I am in CA and have mailed things to my mom in FL and it has taken over 2 weeks. I don't know why? And some of those were Priority Mail!
Clare

I sent something by UPS to Seattle from Florida, and even then, it took a week to get there, and was late for Christmas. I think it depends on how you send it. If you send it parcel post, it goes by ground, and can take forever, since the truck has to make several stops going across country, and at some places, the packages are unloaded and redistributed to other trucks. We have a USPS distribution center in my home town, and there is one in Tampa. The strange thing is, you can mail a package in this town, and it has to go to Tampa to be sorted, sent back here to be delivered. Can take up to four days for a package to get through the process.

If you send it first class, it goes by air. Still, it has to go to the distribution center, and sent from there however. It's not a direct flight from one coast to another, and can still take several days.

I am always sending my sister packages from here in Texas. She lives in Washington state. Somethings have taken 3 days, and one item took almost 3 weeks. Same size packages usually, and nothing around the holidays. It is just crazy. One time I send my brother a gift in Oregon, and for some really weird reason, they found it about 6 months later inside an old antique milk box they have on their porch, nowhere near the mail box out on the street.
I will live a long long life if I ever think I will live long enough to figure the USPS system out.

Trin

Oh this subject torks me off!!!
During Christmas (I'd say about Dec 9 or 10th) I mailed a package to someone in California. Sent PRIORITY mail which they said would take 3 days. I remember because PO asked me if I wanted it sent regular mail or priority. Priority is more expensive she said, but you know it will get there faster. I was having a cow because it took a week!! Now granted that was during Christmas rush. But they didn't tell me it could take longer! Why not??

So January 9th I sent a package to Missouri. Again PRIORITY mail. Again they asked which way I wanted to send it. There is quite a difference in regular and priority mail prices. Stupid thing didn't show up til I dunno somewhere around the 25th of January!! By then I was sure like you, it had been stolen or lost or who the heck knows what!
So why did I have to pay extra each time for "fast" delivery?

Might as well start sending things Pony Express!!
This still makes me mad can you tell? LOL

Unless there is very little difference in price I send everything regular ground mail, as I have found out both ways seem to be about the same.

I sent my GD's Christmas package in plenty of time from MO. to GA. So, tracking it I found it in California waiting to be sent back to GA. They finally got it the day after Christmas. All my other packages mailed the same time was delivered within a week, to CA. and NC.

I've been buying a lot of yarn lately from the Plymouth Yarn Company distributor in Pennsylvania, and I've been getting the packages in anywhere from 2 to 4 days after they're mailed.

hmmm...I just emailed the USPS with a complaint. It seems that a lot of their workers across the country are just clueless when it comes to what to charge for postage for a small bubble envelope containing a few seeds. It has been discussed over and over at the Seed X conversation side....length, width, thickness, uniformity, weight. We are all aware of what 'should' be charged, but a great many of the workers are clueless and overcharging...just calling and charging all of them as parcels! I threatened to report the whole mess to Andy Rooney that he could expose the Ripping Off of America by the USPS.

Sue...steamed

And now I have written CBS News with my request for Andy or someone to help with the matter. I hope someone can get the USPS straightened out and on board as to what they should be charging.

Oh...btw...I heard somewhere that they had raised the rates because the cost of storage had gone up....lol Heck, if they would just 'move' it, there would be no need for storage.

I've never had a problem with the usps. Guess I've been lucky!

Last Saturday I received a Christmas card from a friend that lives about 20 miles away. It was postmarked December 18th!

Normally I do not have many problems with the USPS. I still feel their rates are reasonable.

~Betsy

I had a friend send me a paperback by media mail -- she sent several on the same day -- none have arrived and it's been a month - no way to track either -- bet they're all in some bin waiting to be dumped into the mail hopper for processing. If it's important to me or a gift...I always pay for 'tracking' capability anytime I mail or use one of the other services..

Our office sends out statements once a year around April 1. In October 2007 we had one returned for a bad address that was over three years old. And it was originally sent to a local area small town.

Someone sent me a package on Dec 10 with delivery confirmation. It has not arrived. I was lucky, it was Ebay and she refunded my $30. There is no record of it in the system, either, using the del con #. Weird. Usually I have really good luck sending things, but some PO's in larger cities have a reputation for slowing things down, Dallas for instance. My Postmistress says if it has to go thru Dallas, allow extra time. I need to remember that better.

I had a swap package once take about a month to arrive - and it was only going to a neighboring state! On the other hand, I once sent a swap package all the way to CA and it got there in about one day. For the most part, I've been happy with the USPS. I did order something for Nick's birthday about a month ahead of time and it got lost. I'm really not sure if that was the fault of Amazon or USPS since some other weird stuff happened on Amazon's side. They sent a new shipment and eventually both arrived.

My sister lives in N.Y. state,i'm in Calif and we mail each other stuff all the time.It usually arrives in 3 to 4 days.

Now having said that,i mailed a pkg to S.Africa last April(2007) and the gal still hasn't got it.We have both been to our respective PO,to no avail,no one can find the pkg anywhere.I'm glad i was just giving her something,so she wasn't out any money.I had to fill out customs papers and all that,so i think someone saw on the paper work what it was(needlework) and stole it,and if that is the case,i hope the frog visited them with every prick of the needle.LOL
Kathi

Nodakgal,

I'd be down to the P.O. telling them that they owed me the difference between Priority Mail and regular mail fee, letting them know about half a dozen times how long the delivery had taken.

No satisfaction?

I'd be back again a few days later, same story.

There were two possible contracts .. you had a choice, paid the difference for special service.

You didn't get it - they didn't deliver on their part of the deal.

They owe you the difference.

Be courteous ... but complain.

No satisfaction?

Be back later and complain again.

Ya don't ask ... ya don't get!

In fact ... I'd probably have a visit to district headquarters with my tale of woe!

Heck - why settle for small stuff?

Why not piss off the Pres (of USPS, I mean)?

ole joyful

USPS seems to have it's own way of doing things and the consumer be damned. Three years ago we sent out our invitations to our 25th anniversary. Since the invites were a square sized and seemed a bit odd, I took one along with the envelope, to the post office. Clerk checked it out and said it would go regular first class postage. We also checked with the local UPS service which also handles mail, but charges more.

We sent out 131 invitations and lo and behold 2 days later almost half of them came back marked "requires additional postage due to size". What!?

Our mail carrier first tried to straighten things out as she knew us and told the post office manager we weren't the type not to have checked this out. No go.

So off we go to the Post Office where the manager and I get into a pi..ing contest. His position was that since I could't tell him which clerk o.k.d the postage, his hands were tied and we needed to pay the additional .02. We went round and around about this and finally would up paying the additional .02 so we could get the cards out. I swore I'd never use the USPS again and from then on I got the clerks name even if I bought stamps.

On the PO's plus side- they just approved an insurance claim that I had made with them for a damaged/insured item that I mailed to Alaska. No quibbles- they paid up in a timely fashion, thanks in part I think to my wonderful postmistress. So yay for them for that!

That just reminded me of the one time we tried to put in an insurance claim. We couldn't get a straight answer as to which PO we had to go to (the sender's or the receiver's) and we kept getting the runaround (each PO kept telling us it was the other's responsibility). I don't remember ever getting any money but maybe the sender did.

I never ship USPS...they are unreliable, and take too long.

I use DHL or FedEX....DHL is cheaper and faster. For $4-5, their ground service is a MAXIMUM of 3 days (except at Christmas, when it can stretch to 4).

Their tracking system is the best, and they have real, human customer service people who will find the location of a package that has not been delivered and even refund charges if a package isn't delivered in time...things the USPS does not do.
Try calling the USPS with a problem...and the best you get, if they answer the phone, is a bored voice telling you 'I dunno, nothing I can do".

It costs nothing to open an account with FedEx or DHL, and you get free pre-printed waybills.

The USPS, IMO, is the worst shipper.

I've also never had a problem with USPS. When my dtr left for grad school across the country, I mailed ten maximum-sized boxes of her stuff to her more cheaply than UPS was asking with no problems whatsoever. Boxes arrived in less than a week. Two years later she mailed them back without incident. Never had a problem with USPS, so I can't speak to the bored voice or insurance situations.

I mail pkgs to my kids frequently, cheaply and efficiently. I'm not generally the lucky type, so it's not that!

IMO, the difference in service with the USPS is it's dependant on the management of the local Post Offices. No central control. Packages can sit in local offices and distribution centers for days, without any oversight at national level.
This is why the other shippers can track packages and promise transit times.

I normally have no complaints about the USPS, but a package I shipped for a fall swap has never been delivered. We both went to our respective POs to check on it, but they didn't come up with it. Of course, I didn't have tracking on it. I felt so bad for my swap partner, I re-did the package as best I could. I couldn't stand her first swap not coming through. You can bet, that time I shipped it I put tracking on it. And I always will in the future.

I sent a complaint email yesterday (see above) and they emailed me that someone from Consumer Affairs would be calling me today. Could it be that since I mentioned to them I was thinking of contacting Andy Rooney with CBS News that it got their attention?

Central management does not seem to be doing much central managing...since PO clerks across the country are consistently inconsistent with what they are charging for small bubble envelopes. To say that they are ALL parcels is just absurd. My own postmaster agrees with that.

Sue...on the rampage with the USPS

I got a wedding invitation for a wedding the day after the event. I thought it was intentional until I looked at the postage date. LOL! 3 weeks ago.

Gayle

In December I mailed a card with well-concealed cash inside to my sister. We are both in New York state, but about 400 miles apart. I called after a week to see if it arrived and it had NOT. I figured, it's stolen, my own dumb fault. Then ten days after that, sis called to say she got the card. Two and a half weeks within one state?

Kathi, it was very probably stolen. My dad's girlfriend has a son that lives in Mexico. she can NOT send ANYTHING to them. It all gets ripped off. All of it, all the time. such a shame

In our boondocks area, it all depends on the distribution center: in our case, over in the eastern part of the state. It can take 7-10 days at least to get a letter (or a bill, for example) 300 miles within the same state. Some of the recipients of these bills are in the same city as the distribution center! I had some personal difficulty when mailing payments to that city..complained, gave the recipients the check number and date mailed, and had no late fees. But what a hassle! My employer went to said center and saw semi-trailers loaded with unsorted mail which has obviously not been moved in months. Incompetence run rampant? I think so.

I live in Southern Cali for V-day I sent my DD a pkg @2pm on a Friday afternoon, to South Orange County about 50 miles away and she got it in her mail early Sat afternoon amazing BUT at the same time I sent my GF a card and she lives a mile from that postal drop and she did not get her card til Tuesday?? My DD sent my younger DD and I both V-day cards at the same time to my address, I got mine Weds and younger DD has not recieved hers yet:(

I live in Riverside CA, a pal of mine who lives here also mailed me a card and it was postmarked from San Deigo county quite aways from us What's Up With That???

My DH said postal prices are going up in May~~~will that mean mail with take longer???