vyacheslav
Senior Member
Greetings,
To start: I promise I'm a "normal" American and I'm not trying to start a debate or anything like that at all, it's just something I've noticed. Ok? I'm not trying to start up anything, just pointing out an observation that I know many of us are dealing with and wanted to see if my fellow friends on here feel similarly.
In the spirit of the Reverb raising their selling fees thread, for those of us who are selling online via Reverb, ebay etc. We all know that everything being shipped, particularly through the Postal Service, has been very slow but since the pandemic hit, the post office has been RIDICULOUS with their service and speeds.
When I sell on ebay, I send everything Priority Mail by default, which as we all know, used to be 2-3 days guaranteed anywhere in the Lower 48. After I had multiple items take 7-10 days or more (to go about 200 miles no less), I went to the post office and spoke to one of the managers or "Shift Supervisors". They specifically told me that 2-3 days is no longer guaranteed, they are saying it is now 5-7 days, and may take up to 14 days.
So, I can understand if things are slower during a national public health crisis such as this (although to be fair, I think a lot of companies like Amazon, USPS etc., are using this a convenient "excuse" in order not to have to bust their asses and/or save money by having less workers). Regardless of whether that's true or not, I asked the post office employee, point blank, that if 2-3 days are no longer guaranteed (and it's 5-7 or more as a new standard), why are they still charging us full price for Priority Mail items? The postal employee couldn't give me an answer. Her response, literally, was "I don't know".
I don't want to seem insensitive or be guilty of having "First World problems", but doesn't it seem unfair that USPS still charging all of us full price but are delivering 50% or less than the service we are paying for? Seriously, if it is now taking twice as long, why aren't you charging half price? Makes sense, yes? In my experiences, some of my items were unnecessarily routed across the country (I live in in Ohio....I shipped an item to Pennsylvania that went through Utah). I asked the USPS employee if I could get my money back or a partial refund because of their mistake (I paid full price for a 2-3 day service for a package that was one state away and it was clearly their fault it went 2000 miles out of the way). She said, verbatim, "That is not possible". Why not? I paid for 2-3 day service that took 13. "2-3 Days is no longer guaranteed" translates into "It doesn't matter if it takes 5 months, you're not getting any money back".
I know USPS is a government agency that is always running in the red, but how are they allowed to get away with stuff like this? This is true to a lesser degree with Amazon. Again, I am not trying to be insensitive here or complain about my "First World Problems", but the reason almost all of us pay their yearly Prime membership fee is to get free two day shipping. Many "prime" items are taking a week or longer to arrive. Are they going to refund part of our Prime membership fee? We're not getting the advertised benefit that we paid for. For some us, online ordering is the only way we can get supplies from "the outside world" (the elderly, those quarantined for 14 days etc). To me, this makes the 2 day shipping option all the more important.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but doesn't it seem odd that these companies can severely under-deliver their advertised services (that we pay normal price for) and it's just supposed to be okay? Again, I promise I'm a "normal" American and I'm not trying to start a debate or anything like that at all, it's just something I've noticed.
A very odd time we're in for sure. Anyone else feel similarly?
To start: I promise I'm a "normal" American and I'm not trying to start a debate or anything like that at all, it's just something I've noticed. Ok? I'm not trying to start up anything, just pointing out an observation that I know many of us are dealing with and wanted to see if my fellow friends on here feel similarly.
In the spirit of the Reverb raising their selling fees thread, for those of us who are selling online via Reverb, ebay etc. We all know that everything being shipped, particularly through the Postal Service, has been very slow but since the pandemic hit, the post office has been RIDICULOUS with their service and speeds.
When I sell on ebay, I send everything Priority Mail by default, which as we all know, used to be 2-3 days guaranteed anywhere in the Lower 48. After I had multiple items take 7-10 days or more (to go about 200 miles no less), I went to the post office and spoke to one of the managers or "Shift Supervisors". They specifically told me that 2-3 days is no longer guaranteed, they are saying it is now 5-7 days, and may take up to 14 days.
So, I can understand if things are slower during a national public health crisis such as this (although to be fair, I think a lot of companies like Amazon, USPS etc., are using this a convenient "excuse" in order not to have to bust their asses and/or save money by having less workers). Regardless of whether that's true or not, I asked the post office employee, point blank, that if 2-3 days are no longer guaranteed (and it's 5-7 or more as a new standard), why are they still charging us full price for Priority Mail items? The postal employee couldn't give me an answer. Her response, literally, was "I don't know".
I don't want to seem insensitive or be guilty of having "First World problems", but doesn't it seem unfair that USPS still charging all of us full price but are delivering 50% or less than the service we are paying for? Seriously, if it is now taking twice as long, why aren't you charging half price? Makes sense, yes? In my experiences, some of my items were unnecessarily routed across the country (I live in in Ohio....I shipped an item to Pennsylvania that went through Utah). I asked the USPS employee if I could get my money back or a partial refund because of their mistake (I paid full price for a 2-3 day service for a package that was one state away and it was clearly their fault it went 2000 miles out of the way). She said, verbatim, "That is not possible". Why not? I paid for 2-3 day service that took 13. "2-3 Days is no longer guaranteed" translates into "It doesn't matter if it takes 5 months, you're not getting any money back".
I know USPS is a government agency that is always running in the red, but how are they allowed to get away with stuff like this? This is true to a lesser degree with Amazon. Again, I am not trying to be insensitive here or complain about my "First World Problems", but the reason almost all of us pay their yearly Prime membership fee is to get free two day shipping. Many "prime" items are taking a week or longer to arrive. Are they going to refund part of our Prime membership fee? We're not getting the advertised benefit that we paid for. For some us, online ordering is the only way we can get supplies from "the outside world" (the elderly, those quarantined for 14 days etc). To me, this makes the 2 day shipping option all the more important.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but doesn't it seem odd that these companies can severely under-deliver their advertised services (that we pay normal price for) and it's just supposed to be okay? Again, I promise I'm a "normal" American and I'm not trying to start a debate or anything like that at all, it's just something I've noticed.
A very odd time we're in for sure. Anyone else feel similarly?
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