documents, and their package service has fierce competition. They are a mess.
stretch
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by stretch »

The US government "spun" off the postal service decades ago. It was going to be self supporting. That idea failed miserably and the Feds have had to bail it out many times.
The USPS was never designed to be self-supporting. Years ago, for instance, there was no rural mail delivery to outlying farms and homes.
People had to go into town to retrieve their mail. Then the USPS introduced STAR routes, Home Carrier Routes, Rural routes, and the like.
This change was not in the pursuit of profit, but was designed to improve the quality of life for ALL Americans and to facilitate commerce.
Same with the Rural Electrification Program. Uncle Sam subsidized some of the gird to improve the quality of life for people and to facilitate
commerce. AmTrak is subsidized - it can't make ends meet solely on fares. Air travel is still subsidized. The FAA isn't paid for by air fares.
Other examples will occur to you.....

Companies like Amazon contract with commercial carriers at a steep discount, and they deliver to the densely populated areas with the
efficient delivery routes, leaving the inefficient, nonprofitable routes to the USPS. No one can make a lot of money on those routes.

The USPS was never designed to make "a profit" and only idiots would try to set it up that way, which of course is what Congress did.

That said, the management could certainly be improved, and that's true of most State and Federal government agencies.

-Stretch
.45colt
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by .45colt »

As I related here before a few years ago I bought several bags of lead shot from a member here. usps delivered it here minus a whole 25lb bag of shot. their lost in the mail system is a joke and after a few months they informed Me that the search was over. the Member here made it right with Me. one of their idiots got a bag of shot and wasn't worried about getting fired over a paltry $40.00 . A total joke.
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Rube Burrows
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by Rube Burrows »

I have had extremely good luck with USPS and generally hope when I order something that it comes USPS. When it does it usually gets here much quicker than FedEx or UPS.

When I'm shipping I am cautious because many people just throw something in a flat rate box but many items unless they are really heavy ships much cheaper in a normal box. The flat rate boxes shape has changed over the years and that makes it hard to fit a lot of items in the boxes. They done this on purpose I am sure.
If you have a heavy item or bunch of items going in one box it can work out well though.

I watch a weekly fb auction for Case Knives and if I happen to get several knives he can ship them all in one box for 8.00 which turns out to be pretty good.
hondo1892
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Re: Cost of shipping USPS

Post by hondo1892 »

I've only dealt with USPS and UPS and UPS has given me the most problems. I had to fight with UPS twice. Once to ship an antique axe and once to ship a scope back to the manufacture to get fixed. Both times they didn't want to ship because of firearms and weapons. I couldn't get them to understand that neither applied to my packages. My only scare so far with the USPS was a rifle I sent around Christmas time. I sent it priority and it took nearly two weeks and both parties were getting worried when it finally showed up. I've been thinking about shipping my guns "certified" I think is what they call it. That way everyone that touches the package has to sign for it. This keeps more folks honest because they have to account for anything that happens to the package they signed for. I have a really good post office that I usually don't have to wait in a line for. The young lady that works there also is very helpful and many times looks up different rates and ways to ship packages for me. I believe is because of the area I'm living in now. Back in Michigan I lived close to Detroit and the USPS crew in that office were not very happy to help you. However my cousins son was the post master at that office just before I left so I did have a little pull. My daughter has worked at the Louisville UPS hub and she wondered how any packages made it to their destination in one piece. She said that the folks loading threw everything into carts and trucks no matter how they were marked. She and others that drove the little truck things from the warehouse to the plains would find packages on the tarmac and some would have been run over. I have never need to make an insurance claim so far and hope I never do at the USPS. UPS is unionized too so I don't think that the union doomed the USPS. I do think that management has a lot to do with it.
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