A lady who lives in FL wanted to gift me some coconut shells, knowing I use them occasionally to put orchids in and then attaching the shell to a wood mount. She boxed several shells and shipped the box Flat Rate Priority. This was a two-day shipment, since I live in Mississippi. Six days later I got the battered box. The post office at some point had to wrap the box in cellophane just to hold it together! Three of the four shells were cracked.
When I saw the tracking information I saw that the box was in Portland, OR for three days. Why would the USPS ship a box from FL to OR and then back to MS? Why hold it in Portland for three days, when it was shipped as Two-Day Priority Mail? I figured that the box traveled approximately 5000 miles to get to me, and I live less than 500 miles from where it was shipped!
This is just one (recent) story of how inept our USPS is. I have lots of (just as bad and worse) stories.
