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Mail Delivery Problems

User
5 years ago

My DD lives in Minneapolis -- I live in a small town in SE Kansas. Her "thank you" letter for Christmas gifts took over a week to get here. A fat envelope of Christmas pictures took TWO weeks! On Saturday January 12, I mailed two letters containing knitted scarves for the grands dolls. ONE arrived yesterday (January 22) and the other has not been delivered! When I pay big bucks ($10) to send a package it gets delivered in 2 days (and sometimes that day is on Sunday) -- does any one have any ideas as to WHY the mail is taking so long? Do they accumulate letters in a bag and just send them once a week or once every two weeks? It's not happened before. Oh, and I checked with the post office and they said that it should take 3 days (days not weeks) to get mail from here to Minneapolis.

Comments (64)

  • sheesh
    5 years ago

    I am fortunate to live where our mail delivery is very efficient. I mail and receive cards and packages to/from my kids and gkids, nieces, nephews and brothers around the country regularly. They all seem to have fine mail delivery, too, because I receive thank you notes for gifts within a week or two of having sent the gift. Sure, there have been glitches, but all in all the USPS has been great.


    I pay all bills electronically and have direct deposit for all income, so I use stamps only for personal correspondence. I have to say that it's always delightful to receive mail and little unexpected gifts. I remember how excited my kids were to receive little gifts and letters from Grandma-far-away when they were little, so I am doing the same with my gkids. I love how excited they are to receive the unexpected. And I admit that I loved it the day I received a squashed Peppermint Patty from a grandson who loved them and was sharing with me.

    User thanked sheesh
  • carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
    5 years ago

    Could weather conditions be a factor?

    Also FWIW, I understand that substations have been eliminated in some states (cost cutting due to cuts in funding?), and that can cause delays. This was a something I learned after the midterm elections, and quite a few people's ballots here were not counted because they arrived after the deadline, despite being mailed far in advance - and from in state!

    User thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
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  • quasifish
    5 years ago

    I have noticed that we are having more and more problems with some mail taking a really long time to move from one place to another. Many of the items I've ordered on ebay in the last 2 months do not make their guaranteed delivery date, even though the seller has shipped well on time. Things just get stuck somewhere in the mail. Then sometimes they come ridiculously fast. I'm in CA and it seems like anything from FL will be here in a flash.

    The worst one ever for us was this past Christmas. I mailed a priority box w/gifts to some relatives on December 4. It arrived the last day of December.... Merry Christmas... Looking at the tracking, it showed that the box traveled between Los Angeles and Seattle a total of 4 times- back and forth, back and forth, etc. I'd love to have an explanation as to why that happened.

    User thanked quasifish
  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    5 years ago

    I think mail service goes tits up over the holidays :-) Maybe it is just a factor of volume?

    I am house sitting (really just house checking) for friends who are snowbirds. They have had their mail forwarded to their winter address but I still check their mail box periodically. Right after Christmas I checked and the box was full!! They called the PO here and were informed that they hire a lot of holiday season temps and often things go awry as they are not as experienced nor familiar with the policies as the fulltime, permanent workers.

    Just a possible explanation........

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    5 years ago

    Where I live mail has always taken at least a week, no matter where to/from, for the twenty years I've lived here. Thank heaven for online bill pay.


    Even when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale many years ago, the one time in my life I was late with the rent was when I had broken an ankle and couldn't walk over to the office. I called and asked if I could give the check to the maintenance guy and have him bring it to them, but they said to mail it. I did, but it went to Flint, MI to get postmarked, so took about ten days to go a couple hundred yards.

    User thanked writersblock (9b/10a)
  • Kathsgrdn
    5 years ago

    95% of the time I send a package to Spain it either never shows up, shows up and they try to make the recipient pay a ransom for it. I sent a Christmas gift out December 10th, thinking it may show up a little late...well, it still isn't there. No tracking to Spain is provided either. I think I know why too.

  • User
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    That does make sense -- because they were all more than just a couple of page letters or a card -- yes, they were "fat"!!! All I could think of is that I'm glad I don't mail my bills anymore. I would hate to get dinged with late charges when I mail my check in a reasonable amount of time but it takes the post office "forever" to get it there!

    And I do have to give kudos to the post office for they are extremely efficient in getting all of that mail to all of the right people mostly in a timely manner. It boggles my mind sometimes as to how they do it!


  • nosoccermom
    5 years ago

    Well, at one point we had a mail carrier, who'd skip delivery of anything that required a signature. She'd have ready made slips telling you to pick up your mail at the post office. I'd be waiting for my mail and see her put stuff in the mail box outside, incl. the slip.

    She also didn't deliver on Saturdays.

    On the other hand, our current delivery person will some days still be delivering after 6 or 6;30 pm.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    5 years ago

    I should have said that ironically when I send a package to Europe it usually gets there in about three days, even just regular first class.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    5 years ago

    It all appears to be very random, doesn't it?? Some good, some bad...........

  • User
    5 years ago

    I'm in a rural area. Several years ago a change was made to route all mail though a city in another state. It added about one day to the transit time but it's still quite good.

  • Ally De
    5 years ago

    I have really bad USPS service at my current house too. At least once a week we get someone else's mail, and I often don't get bills that are sent to me. I've switched as much as possible to electronic delivery but a few places still don't offer that. Post office couldn't care less about our concerns.

    Over Christmas we went 5 days without a delivery. Went to the post office and was told they are really busy so they just skip the end of the route if the mail carrier gets tired! True story.

    Wouldn't have been so bad if they picked up where they left off the next day, but nope. Started the route all over again. No mail for us for 5 days. No one at the post office cared one bit. Not even an apology!

    I hate my current post office. Hate them. Use every other delivery service as much as possible.

  • tackykat
    5 years ago

    pb32, that's terrible. That would really infuriate me.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    5 years ago

    I can so relate, pb32. I've lived in the same complex for over 20 years, but back in 2006 when I moved from one building to another and my street address changed, the PO never changed it, no matter how many times both I and our mail carrier sent it in to them. As long as he was on the route it was okay, but he got fed up and quit, and now I have no idea of when I'll get mail or not, or whose mail it will be. Our current carrier just shoves stuff randomly in the mailboxes and we all wind up doing delivery to other residents here.

  • Ally De
    5 years ago

    Trust me, it does. We moved here from a town only about 30 minutes away, and mail delivery there was impeccable.

  • phoggie
    5 years ago

    Martha...if you are from SE Kansas, does your mail go through Kansas City? I perhaps live fairly near you...but it took a card 8 days to go 60 miles! We can mail something to go right here in our town and it has to go to KC and back...3 days to go across the street!

    User thanked phoggie
  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    5 years ago

    I'm sure a lot has to do with how close one is located to the nearest sorting facility or hub. These tend to be pretty regional unless in a major metropolitan area so it would not be uncommon for a mailed item to travel across state even when it was intended for same city delivery.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    5 years ago

    Yes, gardengal, and yet UPS and fedex have their hubs in the same city as our mail hub and their stuff gets delivered here when it should, for the most part.

  • User
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    Phoggie -- yes we're 69 miles due south of KC and yes, our mail does go there now -- ALL of the mail (for a long time only out of town mail went north and local stayed in town -- but they changed that), however, mostly, if you mail something on Monday here it often gets delivered on Tuesday here! But our pick up time is early -- 4 or 4:30

  • joyfulguy
    5 years ago

    When I get my mail, I don't check recipient - 'cause it's always the same, but who sent it?

    A week or so ago when I got one from a corporation related to a bank in Knoxville, Tennessee, I think it was, that was surprising - so I looked at the recipient address: "Cig City, 6355 Carr... ..." (mine is "6477 Carr... ...").

    I live near the "Oneida Settlement", a gathering of indigenous people that ordinarily would be called a "reservation", but these people bought their own land a couple of centuries ago. About thirty years ago they bought step-uncle's neighbour's farm and recently there are three (duty-free) tobacco shops there.

    The person at the most recent shop didn't know of the name and the lady at the original shop didn't, either, but said she'd give it to her boss.

    I visited Oneida ((to buy tax-free gas)) and the lady at the post office said she'd tell the sorter to be more careful.

    En route home I visited the third shop, which I used to visit occasionally to buy ciggies for my friend in the city, and know the owner. Yes, they knew: that used to be their name!

    Returning to the second shop, I wondered whether there might be some reluctance, but no, the lady reached over, picked up the letter and gave it back to me.

    Seems to me that that afternoon's activity should be called "Special Delivery"!

    ("Expedited Delivery")?

    ole joyfuelled ... frequently fuelled with."gas", too (no comments from the cheap seats, please)



  • PRO
    Anglophilia
    5 years ago

    Yes, it's an ongoing problem. When I send a birthday/Christmas check to CT grandchildren, it can take a week to get there from KY. Heck, a sturdy person could ride a bike between KY and CT and get there faster! I believe the problem is on the CT end as it doesn't seem to take that long when I mail things (rarely) elsewhere.

    Our beloved mailman retired 3 years ago and the one we got as a replacement is an idiot and a very surly idiot at that. He delivers other people's mail to my mailbox at least once a week; my own goes who-know-where and I often don't get a bill - just have to "remember" that it's due each month, go online and find out how much is due, and pay it. Packages are left with the mailbox open to rain, and it's a VERY large mailbox - he just doesn't close the lid. Everyone in my neighborhood has complained multiple times but we might as well be talking to the wind. It's impossible to fire a postal worker. When I speak to him myself, he just stares at me, shrugs and says "Whatever". That's just great customer service...NOT!

    I think there is a lot of dead wood in the carrier/sorting dept and they cannot get rid of them, and they ignore any reprimands.

  • queenmargo
    5 years ago

    LOL Anglophilia- we must be neighbors;)

  • arcy_gw
    5 years ago

    A friend lives in Woodbury MN, in a wheel chair. CANNOT get to the mail room of her condo. Went through the post master got all the forms filled out, told all was good for door delivery via ADA laws. She feels lucky if they deliver once every two weeks. They cram her "mailbox" in the office FULL so her friends can barely unload it..My guess is MN is the issue. They stink!!

  • Ally De
    5 years ago

    Same guy works here too. He gets around. :)

    Seriously though, complaints like this seem to be common with USPS service. If you've got good service be grateful. But this is why their reputation is not good.

  • phoggie
    5 years ago

    They keep raising the price for stamps while the service gets worse!

  • Elmer J Fudd
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    How annoying some of these ongoing problems must be, especially if also there's non-responsiveness from management (if those of you have so escalated your issues). I guess we're lucky to have consistently good service in my area. Our regular mail guy was working nearly double shifts during the holidays, having to make two complete route circuits each day instead of one. Everything remained timely, including Amazon deliveries by USPS when promised for and delivered without fail on Sundays.

    gardengal, I can't imagine a bank not offering remote banking services, that's a rarity. In my area, such a bank would have few customers. If you choose to use them all the same, then you've signed up for USPS inconsistencies as a consequence. It's an easily avoidable problem.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    5 years ago

    Elmer, it is not a standard retail bank - it is an import-export bank and heavily into international banking. Not my original bank.....that was acquired by them in 2010. They have a very small retail banking presence - only 8 branches in total and only 2 in my state. And none easily accessed by me without a long drive and a ferry ride.

    And I can easily deal with the mailing delay for deposits. It's not like I require immediate availability (which I do receive as soon as the deposit hits anyway). I prefer to stay with them based on my long relationship and superior customer service. Being so small, they know me and my business personally and phone whenever anything out of the ordinary pops up. I only remarked on it because of the fact that it takes 3 days for mail to go a mere 15 miles.....it just has to go a very circuitous route to get there that makes very little sense.

  • Elmer J Fudd
    5 years ago

    I'm not sure what an "import-export" bank is, it's not like that's a category in the banking business. If you're happy with limited and lower service offerings than most other banks (and even rinky-dink credit unions) typically offer, that's all that matters.

  • User
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    Years ago, even though my mother and I only lived a couple of blocks from each we would still occassionally send cards or notes to each other. We even had the same postal carrier, and it would still take a week for many of them to be delivered.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    5 years ago

    Maybe you could do some research to educate yourself on what an import-export bank is :-) Like I said, it is not the same as a standard retail bank. And I don't know why you feel you need to demean whatever services my bank does or doesn't offer - it's no skin off your nose and I am perfectly happy with it. Your comments are completely unnecessary.

  • Suzanne Central Pa 6a
    5 years ago

    It’s not rare to see the USPS truck ( Along with UPS, FedEx and strangers) on my street three or four times a day delivering Amazon packages. Coud it be USPS makes more money delivering Amazon packages faster than first class mail?

  • Elmer J Fudd
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    You're the one that mentioned delays in making deposits. I don't know why you're so sure the problem is the mail, the bank may pick it up (or have it delivered) first thing in the morning, thus imposing their own one day delay in processing for pieces that come in later in the day. As just one example.

    Since that's the result of your choice, among a multitude of alternatives (including deposits to an ATM, if they offer that), I don't know why it's something you would mention. You're right, I don't care, my thought was triggered by your comment, not your banking practice. But you know the old saying, if you do the same thing the same way over and over, don't expect a different result.

    After a career in business involving significant international dealings both personally and with my clients, I'm good with my understanding of domestic and international personal and commercial banking. And other than the governmental entity Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank), I never heard the term used before. Is Bank of America a import-export bank in your eyes? Or Barclays? Or HSBC? All do a lot of international business, as do most other large and foreign based banks.


    Thanks for your concern

  • HU-721786473
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    I live in Canada and we have our own postal service which can be really good. However, it seems to depend on the letter carrier. We live in a rural area and have a couple of big boxes at each end of the subdivision. Lately, our service has not been consistent. We seem to not get any mail on Mondays or Fridays, my neighbours concur that this is happening. One day before Christmas my parcel box was jam packed. My husband was upset as he thought I had been on a spending spree! It turned out all the packages were different addresses, not even in our subdivision. I can’t imagine what happened there, only is somebody was anxious to finish their route and just jammed them in ours. The hard part is that when I called, the post office offered as the only solution was for me to load them in my car and return them to the post office or try and call the owners and have them pick them up. Come on! Due to a recent accident I can’t drive and even if I could, that doesn’t sound right.

  • Oakley
    5 years ago

    I think I know why it took so long. Long story short according to my mail carrier is the postal service cut back on jobs a few years ago. Our mail (rural) was delivered around 1:30 and it kept arriving later and later, sometimes around 6pm. 4:00 is our average time except at Christmas.

    The mail carrier told me they don't get mail trucks in on time anymore and it delays everything because of cut backs. So mail traffic is delayed all over the U.S.

    Funny thing though, when I mail in my credit card bill I get an email notification in TWO days saying it's already been posted! lol

    Here in OK. I've noticed it takes a good 3 - 4 days to receive mail now. And all mail goes to the central office in the state before it's taken to each town/city.

  • 3katz4me
    5 years ago

    Mail service used to be very efficient - a letter could traverse a long distance in one day. Now when I send a birthday card I try to allow at least five days for it to get there. All of this postal inefficiency continues to drive me toward other alternatives. And some of us want the government to run our healthcare system - take a lesson from the USPS and the VA healthcare system - no thanks. Not to mention you could be SOL when the dysfunctional decision makers shut the government down.

  • Springroz
    5 years ago

    DH has a funny memory of an uncle at a family reunion....trying to make conversation with the man, DH asked what he did (for a living). Uncle said, “Not a damm thing. Just waiting to retire from the Post Office!” I love my carrier, but some of the temps are some kind of awful.

  • phoggie
    5 years ago

    Martha...do you live in or near F S ? I live straight south of Topeka....so not too far away.

    User thanked phoggie
  • PRO
    Anglophilia
    5 years ago

    phoggie, I lived in Topeka from 1951 until 1962. Basically, I grew up there.

    Yes, I have noticed that my AmEx payment gets there very quickly. Also, when I mail my estimated taxes. It's the RECEIPT of my mail that is the issue, which is why I blame my mailman. I think he's slow, incompetent and couldn't care less. Yes, I have taken my complaints up the food chain. At some point one just quits wasting ones time when nothing improves. I'm not into "tilting at windmills".

  • joyfulguy
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    They tell me that windmills aren't an outdated, or endangered species, as they're using them to generate electricy now.

    But since you're not into tilting at them, I guess their proliferation won't be a matter of great distress to you.

    Some say that the U S P S is something of an endangered species, as well as a number of other traditional sysfems.

    One would think that the possibility of major shrinkage ahead would make them, fearing for their jobs, to be seriously committed to provide impeccable service in order to convince their clients not to desert them.

    As Dad used to say, "You can lead a horse to water - but you can't make him drink!".

    But - as some who can't see beyond the end of their own nose often say, "That's the boss's problem, not mine!".

    ole joyful

  • arkansas girl
    5 years ago

    We have also been having trouble with mail taking way too long. Also had a UPS package that returned to Amazon that took forever for it to get back to Amazon. Now that USPS raised their shipping prices, my husband sent an ebay package out using media mail and that took almost ten days to get to the buyer. UGH!

    Here's the bad thing, so you pay for 2 day delivery and it takes two or three weeks...what recourse do you have? NOTHING! Too bad so sad...suckers!!!!!!!

  • User
    Original Author
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    Phoggie -- I do!!!! Have you ever been here?

  • phoggie
    5 years ago

    Many times on my way to Branson!

    User thanked phoggie
  • patriciae_gw
    5 years ago

    I wasn't going to go into all this because I don't want to seem like a postal know it all but with more knowledge of the system than most I can at least clear up some misconceptions.

    the Postal service in not Federal anymore but it is controlled by the Federal government and the employees have the usual federal job protections etc.

    You do not pay for the Postal Service through your taxes. It is self supporting which is problematic for an entity that cant do anything without a bill from congress.

    Most mail is now mechanically sorted in enormous centers. The smaller more local ones were closed to save money. The new equipment is very expensive hence the closures. Mail now comes to your local post office mostly sorted to the route and box. It comes in large gray trays and some Post Masters require your carrier to take this mail straight to the street instead of sorting it to 'cases' representing individual boxes. Because mistakes are made things can go wrong. To service all the customers your carrier has ( possibly 700 or more per day) they do not necessarily have time to "thumb" each piece looking for errors. With the huge increase in package deliveries due to internet buying they have to go to more doors than ever during their delivery day which takes a ton of time.

    When your carrier pays the postage due on some mail of yours and leaves that envelope for you to repay them and you stiff your carrier because you think putting some small change in it is too much bother be aware it comes out of their own pocket, not some vast fund, and they aren't going to do that for you again.

    DH is retired postal and I know a few carriers. It is hard crappy work and a difficult organization to work for.

    When it comes to speed for a piece of mail what direction it is going can mean everything to how fast it gets there.


    User thanked patriciae_gw
  • Elmer J Fudd
    5 years ago

    "Know it all" is a pejorative term many turn to when they encounter and feel threatened by someone who knows more about a particular topic than they do. For some, such encounters happen frequently and maybe that's what triggers a strong response? For those, there's an obvious conclusion to draw.


    I'd say you're clearly well informed and knowledgeable. Thanks for sharing the information.

  • User
    Original Author
    5 years ago

    Patriciae -- thank you for the insight. I am still amazed at how well the USPS does on any given day getting a small envelope to the right house over and over and over again. I was just frustrated as to why an envelope (not once but three times) took an extraordinary amount of time to get from point A to point B or from point B to point A. They are really good with the boxes that I send there -- arriving in the two day window and even being delivered on Sunday! As far as carriers, it's like anything else, a few bad ones spoil it for the thousands that are not!

  • marilyn_c
    5 years ago

    I used to mail out at least 100 waterlilies every summer...sent priority...usually arrived in two days. Never a problem.

    Not long ago, my husband was taking some very expensive medicine...3 months was $27,000. It came from a pharmacy in New Jersey. The first month arrived fine. The second month, it was almost time for him to start the second month of treatment, and it hadn't arrived. He called the pharmacy and it had been mailed out several days prior. We got the tracking number and found out it had been delivered, but to a post office about 50 miles away. We drove over there....thinking a mistake had been made....similar zip code or something.

    They had the package...said it was good that he showed up....they were getting ready to send it back! The address, zip code was perfect. The name of the town was nothing like the name of our town. How could they make such a mistake? And why did they not forward it on to us, when they saw it had been delivered to the wrong town?? Your guess is as good as mine. Fortunately the 3rd month arrived on time and with no problems.

  • blubird
    5 years ago

    First class postage goes up to 55 cents on January 27th. Think it will improve service?

  • Elmer J Fudd
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    Did you hear someone say that was the reason for the increase? I haven't.

    If a worker gets a 5% wage increase, do they work 5% harder or with 5% greater productivity?

  • patriciae_gw
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    The postal service is playing catch up. They are so far behind it isn't funny. They get a credit line from the feds which they have to pay back. Like I said, they aren't costing you money but all that money is allocated and congress has to vote them a bigger credit line when they refuse to let them raise rates. When I was a kid in the early sixties I had lots of friends elsewhere( we moved ALOT) an airmail stamp was $.10. Today when you figure for inflation that would be $.84. Does that put your $.55 in perspective? I am not a fan of postal management. It is toxic, but so are most major companies. Not a fun job.

    FYI you don't have to get mail through the PO. Take down your box if you don't want to participate. No law requires you to have a mail box. You wont get notices from the IRS or SS or other federal entities at the moment but you also wont be irritated by the failures of your mail carrier and no junk mail. You wont be able to get any sort of welfare but you probably don't get that anyway. There are other package delivery companies although UPS and FEDEX use the postal service to deliver packages to a lot of their customers instead of delivering themselves, cheaper for them. Your decision.

    Oh I meant to address before the tired carrier who didn't finish the route. Christmas is the biggest mail volume of the year by far and in the past they brought on extra people and paid over time which they no longer do. Christmas also has bad weather and is the darkest time of the year. Carriers for safety reasons can be required to finish their routes by a certain time to get back to their PO by a certain time, and being slowed down by a bazillion packages and bad roads they hit the magic hour and have to turn around and even though the same people get stiffed every day? You carrier might protest but in vain.

    Relief carriers who fill in for your regular can service multiple routes. So your regular who delivers to you five days a week has to know everything about several hundred customers. The relief person usually has to fill in for several regulars and therefor has to know everything about-well multiply it out. They make mistakes like delivering to an address that is on hold.

    Some carriers are just jerks or lazy like ordinary mortals.

  • Oakley
    5 years ago

    Patriciae, I totally empathize with mail carriers. We're in the country on a dirt/rock road, and they come no matter what, unless the road hasn't been graded after a heavy snow. They come on Sunday if they couldn't make it the day before, usually due to weather...or Christmas, like you said.

    Our last mail carrier retired a few months ago. Last summer I ordered all of my pet food online. Imagine the weight of the following: Kitty litter, giant bag of dry dog food, 2 cases of canned dog food, 2 cases of cat food. I stock up. :)

    No way would the PO deliver such a delivery! I figured UPS would. I'm so glad DH and I were home when the carrier came to deliver. I wouldn't let him touch one of those boxes! Besides, we're the last on his route and I knew he was exhausted.

    Now don't get me started on our new (brain freeze here), "head" of our post office which serves around 1100 people. That's another topic. :)

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