PRIORITY MAIL IS DEFINITELY A JOKE!
I’ve been thinking about starting a blog as a chronicle of terrible service based companies, and the USPS was going to be my top entry, then I found this. Thanks for posting it!
It is true, Priority Mail from the USPS is usually cheaper than UPS and FedEx FOR SMALL ITEMS ONLY, but it’s just not worth the headache. The fact is, they GIVE YOU THEIR WORD, which is as good as an oral guarantee (lawyer speak: contract) here in Washington State, but then when something doesn’t arrive in that time they’ll say “we only guarantee Express Mail”. Think about that: They purposefully will declare at the time of your payment “Shipping to zip code XXXXX by ______ (2-3 days from now)”. When it doesn’t happen and you talk to them and they say “we don’t guarantee that”, IT MEANS YOU WERE LIED TO.
I know there is probably fine print all over the place that keeps them from getting in trouble legally, saying that nothing they say can be construed as a guarantee, but when one part of a company (the customer service agents who are glad to take your money and are paid to lie) say one thing, then the same company’s telephone customer service people – not the same people you paid – effectively tell you “we don’t say that” – IT’S OUTRIGHT LYING!!
The US Postal Service couldn’t operate without lying to the public. Plain and simple.
Their entire business model depends on them duping a certain percentage of the public. Without that extra income, they couldn’t survive.
They do this by training their customer service agents to say “2-3 days” like parrots (along with “Do you need extra stamps or insurance against loss or damage?”), which makes you THINK you are covered, but wait until they let you down, which they inevitably WILL. They will stay calmly cold when you say “but your people said 2-3 days!” then explain they never guaranteed that. THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU SAY IT??? Because they know WITHOUT A DOUBT that a certain percentage of Priority Mail packages never make it on time, or at all, but they’ll use the explanation that they usually make it in 2-3 days, so…we’re not reeeeaaallllyy lying to you. Your package will PROBABLY make it in 2-3 days.
But think about this: would you purchase the service, something that’s a premium one, if they told you when you shipped it that “Your package will PROBABLY arrive in 2-3 days”? Hell no, most people wouldn’t. And they know this. So they lie. On purpose.
These people should be SUED in a GIANT CLASS ACTION SUIT. THEY ARE BLATANT LIARS TO THE U.S. PUBLIC. I say If they can’t operate in a straight and honest fashion, THEY SHOULD BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS.
I have been disappointed NUMEROUS times mailing things not more than 100 miles that took 7+ days to arrive. I’m not talking about from Seattle to Chicago…I’m talking about ACROSS THE SAME STATE!!
In addition, the USPS has slowly phased out Parcel Post over the last few years, upping the price of Parcel Post so as to make it not nearly as affordable in an attempt to close Parcel Post processing hubs and distribution centers and encourage the purchase of much more lucrative “Priority” Mail services.
I have even had multiple USPS customer service agents refer to Priority Mail as “regular mail” in an attempt to confuse options and encourage its use over Parcel Post. I found this attempt at confusion outright disgusting and let the local Post Master know. They even go so far as to try to scare you by saying “Parcel Post is not return guaranteed”, so as to imply that if your Parcel Post package doesn’t get to the right address or isn’t accepted/claimed, it won’t be returned to you.
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The bottom line:
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UPS and FedEx are as serious as a heart attack about their guarantees. I work in the air industry, not for UPS, but I talk with several of their employees. When a UPS aircraft full of packages breaks down, they will call in 15 contracted Lear Jets normally used to transport people, and in a frenzy right their on the tarmac, they will load all of that huge aircraft’s cargo into those small jets, which will take off later, but fly direct to one of the several stops the large jet would have, arriving sooner or near the time of the big jet. At UPS, and I imagine at FedEx too, 2 days means 2 days, and so does 3 days, whether they have to spend 50 times what they would have with their own planes. I have seen these people work, and they are beyond dedicated to their mission of getting your package there in the time you paid for.
When the USPS lets you down, they say to themselves “ah, well, we kind of expected that to happen.” It’s obvious they even PLAN on it. Don’t bother with the USPS. Seriously. If you haven’t been let down yet, you definitely will be. You may let it slide once or twice, but when it’s important and they do it again soon after, remember this blog and it’s MANY, MANY negative comments from people just like you. Then, pay a tad more for a real carrier who takes their commitment to customers seriously.
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