Snail mail holdups - worldwide updates

[Eoghan2009]

I was shocked to realise that in some areas of the UK NO MAIL HAS BEEN DELIVERED FOR A MONTH!

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9137577/Homes-left-without-mail-MONTH-28-delivery-blackspots-coronavirus.html

 

I have received no foreign mail since before Christmas and I know there is post in transit.  This is despite eyewatering, inflation busting price rises (OK, inflations pigeons have still to come home to roost).  I wonder what other peoples experiences have been.  Norway I believe only delivers mail three days a week.  It also looks as though we in the UK will lose our Saturday deliveries.  Admittedly Royal Mail is hamstrung by the "universal service obligation" in which they have to charge a flat fee within the UK.  This is a constant moan - what they forget is that in exchange they have a monopoly.  That deal was struck a long time ago and has prevented competition. 

 

What is your experience?

 

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-postie-exposes-chaotic-scenes-19507242

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9069047/Royal-Mail-swamped-millions-parcels-year.html

[flyingfox]

Here in the U.S., postal service is a huge mess. I am among the lucky ones who are still getting mail delivery every business day, probably because I live in a large condo in a relatively big city. (Philly is supposed to the 6th largest city in the U.S., thus the claim of a “big” city, even if it feels more like a small town.) In rural areas, and even in suburbs of reasonable-size cities, people, at least those in my Facebook penpal groups, are reporting that they get mail only few times a week. Their outgoing mail isn’t getting collected either, unless they have incoming mail. (It is the U.S. thing I think, that some people put outgoing mail in the mailbox at home.... I have never done that, as I have always lived in a large apartment complex before moved into my condo, and always had a box for outgoing mail.)

 

According to a friend of mine who has insider info, here are some of the problems they have been facing: with limited staff due to COVID, reduced letter processing stations and machines, it came to survival at some post offices. As long as mail sat in the trailers that brought the mail to them, they didn't have to process it. So... mail has been sitting in trailers at post offices and processing centers until they can deal with opening trailers and processing them. They are finally getting to a point where they are dealing with the backlog now.  
 

I am still receiving Christmas cards that were mailed from within the U.S. Just yesterday I received a domestic mail postmarked on Dec. 20. O.K., it came all the way from California, but still. It usually takes less than a week. International mail is even weirder, although it depends a lot on the country of origin. Letter from Japan, for example, seem to arrive once every 4 to 6 weeks. Not sure if they are coming by ship, or simply whenever a container or something gets full. Earlier this week, I got a bunch of letters that were postmarked from late November to Jan. 2!
 

As an interesting side effect, I am getting a good mileage out of my birthday and Christmas, yea! My birthday is on Dec. 11, exactly 2 weeks before Christmas. Kind of nice, to be able to really savor each and every single card, rather than all of them arriving at the same time and the appreciation of each getting “diffused”. I can totally respond to the senders in a couple of weeks, and artificially inflate the InCoWriMo count! Yes- February will be here in a couple of weeks!!!
 

I also have had random mishaps. One of my letters that I mailed out in September came back last week. It had a sticker saying that the postal code is invalid, but it looked like it never made it out of the U.S.

 

Hopefully all the letters will arrive at their destination, or at least get returned to sender. Better late than never, as they say....

 

 

[sgphototn]

I still have USPS six days a week, though as I'm on the end of the daily route, the delivery time has gone from 3:30 pm until 6:45 pm in the past seven months.

 

If you live in the US the postal service has a service called 'Informed Delivery' that shows your mail arriving each day and packages arriving as soon they are put into the system at the originating point.

 

If you sign up, usually each morning by 8 am, you'll get an email of what's coming to you.

 

Well worth it.

[flyingfox]

24 minutes ago, sgphototn said:

I still have USPS six days a week, though as I'm on the end of the daily route, the delivery time has gone from 3:30 pm until 6:45 pm in the past seven months.

 

If you live in the US the postal service has a service called 'Informed Delivery' that shows your mail arriving each day and packages arriving as soon they are put into the system at the originating point.

 

If you sign up, usually each morning by 8 am, you'll get an email of what's coming to you.

 

Well worth it.

Interesting- my condo moved up in the route when they cut down the overtime. We used to get mail at like 6 to 7pm, but now we get them around at 4pm.

 

I do get informed delivery e-mail, but vast majority of the pieces of mail that show up there are bills/ statements, rather depressing. Vast majority of personal mail appear in the notification as “image not available”, if at all. 

[Paul-in-SF]

I also get USPS 6 days a week (in San Francisco), and I have at least one very good carrier who always rings the doorbell and waits for us to come, if she has a small package that is too big for the mail slot. The larger package deliverers are not always quite so attentive, but still they deliver and they do ring the bell; they don't always wait. I guess that's because they don't know us like our regular carrier does. 

 

International mail can be a bit iffy, but all things considered it seems to arrive in a reasonable time frame. I had a package from the UK recently that landed fairly quickly in Chicago, then disappeared for a week before turning up in Florida, but after that it got here fine. I had to open a case once where an overseas package (that had also landed in Chicago) had apparently fallen off a table and disappeared for 2 weeks, but the day after I did that it turned up in tracking again. So the occasional problems I've had have always been resolved pretty well.

 

While I'm praising USPS I would like to say that I spent a fair amount of time in the post office mailing off parcels when I had the PIF recently and also had posted some pens for sale on Facebook. The clerks were efficient and friendly and helpful, and managed to get through the lines (when there were any) quickly. 

[Eoghan2009]

Just had an email from a friend in Norway.  They posted to me on the 7th December and after eight days got it back.  They have now posted AGAIN.

 

[BigBlot]

Back when the US Postal Service released its Elvis stamp, I used it on a letter that came back stamped "Return to Sender." Still have that letter around here somewhere.

 

Haven't noticed anything other than seasonal slowdown here, and that's improved. We have daily mail delivery except for Sundays, but that doesn't guarantee there's always mail to receive.

[asnailmailer]

Royal Mail, in their wisdom, have sent things back to me, saying no postage! I had my return address on the back, where there is no stamp! Just on the front with the recipient's address. Bah humbug.

[flyingfox]

There was an article about it. This is only about US postal service, but some of the similar stuff must be going on elsewhere, too...
 

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/22/959273022/theres-no-end-in-sight-mail-delivery-delays-continue-across-the-country?utm_campaign=npr&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0HGjVv0Cb_KzGsFr0AO4TXI47fAb7o5fOv4TVZH7Hd3WtiXQoO06bLwsw

[Eoghan2009]

Germany is delivering in two days to the UK

[Eoghan2009]

Norway is taking over 10 days from UK

[Karmachanic]

UK is delivering one day in the UK.

[penlady1961]

i just had a letter take 59 days from south carolina to illnois . That my friends is ridiculous .