Doom & gloom? Didn't you start this thread because of a wayward package? I just happened to chime in about a lost paper check for over $200K that should have been handled by a paperless direct transfer.
I started keeping notes of my home electronics experiments in those spiral bound notebooks found at Walmart. These were in the pre-internet days where I hand traced the schematic of many popular guitar amps, and other unique electronic devices that I had an interest in.
I had worked my way from assembly line grunt to product development engineer with no formal education other than a technical high school where we learned how to blow stuff up and melt vacuum tubes. in the late 80's Motorola insisted that I get an "engineering degree" at their expense. They did not specify what kind of engineering degree, so I chose "computer engineering" because I was interested in making stuff with computer brains ever since I built the SWTPC 6800 computer kit in 1976. I started my college journey in late 1990 and graduated in early 1993. I didn't do much for any of the basic electrical engineering classes, never bought any of the textbooks, and only showed up for the exams in some of them and still got "A's", but I did put a lot of effort into learning how to write code, even though I already knew that I would never do it for a living. I saved all of my notes, every program I ever wrote, and all of the textbooks.
Unfortunately, they were stored in a shed in the back yard which Hurricane Wilma destroyed. Programs carefully printed on an ink jet printer became a giant black and white mess. Most of the books were ruined, and most of the notes from my electronics experiments prior to about 2000 were beyond saving. So was most everything from the MSEE degree I got in 2001.
What little I saved were spread out in the sun to dry and tossed into boxes that are still unopened today.
From the moment I left the cal lab at Motorola for a job in engineering I had to sign out an "engineering log book" and keep detailed notes on just about everything. Anything that might have even remotely patentable material had to be witnessed and signed by a senior engineering manager. A few of those managers were known to mine those log books for their own patent writing material, so those of us who really created stuff had more than one log book.
I started keeping notes of my home electronics experiments in those spiral bound notebooks found at Walmart. These were in the pre-internet days where I hand traced the schematic of many popular guitar amps, and other unique electronic devices that I had an interest in.
I had worked my way from assembly line grunt to product development engineer with no formal education other than a technical high school where we learned how to blow stuff up and melt vacuum tubes. in the late 80's Motorola insisted that I get an "engineering degree" at their expense. They did not specify what kind of engineering degree, so I chose "computer engineering" because I was interested in making stuff with computer brains ever since I built the SWTPC 6800 computer kit in 1976. I started my college journey in late 1990 and graduated in early 1993. I didn't do much for any of the basic electrical engineering classes, never bought any of the textbooks, and only showed up for the exams in some of them and still got "A's", but I did put a lot of effort into learning how to write code, even though I already knew that I would never do it for a living. I saved all of my notes, every program I ever wrote, and all of the textbooks.
Unfortunately, they were stored in a shed in the back yard which Hurricane Wilma destroyed. Programs carefully printed on an ink jet printer became a giant black and white mess. Most of the books were ruined, and most of the notes from my electronics experiments prior to about 2000 were beyond saving. So was most everything from the MSEE degree I got in 2001.
What little I saved were spread out in the sun to dry and tossed into boxes that are still unopened today.
It's those sort of notes I wish I was better at making and keeping. Those observations and measurements in the lab that makes you go, "hm... that's odd". The trouble seems to be that I don't find it useful to save the measurement results at the time but years later someone will ask, "how about...." and I'll remember that I took the measurement, found it odd, but didn't bother to record it.
I've been through the patent process as well. I found the "documentation" aspect pretty hokey to be honest. As if all inventions started with a lab notebook reading, "on this twenty-ninth day of January I hereby invent..." The inventions I've been part of have usually started with a customer conversation or BS session in a cubicle. "Hey... Wouldn't it be cool if..." Most of those went nowhere. A few went to the patent office. If I was supposed to log all conversations I've had with coworkers just so a lawyer could later document that we invented X on whatever day I'd never get any actual work done.
Tom
I bought an HP 3575 network analyzer from ePay at some point. Same deal. Large box, built like a tank and weighs about as much as a tank. The box arrived and my heart immediately sank. I know the size of these pieces of gear pretty well and knew that the cardboard box that I just received was only a little bit larger than the instrument inside. So I opened it up. And sure enough. The network analyzer was in there. But the only padding were a couple of those air bags that you get in packages from Bezos' Bookstore and the like places along with a couple of small pieces of high density foam. There was absolutely no way this would have protected the analyzer in any shape or form.
The cardboard box was actually in remarkably good shape. I guess the analyzer was heavy enough that the USPS treated it carefully. But one corner of the analyzer was crushed and pushed in by a good inch or so and, of course, the analyzer didn't pass the self test. There were no parts of the cardboard box that had matching damage, so I bet what happened is that the seller had the analyzer take a fall and wanted me or the USPS to pay for that. The seller did pay for shipping insurance.
Filing the insurance claim with the USPS was quite an ordeal but I got it done. They said upfront to not keep my hopes up. They said the damage didn't occur in transit - and I agree with this. The seller practically begged me not to file an "item not as received" claim with eBay/Paypal, but I did so anyway after the seller had given me the runaround for 29 days (the deadline to file is 30 days). In the end I was out a few hours of my time and untold amounts of stomach acid. I got my money back and I suspect the seller got nothing.
Tom
Somewhere between 20 and 30 years ago I bought a Fluke 407D power supply from a scrap dealer in California for $25. A 407D is a 45 pound beast of a vacuum tube power supply designed in the 60's. It's rated for 0 to 555 volts at 300 mA but doesn't complain until you bury the current meter somewhere beyond 400 mA. The supply was sold in non working condition for the metal scrap value and that fact was clearly stated in the Ebay ad. Shipping to Florida was $45 by UPS.
The multi tapped power transformer is worth the $70. Same deal, it comes in a cardboard box with a bit of bubble wrap covering the front panel. Somewhere in a brown truck the box was used as a step stool since there were boot prints on the top. The top of the supply is a bit pushed in from the weight of the person standing on it, so the case won't easily come off. So what do I do? I plug it in and turn it on. To my surprise, it worked fine, and except for a pot and a switch working their way loose on the front panel it worked well until late last year.
It takes a bit of prying with a BIG screwdriver to get the case off, so the old Fluke is sitting patiently on the floor awaiting a rebuild.
The multi tapped power transformer is worth the $70. Same deal, it comes in a cardboard box with a bit of bubble wrap covering the front panel. Somewhere in a brown truck the box was used as a step stool since there were boot prints on the top. The top of the supply is a bit pushed in from the weight of the person standing on it, so the case won't easily come off. So what do I do? I plug it in and turn it on. To my surprise, it worked fine, and except for a pot and a switch working their way loose on the front panel it worked well until late last year.
It takes a bit of prying with a BIG screwdriver to get the case off, so the old Fluke is sitting patiently on the floor awaiting a rebuild.
I have bought and sold a number of HP network analyzers/spectrum analyzers over the years. I had a beauty of an HP35670A and a guy drove down from a lab in Boston to NJ to pick it up rather than risk shipping by any carrier.
The expense of shipping has really deflated my interest in trading test equipment...and nowadays we get stuff pilfered from our front door.
George -- this Kepco HV supply is a beast. As you can see the milli-Ammeter is stuck.
The expense of shipping has really deflated my interest in trading test equipment...and nowadays we get stuff pilfered from our front door.
George -- this Kepco HV supply is a beast. As you can see the milli-Ammeter is stuck.
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Mouser UPDATE #2:
The parts I ordered came in 2 boxes. - no shipping damage.
The BIG box #1 had most of the stuff - In a 24"x12"x9" box.
Caps, LED's, Hammond 14"x10"x3" aluminum chassis, and a 25' roll of Chemwick desoldering braid.
With plenty of bubble wrap. LOADS of room left inside!
The 2nd box, 20" x 14" x 5" box contained the flat aluminum cover for the Hammond chassis in box #1.
With a ton of bubble wrap!
That chassis cover could have gone in box #1 easily.
I now have a 30 foot roll of big bubble wrap to deal with!
Insane packing job!
Who pays for that additional box?... bubble wrap? - the taxpayer, you!
The parts I ordered came in 2 boxes. - no shipping damage.
The BIG box #1 had most of the stuff - In a 24"x12"x9" box.
Caps, LED's, Hammond 14"x10"x3" aluminum chassis, and a 25' roll of Chemwick desoldering braid.
With plenty of bubble wrap. LOADS of room left inside!
The 2nd box, 20" x 14" x 5" box contained the flat aluminum cover for the Hammond chassis in box #1.
With a ton of bubble wrap!
That chassis cover could have gone in box #1 easily.
I now have a 30 foot roll of big bubble wrap to deal with!
Insane packing job!
Who pays for that additional box?... bubble wrap? - the taxpayer, you!
Last year I needed injectors for the car. Garage found they were out of stock at their normal distributor's agent (about 20 miles away) but were told there were some with a different agent around 30 miles away in the opposite direction. No problem they thought. They ordered them, then found out later (after dispatch) the agent they'd ordered from was in a different distributor's 'region' and that, instead of being delivered direct, they were being routed via the national hub. Obviously. So they went north for 150 miles to Birmingham, then south for 150 miles to London, then west for 120 miles to my garage. It all makes perfect sense.
Short distances because it's the UK, but companies and government like to pretend we're the size of Australia or the US when it comes to this sort of stuff.
Short distances because it's the UK, but companies and government like to pretend we're the size of Australia or the US when it comes to this sort of stuff.
Sounds about right. It's not a job I'd like. Around here (smallish town) they barely wait long enough to hand the parcel over, then they're sprinting back to the van to get on.
Bought a fridge online and delivery guys arrived on time but were speedy. Turned out they'd come from Wales (around 6h return trip) and had a dozen or more deliveries to make in the area...
There have been a couple threads about how the USPS is getting worse and worse each year. 2021 was particularly bad with a few hundred dollar worth of lost or damaged shipments, but loosing the check for my 401K which was being rolled over into an IRA cost me a month's worth of interest at 4.4% on a 200K balance. Yes, that SUCKS!
Now, it's not so much the USPS, but my individual letter carrier who keeps delivering mail to the wrong address, leaving the mailbox open during a rain or snowstorm, or just pulling into the driveway and just tossing a package out the window, and leaving. There are two distinctly different addresses on his mail route that start with the house number 73. Nothing else is the same, but he gets it wrong at least once a week. I used to just write delivered to the wrong address again and put it back in the mailbox. I have taken two incorrect deliveries into the post office and made some noise in the past two weeks.
I ordered a Eurorack module from Sweetwater Sound about a week ago. Sometime in the same week my wife orders something from Amazon. Both were scheduled for delivery on Saturday and tracking numbers were furnished. About 11 AM I see that the Amazon package was delivered to my mailbox, so I go get it, but the Sweetwater box is not there. About 11:30 AM I see that the Sweetwater box is delivered to the "Front Door or Porch." I look and it is nowhere on my property and not in my mailbox. The camera on my front porch reveals that I am the only human that has been on my porch all day (a cat often sleeps on the glider). Tracking shows that the Amazone delivery was at 10:54 and Sweetwater at 11:29. It took him 35 minutes to go the 100 feet from my mailbox to the porch? I don't think so. Our small town post office closes at noon on Saturday, so I can't go make noise.
I went to the post office at 8:30 Monday morning where I explain the situation and the clerk talks to the mailman as he is loading his car. I hear him yell, "tell him that I left it on his F$&*ing porch." I raise my voice and yell that I'm not eating an $80 loss because he can't get it right. The mailman "left on his route" and I have a discussion with the post office supervisor. After explaining the story again with corroboration from the clerk on my bringing back mis-delivered mail, video footage from my front porch and the 35 minute delay, the supervisor disappears and returns about 10 minutes later. She explains that the mailman "might have made a mistake" but "he will retrieve the package and deliver it to me today" (Monday). No surprise when it didn't happen.
Today, I had a doctor's appointment in a different city, so I decided to visit the post office after I returned. At about 10:30 AM I see the mailman drop something on my front porch and zoom off. It was the missing box. Three days after delivery it was still damp. It has writing all over it. I took several pictures before opening since I expected the contents to be ruined. Then I opened the box. The product package was slightly damp, but someone in China sealed the module up in a poly bag with dessicant, it was dry.
Now, this box is a classic. I'm guessing that this never went back inside the post office last night. Do I take it to the post office and make some more noise? I am still missing my water bill which is due in 6 days. Wonder where it went?
Now, it's not so much the USPS, but my individual letter carrier who keeps delivering mail to the wrong address, leaving the mailbox open during a rain or snowstorm, or just pulling into the driveway and just tossing a package out the window, and leaving. There are two distinctly different addresses on his mail route that start with the house number 73. Nothing else is the same, but he gets it wrong at least once a week. I used to just write delivered to the wrong address again and put it back in the mailbox. I have taken two incorrect deliveries into the post office and made some noise in the past two weeks.
I ordered a Eurorack module from Sweetwater Sound about a week ago. Sometime in the same week my wife orders something from Amazon. Both were scheduled for delivery on Saturday and tracking numbers were furnished. About 11 AM I see that the Amazon package was delivered to my mailbox, so I go get it, but the Sweetwater box is not there. About 11:30 AM I see that the Sweetwater box is delivered to the "Front Door or Porch." I look and it is nowhere on my property and not in my mailbox. The camera on my front porch reveals that I am the only human that has been on my porch all day (a cat often sleeps on the glider). Tracking shows that the Amazone delivery was at 10:54 and Sweetwater at 11:29. It took him 35 minutes to go the 100 feet from my mailbox to the porch? I don't think so. Our small town post office closes at noon on Saturday, so I can't go make noise.
I went to the post office at 8:30 Monday morning where I explain the situation and the clerk talks to the mailman as he is loading his car. I hear him yell, "tell him that I left it on his F$&*ing porch." I raise my voice and yell that I'm not eating an $80 loss because he can't get it right. The mailman "left on his route" and I have a discussion with the post office supervisor. After explaining the story again with corroboration from the clerk on my bringing back mis-delivered mail, video footage from my front porch and the 35 minute delay, the supervisor disappears and returns about 10 minutes later. She explains that the mailman "might have made a mistake" but "he will retrieve the package and deliver it to me today" (Monday). No surprise when it didn't happen.
Today, I had a doctor's appointment in a different city, so I decided to visit the post office after I returned. At about 10:30 AM I see the mailman drop something on my front porch and zoom off. It was the missing box. Three days after delivery it was still damp. It has writing all over it. I took several pictures before opening since I expected the contents to be ruined. Then I opened the box. The product package was slightly damp, but someone in China sealed the module up in a poly bag with dessicant, it was dry.
Now, this box is a classic. I'm guessing that this never went back inside the post office last night. Do I take it to the post office and make some more noise? I am still missing my water bill which is due in 6 days. Wonder where it went?
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Not to make light of your frustration, but I'm glad to read that I'm not alone in dealing with incompetent firms and individuals.
I live approximately 35 kms outside a city and have a legal land description, which would be convenient for anyone with a map, and we have a postal group box so our mailing address has no correlation to our actual house location.
Before Amazon.ca switched from Canada Post to a private firm, we always received our packages. However, once they switched to the private firm (cheaper, I'm sure) my wife started putting our GPS into Amazon's info. That worked sometimes, and sometimes not.
Then eBay, with their annoying Global Shipping Policy, whereby Americans mail their shipment to Pitney-Bowes who redirects the product to a Canadian carrier (for, wait for it, a fee) stopped using Canada Post and gave the items to the same incompetent firm Amazon uses.
In late 2023 I had ordered something via eBay, which was handed off to the incompetent carrier at the same time as my wife had ordered something from Amazon. We could see by tracking that they both reached the city about the same time and then seemed to just sit. After a few emails, my wife's shipment arrived but with a fresh shipping label stating it was my item. The result, of course, was that I never actually received my item, and eBay said it was delivered - based on the carrier's scan - so I was out a couple hundred dollars.
Now, all Amazon shipments are sent to a 'drop' location in the city (which, ironically, happens to be a post office), I won't order anything from eBay that's in the US unless the seller is willing to ship it directly to me by post.
And, if and when, I order camera gear from Japan it has to come by FedEx, Japanese mail, but never DHL.
I live approximately 35 kms outside a city and have a legal land description, which would be convenient for anyone with a map, and we have a postal group box so our mailing address has no correlation to our actual house location.
Before Amazon.ca switched from Canada Post to a private firm, we always received our packages. However, once they switched to the private firm (cheaper, I'm sure) my wife started putting our GPS into Amazon's info. That worked sometimes, and sometimes not.
Then eBay, with their annoying Global Shipping Policy, whereby Americans mail their shipment to Pitney-Bowes who redirects the product to a Canadian carrier (for, wait for it, a fee) stopped using Canada Post and gave the items to the same incompetent firm Amazon uses.
In late 2023 I had ordered something via eBay, which was handed off to the incompetent carrier at the same time as my wife had ordered something from Amazon. We could see by tracking that they both reached the city about the same time and then seemed to just sit. After a few emails, my wife's shipment arrived but with a fresh shipping label stating it was my item. The result, of course, was that I never actually received my item, and eBay said it was delivered - based on the carrier's scan - so I was out a couple hundred dollars.
Now, all Amazon shipments are sent to a 'drop' location in the city (which, ironically, happens to be a post office), I won't order anything from eBay that's in the US unless the seller is willing to ship it directly to me by post.
And, if and when, I order camera gear from Japan it has to come by FedEx, Japanese mail, but never DHL.
Don't waste your time with the USPS, they won't do anything for you because they feel they don't have to. If you really want to get the attention of the USPS, find your congressional house rep local office and go there and tell your story. Explain that the lost interest from your retirement account could have gone to there reelection campaign, however, do to the USPS, you don't have any money to help them. Don't forget to mention that you won't vote for them if nothing happens, along with your friends, family and anyone else whom you talk to.
With this being an election year, you'll be surprised how the USPS will jump through hoops to avoid a pissed off congress person.