December 17, 2020

Miscelaneous Musings

Last Thursday the wife used the USPS to mail a box to the Boy in Denver. She paid extra to get the Priority two day delivery. She checked the tracking Monday and the package had not been delivered. She dug deeper on Tuesday and discovered the package was still in Indianapolis. The day after it was promised, it still had not shipped. Yesterday the box had made its way to Chicago. In the 1850s the Pony Express delivered mail from Missouri to California in 10 days. Via horse.  When I called to complain I was told the Priority Mail no longer is guaranteed, the two day delivery we paid for was an estimate. If we wanted guaranteed we should have purchased Priority Mail Express. Whatever. This is not just bad service. It is unacceptable service. I filled out the customer satisfaction survey from my receipt. Since the USPS asked for no identification, no email, no address, no phone number, not even my name, it is clear they have no interest in my opinion nor offering a follow up. That's why we will use FedEx or UPS next time. We should have known, it took 17 days for his birthday card to travel from Indy to Denver.

I have been reading an excellent history of the Battle for Hue during the Tet offensive in Vietnam. It is authored by Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down). It is riveting and reads like a novel. I'm about 50% in and the book seems a pretty fair and even handed presentation. Westmoreland doesn't come off so well, but the criticism is pretty much deserved. If I remember, I'll let you know what I think when I get the history finished.

I have a low tire pressure light on the car. I need to head out and see which tire is the culprit. I have a little compressor tha tworks via the car's cigarette lighter port. No, there is no cigarette lighter, just that port. 

Those of you living in a fantasy that somehow the Congress will throw out the Electoral College vote and keep the Trumpster in office need to get over it. Biden* is the President. Yes, he will always have an asterix as far as I'm concerned, but Congress is no more going to overthrow the "results" than any court, including the SCOTUS would. It is not going to happen. EOS.

4 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Priority Mail took the place of the old Parcel Post a couple of years ago. It’s been just as cheap or cheaper to send certain types of packages Priority Mail than to send a First Class parcel.

Priority Mail Express now occupies the niche that regular Priority Mail used to occupy between First Class parcels and Express Mail.

It’s all about rebranding. And it’s a pain in the ass.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

This is the same USPS, mind you, that claimed it could handle the huge volume of mail-in votes on time and with dispatch.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

BTW, thought you would like to know that I just took delivery of a Priority Mail 2-Day package that came from North Mankato, MN, and got to Indy in one day.

Then it spent five -- 5 -- FIVE -- days bouncing from post office to post office IN INDIANAPOLIS until someone FINALLY put it in my mail carrier's truck and it was delivered today.

Never trust USPS. USPS is asshole.

Joe said...

Indeed.

We shipped the package on Dec 11. It finally left Indy on Dec 15. It went to Chicago. It arrived in Denver Dec 19. They shipped it back to Chicago.

I wish I was making this up.

It sat somewhere "in transit" starting the 20th. It arrived in denver agian last night. It still is not out for delivery.

I'll never trust the USPS with anything important again.

Consider everything here that is of original content copyrighted as of March 2005
Powered By Blogger