Over the past 4 weeks, I mailed 2 Priority boxes to the same address near Chicago.? The 1st took 8 days, the last one arrived yesterday after 10 days in transit.? It spent 5 days sitting in the Indianapolis distribution center.? I know the Midwest has had its fair share of storms lately but these delays are ridiculous, especially for "Priority" service.

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I recently rec'd an order from a modeler located in France.? UPS Expedited price is about $1 less than USPS Global Express and they claim a 4 day delivery versus stated 10 days for the mail, which is often longer.? If the postal service continues to worsen, UPS will be getting my business again.

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For those of you sending and receiving items on a regular basis, I'm sure you've seen a NOTICEABLE decline in mail service.

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Actually Jim, it was for the safety?of stupid drivers who think that they can make it acorss?Iowa and Illonois with a 40 to 50 mph southern or northern wind with 70 mph sustained gusts. If you look at the news feeds many of those who tried were rolled over. Yesterday one rolled and caught fire. So, yeah it takes a few days more, I am not going to die if my new modle?does not arrive in 2 days. But, I do like it to arrive.

? ?At least your mail is only getting delayed.? I ordered some of those beautiful Missouri Pacific and Texas & Pacific Eagle nose etchings from Mike Swederska and he mailed them two weeks ago.? He sent them certified mail and according to the tracking number it looks like the USPS lost them shortly after they left his post office.? After 22 years in the Army I could easily say "that's the government for ya" but I would reliably get my mail from Texas to the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan in just over two weeks.? Hopefully the etching I ordered are found somewhere in the system.? ?

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In the past few months, I bought on Ebay pants, underwear(2), brass sheet(2), solder, socks(2), camera, drills(2), gas mask bag, waterpik parts, HO track(Germany), pens, HO brass engine, it goes on.? Nothing lost, all timely.? And this is just basic Ebay shipping.? And other than a brass engine, nothing very expensive.

I also just ordered a laptop from the manufacturer.? FedEx leaves it at the front door.

So all of the problems that have been mentioned may not be typical.

Surprisingly, certified mailing can at times result in delays.

Gary Chudzinski?

Remember the PA-2 I bought from you and you sent via USPS? Well it was a while getting here and if you recall the tracking was stuck “ in transit ‘ . I put in an inquiry with the USPS. ?Well the package finally got here, as you know, but months later I am still getting updates from USPS that they are still working to find the package !!??♂?

Go figure!!

Tony Salvate

Greenwich , CT

I have no opinion on what is going on with the USPS. I am not about to blame an administration as some here have. I do know that things happen to the best of intentions and we all survive.?

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I mailed David his etchings in a padded envelope and thought this was over kill for the daintiness of the items I was mailing. But thought at the time something of this size would be harder to loose. Since the time David reached out to me stating that he has not received them yet I have been to the post office twice asking for more information as to the where about of the package. As David said the tracking shows that it left my post office and will arrive late. That's it! They can't give me any more info than what I already know from the tracking number.

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In the mean time I told David that I still had enough of the etching that I can fill his order again and get them in the mail. I am going to wait till Monday with the hopes he gets the first set.?David was concerned that since these Eagles were a one of a kind effort that they will never become available again and he would not get his. Fingers crossed that he will on the second try.?

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I have mailed others their etching in a letter size envelope and they have already gotten them. So my reasoning for a bigger padded envelope did not happen.?

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A quick story of what happened to me. Several years ago it was mentioned on this group that a company was starting to make S scale signals. I really was not in the market at the time for signals but like any model railroader thinks, signals are just darn COOL!. So I reached out to the company and purchased two of their signals just to support their efforts in S scale.?

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I paid with PayPal and never gave it another thought since I really did not need them. About a month latter it dawned on me that I had not gotten them.? I inquired as to when I would be receiving the signals and I found out they were sent just days after my purchase. Well, they never showed up. I told the company no worries not their fault and I will get some more when I needed them. But, Another month latter a set did show up. It turns out that they sent a new set with out me even asking. That has never been forgotten with me. Those signals are still laying on their sides on the layout but I am starting to look at getting more and installing them using the DCC Specialties Block Watcher. I bet you can't guess who I am going to call for those signals?

https://www.integratedsignalsystems.com/

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Mike Swederska
Meramec Valley Lines
Modeling Mopac equipment in 3/16

https://www.youtube.com/@mikesscale3149

Don't let perfection get in the way of good enough! Keep model railroading fun!

The truth is USPS has never been able to adapt to the Changing market. I retired in 2019 from USPS. Because it is part government control it is inflexible to change as needed from that end and on the other you have the unions. They weren’t able to adapt to the loss in revenue because of email. They actually attempted to get congress to have all email to go through them for the cost of postage. They wanted to have computers at the PO so you could type and send your email if you didn’t have a computer. Than the various sorting machines that are great until they’re not. But you’re not allowed to check it until you are on your route because it is supposed to be in order. In 2015 the carrier union was wanting them gone, at least in my area. Getting rid of them would protect carriers jobs more. Other countries have done things like getting rid of Saturday deliveries to save money, another thing is neighborhood cluster boxes especially on walking routes. It would change them to driving with less stops. Those things the union fights against because it would probably cost jobs. It shows where unions can get to be not good for all jobs especially if not making changes causes it to go under. They also have a hard time getting and retaining employees, at least carriers. The job can suck and a lot of people give up during training or don’t last their first year. I’ve known a few that got caught throwing mail in dumpsters so they could finish faster. In short USPS is a mess and probably needs drastic change to stay viable. Blaming one administration over another will not get the problems fixed and prob speed up its demise. Regardless of who is in charge changes will probably always be fought and hard to implement.?

I have a train buddy whose other hobby (and occupation) is boats -- real boats -- or is it ships??

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He tells the story of a maritime union (forgot name) whose leaders decided to accept all the modernization changes wanted by the ship owners and not cause any grief for anyone.?

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In return, normal attrition (no layoffs) was allowed to reduce the workforce and pay increases came along with the new methods.? Now, 25 years later, the remaining union members are extremely well paid and very happy.? Those who retired are not complaining.? While the union membership is smaller, everyone seems happy with the end result.?

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Would postal unions consider something along these lines??

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Cheers.......Ed L.

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Ed Loizeaux
Los Altos, CA

It would probably be a hard sell to some members. There were people that had maxed out what they could for retirement and still working. So they have a growing top end with no mechanism to make people retire at any point. There are a lot of things that could be done but because it involves the government it devolves into complete stupidity to get anything done.?