arkansas girl, I didn't tell you what to do. I said what I did. I closed with "to each their own." Guess you missed that part. 😁

I just received a Christmas card from a friend in my town. It was postmarked December 17th!

And what about it being 2021 and everyone is shopping on line these days instead of going to a store because...hey, it's 2021 ya know...wake up people! So how's that supposed to work when packages are sitting dormant in some sorting facility while 1/3 of the postal workers are out because of covid or whatever excuse they have. Supposedly the usps has hired thousands of temp workers...what are they doing? So it's being up with the times (2021) that's gotten the usps into this mess because everybody and their dog is shopping on line now because HEY it's 2021 now...not the dark ages of shopping in a store! :( GAH!

When my wife says to me that she or her mother "have always" done this or that a certain way, I ask if they would have continued using horses and horse carts after cars were invented and affordable. That usually gets the point across. Almost all but the most stubborn of people who resist changes of any kind (and they still exist) can be won over by new tools and approaches that are easier to use, cheaper and more reliable.

I never write checks. When checks are required, I use the bank feature to do it for me (and they pay postage). More than half of payments I can't make online by credit card or authorizing a bank payment wind up being paid by my bank by bank transfer anyway (ACH) and not by check at all.

For payments to individuals, Zelle and Venmo are easy and free with most banks.

In my area, the USPS has gotten a lot of extra business from the likes of Amazon and others who use the hybrid services of UPS or FedEx to the postal distribution center and then the mail carriers for the final delivery segment. Times change, it needs to change too.

Part of what has caused the Postal Services' recent problems, besides an federal executive branch and an unqualified Postmaster determined to cripple it, is the pandemic. It will recover.

In the meantime, something I've mentioned before, is that there is a lot of wasted spending because of the historical practice of having Post Office locations seemingly every 2 miles. Some are even closer together than that. They could save a lot of money by closing many of these little ones with no real inconvenience to customers and no reduction of service. In the private sector, this is called "right siziing" and needs to be done.

@joyfulguy - The Canadian postage stamps that you refer to as "permanent" are the same as what the United States Postal Service refers to as "Forever" stamps. You purchase them at the current one-ounce rate, and they never expire - they're good "forever." Even when postal rates increase, a Forever stamp can be used even though it was purchased at a lower cost.

The current cost of a one-ounce stamp is $0.55. The rate for each additional ounce will go up on January 24th from $0.15 to $0.20. But, the US Postal Service sells two-ounce Forever stamps and I bought a bunch at $0.70 so I will still be able to use those. (They also sell three-ounce Forever stamps for $0.85.) The two-ounce and three-ounce Forever stamps can be purchased for $0.70 and $0.85, respectively, until January 24th.

And here in the United States, we can purchase a single Forever stamp but that has to be done at a Post Office or other place (such as grocery stores) that sell individual stamps. If we order stamps online from the USPS, you have to order a quantity at a time (e.g., a sheet or "book," generally of 20 stamps).

I'm still awaiting a package from an Ebay order December 10th.

As far as it being 2021, I write few checks these days but I still feel there are appropriate uses for them. Before the pandemic, and will again afterwards, pay anyone providing a service like a plumber or electrician, handyman or carpenter by check. I pay my lawn service via check and also my taxes. All other bills are paid online through my bank's bill pay. I prefer to control what leaves my accounts, so I never use auto pay or give anyone authority to access. I've always felt strongly about that - for me, it doesn't matter to me what others choose to do. A few years back when my mom started declining I discovered a company she purchased a product from one time had been dipping into her account and withdrew monthly for 2 years. I contacted her state's Attorney's General and was able to recoup some of it for her. Also, a handful of my telehealth client's don't have computers or internet in spite of it being 2021....

I check my account(s) several times a week with a click of a button. Takes me less than a minute, if that. If someone was getting into something fraudulently, I'd know it within a couple of days, not two years later. I also don't even own a checkbook. If I need to write a check, I do what Elmer does, send it via my bank. And like he said, the bank pays the postage. If it's to a plumber or my petsitter, or some such individual, I also use what Elmer does, Zelle or Venmo, or PayPal.

I find it fascinating, or sad, that people outright dismiss and cling to the same way of doing things when presented with other options, without considering if a new way of doing something may actually work for them. "I've always done it this way and by golly I'm going to do it this way forever."

But maybe it doesn’t work for them. If I want to look for a check from before 2020, I have to guess the month and year range, request access to those statements, wait several days for that access, sort through those. Someone who maintains an organized checkbook and paper statements can just open a file and flip through those. Perhaps for them the assurance of that hard copy audit trail outweighs any benefit you or I perceive we have from strictly doing things online. No need to judge it as sad. In time next generations will look at the way we do things as terribly old fashioned, but we’ll be getting along just fine.

Recently, an officer in my bank told me that she pays all her bills by check. Yep. When she gets the bill in the mail, she writes out a check. She loves the paper trail and filing system. I was stunned.

We don't write nearly so many checks as in the dark ages. I still write checks for medical bills. Those are the transactions that are most likely to get mixed up, so it's worth it to me to write the check number and date mailed on the customer copy of the invoice, and keep it for a year or two.

Lindsey, I had no idea 'forever' stamps came in different sizes! That must be useful to people or businesses that mail extra-heavy envelopes.

What I'd like our (USA) mail system to figure out is how to cut down on junk mail and unwanted donation request mail.

If a charity is willing to prepare a letter for mailing and pay the postage, the PO would be glad to make the money.

I lost my sunglasses, ordered new ones. In transit was the only info, USPS. They DID arrive. ☺ I did have a spare. The optics in cheap sunglasses is so bad it makes me nauseous to wear them. ☺ ☺ Great huh...my prescription glasses on now on order, per a site Clark Howard recommends(I've never worn glasses before 20/40 vision)...so I'm looking forward to receiving them. They still say, "being manufactured".

Elizabeth, yes -- too much money in the system for a quick & easy fix. Never the less, I sure would be supportive of a change.

I got one of my credit card bills yesterday (Jan 2nd) and the payment was due on Jan 2nd...........got some phone calls to make, ugh.

Just a couple of suggestions. I pay most of my things by setting up either level pay sent by my bank. I stopped auto-withdrawal a couple of years ago when one of the utilities went haywire. Seeing a $1K+ withdrawal from a utility, more than used in a year changed my mind.

You will need a printer and time but if you only write a few checks many banks allow you to print your statements and copies of your checks. Some banks have stopped returning checks so you would have to do this anyway if you want to keep them for your records. I had to do this when I was my husband's conservator because the bank would have charged the account to provide the same copies that I could print with the statement.

I'm glad to read evidence that something is moving. My December 1 Boscov's order still hasn't arrived. The last tracking info was that it arrived in Jersey City, NJ on December 20, departed there on the 24th, and is "in transit." It contained two Christmas presents for my daughter. I really thought ordering by December 1 was early enough, but these are special (not in a good way) times.

Meanwhile, I might add, all my Amazon orders have been arriving promptly.

I am in California and just received a Christmas card yesterday from my brother who lives in Virginia. He mailed it on December 18th.

"so I never use auto pay or give anyone authority to access."

When you use autopay to a credit card, you get free usage points you wouldn't get otherwise and a delay for when the items need to be paid. This doesn't take away the ability to check or question the biller's charges nor to have a billing corrected, not at all.

I save $25/month by allowing my cell phone bill to be charged to my checking account, and I saved 1/2 of one percent on a car loan for the same thing. Are these not worthwhile to do? All my other autopays go to a credit card.

"If I want to look for a check from before 2020, I have to guess the month and year range, request access to those statements, wait several days for that access,"

If you have frequent need to go back and check payments happening later ago than within the last 6 months, use Mint (free) or Quicken (inexpensive). You'll have immediate access to payments via key word search or specific category for all past expenses. I use Quicken but very rarely have a "need" to use this capability. Sometimes an interest, rarely a need.

I just checked and with two different banks I have/had checking accounts, both have statements available immediately online from Jan 2014 forward. If yours doesn't have this convenience immediately available, try another bank.

"Perhaps for them the assurance of that hard copy audit trail outweighs any benefit"

The physical method of payment has no effect on how one can keep track of bank transactions.

Everyone needs a system to keep track of "checking" account ins and outs. A person could use online payments (whether push or pull) and bank-generated checks exclusively (like sephia_wa says she does) and still keep a "check register" using paper and pencil. As far as the "assurance" of an audit trail, I'm not sure what the value is of that.

Many people who continue with old ways and write a lot of checks perhaps can't be said to "prefer" doing that unless they've given the new ways a try. Many haven't. What they "prefer" is to not change.

"Recently, an officer in my bank told me that she pays all her bills by check."

I've had a lot of dealing with banks and bank people over the years. I concluded long ago that such people are the last place to go to get useful information or advice about banking and banking services. other than specifics about how their own banks handle specific things. My experience is that people who truly understand finance and the banking system don't generally work at banks other than at high HQ positions. Do you want to hear the story about when I had to loan a bank money to loan me money? Or my most recent refi when I had to tell a large lender's loan application department that they were doing something wrong?

But yes, there's no one way.

One of the trends I noticed this year was that a lot of arrival scans were skipped. For example, we had a priority package that was picked up at the house. Usually the carrier scans it and we get confirmation almost immediately. This time, our pick up was confirmed, but the box was never scanned until it showed up 4 days later in the next state. The same thing happened with some washing machine parts I ordered. The seller sent them out and they were unaccounted for from FL to CA until they hit a hub rather close to home- that was 2 weeks it was MIA.

We have a few bills that are still easier to pay by check- maybe not a better choice these days. I sent an annual payment out on 12/5 and it's still MIA- either in the post office, or not getting done at the processing center. Might have to pay it again online if it doesn't show up soon...

"We have a few bills that are still easier to pay by check"

What kind of bills are they?

I pay my rent by check.......the only bill I pay by check. My landlady is 88 years old, is not very sophisticated with modern technology and likes that piece of paper in her hand :-) Since she resides out of town much of the time, I could do a direct deposit to her bank account to speed things up but she remains reluctant to go that route. And since I scored a serious deal wrt to rent and free access to any gardening I want to do, I am disinclined to rock the boat :-)

I haven't had any problem with receiving mail and packages through USPS, Fedex or UPS in the past month, or so. Nothing has disappeared in transit, and very few delays in delivery. Sometimes, I received items before the expected delivery date. If you had a problem I would expect it had more to do with workers being sick with CoVid-19, etc. and Christmas deliveries, then with phantom disappearing mailboxes.

I have my mortgage payment and auto insurance premium on automatic payment from my bank account, and pay most of my other bills online. I don't feel safe putting a check with my name, address, bank account number and routing number in the mail. but I have to do that for one medical bill.

I know a couple of people who still pay their bills by mail. One doesn't have internet access and wouldn't know how to use it if he did, and the other one has internet access and a new laptop, but refuses to learn how to do it.

gardengal48, in your case, I would be happy to pay by check for cheaper rent and gardening !

"I don't feel safe putting a check with my name, address, bank account number and routing number in the mail. but I have to do that for one medical bill."

You have NO risk of losing money should your bank account and routing numbers becoming known to someone wanting to use them fraudulently. Banking laws make that risk of loss one that the banks have to bear and reimburse a customer for should something happen. Check your bank transactions once a month for unauthorized activity, just as should be done with credit cards, and then don't worry about it.

I sent a small package First Class mail from Wisconsin to AZ back in early November. 13 days in transit.

Here is what the USPS has to say about First Class mail:

First-Class Mail® is an affordable mail service for standard-sized, single-piece envelopes weighing up to 3.5 oz and large envelopes and small packages weighing up to 13 oz with delivery in 3 business days or less.

Yet all of my USPS packages coming from Amazon arrive right on or ahead of schedule. How does that happen? Maybe cuz Bezos is a First Class citizen & I am not?

On Dec. 3rd. my doctor faxed in my prescriptions to Humana. About 3 weeks later three of them came in a package.. I have not received the 4th one. I called Humana last week and they said it was shipped separately and would arrive this past Saturday. Of course it didn't. If it does not come on Monday, I am calling them again.

Sue

gardengal, you're very kind with accommodating your landlady's need to receive an actual check. I get that, her discomfort with electronic banking. But it sounds like you generally do your banking electronically.

I'm still waiting on a resolution from 800flowers for an order to be delivered on 12/21/20 to my terminally ill aunt. The flowers were "reordered" on the 24th. They still never received anything.

Now I'm dealing with a dispute through PayPal.

Shame on me for not calling a local florist directly. BTW - they're outside Rochester too! Snow?

I filled out the USPS form online for a box I sent (ground--$50 and not that big/heavy,) and lo and behold, someone from the office in NY called me that same day. I was floored. Not that she could hurry my package along, but she was kind. She said the effort with this avalanche of mail is with first-class packages, meaning my box sent Ground is being passed over. I asked her if it's even in the state and she said, no, but that it is not lost. (That was my concern.) We're going on the third week now, and no sign of movement.

Just yesterday a small package (a prescription) arrived that was mailed 2-day priority on 12/17/2020 and expected to arrive 12/21/2020.

Another package containing christmas gifts, and fresh baked cookies was mailed, 2-day priority, from northern Virginia on 12/08/2020, and has yet to arrive.

I had to send an overnight letter last week. There are not many options. The overnight air saver from UPS cost me $48 and it wasn't delivered until 10 p.m., but it did get there so I'm happy.

Bob_cville, sorry about the cookies. That's disappointing.

I had a USPS overnight delivery of a water sample that had to be kept cold. It was a day late, so I got a refund from the Post Office. I had to start all over again with the water test, but this time I drove it myself. Two round trips. What I saved in postage I probably spent in gas, but at least I know it arrived on time.

sjerin, thanks for that info. My DH filled out a report for a package but he hasn't heard anything at all. Luckily it's not medical or critical.

My own lost package is still about 20 miles away in the UPS sorting facility. It's been "awaiting delivery" there since Dec 7th. They're all overwhelmed.

(eta: DH's package was delivered today :-)

Elmer, Re: bills that are easier to pay with checks. My local water district is very small and only accepts paper checks unless you want to pay a 3rd party surcharge to pay electronically. Weirdly, the paper checks are processed by a center 300 miles away... Checks can be dropped off at the local office, but I'm not out that way much. I also pay garbage by check because the company requires about 2 pages worth of information from the current invoice be filled out online each time a payment is made. Takes about 1/10th the time for me to write out a check and send it in the mail. I should probably recheck with them to see if they have updated their system at all.

We also have a couple of small insurance policies through places that aren't our main insurance company. When we bought the policies a long time ago, they did not have online services, so we've never set up an account. Since the policies are paid only once a year, it's always been easier just to send off a check. I'm in the process of getting accounts set up with this place though.

I wasn't big on the idea of automatic payments for a long time, but most of our bills pay automatically these days too.

quasifish you missed part of what Elmer and others, including myself have been mentioning. You can have your bank send the checks for you. Go online and set it up as a bill to be paid. It can be setup to pay even amounts or for you to change the amount. You enter the account number as you should when writing checks or any other identifying information.

You can start or stop any time to a business or to a person. In setting up like mailing your payments you can not set the date of the payment as the due date of the bill.

There has been an attempt on the part of some business people to take the part of the postal service that pays away and leave the parts that do not. It is an ongoing onslaught. Americans pay a fraction in postage for the services that other countries pay. We are huge and far flung. We do expect our mail moves like lightening none the less. The USPS is by no means perfect and they do make mistakes. So does the postal services of other countries. No other country has so many people and so much territory to cover. This administration has gone out of its way to make it not work. No surprise that it is not. The Postal Service is in the constitution so you cant just get rid of it and your government uses it to communicate with you. We ought to expect that it will work as well as it used to. It isnt at the moment. We should complain. So tell this administration you are peeved.

I sent a Christmas card containing a gift to each of my 2 sons. No. 1 son living in a city 9 miles away got his 2 days later; No. 2 son living in a city 80 miles away has not got his yet. Its probably lost.

Maifleur, I get what you are saying, was just meaning that these payments have always been easy (and infrequent) to pay by mail and it's never been a problem until recently. I've not needed to use bill pay through the bank and never saw a reason to bother until now.

Your Post Office stories are outrageous. I haven't had any problem. In fact I returned an online purchase overseas and it got there and replacement item received in record time.

Other than losing my PO box payment within the facility, I have not had any significant issues. There is one individual - I think the counter supervisor - who is pretty difficult to deal with. When they closed my box for nonpayment (despite my having dropped off the payment onsite before the due date) and I visited the office to complain, she is the one that insisted on a whomping great late charge because I didn't have the cancelled check to prove I had paid on time. Well, of course not - they had lost it!!

Come to find out when I picked up my mail several weeks later, she had the payment all the time and just never processed it because she "couldn't read the box number clearly" despite the fact that it was preprinted on the check, also hand written on the check in the memo section and clearly designated on the envelope they provide for box payment purposes. WTF?? She also insisted the unprocessed payment was placed back in my box with a note to that effect on a date that was clearly a big fat lie, as I picked up mail after that date and it was not there!!

There is always going to be at least one bad apple in the crowd and the PO is no exception.

Rose! My sister’s package was delivered on Tuesday! One of the little gifts it contained was a Hallmark sisters ornament. She leaves her Christmas tree up until it starts to shed so shes getting to use it now. Everyone else hoping to hear good news on gifts and cards keep thinking positive.

Update:

> Another package containing christmas gifts, and fresh baked cookies was
mailed, 2-day priority, from northern Virginia on 12/08/2020, and has
yet to arrive.

The package was finally delivered yesterday, One month and 2 days after it was sent. With it in the mailbox was a reminder that my new puppy is due for follow-up shots on December 2, suggesting it was sent before that date.

The vets could have attached the card to a snail and had it arrive much quicker.

Bob_cville, sounds like a container of mail got misplaced within the sorting facility and was only found recently. How stale were the cookies? Did the cold weather keep them fresh enough to eat?

When I see "are the cookies fresh enough to eat" it sends me back to childhood with those parents sending cookies to soldiers and sailors when care packages might arrive months later.

I'm still waiting for a package I ordered on December 1, containing Christmas gifts for my daughter. BUT I followed a suggestion to sign up for daily tracking updates, and that seems to have had the desired effect. This morning I was notified that the package arrived in Philadelphia this a.m. and is on it's way. Yay! That's the first I've heard of it since 12/24.

Hmmm, Sephia, maybe where you live if you pay taxes on line you don't have to add on an extra fee. I pay taxes with a check. And a lot of things I paid for with home construction was by check through the mail... not everyone had credit card payment possibilities. My snow plow guy takes cash or a check, for instance. You did come off as a bit sanctimonious.

My items ordered December 11th, arrived today. 🤷

we ordered clothing in MID-november ... got word this week with some BS reason for the delay ... we cancelled the order this week. problem is not the delivery system, it is fullfillment ...

Yay, the gifts cards I put in the mail in early December arrived at their destination in Georgia today. I thought they were goners.