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Thread: Another Thread About Mailing

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    Senior Member eachan's Avatar
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    Default Another Thread About Mailing

    I've been awaiting a couple of pens from the US. They were sent on 11 January and arrived today! In the meantime I had sent letters to correspondents in the US and they had taken the normal time - around a week to ten days. Is that the general experience, that mail from the the US to the UK is very slow but just about normal in the other direction?

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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    My experience remains varied between the US and UK, from a month down to week for first class envelopes.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    I've had a similar experience and was waiting for a very long time for some ink samples to arrive in the UK but letters seem to take less time both ways.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Oh well. It can only get better. I hope.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    I'm seeming to have few problems sending stuff TO the US, with pretty much normal delivery times (mostly tracked, but a fair amount of regular airmail as well). Getting things FROM the US is horrendous. Things seem to eventually reach an airport, and then just sit there for weeks on end. My best result in recent months has been 3 weeks (but then I got clobbered by VAT/duty/ransom charge this end) and I think the worst has been about 3 months. Nothing has actually disappeared altogether (yet).

    I get the impression that the problem is USPS and as a result most people I buy from are now not using them at all for international stuff, which means it costs a lot more to get things shipped in the first place.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Quote Originally Posted by mizgeorge View Post
    ...I get the impression that the problem is USPS....
    It is clear that the changes being made by the USPS (under its controversial Postmaster General) are manifesting in basic first class domestic deliveries.

    For example, I haven't seen Postage Due envelopes and labels for many years, and now I've gotten two in weeks. One was a small envelope received from a pen friend containing an item that pushed thickness in excess of the 1/4-inch limit (bumping from $1 to $4.90) and another for a similar thick small envelope containing a defective Apple cable that was returned to me (the Best Buy store refused to pay the postage due for the warranty return). I have an official USPS gauge to manually measure the thickness, and the envelope passed. I assume a USPS laser device thought differently.

    Four postcards from one sender in Chicago dated from Jan 28 to Feb 21 all arrived at my address in Pennsylvania on Feb 23. A letter from a fellow Geek less than 50 miles/80 kilometers away, mailed Jan 27, did not arrive until Feb 22. Meanwhile, letters from California in the same period took 4 to 6 days.

    The USPS is undergoing changes that defy efforts to predict when first class mail will arrive. Priority mail seems exempt from these disruptions.
    Last edited by FredRydr; February 26th, 2021 at 07:05 AM.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    I recently had this experience with a package from Goulet:

    USPS route.jpeg

    As you can see it was 6 days traipsing across Virginia...

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Recently I had a first class envelope take a month to go from Ohio to Maine.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Fred is totally on it: while there may have been the occasional sluggish parcel or letter a couple years ago, since DeJoy took over last year it has been abysmal. I've made good friends at my local PO and it has weighed on them heavily because they take the brunt of the customer ire even though the problems emanate far, far up the chain.

    There are governmental efforts to oust this grifting clown, but it is going to take a while. I look for better days by the end of the year, but I"m an incurable optimist.
    "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
    and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

    ~ Benjamin Franklin

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    My experience using standard mail has been:

    Maryland to Maryland = 3 weeks
    Maryland to NYC = 2 weeks
    NYC to Maryland = 1 month
    NJ to Maryland = 2 days
    Maryland to NJ = 2 weeks
    VA to Maryland = 3 days
    Maryland to Va = 2 weeks
    TX to Maryland = 1 week
    Maryland to TX = 2 weeks
    Maryland to CA = 2 weeks
    CA to Maryland = 1 month
    USA to UK = 2 weeks
    UK to USA = 1 month
    Turkey to USA = 1 month
    HK to USA = 1 month
    Palestine to USA = 1 month
    Kuwait to USA = 1 month
    USA to Kuwait = 1 month

    The failure point in my area is "Baltimore, Maryland".
    The Mail depot there has had a lack of employees available to process the mail, and even the temporary workers they have brought in have left the facility because of constant COVID-19 outbreaks.
    Sadly, there is no point in the mail path where I can get around that depot if mail is going to or coming from the west coast, New England or over the atlantic and pacific. The only path where things work right, is sending and receiving mail from/to the south.

    The mail has reverted back to an ancient time and length of delivery periods.
    Is this the new norm...who can say.
    All I know is...it sucks.
    "I can only improve my self, not the world."

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Szanto View Post
    Fred is totally on it: while there may have been the occasional sluggish parcel or letter a couple years ago, since DeJoy took over last year it has been abysmal. I've made good friends at my local PO and it has weighed on them heavily because they take the brunt of the customer ire even though the problems emanate far, far up the chain.

    There are governmental efforts to oust this grifting clown, but it is going to take a while. I look for better days by the end of the year, but I"m an incurable optimist.
    that dude is an ass

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    The issue with the slow US mail is, in large part, due to on-line training of horses how to swim. Back in the day, horses were trained to swim from the USA to UK by actual people whereas in the past year they have had to learn it on-line and it takes longer for horses to absorb the information. Oh wait, the Pony Express died out about 150 years ago. I am sure the USPS and others will blame it on the CV. That being said, I wonder why a small envelop mailed to me from Texas to Massachusetts sat at my local postal center for 11 days before it made it across town. The beauty of tracking is one can see where the breakdown occurs.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Quote Originally Posted by Roe D Hym View Post
    ...I wonder why a small envelop mailed to me from Texas to Massachusetts sat at my local postal center for 11 days before it made it across town. The beauty of tracking is one can see where the breakdown occurs.
    Wouldn't it reduce expense to allow unprofitable first class envelopes destined for the same region to accumulate as one shipment before sending it onwards? "First Class," of course. That seems to be the scheme for mail from Chicago, Illinois to Carlisle, Pennsylvania...again.
    Last edited by FredRydr; March 1st, 2021 at 11:13 AM.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Some of it is absences due to Covid-19, and the greater part is DeJoy's policy refusing to hire temporary employees and directing the removal of supposedly "outdated" sorting machines. All that on top of long-standing issues at some sorting / processing centers.

    Mail from San Diego to here in the Western burbs of Cleveland takes only three days.

    Anything going through the sorting / processing center in Akron takes longer, including Priority Mail. A package of supplements for Manny that the vet Priority Mailed with one-day service from Lorain about 20 miles west of here took a week to get here. Fortunately I was able to have Amazon direct deliver someone while we twiddled our thumbs and paws waiting for the mailed envelope.

    Last week I sent a flat rate envelope from Lakewood to downtown Cleveland using Priority Mail Express (what used to be Express Mail). The clerk said that the USPS no longer guarantees delivery. Although I remember my Crosby Stills Nash and Young, I asked why, and she said it was because of the weather.

    A letter dated June 3, 2020 mailed from South Africa arrived on Saturday, February 27, 2021.

    An envelope of PTSD and sheets of $2 Inverted Jenny stamps that the USPS Stamp Fulfillment Center in Kansas City mailed on February 25 arrived today, March 1. (As the Inverted Jenny stamps are a more colorful alternative to the $2 Lady Liberty stamps, I prefer to use them for overseas letters)

    The President nominated three people to the Board of Governors. When they come aboard, let's hope they send DeJoy packing.
    Last edited by BlkWhiteFilmPix; March 1st, 2021 at 10:57 AM.
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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Things are looking up. Two postcards, one from the same town as above in the next county (50 mi/80km) and the other from New York City (200mi/320km) took two days to arrive.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    A letter from Pennsylvania took nine days to come here. About normal.

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    Default Re: Another Thread About Mailing

    Quote Originally Posted by eachan View Post
    A letter from Pennsylvania took nine days to come here. About normal.
    oh that's not bad at all! Im in PA. My letters to Texas sometimes go into a black hole. Other times, it's just a few days. Funny when letters overseas arrive quicker than within the states

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