Morning all, just sitting here pondering on the workings of the postal service. I ordered a Peacemaker kit thru Sprue Bros. lightning deal on 2/26. I live in IL. and they are in MO. Checking me tracking this morning my package has gone to Olathe, KS. Does the mail service have a secret route they use to get mail across country? Oh well, it will get here someday. Wayne
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Similar situation until just now. Ordered a bunch of stuff from them about a week ago and the package was stuck at “pending acceptance” for days. Just updated and it’s now a day away.
So it’s possible the computers just haven’t updated and it’s closer than you think.
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Latest update was 1:35am this morning, so I doubt it, but why is it going west when I live east? Wayne
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I live outside Asheville NC,when I mail a letter,even to someone in my town,it still goes to Greenville SC before it comes back up???
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Same here, it goes to St. Louis, then Springfield, then back. Same with stuff from Chicago.
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Do you guys think that the Post Office keeps fleets of trucks at every business, waiting to immediately carry each package on a direct, non-stop route to each recipient? Do you have any understanding of large logistic systems or Transportation Topology Optimization?
You know you can buy expedited (direct) shipping for about double the price if the concepts of normal distribution bother you.
KL
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Yeah stuff goes up the chain based on hubs, not geographical direction. Packages aren’t always moving in a linear direction toward the recipient—we haven’t done that for at least a hundred years!
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No,I didn’t think that at all,my comment was about our situation because there us no USPS distribution center in Asheville,mail goes down to Greenville to be sorted
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There are guys who posted on the old rec.models.scale boards who simply couldn’t understand this. I even gave an example:
“There’s a hobby shop in your large city that is on West 20th Street. You live on East 30th Street and your post office is on East 45th Street. A package sent from the hobby shop goes farther east than your house before it comes back west. Now imagine a nation-wide system where shippers and recipients are in different states and there are big distribution centers akin to your local post office, with smaller centers between them and your house or the shop. Can you see how a package can appear to zig-zag en route? Now factor in weather affecting highway or air routes requiring diversions and alternate paths.”
One guy responded, “Yeah, I get that, but I don’t see why they can’t have a computer route the mail truck to places along the way rather than going past them and coming back.”
KL
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Some things I need to watch-out for:
• Alternate Universe: Several houses one block over have the exact same numbers as on my street! There’s another house diagonally across the street from me which has the same four-digit numbers, however, the last two digits are transposed.
• Tracking MIA: USPS says “delivered,” but there’s nothing doing for weeks. Then magically — after e-mailing the vendor — le voilà! …
Just happy when things get here. And thank goodness for good neighbors.
—mike 
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All it takes is one piece of stupidity, and your package can get more frequent-flyer miles than you do. Many years ago, I shipped a package UPS 3-Day Express from San Diego to New Orleans. It went up to the Los Angeles hub, out to Missouri… then back to the Los Angeles hub, out to Arkansas, and from there to New Orleans, taking eight days in the process. As best as I can figure, it either got dumped into the wrong shipment to get sent to Missouri and got sent back because that was ‘procedure’, or got left on the plane when it flew back to Los Angeles, and had to be redirected and sent out again.
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I ordered some kits and supplies from NH USPS and it made it all the way to Denver then went heading back east to Kansas then heading to Wyoming before making it’s way back to me through Denver to Grand Junction and finally here in Delta CO. This has been happening a little more often. And believe me I know how mail distribution works my Dad was a clerk for 40 years and I have brother who’s a carrier. I try to use UPS more often but every now and then they screw the pooch too.
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By now You know there’s no Accountability in the USPS; They will continue to Waste Taxpayer Dollars,Raise Postage Prices,And Give Us Crap Service and Excuses until We have A Postmaster General who will commit to giving USPS the Housecleaning it Desperately Needs.
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I have similar experiences when my purchase are made online and shipped USPS. I live in East Idaho, I made an online purchase from an East coast retailer, my order eventually made it to Salt Lake City, from there it went to Boise, then back to Salt Lake City, from there it went to Denver Colorado, then Pocatello, Idaho and then finally to my local post office which is North of Idaho Falls, Idaho. On my purchase journey it passed through Pocatello three times before in made it to my mailbox. Not exactly the model of efficiency.
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Locally, USPS provided good service for me for 25 years. Only one hiccup. Now they are so jacked up it is exasperating.
Couple years ago I paid the premium to send a guaranteed next day delivery letter. They lost it for 3 weeks. Delivered 22 days after I mailed it. No refund.
We live in an unincorporated area that the big city tried to gobble up. We literally have Unicornville USPO 1,800 feet from my house, zip code 12315. Street is 123 Greentooth Ave. Main post office decided that we live in Swamp Butt City, but can use the same zip code. So what happens? We find out that mail & packages are mis-delivered to 123 Greentooth Anne Street, Swamp Butt City 12304. Recently, tracking shows they delivered a package at our house on Friday, then came back an hour later and picked it up claiming there was nobody home, then despite us having a hold mail order for the next week they tried to deliver it - to the entirely wrong Street name, city, and zip code. If you go on Google maps you’ll see it’s an abandoned double wide. Post office shows they tried to live deliver it, nobody lives there with no forwarding address, so they return to sender. Complained at local post office - really good guys that really try hard - said call the main post office and they should have a GPS in the photograph of the package that was delivered. Main post office never answers their phone. I filed a complaint and 3 months later got a reply from our mail carrier that said we need to contact the shipper with the proper address.
One rainy day we received mail and a package. They put the mail in first then wedged the package in, and doing so push the mail out the flap on the back of the mailbox, into the wet grass. Left the front flap open as well, fortunately that soaked the cardboard of the stuck package to the extent that I was able to dig it out.
UPS and FedEx have delivered to that wrong address as well, and they say they must use the zip code and city name because the post office sets those.
The worst service I’ve had from the post office in my life has occurred over the last 15 years. No accountability.
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Seems like incompetence is spreading …
almost like a disease …
maybe it is the next pandemic which will eventually kill us all …
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It is not necessarily incompetence.
The shortest route for your package is through Hub A. Hub A is snowed in. Software calculates that shipping to Hub B will get the package to you more quickly. It goes to Hub B.
Your packaged arrives at Hub B. A driver drops sick. That truck will not go. The software calculates that the shortest route is now back through Hub A. Your package goes to Hub A.
At Hub A, there is another snow storm. Software calculates the fastest route is now through Hub C. Off to Hub C your package goes.
At Hub C, the designated truck for your package is full. Someone did not pack the truck as expected and a bunch of stuff did not fit. Software now determines your package should go back to Hub A.
Hub A is free of snow and everyone arrived for work. Your package goes to Hub D, close to you.
At Hub D, your package goes out for delivery. There is a new person on the team. That person put your package to 100 Beta Street instead of 100 Alpha Street. The driver does not catch the error and your package goes to Beta Street.
The person at 100 Beta Street keeps forgetting to put the package back in the mail box. He has serious problems of his own and the package sitting on the table is not important. Two months pass. Finally, he shoves it back in the mail box.
The mail man picks up the package and brings it back to the office. It finally ends up in the right bin.
Nine weeks late, the package shows up at your house.
At each step, people were trying to do the right thing and software worked correctly. The Goddess of Fate had her own ideas for your package.
Accidents, incompetence, unexpected problems can play all sorts of mischief with a logistics system.
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So, as of yesterday the package was in Springfield, IL. so the next step is normally here, a 2 hour drive. For some reason the tracking this morning says it is in Sioux Falls, SD.! Wayne
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I work for a mail-order company (cigars), & have seen the postal service decline in quality over the last few months. We’re dealing with a situation now, where ALL the packages that shipped USPS on 02/20/26, were not scanned after receipt, but only 5 days later, delaying the packages from reaching the customers. This Friday will be the end of the 10 business day promise from the post office, & I fully expect to be filling out lost package tickets for the rest of the day.
Damon.
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I suspect that a contributor to this is the increased use of online package labeling systems, where a company can generate a shipping label for a package and pay the postage any time after they know what the package weight will be (but possibly before the package is even sealed for shipping), but the package doesn’t leave the company’s warehouse until the the USPS actually comes by and picks up the package (which may not be daily) and returns it to the local shipping concentrator, where it gets scanned in as their actually having the package (hence the “label generated, but not received by the USPS” status you’ll see when you check your shipping status).
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