What people are calling 'tracking' is the USPS Delivery Confirmation. It is not really 'tracking' such as UPS gives you. UPS tracking will let you know as the package moves from depot to depot. Nice. But, UPS Ground can take 7-10 days, plenty of time to post all those little stops it makes, and keep you informed about it's snail-like progress...
The USPS Delivery Confirmation is just what it says. Delivery Confirmation, it will tell you your package has been delivered. And since the package is in transit for about 48 hours (depot to depot) there isn't much to tell really. Hey, it left somewhere (notice from sender), then it got delivered somewhere (delivery confirmation). Not much else is promised, so expecting more is a bit
.
We have used the post office to deliver many packages, from a few blocks to the other end of the world. None have been lost. Almost all have arrived on time. It's time somebody stood up and said, "Good job !".
USPS is as reliable as UPS IMExperience. Faster than UPS IME. Cheaper than UPS IME. The US Postal Service is an easy target, because they are not able to defend themselves, and everyone seems to accept that they do a horrible job. They Don't.
It hardly seems fair to say, "USPS tracking is horrible" when it is not really tracking info at all. Just delivery confirmation info. It's fun to bitch about them, but in the end they do an incredible job.
BTW we love UPS too. 95% of our materials are delivered by them and we look forward to their friendly drivers. Not so sure the drivers like Purple-Days, with the heavy wood slabs and long tubes of steel... but that's what they are best at. For small stuff USPS, big stuff UPS.