A Crummy Commercial

A quick Friday the 13th, midst of a blizzard post before the power goes out ? It happened again, this was the last time: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/03/i-got-usps-blues.html The USPS had me waiting around all day for a parcel - finally after 3 PM I rechecked and saw this: This is baloney - the USPS is circling the drain and possibly my business along with it. Update: Friday afternoon 2026-3-13, the package showed up in the middle of a snowstorm on Friday the 13th so I shouldn't be quite so critical: I'm getting old and cranky, folks ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Waiting on 4 USPS packages: I was *supposed* to get the last item on Wednesday - what a lot of bunk: "Held at Post Office, At Customer Request"   It is some boards for kits, why would I delay delivery ?  I suspect they just forgot to deliver it and that was the closest excuse on the system ?  Note that I did get one piece of junk mail on Wednesday.   The first item (which was fulfilled by Amazon)  arrived on the Island Wednesday but the USPS doesn't deliver until the next day.  Wouldn't any other business deliver the same day ?  I realize it's the winter ferry schedule but still, it never used to be this way. The Digikey item is also for a kit order - BTW, Digikey also baked in a extra day before sending the order: "unavoidable delay" So I guess I shouldn't complain about the USPS delays if even Digikey now has feet of clay :( Update: the Amazon package and the "held at customer request" package did show up:  But 9:55a ?   I didn't ...

I had to refuse delivery on a FEDEX Smartpost item from Ebay: it clearly says Smartpost It turns out that Smartpost is defunct:   That begs the question:  why didn't FEDEX tell their customers that Smartpost doesn't exist anymore, wouldn't that be the smart thing to do instead of accepting a shipment as Smartpost and then changing it to FEDEX Ground before delivery ? https://www.costanalysts.com/fedex-smartpost/ I guess I am just old now and expect people to do what they say they will do. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Remember this: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/long-strange-trip.html  Well it finally arrived: Maybe it pays to complain ?  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

Here is the USPS scan history for a kit sent to a ham in Florida: Wisconsin to Florida to Puerto Rico and then to Tennessee ?  Sixteen days and counting.  Where will it go next ?  What in the world are they doing ? The USPS along with the rest of our institutions are crumbling into dust. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

Not for me, USPS: Freedom is a wonderful thing. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

The only mail I'm supposed to get today: is for my parents, both dead for over a decade - and I will probably get them tomorrow at the earliest :(  So now I have a day to stew about them.  The one for my Mom is probably just a sales pitch.  But the one for my Dad is from where he used to work at Johnson Controls so that might actually be something ? This reminds me of when issue after issue of Vogue started being mailed to my Mom who had been dead for years.  The subscription just started up all by itself, never saw a bill, there was no way to contact Conde-Nast about it on the internet that I could find.  Just weird that a free subscription for a fashion magazine would start for a woman who was over 90 when she died years ago.   Update 2025-07-15: I didn't get the letter to my Mom but the one for my Dad from Johnson Controls did appear - it was the usual data breach report with an offer of free credit monitoring form letter.  Has everyone everywh...

My second order of 2025 from Digi-Key arrived in this: with a pre-affixed return label ! The first time I've ever gotten anything from them that wasn't in a cardboard box.  Cardboard boxes are nice but they can make the shipment heavier - that was no problem when I used to mail in my order and DigiKey would pay the postage.  But now I buy online (those wacky Federal taxes become a problem if you don't pay them on the right items and have to mail in a second check) and I get stuck with the postage.  I shouldn't complain, at least they will still mail things. One thing I never liked though was this stuff that DigiKey used for padding: perforated brown paper rolled up and used as padding, it's kind of dirty (little flakes of paper) and heavy compared to bubble wrap. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Thanks to USPS Informed Delivery for this episode of: What the heck is this ?: Villanova University ?  The only time I've ever heard those words is during the NCAA basketball tournament in the spring. Weird !  It didn't arrive on Thursday, maybe today ?  More likely Saturday ? Update: Friday afternoon, nothing today, hopefully the mystery will be solved on Saturday: In the 20th century I would have had the parcel on the 6th.   Update on Saturday PM, 2025-02-08: the mystery parcel was marked as delivered but I didn't get it, it must have been associated with another parcel I also got from PA today, weird ! Later update on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025:  I checked with the Ebay seller in Pennsylvania, he/she didn't know anything about Villanova, so the parcel remains a mystery - where are those dang Hardy Boys when you need them ?  :)   Update Monday Feb. 10, 2025:  still a mystery, no mail at all today - I'm hoping that if the parcel was mis-delivered tha...

The USPS announced this: I am waiting on one Ebay item from China, I asked for a cancellation since I have been waiting for 10 days and it hasn't been sent (Lunar New Year delay ?).  So this USPS pause will just add more delay to a USPS that still hasn't recovered from the holidays. I was going to order some boards from JLCPCB (was waiting for them to start up after the Lunar New Year) but now I don't know. I received this email today: What it doesn't say is that they use copper clad circuit boards from China.  Also, they NEVER use the USPS except for billing.  AND they charge a huge minimum for "shipping/handling" which is usually more than an entire order from JLCPCB. Second, 10 percent is just another nail in the kit coffin.  It goes on top of the 5.5% that is now paid to Wisconsin sales tax. And of course this may change at any second, the tax could increase or be turned off (as with Mexico/Canada) at any time.  Whipsaw is the term used on Wall Street for ...

A couple of things have not been going my way this month, first the USPS strikes again: supposed to arrive today but NOPE ! This is dated  November 25, 2024 mailed from 50 miles away and it's still not here ?  That's over two weeks, I could walk 50 miles in 2 weeks !  I realize there was a holiday but still seems like poor service.   The second thing: Kitchen Insiders is a survey program with rewards run by Kellogg's for several years.  It was actually much better than Kellogg's Family Rewards where it took forever to actually accumulate enough points to get a reward.  Now Kitchen Insiders is also becoming defunct at the end of the year.   The thing is that you need 500 points to redeem a gift card and I am stuck at 495 points, so close.  I even asked them for a last survey so I could get 5 points but NOPE !  I was able to get a number of Apple gift cards over the years so I shouldn't really complain. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy...

I dunno about the mail, maybe it is just here, kind of a special case.  But if this gets worse I think it'll be the death of kit selling for me. Most recent example: on Friday (2024-12-06) the mail was delivered after 6 PM, in the dark, unusual on the island where normally the mail comes in the early afternoon: Then on Saturday the mail came before 12:20p because I was working on an order that I had received in the late Friday delivery.  I didn't make it in time. So on Monday, December 9, 2024 I got the parcel into the mailbox early - and yup, it was picked up at 10:51 AM: Do the mail deliveries start earlier and earlier each day ?  Will I have to get outgoing mail in the box by 6 AM ?  It's not that the USPS does a horrible job, it's just that I can't trust them to do what they say they will do when they say they will do it - we are paying increasing prices for poorer service.  It's the uncertainty that I don't like. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kz...

Previously mentioned a few days ago: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/09/loss-of-trust.html This arrived in the morning Informed Delivery email: However, Informed Delivery site isn't working: So basically one step forward, one back ?  Trust stuck in neutral.  Here is the received statement: I didn't bother to open it (it was still sealed) because it is about 2 weeks stale now and I already got the info from the Fidelity web site.  Still it was good that it hadn't been stolen but in a way good because I've gotten rid of the future possibility of losing financial statements in the mail. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm