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

Meanwhile, FedEx seems to be upping their game,

- bid on stamp album album on ebay Friday morning, amazingly arrived Saturday (PA->TX) standard ground $8.00 shipping. First time ever receiving ebay purchase from out of state overnight

- ordered some supplies from Amos, on Monday, arrived today Wednesday (OH->TX) free FedEx ground shipping

Well so far my items have been sitting in the post office 6 miles from my House for 3 days now. With no mail on Xmas it may or may not arrive on Saturday. I understand its a busy time for the post office but it's not like this is the first Christmas they've seen. They update their tracking every other day which hardly qualifies to me as tracking.

I have a package that I shipped on 12/9 out to Utah. It took 6 days to move from the mailing post office to a distribution site 10 miles away, from there 3 days to go to Des Moines, IA, and then 6 days to get to Cincinnati, OH ?????. It's going to Utah, why is it in Ohio???

This recently discovered U.S. government communication explains all:

I received my shipment from the Rumsey auction today.

Very pleased as I thought they weren't shipping until next month.

I politely asked if it could be sent earlier, and since mine is a flat and not a box shipment, they very nicely sent mine on over.

Shipped the 22nd; received the 24th. Thank you!!!

Merry Christmas to me

The USPS website indicates that you can file a claim for Postal Store orders that never arrived if you ordered the items 15 or more days ago. How efficient or inefficient (bureaucratic) is this process? Would it be wiser to file a claim via Paypal if one used that method for payment?

Finally received my package after a long time in transit--arriving late.". Just wanted to tell others there is hope out there for packages marked "in transit--arriving late." Hopefully, post-holidays, we will be seeing less late arrivals.

I don't hold out much hope for mine - shipped registered mail on Oct 1 and "in transit" since then.

Methinks the Pony Express got ambushed.

Most of mine have found their way to my mailbox so far. A couple stragglers holding out. Seems NJ was a black hole for a few weeks.

I'm seeing a strong uptick in ebay buyer claims for nonreceipt. Which is frustrating, because everyone knows the problems with mail delivery. And, of course, once a buyer opens a claim, a seller has 5 days to pay the money back (even if the buyer then says to wait longer). If the claim goes to ebay, they WILL refund the money no matter what.

All of which means when some guy opens a claim because his item doesn't come in two weeks, the seller is absolutely screwed, unless the buyer voluntarily decides to pay again when the item finally arrives. Thanks for the protection, ebay....

I am a frequent buyer on ebay, and not a seller. From what I can tell, ebay has substantially increased its delivery estimates to address this issue. Sellers and the USPS have beaten the estimate every time in the past six months. One estimate was three months for a purchase of stamps on ten Scott pages from a UK seller for shipment to me in California, but the package arrived in 4 weeks.

Package I shipped on 11/30 from Chicago to Hamburg, PA is finally getting there today.
It's been in Summit, IL, Forest Park, IL, Kansas City, Des Moines, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and Lancaster.

There were stories and threads about slow USPS First Class (and even some Priority) deliveries since November; I am fairly sure that most folks have understood that sending anything via USPS had the distinct possibility of being delayed. If faster delivery was desired, why did not folks use different (i.e. FedEx) services? Both incoming and outgoing parcels that I have handled via FedEx over the last 6 weeks have had mostly normal delivery times. Is anyone seeing big delays with FedEx?
Don

No Don, Fedex has been spectacular.

I've had 2 buyers file Did Not Receive for 2 lots sent thru the PO on the 23rd.