Mail Speed?

[cheap-o]

Wondering what everyones experiece with the mail has been lately. Some of my trade get there super fast and other take a looooong time to get there. And it has nothing to do with how far away they are either.

Plus I have had a few that contain items like btfe arived riped up. I always try and pack my stuff super neat but it is crazy. I worry that the closer it gets to the holidays the worse it is going to get. And in the past 6 weeks (maybe 30 trades) I have had 2 completely disapear, never to be found.

[STallerico]

I have had the Same problem :( I guess we just have to take our chances and hope they arrive in a timely manner and in one piece.

[Doglover8180]

I think it may have to do with the size of the cities that the mail is being sent from and the various changes the post office has made lately. For instance, I live in a decent sized town but it's small for a city. My city used to have a central post office in town where all the mail left directly from it to other cities and states. Well, recently that post office (which is still up and running as a post office) but now does not act as the central post for mail from our city that is going to other cities & states. Instead, they have re-routed all outside city mail to a major city, where it then gets sorted and leaves the state. I am probably not explaining this very well but it's what the post office has done in my city so it's likely to have taken place in other cities as well given the changes the post office is trying to make. I am sure the end result is to make the post offices more efficient or require less employees at each location or something, but in the process it does slow down some mail I think.

[rheavon]

I think the mail speed has slowed down a little- and having a postal holiday this past week didn't help much. I'm just worried that when December comes around, the mail might be even slower. :-/

[foggierbard9]

Some days I'm lucky if my mail carrier even picks up my mail. She will see the flag, and shove new mail in my box, and NOT take the envie that I am mailing, gets VERY annoying to say the least.

[$Saving!]

Wondering what everyones experiece with the mail has been lately. Some of my trade get there super fast and other take a looooong time to get there. And it has nothing to do with how far away they are either.

Plus I have had a few that contain items like btfe arived riped up. I always try and pack my stuff super neat but it is crazy. I worry that the closer it gets to the holidays the worse it is going to get. And in the past 6 weeks (maybe 30 trades) I have had 2 completely disapear, never to be found.

I've always noticed (not a new phenomenon) that mailing something to a state 'next door' to mine will take longer than if I mail something across country. That's because it gets flown vs ground transport.

As to missing mail and things being damaged, so far I haven't notice that on mail I've sent or received (fingers crossed!).

And I hate to say it, but with the cut backs at the USPS, and the fact that they are union based, it could be a general slowdown of workers too. I'm sure the work load is much greater than they have ever faced before and it could be an informal revolt by some employees

And since the USPS has no real tracking like UPS does, other than certified mail option, regular mail cannot be tracked accurately so if something gets lost, it's just plain lost.

[mystry72]

Some days I'm lucky if my mail carrier even picks up my mail. She will see the flag, and shove new mail in my box, and NOT take the envie that I am mailing, gets VERY annoying to say the least.

I'd call the postmaster in the town your at and complain. If it doesn't work the first time, keep complaining!! They are bound to get tired of "hearing from you" about your lousy carrier and maybe do something about it. That or they'll get tired of you and you won't get any at all. lol And, if nothing else, work your way up the chain, everyone has a supervisor somewhere.

Just my opinions/suggestions.

[postalchick71]

They have started to consolidate mail processing. So your local mail might have to go a little further to get processed. Their goal is to drop down to 250 processing centers across the country. This will eventually slow down mail delivery. They have hired temporary workers in the past few weeks who will be around until Christmas. Also there is a push to run as many letters as possible through automation. Automation equipment is not friendly towards letters that aren't a standard size and thickness. Unfortunately mail does get lost, ripped, and destroyed all the time.

[Dengineer]

I don't know what it is, but mail from my house in Alabama to South Carolina can take up to a week (and 9 days in one case) whereas mail to other areas of the country takes 3-4 days. This problem is specific to South Carolina only--I have sent something to California and it arrived in 3 days, whereas nothing gets from my house to anywhere within the state of South Carolina in less than 5 days.

[ELLE-TN]

My mail seems to be awfully slow these days. I used to get my paycheck on Wednesdays and now I'm lucky if I get it on Saturday. Heaven forbid a holiday step in because that could delay things even more.