Now that the election is over in the United States, and the apparently sabotaged United States Postal Service is still operating, it’s time not to let up and continue to try to figure out what’s wrong with the postal service and what we can do to fix it.
I have been outspoken and critical of the postal service in this blog for a good ten years now. Just type USPS into the search box at the top of the screen and Search. You’ll find a number of relevant posts.
I believe we need a functioning postal service in this country, and I don’t think privatizing it will work for the people, but rather for the private companies.
During the last several months our company has noticed that checks to pay bills posted with the USPS would either get lost entirely, or, as in one recent case, take over 4 weeks to arrive. When one vendor payment of over $20,000 didn’t arrive, we had to cancel the check, put out a stop payment order, and then send a replacement via FedEx. A month later, the original check arrived at its destination. Where did it spend its time?
A few months ago I shipped painting rolled up in a tube to Australia. It cost $69.00 in postage. Here is the USPS tracking information:
Notice how the shipment lingered in San Diego, and Los Angeles, and finally in San Francisco for weeks before finally making it onto a plane to Australia. What was it doing for two weeks in Los Angeles? This is the age where you can place an Amazon order in the morning on a Sunday and get delivery by Sunday afternoon!
Today I saw a Facebook post by a friend who ordered socks online, and here is her tracking information – which I recommend you read bottom up. As of this posting, she hasn’t receive the socks yet. She lives in Lakewood, NY, so you can see the socks got pretty close on Nov 12 at 8:48am, but then again departed via Randolph and back to Buffalo to make another detour:
November 13, 2020, 1:56 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
BUFFALO NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Your item arrived at our BUFFALO NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER destination facility on November 13, 2020 at 1:56 am.
The item is currently in transit to the destination.November 12, 2020, 9:03 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
RANDOLPH, NY 14772November 12, 2020, 8:48 am
Out for Delivery
LAKEWOOD, NY 14750November 12, 2020, 8:37 am
Arrived at Post Office
RANDOLPH, NY 14772November 11, 2020, 10:54 pm
Departed USPS Regional Destination Facility
BUFFALO NY DISTRIBUTION CENTERNovember 11, 2020, 9:39 pm
Accepted at USPS Regional Destination Facility
BUFFALO NY DISTRIBUTION CENTERNovember 11, 2020
In Transit to Next FacilityNovember 10, 2020, 1:22 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
BUFFALO NY DISTRIBUTION CENTERNovember 10, 2020, 9:36 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
NORTHWEST ROCHESTER NY DISTRIBUTION CENTERNovember 10, 2020, 9:16 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
ROCHESTER NY DISTRIBUTION CENTERNovember 10, 2020, 8:31 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
ROCHESTER NY DISTRIBUTION CENTERNovember 10, 2020, 2:47 am
Departed USPS Facility
LANCASTER, PA 17601November 9, 2020, 11:03 pm
USPS in possession of item
LANCASTER, PA 17601November 9, 2020, 7:57 pm
Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item
YORK, PA 17402
Shipping Partner: OSM WORLDWIDENovember 9, 2020, 5:09 pm
Arrived Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item
YORK, PA 17402
Shipping Partner: OSM WORLDWIDENovember 7, 2020, 2:28 pm
Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV 89032
Shipping Partner: OSM WORLDWIDENovember 6, 2020, 9:15 pm
Arrived Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV 89032
Shipping Partner: OSM WORLDWIDEOctober 30, 2020, 9:06 am
Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item
Obviously, it’s no wonder that the USPS is not profitable, when it carries a package of socks seemingly all over the country before delivering it. I don’t know what shipping of a package of socks costs, but it can’t be much. Just the tracking of this shipment far outweighs the postage.
I don’t think postmaster DeJoy went about fixing the postal service the right way, but good grief, fixing is sorely needed.
The Anatomy of an Impulse Purchase – Captainswagger
Posted in Bad Product, Commentaries, Economy, tagged Buying on Facebook, Captainswagger Fraud, Impulse Buying on February 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »
We have all been the victims of impulse purchases. Sometimes it was at the checkout stand in the grocery store where we bought a nifty flashlight on a keychain. Or it was at Costco at the entry doors, and we now have a full and shiny new set of BBQ tools complete in a plastic case, even though we already have a totally adequate set at home that we use perhaps once a year.
Along comes Facebook where impulse buying it raised to an entirely new and much higher level.
On November 15, 2019, I saw a “survival tool product” on Facebook. The link went to www.captainswagger.com. I thought it would be a neat Christmas gift for my outdoor enthusiastic son, so I ordered it. I spent $69.00. I received an immediate email that my product was shipped and expected to get the product in the mail within a few days.
Weeks went by and nothing arrived. I contacted the company and got no response. After about a month, I gave up. I contacted PayPal and put in a claim for fraud. Over the next four weeks, the company sent emails to me and PayPal claiming first that the product was shipped with FedEx, but didn’t provide a tracking number. When that failed, a couple of weeks later, it provided a FedEx tracking number. When I checked on the status using that number, I learned that was bogus number that was never shipped and probably used for all claims. On the day the PayPal grace period expired in the middle of January 2020, I received a box via the United States Postal Service (note – not FedEx) with the product. It took them two months to get it to me, and during that time they send several emails with fraudulent claims of shipment that were obviously bogus.
Here are some reviews which echo my experience with Captainswagger.com. I am not the only customer who went through this. Captainswagger is definitely a fraud. I am not sure if I would have ever received the product had I not put in a formal claim with PayPal.
So now I have this “product” that I paid $69 for that never became a Christmas present.
Captainswagger Multifunctional Shovel – banana for scale
It came in a partially crushed box, and it’s not even close to the product being shown in the video above. Many of the pieces are not there, the versatility is not the same, the size seems different, and the carrying case is not included. Instead, it has these thin plastic camouflaged covers. To top it off, the version I bought was the upgraded one for $69.00, not the one for $39.95 on the website.
The real product is much smaller and way chintzier than it looks in the video, and I have absolutely no use for it. In 50 years of hiking and driving I have never come into a situation where I needed this tool, and I certainly won’t be putting it into my backpack when I go on hikes. I suspect my son would not have done so either. So why did I buy something from a company I knew nothing about, which turned out to be borderline fraudulent? Why did I buy “stuff” that is now in my house that I will never use?
It was easy, and it seemed like a neat thing I wanted. It reminds me of the exercise program I bought many years ago for $300 with a pull bar and a bunch of video disks. I had the good sense to send it back unopened when it arrived and I got my money back. That was before PayPal and Facebook.
With this “tool” I stand no chance. It was pulling teeth to get it in the first place. There is no way to get my money back without spending a lot more time and money without a guarantee of success.
Lessons learned:
And with that advice I swagger away.
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