Re: USPS Express Mail DOA

[carrie lestyk <killielady13 at yahoo_com>]

Yes,David,I agree the tracking # is of great value to the shipper because I do worry about the fish when I ship them.I know exactly what you are referring to about the USPS not be on top of tracking shipments.Even with Express,what from I have noticed,they do not do a good job tracking the package.I would like to ship Fed-ex but paranoid to do so.I have heard they have stopped shipping live animals but some people still use them to ship fish.I have recieved shipments of fish via Fed ex and I NEVER had a problem with them like USPS.I had 10 bettas stuck in the mail for 14 days and they were shipped Priority.I prefer to use Fed ex but it would be me that would get caught "sneaking".

David Ramsey <djramsey at earthlink_net> wrote:Actually the tracking # is only of value to the shipper. You get
confirmation that a box was actually delivered to the shipped to location.
The USPS is of no value 'tracking' the package. It just shows when you took
it to the post office, and when it was delivered. In between, your box is a
ghost. It is just a delivery confirmation.
Insurance - depending on the value of the box, you may find insuring the box
increases the chances of a long delivery and a damaged delivery. Insured
boxes of value are manually tracked and signed for at each step of their
travel. In other words, they are treated differently. The last thing I
shipped insured by the post office was priority mail from Atlanta, GA to
Charlotte,NC. Took 6 days, or about the same time it would have taken if I
had given it to Daniel Boone to walk it there.
I find that the best shipments are when you take you package to a main post
office that goes directly to an airport. They usually have a zipcode that
ends in 0. I pass 3 post offices to get to the one I ship from. The truck
that picks up priority and express mail makes the rounds from post office to
post office all day. It finally arrives at the main post office, then goes
to the airport distribution center to get routed.
Talk to the postmaster. These people will be happy to tell you how things
work and what will have the best chance of getting to its destination in the
best shape.
The other significant factor I think in how your boxes are treated is how
they look. Crisp, sharp cornered boxes, with big type labels clearly marked
looks professional, business like, and gets treated as such.
And most important, make friends with the post office people. Every week I
tell the counter person what days the different boxes got delivered and what
a great job they do.
When I walk in, they all greet me by name. When boxes went from Atlanta to
Washington and Oregon and shipped Saturday and delivered on Monday. Boy, the
post office smiles were ear to ear. My boxes get treated like I was shipping
their grand kids someplace.
I have had the same delivery guy for several years. When I get some fish in,
I take a picture of them, print it out, and show him the picture a couple
days later. He gets almost as excited at my fish deliveries as I do.
I think the vast majority of dead fish happen at your post office or the
delivery post office. I don't think they die on the plane very often. So I
try hard to be on the best of terms with my post office people.
Any fish shipped this past weekend I feel for. The blackout screwed up the
planes all over the country. I'm sure the post office is going to be
overwhelmed for a few days till they get it all sorted out.
David Ramsey
djramsey at earthlink_net


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