I Am Having Trouble Buying USPS Stamps Lately, Anyone Else?

I may be young, but I'm old fashioned, which means I use a lot of postage, in addition to collecting of course. I've been having trouble getting stamps outside of the post office for over a month.

I ordered a bunch of stuff from the catalog, but I did it through the mail and by check. That check cleared 2 weeks later, but I ordered over 4 weeks AGO, and still nothing. I called the service and was told there was a blizzard in February, and it normally takes about 4 weeks for it to process this way versus one day over the internets.

However, I am ordering on the internets as, well, I need stuff. That was supposed to be "1 business day". It's past 2 days now.

This was the first time I ordered via the catalog via the mail and by check. Is all of this normal? I'd rather do all of this by mail or in person versus the internet by principal. I'm currently a federal employee whose job depends on people mailing things in for me to do versus them doing my job themselves for free(volunteer), so outside of fun, I dislike self-service in our economy.

My main question is, is this the new normal? And if it's a 4-6 week process, what's the point of ordering stamps by mail, I don't even remember what I requested! Let alone this odd wait time for my internet order

-signed
stampless with bills and angry letters piling up :)

If you order by phone or on-line with a credit card, the orders are usually processed within a week. Otherwise, the delay may have been caused by pre-ordering stamps not yet issued (entire order held until all stamps are officially available) or stamps that are out-of-stock and waiting for replenishment. There have also been reports of staffing cuts at the USPS that may be at fault. I do understand there were midwest weather situations that caused delays in shipments, but that should have long been resolved by now. If you have already contacted the USPS and they have indicated a 4 week delay for check orders, then it is apparently not unusual for the wait.

I'd call their 800# during business hours and ask to speak with a customer service representative and get a order number and/or tracking number on the order. It may have been shipped out and just not reached you yet (either a lost or stolen package). If it hasn't been shipped, they can at least identify the reason for the delay and you could at that point request alternate items, a partial shipment, or a cancellation/refund, if necessary.

I stayed away from all pre-orders due to time constraints. However I thought pre-orders get sent separately, I did that once online for the O'henry issues(these still say order processing although they've been sent last year). My previous internet purchases in the last year(or two years) have been shipped in 1 day or on the 2nd day, this will be the first that the status is not updating to shipped until 3+ days. Which I thought was unusual.

As for my stamps by mail order, it was the Quarter 1 catalog, and I was trying to get the issues that were being pulled before it's too late. This is what happened:
In 2 weeks the check cleared. I thought this sounded like a reasonable lead time in my opinion. 2 weeks later I called; she told me a story about a blizzard in February, I tell her that's weeks before my check was cleared, and I was told it takes several weeks for that accounting system to feed over to another computer. My order wasn't in their system yet. She mentions the internet as an alternative, where then I make a joke about my computer taking 1 day to process an order versus their computers that take 4 weeks(I don't think she understood the irony of that). In other words, the norm is there is a several week lag time between clearing a check in accounting and then being feed over to the stamp people to process and ship the orders. I am fixing to call later on this week, probably tomorrow if my internets order still doesn't say shipped.

I find the whole thing strange when everything was so smooth before, and this was my first by mail order. I also think that some offerings in the USA Philatelic catalog doesn't pull up nor show on the website making it a necessity. I guess the lesson is only order new issues at the beginning of the quarter for issues being issued at the end of the quarter or collectibles but try not to rely on it for postage postage.

For your information, On my recent internet order I ordered the Patriotic Star 46¢ Stamp, year of the Rabbit(wanted to snag a pane before they get pulled if they get pulled), and 4 old first day covers that are being pulled soon.

I suspect his must be staffing issues and the new normal now.

I'll update the post with whatever the resolution is.

(edit: Noticed the sad fact that my 50th post is a complaint :( )

I thought it would be funny if both my orders arrived on the same day, they both came a day apart.
Internet order was shipped hours later, apparently they have a late or 2nd shift I suppose. That was received today in a first class mail white envelope.
Mail order was ordered on February 25th by me, and received March 28th. Came in one of those baggy packages(whatever they are called) but labeled for priority mail. No priority mail packages this time, but the method of mailing still seems somewhat random to me.

There you have it. I'll go through the mail for good collectibles and pre-orders, but I don't think it makes sense to order stamps by mail for general use postage at all unless time is not an issue.

jeffy100b,

I have had really late delivery both by mail and internet ordering. My last order was placed 3-28-13 and I received it today 4-1-13. I guess it all depends on who and when received by the PO.

Dirtydan, is there a typo in your post? If you ordered it on 3-28 and got it on 4-1 they must have delivered it to you personnaly! And by plane! Pete.

Peter,

You made me think so I just double checked and the dates are right. It must be my lucky day because usually it takes 3 to 6 weeks. My wife just reminded me that I did mention to her that I was surprised. I will have to tell my sister who is a rural route letter carrier (not for long). She will be shocked!

Dan

I ordered on 3/29 and should receive today or tomorrow. (Thankfully, because I ordered a strip of the Kaleidoscope Flowers to use on my local post covers that need to go out 4/4. I also picked up the 2012 Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps.)

This is my third (I think) order, and I've not had any delays. Until this last one, I've only ordered "regular" stamps for postage though.

Hey, look at it this way-maybe by the time you get them they might me considered classic era stamps! lol

ILS

I should have kept my mouth shut. ><

According to the tracking information, my stamps just left Omaha today. I'll be lucky if they come in tomorrow afternoon, but I'll have to run home to pick them up so I can get the ZuPost mail out on time.

I stopped in at the PO over lunch to pick up a couple more global forever stamps and asked if they had the Kaleidoscope Flowers coils, and the poor gal had no idea what I was talking about. She did offer me some of the Florida flower sheets, but those will be too big for the ZuPost covers.

I am bringing this thread back to life. The items in the internet store still say ships within 1 business day, my order was received at noon on the 5th, tomorrow is the 10th, and I haven't even received a "your order was shipped" notification yet.
While I'm not a big fan of the hurry up ship everything damaged as quickly as you can mentality of online retailers and regular stores, I notice a steep progression in the last year of how much 1 business day keeps changing when ordering a few panes of stamps online. Am I the only one?

I've been ordering via the USPS Store (https://store.usps.com/store/) with a credit card, and the orders come in a matter of days, though I have not been counting.

When I included a pre-order, the rest of the order came promptly, and the pre-release item came separately, with plenty of time to make FDCs.

As the orders are probably hand-picked & probably hand-packed & certainly hand-delivered, I don't feel like I am favoring a machine over a person.

Moreover, I do not think it is real fun for the window clerks to have to look & see that they do not have what I want.

The Postal Bulletin new stamp announcements often say that branch post offices will get what they will get, and that's that, and they may not re-order.

John Apfelbaum recently ranted on the subject of new issues at:

http://johnapfelbaum.blogspot.com/2...-issues.html

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

When I order stamps from USPS, I just use their ebay store. I always get my order by priority mail a couple of days later. I haven't bought stamps from the catalog or from a brick and mortar for almost a year now. I have never had a problem with an order placed through the ebay store, and the S&H charges are very reasonable. John