And they just implemented a PRICE INCREASE!!!!!!!!

silver wrote on Jan 26^th, 2026 at 9:02am:


Doug,
I don’t blame you. I would be too. 
You should be able to have that done locally though. I’m pretty sure Randy Gregory would do that for you. 
Jim

An order I placed was picked up in Florida on 01/20/2026. It bypassed both St. Louis and Kansas City, headed directly to Saint Paul, MN. Tracking says it arrived in the KC facility yesterday evening. 
I live in NE Kansas, so like others, the roundabout and overly lengthy trip baffles me. 
No doubt a wizard from the organization could(try to) dazzle me with an explanation regarding efficiency. Hahahahahahaha

Here in Western MI the local USPS is operating seventeen people short. The manpower shortage is directly the result of attrition and the disappointing fact that nobody is applying for the empty positions. So right now we don't get deliveries every day and with the extreme cold weather and snow the little delivery trucks can't make it. Not making excuses for a poorly managed organization but there sometimes is a legit back story

Rick

I guess all the shipping companies have their issues.

Back in the early 70's, from 02:00 to 08:00, while working to pay for college, I worked at a UPS sort facility loading trucks. This exposed me to just some of the mayhem that a package goes through.

I've written about the perils of the USPS package handling machinery
in the past, specifically packages that are ROUND TUBES.

After a number of frustrating experiences a helpful Postal facility employee explained to me what sometimes happens at the new 'modernized' distribution centers. 

The sorting equipment which comprises of optical scanners, conveyor belts, long chutes, ramps with curvilinear pathways etc., will at the bends, sometimes squeeze a tube between two boxes only to get ejected over the rail of the chute down into the abyss either to never be found until the building is renovated or someone there does a sweep looking for lost boxes.

Given that, I have had two barrels go missing for a while in the past year
with USPS, As a result I recently decided to mail a Apple Air Tag to the shipper for inclusion in a package he was sending to me. (another barrel)

Now Apple Air Tags only work if someone with a I-phone or other Apple device happens to pass by the package but it's better than nothing. 

Within the last two weeks I had a barrel (#3) sent to me which did not arrive as expected. Over the time frame it was shipped I was able to monitor it's progress including the 5 days it sat in one facility. 

Because it was USPS Ground it even tracked which highway it was on with periodic updates. As said, At one point it spent 5 ish days in one building. 

Luckily it gave it's approximate (aerial perspective) location in the building. A call to that facility directed the local employee to the east facing side of the building about 140 feet from the NE Corner. I did this using Google Earth and counted the number of parking spaces to estimate the distance within the building.   

It was shot in the dark as that building happened to be one story, so in the case of a multi story building the locating problem becomes more involved. Now this wasn't a small box as it had a 38" barrel weighing 10 lbs. in it, so once instructed the local employee didn't have to look too far to find it and put it back in the system. 

Someone else on a similar thread recently suggested sending packages 'Registered'. That might help as well.

There might be a better way to track a package but I believe GPS locators require sky exp

I had a package that was sent from Port Orchard WA to East Olympia WA. about 40 miles by freeway. that bounced back and forth across the country when it hit Seattle.  Seattle sent it to Dallas and it came back.  Then they sent it to the east coast twice.

Have you ever visited a Amazon Fulfillment Center....
Talk about efficiency and a very high accuracy score.

Maybe Government employees could be required to work for Bezos first.


centerbpjack wrote on Jan 26^th, 2026 at 2:36pm:

The prices are going up because they decided to charge by the miles traveled;-)

I have learned a little bit about those scans in the last 2 weeks. I bought a gun through an attorney in an estate settlement. He had a lot of "rules". One being that all guns including antiques be shipped from an FFL to an FFL. First of all it took usps 11 days to deliver my payment to him Priority mail.  Next it took him 3 1/2 weeks to get around to shipping. I had asked him 3 times to remove the buttstock (Ballard) so that it wouldn't be damaged and of course fully insure it. Finally I told him I had an interest in a more expensive gun from the estate but wouldn't discuss it until I had the first in my hands. That's what finally got him to ship the Ballard. It sat for 4 days at the originating post office before ever moving. Finally one night it shot halfway across the country and a few days later made it to within 10 miles of me. Then it hit the road again. Back to Kansas City. Then nothing. One of the local Post Offices close by is usually pretty slow so I went there and had them look into it. They explained that some of those scans we are seeing are not actual package scans but scans of the container that the package "should" be in so we may be seeing our package go all over the country and the truth of the matter is our package isn't even in that container. The people at the Post Office can look in the system and see which scans are actual package scans and which are container scans. On the USPS home page there is a place where you can file an inquiry into late mail. Do that and the issue will be sent to the Postmaster at your local Post Office. They have 3 days to get in touch with you and they prefer to let it take it's course as many times within the 3 days the package will arrive and they didn't have to do anything. After 3 days the local Postmaster called me at 7:30 in the evening. I explained that this was a firearm that was lost and that if need be I would contact Postal Inspectors. She got on it, looked at the actual package scans and emailed the last known sorting facility explaining that it was a firearm that needed to be located. The next day it was off like a rocket. Someone delivered it to my FFL guy at 9:00 AM even though his carrier doesn't usually come until 1:00. In the middle of all that I learned that the package was shipped with only the $100 insurance that comes with a Priority package and the package was 50" by 6" by 6" and when it arrived I learned that he had taken the buttplate off but left the stock on. Somehow it survived.

I've already done the file a complaint thing, and gotten a complaint number. That usually gets them looking for the package, and making sure it gets back on track. This is the 4th time I've had this "looping" issue where packages go back and forth between two distribution centers never being delivered, or moving forward to their destination. The last time it was 5 times between Portland, Or. and Cleveland, Oh. until I filed the complaint. Then the next day I got a call from my local postmaster telling me he was working on it. The day after it showed as "returned to sender's PO Box". I called the sender who told me he didn't even have a PO Box! 5 minutes after we hung up the phone there was a knock on the door and the postman handed it to me! He told me his boss said, "We need to find this package before you head out on your route, and it was at my local station. Who knows how long?

It will probably show up on “old mail day”’
I had a similar problem with an Air rifle that was supposed to to Tennessee 
Ended up in Pennsylvania and a few other places before it got to the right place 
I hope it all works out ok in the long run
Joe S

Even when my package was within 10 miles from me I still couldn't relax because with the usps they might just ship it across the country at any time. It baffles me. Hopefully your package will arrive soon. I feel your pain

marlinguy wrote on Jan 26^th, 2026 at 2:30pm:


Well if you can figure that out you may well have broken the USPS code for meandering packages. But I suspect ' Sure Shot ' is on to it which is their scanning procedures. 

Rick

burntwater wrote on Jan 27^th, 2026 at 12:53pm:


USPS has this happen so often that they've officially named it! They call it "looping" when a package continues to go back and forth between two distribution centers, never getting directed to the recipient. 
It appears my complaint filed might have once again worked as I got notice this morning the package has finally reached my local distribution center! I wont guarantee it gets delivered until I see it here, but at least it's not in Billings or Denver now!

Moving Through Network

Arrived at USPS Facility

PORTLAND, OR 97215 

January 27, 2026, 9:15 am

Our granddaughter in-laws' mother was a streetwalker for the US Post Office for 32 years and retired about 4 years ago. Her replacement came in and she was supposed to train him before she left. His first day he showed up, it was snowing and asked, "are we going out in this"? She said yes and where is your coat? All he was wearing was a sweatshirt . He said I don't have one so she loaned him one from her locker. They went out in the snow and delivered the mail. The next day he never showed up for work and he kept her coat. I think that tells a lot about the young people that are starting to move into these "tougher" jobs in their minds. About the same time, our postal system was down 230 workers and couldn't fill the positions.

Old-Win wrote on Jan 27^th, 2026 at 4:57pm:

USPS didn't deliver $3000 worth of checks to my insurance company a year ago. The only thing that saved me was noticing they hadn't cleared the bank. A quick call to my agent and payment through her averted the disaster of cancellation. The agent told me a nastygram from the company was enroute. It showed up a day before I would have been cancelled. 
Due to that fiasco, I now pay bills electronically and the PO system gets none of that business.

Got a call from USPS Consumer Center a few minutes ago. She began by telling me my package never was in Cheyenne, Wy. and that was likely a "computer error". Then told me it got delayed in Denver by bad weather. When I asked why it even went to Denver she stalled awhile, and then said she didn't know. When I asked why it went from Billings to Denver twice, she didn't know it did until she checked tracking again. I told her if USPS hadn't sent it to Denver TWICE, then even the first time was before the bad weather!
She basically ended by telling me it got to Portland too late in the day to get delivered today. I asked her what she thought was too late since it hit town at 9:15 a.m.? She then stuttered and couldn't tell me why. I told her I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for tomorrow either!

830singleshot wrote on Jan 28^th, 2026 at 7:30pm:


I actually didn't even bother buying insurance for the trip to Al's! I just did a medium priority flat rate box, and figured I'd roll the dice. I think sometimes high insurance makes thieves more likely to steal something. And as you mentioned insurance is a scam at USPS. It literally takes an act of Congress to get them to pay up!

I have USPS Informed Delivery and get updates daily on letters or packages headed my way. This package has never shown up any day on that email throughout it's entire trip. I had to do a tracking check every day to see where it was going. Even junk mail letters show up, so something was wrong within the system right from the get go!

Moaning and groaning don't change anything. I know, lets all grab signs and whistles and hold a demonstration.

Greetings,

Similar delivery issues for me, as well.

Some move through quickly and others get stuck in limbo.

I did read that FEDEX cancelled their contract with USPS for handling the bulk of their packages. I wonder if FEDEX took their software with them and USPS is having to relearn the process?

Cheers,

Dave

DWT1885 wrote on Jan 29^th, 2026 at 10:57am:


All I got from USPS employees was apologies, or people looking at the same tracking I saw. No explanation for why things go back and forth, yet take multiple trips before they finally head the right direction! 
I wonder what a trip from Billings to Denver multiple times costs USPS? Or what it costs them to send packages the wrong direction and do it multiple times instead of sending it directly to the address?
No wonder USPS rates have gone nuts.

They look great to me. Can't wait to see the completed rifle. Glad you finally received everything.

Looks good! This is a lever Al case-colored for me.

Accepted on the 20th and delivered on the 29th. I wish I could get stuff delivered so quickly. My last 3 Priority shipments have been 11 days, 10 days, and 14 days. Congratulations

I like the idea of grabbing signs and hitting the streets in protest except we all have jobs
Joe S

RDBallard wrote on Jan 29^th, 2026 at 5:29pm:


Sent it to Al on a Friday and he had it Monday! Must be a headwind coming back?

How did you find such a neat rifle Vall,  Oh yeah.... I saw it first on eBay and notified you.  Quite the adventure to get all the parts.  It turned out great.

UPS must have more aerodynamic vehicles that can cut through the headwind better.  My 20x Super Targetspot scope left Cody Wyoming on Tuesday and showed up this morning.