F*ck, that is NOTHING compared to what I have. Consider yourself lucky it's still moving:
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However, yes, it is well known that at the moment, USPS is really really slow because of holiday backlog. Until mid-January, or even the end of January, use UPS or FedEx if your seller can ship that way. Yes, it may be a little extra, but speed-wise, you'll get it sooner

(And yes, I could have walked to DC and back, twice since it got to DC. And Frederick is - literally - a 30 minute drive from where I am.)

I have an e-commerce home business. I have packages as far back as November 25th still not delivered. Looking at $500 or more in refunds to angry customers shortly.

Yes, it’s slow, but I can see why.

What goes around comes around. It's April 3, 1860 all over again. The Pony Express is alive and well.

I've had first class letters take more than 3 weeks to get from the Midwest to California in the past 6 weeks. I'm actually surprised that USPS priority packages aren't taking longer in the current crunch.

I had a toll payment to send regular mail roughly 80 miles away and it took 46 days before it showed check cleared on my end. And a insurance payment sent the same time and about the same distance, still mia...

And yet they temporarily raised rates for the holiday season. Lot of help that was.

Dec 8th US Shipment, Package received yesterday.

We still have a few packages outstanding for the Secret Santa program that were shipped USPS 2-3 day Priority Mail in early and mid December. Some haven't had tracking updated in weeks and others haven't even arrived in the recipient's destination city yet. It's a nightmare. If you are waiting on something that is stuck in limbo, fill out this form. It seems to help some and you do get a response back within a day.

https://www.usps.com/help/missing-mail.htm

All my stuff been good to go. Marco and pinball life in 2 days just like normal.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/parts-orders-snail-mail/

Hate the Jamaica NY distribution centre ... everything just gets hung up there

loneacer Is this something you're eating or is USPS actually refunding Priority mail fees?
I took have several early dec/late nov packages still in the system. Luckily; the customers are understanding.
That said; if they hit the 30day mark; I intend to file a lost package claim and get USPS to refund the postage.
Just curious if you've had any luck getting USPS to own up / make it right.

Mine were first class and media mail, so no insurance is included. I'll have to eat any losses. Most of them are 4 ounce media items, which I would have shipped first class, but for the fourth quarter they raised first class around 30 cents. With the volume I do, it didn't make sense to pay that much extra per package. However if I'd known the issues the USPS was going to have, I would have. Not that it would have made any difference. The few priority packages I sent still took 3-4 weeks to arrive.

I have one box set that I'm trying to do a package intercept on. It's valued around $250 and hasn't moved since Dec 14th. I don't want the buyer to be refunded and get the package too when it's worth that much. The USPS had similar problems back in May. I did 3 intercepts then and only one succeeded. The other 2 were eventually delivered nearly 2 months late and I lost a couple hundred dollars on those transactions.

I've been doing this business since 1999. I've had more lost packages since last spring than in the previous 20 years combined.

Jamaica you say. I wonder why they one is an issue.

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There's a thread around here from a postal worker describing the nightmare that recent management changes cost the USPS. Everybody knows about the sorting machines I think, but what isn't as well understood is an across-the-board denial of overtime, which is commonplace all year, and especially the holidays. So local post offices are having the hardest time dealing with the backlog, because they have the same level of staff as the rest of the year, PLUS things keep coming in.

I'm still waiting on a golf club shipped Dec 11th and a set of System 6 boards shipped Dec 7th. Both shipped USPS and each has been sitting in different distribution centers (Kentucky and South Carolina) for 4 weeks with no movement. USPS says they are just stuck in a backlog and will ship eventually. New packages seem to be passed on, while the backlog remains......

I had one parcel arrive yesterday that was stuck in Baltimore since November 16th. Had another bounce back and forth between my local post office a half mile away from my home and the sorting center in the next city twice because the local office had no room to accept the volume coming in. I have another priority mail parcel that was stuck in LA, CA for 3 weeks last month...still making its way to me today. Most days, my local sorting center has semi trucks lined down the road leading in, and stretching into a shopping center next door.

That being said, when USPS gets back in order, i'll continue to use them for small parcels under 2lb and 1 cubic foot. Until this fall, their service has been excellent. UPS and Fedex cut off bulk shippers when they started having capacity issues. Those shippers dumped everything on the USPS, who isn't allowed to deny them. USPS shipments were up 33% over during 2020 holiday season versus 2019. Its pretty hard to size up to that kind of surge, especially when they have already been kneecapped most of the year.

It was slow long before the Christmas rush. To the point that PBL even stopped using USPS, and had an announcement on the their web page.

I had an order into PBL sometime ago, which they shipped promptly. I'm well within 200 miles of PBL, so it shouldn't have taken long. USPS tracking info just went silent shortly afterwards, to the point I thought the package was lost. Many weeks later, it finally showed up.

Very frustrating.

Right. Google. Dejoy USPS slow down. No mystery here. This is election related.

We shipped out one of our PinVision TZ backboard displays to a customer on 12/8 and it got to their house yesterday. However at that point we'd already filed an insurance claim for the lost package and sent out a replacement. Thankfully our fellow pinsiders are honest folks and we'll get that unit back. However I can't imagine the nightmare that other people are facing while selling into much less "communal" based markets.

We've switched everything from USPS to UPS, and for our package sizes/weights, the prices are a bit cheaper and they're still sticking to 3-5 day delivery windows for the most part. For international shipments, we're doing DHL and they've kept up very well.

I definitely sympathize with OP.

-- Jimmy

I had a letter take 2 weeks to go 7 miles, should have walked over to the destination and back.

I have a small nightmare story from years ago.

I shipped a small package to England with a Diamond Bow Pin in it.
The sale was just under $2000.
It never Arrived, Made it into England PO, and The US Post office found a way to Deny Insurance.

The Pain this caused, and the time to fight the PO, and appease the customer was numbing.
I refunded her, and moved on.

2-1/2 years later, the package was returned to me, a bit crushed, with a dozen inked Stamps on it.

Even Priority mail can be a couple weeks if it was sent in December. They have a huge backlog, lots of employees out COVID related, and sometimes are not even scanning the packages. Now with after Christmas returns its better to avoid the USPS if possible

Despite this, I still get Amazon packages on average in 2 days. Go figure.

I felt nov/dec was horrible for 2 day prime.

Yup!! I shipped a pkg. on Dec. 7th first class, tracking said it was supposed to arrive in Columbus Oh. on the 11th. Got notification on the 16th that it was still in transit arrived at Columbus distribution center and would be arriving late. Heard absolutely zip about it till New Years Eve, got notification saying delivery was attempted on the 30th but access to delivery site was inaccessible... I let the receiving party know that it had been located in the USPS black hole and it would hopefully arrive that day. Got a message back that party had gone and picked it up cause when she called to check on it they told her it was undeliverable...Get this...because they could not turn around in their driveway...apparently USPS drivers are not allowed to back up...Go figure!!! So she went and picked it up and it made it unharmed!

Phoebe

I'm still waiting on an item I purchased Nov 12 and was supposed to be delivered on Nov 29.

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Our mail guy said people are really taking advantage of the leave situation with covid/schooling. Usual shifts of ~70 people are down to ~20 or so.

I shipped two X-Men PCBs a few months ago, one going across country, one going north of me (about a 2 hour drive). Both Priority. Cross country one arrives on time, couple days later. The one going two hours north of me took well over a month. Buyer was cool and patient, and we tracked it during some 1000 mile loop it did. Finally got to the buyer and worked fine.

Do your Amazon packages ship USPS? All of mine now come in their prime delivery vans. Most of them come a day later than promised... I just cancelled an order in route yesterday that was a day late. I needed it when it was advertised to be delivered.

I think that was his point.

Yeah, I live far, far out in redneck-ville. An Amazon Prime van would get shot at out here. (..And I wish I was joking.)

Maybe. Those vans aren't everywhere yet. I took it to mean Amazon labeled boxes get special treatment from USPS.

Gotcha.

The last few weeks, I've been getting amazon boxes within a few days. I was questioning how that was possible with the USPS backlogs.

I have seen amazon vans roaming around my area, so maybe they haven't been going through USPS here. The last time I actually saw USPS delivering a package was a few months ago.

A quick search about amazon vans turned up these articles:

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/these-are-the-vans-that-deliver-all-of-your-amazon-packages/
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30295937/amazon-commercial-vans-ford-mercedes-fca/

And a section on amazon's website for joining amazon's delivery fleet:

https://logistics.amazon.com/marketing/faq

It looks like amazon is expanding their own delivery services for certain areas.

In many cases, Amazon will go directly to the local po and drop off pallets of mail for that town. When that happens, you skip the time the mail might sit in a trailer at a facility waiting for that understaffed facility (some facilities are actually closed. Usps, fedex, Amazon) to get to it.

For the most part, you are wasting your time complaining at the local office. Everything that gets dropped off at the local office goes out to facility every day. Everything that the facility delivers to the local office each morning has to be delivered.

Your mail problems are from understaffed facilities and there also not being enough truck drivers. Your receipt makes you think your item is lost. It's not lost. It's sitting in a trailer. Your receipt makes you think your package is going somewhere that seems out of the way. It is. It's being diverted to a facility that can supposedly handle it.

I saw a story dated Dec 15 saying there were 14,000 usps workers out on quarantine. That's the number they tell you. It was probably more. It's definitely worse right now.

So the more people stay home and order stuff, and the worse covid gets, there is no way to see things getting better, because that means more and more packages, with less and getting lower amount of workers. And it's not just the usps. It's all these companies.

My Black Sabbath 5LP Super Deluxe Paranoid box set was ordered Dec 2 and delivered Dec 28. Extremely aggravated about it, but it is what it is. The website actually stated on it's home page that there can potentially be mail delays because of covid and the holidays. I read it and still ordered.

True!
But in my case, this is not correct. One such package got to me in 3 days from Kentucky - and somehow *PASSED* another box I had waiting to be delivered still.

I am positive that there is bias in regards to boxes getting scanned in and moved.

But Amazon was taking advantage of USPS system for years?!

IMHO: As Constituents; we need to be clearly letting our Representatives know that we expect and want the Federal government to fully fund the USPS. it's clear that we need this services and FedEx, UPS, and DHL aren't good enough or viable replacements.
I intend to write my reps on this topic; not that I expect the any of them to take any input seriously.

Looks like Amazon gets priority. Ordered cat treats on Saturday, USPS had it here Sunday. No delay in delivery from that company.

Still no excuse for damaging packages and contents. Had to ask for a refund on what was supposed to be a Christmas gift.

They don't care. They know it's cheaper in the long run to refund the problem orders than to spend extra time and money to pack it right.

Soft of related, I ordered a 24 pack of Rock Star energy drink for subscribe and save. It arrived Friday and they sent the wrong flavor. I checked the site and the correct flavor was out of stock. They knew they didn't have it, but sent me a substitute hoping I wouldn't care. I requested a return and they told me to keep it and refunded it.

LOL sounds like where I used to live in Missouri

Oh yeah.. the evolution was moving from USPS to a contractor fleet like lasership/etc at first and all the upstarts Amazon funded and encouraged. Basically Amazon was encouraging people to create new small businesses just to deliver packages.

Then Amazon moved onto building their own delivery fleet, and stops using all the 3rd party delivery folks where they have built their own fleets up. It's been a year or two around here.. now it's always the amazon employees+trucks doing last mile delivery here.

That's when you replace the reps, or else nothing gets fixed.