Slow USPS Deliveries - Grumpy Old Men Complaining About Post Office, Ebay, & Kids On The Lawn

Thank you
"Who reads the small print?" Or the directions?
Thanks Don. I'll do that
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Here's an unusual one. This was returned to us yesterday. It was originally sent to Denmark but instead went on vacation to Barbados for 1 whole year. I don't know why there was no attempt to forward, but remarkably the item was returned in perfect condition.

Does the box smell like suntan lotion?

Well, my package from the Ukraine showed up today!!!

I miss traveling, I guess we can live vicariously through our packages.

I bought a big item Sunday and its being delivered Thursday why can some companies do it and not USPS?

hi; Has anyone had mail going through Pitney Bowes ? tracking up date with nothing since 11 days...Only the date the seller registered the letter.

I am waiting to receive a package that is being tracked, but has had no activity since Feb 9. It's in Chicago, the right place to be prior to being sent to Canada. Is it normal to sit a week or more in one spot before anyone else swipes it?

I have had them sit for three weeks in the US.

Well UPS isn't doing any better than the USPS. At least the USPS probably has a map.

Tracking for an item that was to arrive yesterday.

Edit: Forgot, destination Minnesota

Here is the USPS Tracking report from my long suffering ebay purchase. Purhcased on Feb 16. Checked again today. It has looked like this since Feb 20.

Moving within the USPS network.... Really? Give me a break



Has New Jersey not thawed out yet?

Mike

USPS has "lost" my wife's new drivers license between Boston and Western Ma...twice! The third one just made it today. USPS lost my license plates, again from Boston to Western MA after they were sent in November 2020. In February 2021 they finally dropped off of tracking and were replaced and mailed again. This is really, really, really bad. I cannot even imagine the horror stories with RX's and bills and legal documents. Something has to give. Now.

The saga of the missing registered mail envelope shipped Oct 01 2020 has finally been resolved. After 5 months and an earlier denial of the insurance claim, the USPS finally paid my seller's claim for the lost shipment. I got my money back months ago, but would much rather have had the three scarce Canal Zone booklet panes it contained!

So might as well get a rant in from Oz, the lucky country, or so people say.

International mail is still stopped to many counties and even when normal airmail letters are 'allowed', air parcels are still a no go.


Airmail from Japan to Australia was stopped from around March last year. They started up back in November and while we have those now, there is no air parcels service through Japan Post to Australia.

And while that is bad, the price of the cheapest small SAL parcels are going way up if and when that service ever resumes.


And even if there is international air mail service between countries the time it takes is long. A letter from Japan to Australia can take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks. (A surface parcel only took six weeks from Tokyo to Melbourne!!)

From the USA airmail letters are taking anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks. Last bunch of 3 letters mailed the same day from the same place took 3 weeks, 4 weeks, and 5 weeks!!!

Last stamp purchase I had took 6 weeks to get to me with it taking three weeks just to make it out of the USA, a week lost 'in space' between the USA and Australia, and a whopping two weeks from Sydney to Melbourne.

Speaking of which..............our domestic residential mail service is still every other day even though the virus has been under control here for ages. That means the stamp hinges I bought on the 10th of March and mailed on the 11th still haven't reached me even though they were bought from a famous shop in the Melbourne CBD and I live about 40 kilometers away. So at least 11 days if it shows up on Monday or 13 on Wednesday..............

Given the huge progress over the past 130 years or so one would think that these huge postal agencies and all the so called highly paid and supposedly intelligent people working for them would at least be able to work out some kind of solution to get mail moving around the world in some kind of timely manner.

I have post cards that were mailed from Austria back in 1885 that only took 35 days from there to Melbourne and another one to a small town in South Australia which also took the same amount of time.

And finally, many of you living outside of Australia may not know it, but if you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident and want to leave Australia you have to apply to the Australian government for permission to leave which may or may not be granted.

There are still flights in and out of Australia and the prices may surprise you............

Sydney to London is about A$1000 cattle class or $A3000 business class.

Coming the other way it is a different story. Cheapest flight on Emirates to Australia is about A$11,000. If you wait a month or so the price drops to 'only' A$5000 or so.

Why?

Because Australia still has caps on the number of people it will let enter the country. Plus you have to pay out of your own pocket whatever the cost is for the mandatory 2 week quarantine which I heard was around A$3500....

Australia is doing quite well compared to other countries in the world in controlling the virus, but it has come at huge costs.

Melbourne Yankee - That was very interesting. Thank you for sharing. A lot to chew on there for sure. Yes, the World that fought WWII has been utterly cowed by a virus with an extremely low mortality rate for most people. The completely risk averse population now is not made of the same stuff that stormed the beaches of Normandy. History will not be kind. As to the mail I see the service continuing to be abysmal for the foreseeable future. The virus is a marvelous excuse for everything now. Yesterday I went to my bank which has been closed fo walk-ins for ten months and found that it is still closed. Everything else around the bank is open for business from a Dentist to a restaurant and a grocery store. I went to the bank drive-up and was greeted by a Teller behind the bulletproof glass wearing two masks. I asked why they were still closed to walk-ins. She candidly said "because we can be, the bank does not want to risk it". Shrug

Maybe folks should not worry about lost mail since the loss rate is so low.