I sent a package to the east coast and sent it three day Priority Mail. It took 8 days! Someone sent me a package from the east coast 3 day Priority Mail and it took over a week. Now I ordered stamps from the USPS and guess what? They sent them Priority Mail and here it is a week later and nothing. From the damned Postal Service no less. They cannot get their own parcels or envelopes in a timely manner!
Okay, what goes on? I heard that because so many commercial flights are cancelled due to COVID-19, there are fewer planes to ship Priority Mail which usually goes via air. So the postal service ships by ground and it then takes at least a week coast to coast, or in the case of the stamps, a week or more from the Midwest to California. Of course you have to pay the same outrageous Priority Mail fee regardless of how they decide to send your package or letter. In contacting the USPS their answer is wait ten more days and then file a claim. Idiots!
UPS and FedEx use their own planes so they don't do this. If you ship two day air it goes by air. Ship ground and it goes ground. They guarantee their services and the post office does not. Unless you use Express Mail they could care less about timely service. And good luck in making a claim for lost or undelivered packages. They take an eternity, IF you ever get reimbursed, and make you think you did something wrong rather than them. And of course, your postage cost is gone forever.
When mailing for the holidays, ship early. I am talking about right after Thanksgiving or even sooner. If their current handling of mail and parcels is any indication of their performance, two weeks or more could become the norm. Maybe if they would get rid of the dead wood at the post offices and distribution centers we could have Amazon like performance for a decent cost. Of course, that will never happen. The unions protect the dead wood and I know from people who are actually good workers how difficult it is to get rid of a poor or non-performing employee in the postal service.
