USPS No Longer Offering ClicknShip?

terry.330

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Anybody hear anything about this?

I needed to ship something yesterday and the CnS part of the site was just gone, blank page. No maintenance warning, tried on a different computer and browser and same thing. Went to the PO and the automated Kiosk had disabled printing postage. The line was at least 20 people long with only 1 register open. Tried again today and the same thing on both the site and at the PO.

I did a quick search and it seems the website and kiosks haven't been working for quite awhile now.

Anybody else run into this recently.

I know the USPS is hurting but not offering online postage and disabling the kiosks is insane. That has to be costing them millions each day in lost revenue. Shit I ended up going to the UPS store instead of standing line for an hour at the PO.
 

Yoshi

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I had a similar experience recently, as Pay Pal changed its shipping partner to some clowns that don't offer First Class. In the end, I settled on Shippo as my new internet shipping provider. I recommend them so far.
 

BIG BEAR

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I think they were losing money on the click'n ship because users were mailing off parcels with postage less than what was required.
I've received quite a few parcels like that..but didn't know they shut it down.
The one desk clerk at the PO is a happening...probably best to get there really early because if you go later in the day,you're TOAST!
BB
 

wyo

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I had a feeling BIG BEAR would appreciate this thread ;)

Click-n-ship appears to be working, terry: https://cns.usps.com/ They must have called Mouse Master to network the forum.

The new Paypal shipping service does offer USPS First Class, Yoshi, but it's deprioritized/partially hidden.

Shippo is indeed a good alternative to get the commercial rate. I haven't used USPS Click-n-ship since they started charging the retail rate - one of the many stupid decisions USPS has made in recent years.

UPS Ground is usually the cheapest option these days for all but the smallest packages. USPS First Class keeps creeping up. It's almost like they are trying to go out of business but people tend to stick with what they know.

Maybe CORY could merge this with M's equally riveting threads about shipping Lego from China.

wyo out
 

skate323k137

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What's UPSes standard 1lb ground rare like nowadays? 1st class under a lb is still about 3.50 to 5.00 online (not counter rate). It's been ages since I priced UPS for stuff that small but I recall it starting more around 8.00.

Anything larger goes UPS though for sure.
 

NeoSneth

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I think they were losing money on the click'n ship because users were mailing off parcels with postage less than what was required.
I've received quite a few parcels like that..but didn't know they shut it down.
The one desk clerk at the PO is a happening...probably best to get there really early because if you go later in the day,you're TOAST!
BB

I dont think this is true. I lied on a few packages, and I had "corrections" charged to me.
 

terry.330

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Maybe CORY could merge this with M's equally riveting threads about shipping Lego from China.
Gosh I'm sorry my thread wasn't entertaining enough for you.

Perhaps you can make a parody thread in the War Room or cry about it in chat and get some entertainment value out of it that way. I mean god forbid I try and ask a simple question.
 

wyo

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Gosh I'm sorry my thread wasn't entertaining enough for you.

Perhaps you can make a parody thread in the War Room or cry about it in chat and get some entertainment value out of it that way. I mean god forbid I try and ask a simple question.
We expect the mailman and your posts to deliver but occasionally they don't. It's ok, mistakes happen.
 

Jon

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I noticed that Priority is no longer 2-3 days, it's now 3-5. Also, snail mail is way slower.

Jon
 

BIG BEAR

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The delivery times have been good on this end...the only issue is the skeleton crew at the PO and that's not really an issue if you hit them up at off peek hours.
FEDEX still remain the #1 creeps in my book..I have something coming in from Japan and hopefully it will be arriving via DHL.

BB
 

skate323k137

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I stopped going to the post office in 2018.

A scale, a printer, and some labels have paid for themselves 100x over. Schedule a USPS pickup for free the night before and never leave the house.
 

terry.330

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I stopped going to the post office in 2018.

A scale, a printer, and some labels have paid for themselves 100x over. Schedule a USPS pickup for free the night before and never leave the house.
Yeah buying a scale and printer was definitely worth it. Unfortunately I still have to go to the PO to drop stuff off regularly. They don't pick up anything here except standard letters. Scheduled or not, even if I put out a note saying USPS PICKUP with and arrow pointing to the package.

A decade ago it was the same mail carrier for years and she was great. She even gave me a stack of cards to sign and leave in the mailbox for international packages that needed to be signed for.

For the past few years there's been a different carrier almost monthly and they've all been terrible. Sometimes they don't even bother coming to the house when I know there's stuff to be delivered. The next day there will be 2 guys making the rounds driving different trucks at different times, sometimes even late at night, trying to cover all the stuff from the previous day. It's fucking ridiculous.
 

skate323k137

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Yeah buying a scale and printer was definitely worth it. Unfortunately I still have to go to the PO to drop stuff off regularly. They don't pick up anything here except standard letters. Scheduled or not, even if I put out a note saying USPS PICKUP with and arrow pointing to the package.

A decade ago it was the same mail carrier for years and she was great. She even gave me a stack of cards to sign and leave in the mailbox for international packages that needed to be signed for.

For the past few years there's been a different carrier almost monthly and they've all been terrible. Sometimes they don't even bother coming to the house when I know there's stuff to be delivered. The next day there will be 2 guys making the rounds driving different trucks at different times, sometimes even late at night, trying to cover all the stuff from the previous day. It's fucking ridiculous.
That's rough getting used to a good carrier, and losing them.

My last 2 residences I had very regular carriers with whom I had a great relationship.

My new place is on a route with a lot of walking. For the first year or 2 we had a somewhat regular carrier. Since fall last year, we had an amazing one, yet for some reason, carriers with seniority 'bid' him off of it now, and then only do it for a few weeks before the 2-3 "regular" subs show back up. I wish they would have just let my dude keep his route :/

Thankfully, all of them are good, and they all complete my pickup requests.
 

sylvie

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For the past few years there's been a different carrier almost monthly and they've all been terrible. Sometimes they don't even bother coming to the house when I know there's stuff to be delivered. The next day there will be 2 guys making the rounds driving different trucks at different times, sometimes even late at night, trying to cover all the stuff from the previous day. It's fucking ridiculous.
This is normal Chicago shit, it sux. Lazy ass fucking USPS fuckups
 

skate323k137

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Wack. But I know that's how it is in Chicago.

UPS and USPS are the only "last mile" delivery services with any quality of life left for their employees. Fedex sucks, fedex authorized franchises suck worse, and all these little "lazership" BS companies popping up are exploiting the shit out of people (a lot of which falls back to Amazon).

This documentary came out recently and you really get to see how shifty warehouse and delivery work has become (yea, it's gotten worse)

 

BIG BEAR

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Damn..rotating mail carriers is the norm on this end... That regular mail carrier stuff disappeared for me in the late 80's,early 90's. The good people never stick around and the carriers walking around with the blue tooth and doing night deliveries with a miners lamp attached to their head most likely get terminated....
I read somewhere in I think Chicago where the carriers have been assualted so many times that they've stopped delivering in this area.The customers have to go to the PO to pick up their mail....that's pretty fuxxed up...so glass half full for me!
BB
 

NeoSneth

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Amazon delivery support was pretty clear with me. They said it's all contracted out, and new people that don't know the city. package loss is very common in my area, and it's not theft. It's just idiots that can't read a map.
 

skate323k137

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Amazon delivery support was pretty clear with me. They said it's all contracted out, and new people that don't know the city. package loss is very common in my area, and it's not theft. It's just idiots that can't read a map.
The last portion of that documentary I linked covers it a bit. 2 big problems, one being the contracting it out to avoid liability, and the other being "Amazon flex" where people use their own cars/vans/whatever. They don't get consistent routes, so it's hard for them to learn one at all. There's more details but that's the high level.
 

BIG BEAR

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The last portion of that documentary I linked covers it a bit. 2 big problems, one being the contracting it out to avoid liability, and the other being "Amazon flex" where people use their own cars/vans/whatever. They don't get consistent routes, so it's hard for them to learn one at all. There's more details but that's the high level.
I saw this one guy delivering an AMAZON parcel from the trunk of his car one late night..
I wonder if the workers get compensated for their milage/gasoline?
I'm thinking it also sucks to do Uber or Lyft nowadays as well...due to the high price of gasoline.
BB
 
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HellioN

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I initially misread the title of this thread as USPS no longer offering chickenstrips and was very confused.
 

skate323k137

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I saw this one guy delivering an AMAZON parcel from the trunk of his car one late night..
I wonder if the workers get compensated for their milage/gasoline?
I'm thinking it also sucks to do Uber or Lyft nowadays as well...due to the high price of gasoline.
BB
I saw someone do the math, after you figure in actual long term vehicle maintenance, working for Uber etc is more like taking a cash advance against your car than actual income. It's gross.
 
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