Mail Delivery Getting Worse?

[audreyh1]

Our mail delivery delays started happening about a year ago when a bunch of mail sorting machines were taken off line.

[zinger1457]

Since most of my important accounts are electronic delivery only very rarely get any letter type mail of importance delivered these days so don't may much attention to delivery time. Package delivery by USPS had been terrible through the holidays last year but seems to have improved since then.

[pacergal]

We have had a wonderful mailman the past few years. He often brings the mail to our front door if we have a small package, instead of smashing it into the box. He is always friendly.
If I do have mail to go out, I usually take it to the PO. Neither of our last 2 mail persons could figure out our mail slot! (its a pull down ledge inside and on top of the locked box, unless you knew it was there, you wouldn't have a clue--very odd, but it was on sale years ago. lol)

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruceski44 Last August I left my vehicle registration renewal on my mailbox for pickup. After the carrier stopped and left I went out to retrieve the newly delivered mail. I just happened to look up the street about 100’ and saw a letter laying in the gutter. I went to look closer and found my outgoing DMV letter lying there, having been dropped by the carrier. She never returned to look for it and never inquired about it. That destroyed what little trust I had in USPS up until then. When I was younger, the mail was almost sacrosanct. Now I’ll look for any other means to avoid trying my luck again. This has nothing to do with budget cuts, bad management or other excuse. This is plain incompetence.

See post #8 in this thread......

[jollystomper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinger1457 Since most of my important accounts are electronic delivery only very rarely get any letter type mail of importance delivered these days so don't may much attention to delivery time. Package delivery by USPS had been terrible through the holidays last year but seems to have improved since then.

I agree. Some of our December mailings (mailed at least a week before Christmas) took more than a month to arrive, We were still getting holiday mail through early February. Things have been better now.

[Golden sunsets]

Yes, it's a problem in our neck of the woods too. I also subscribe to USPS Informed Delivery, which shows me the mail that I am going to receive that day. Many days and sometimes several days later, mail that I was supposed to have received sooner, finally arrives. There are some days that no mail is delivered to our entire street. They just don't show up at all.

Last Xmas I ordered a gift card from Sephora for my DD on Dec 10th. It finally arrived the third week of January.

[aja8888]

We got a Christmas card from DW's sister in California on April 18th. At least it got here.

[sengsational]

Our carrier doesn't like to pick up outgoing mail. I put a post-it note, folded so it's vertical with "outgoing mail" written on it, and sometimes that doesn't even work. With packages, I request a pickup, which has always worked.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational Our carrier doesn't like to pick up outgoing mail. I put a post-it note, folded so it's vertical with "outgoing mail" written on it, and sometimes that doesn't even work. With packages, I request a pickup, which has always worked.

Our "cluster" mail box has a slot for outgoing mail. It's part of the carrier's job to collect that mail. However, as bad as our service is (post #8 is an example), I don't trust the carrier to actually get my outgoing mail into the outgoing system so I bring it to the post office myself.

[RetireeRobert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational Our carrier doesn't like to pick up outgoing mail. I put a post-it note, folded so it's vertical with "outgoing mail" written on it, and sometimes that doesn't even work. With packages, I request a pickup, which has always worked.

Don't all or nearly all mailboxes have a red flag on the side? The custom always was as far as I knew, raise the red flag--i.e. catch the carriers attention. says I have something to go--to indicate to carrier there is some outgoing mail to pick up. I always thought that was just Post Office protocol and procedure, maybe even spelled out in US Postal rgulations somewhere.

That said, I always mail bills at either a post office, or at the more heavily used drop boxes around town near busier stores. Just so some little kid doesn;t see the raised red flag and play with the outgoing mail.

[Aerides]

As someone who ships stuff with tracking every day, yes it is worse, and has been, for the past year. It's far better now than it was over the holidays, but it is still worse than prior years.

Before 2020, you could count on first class packages arriving in 1 week, 99% of the time. Now that's 90%, and some are two to three weeks or longer. Priority is 2-3 days, 75% of the time, often 4. Didn't used to be like that.

Some hubs are always bad (Hi Kearney, NJ), and some carriers are always bad. Mine is excellent but boy can I tell when it's her day off...

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Yall make me thankful for your mail carrier. She's consistent and does her job. Every day.

[marko]

We live north of Boston; a metropolitan area, we're not out in the boonies.

The mail has NEVER, ever been reliable. Lost mail, extremely late mail (sometimes months late), sent mail that never arrived. Been that way since I was a kid.

We only send non-critical items via the USPS; anything of value goes FedEx or UPS.

On the plus side, we've had to visit the local postmaster quite often (see above) and found him to be extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Right off the top of his head he can name who lives next door to us, who moved in/out recently and so on. He'll even pick up his phone right in front of us and call our carrier-guy who's out on the road. Of course, this might be due to "see above"!

[Cobra9777]

I haven't noticed any difference. I monitor Informed Delivery and everything seems to arrive on time... though 98% of it is junk that goes straight into the trash. I call it physical spam. So I don't really care if it's on time or not. The 2% I care about always arrives on time, like my annual filing PIN from the IRS.

We rarely send anything by mail. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year. It's always a chore to find a stamp. I haven't sent or received a regular letter in probably 25 years. We stopped Christmas cards about 15 years ago. The last of the financial stuff was converted to online around 10-12 years ago. So for us, on-time or not just isn't a big issue.

[Time2]

Don't worry !
The price of a stamp is going up in August as part of a 10 year plan.


"The U.S. Postal Service is raising rates on letters, magazines and marketing missives by as much as 6.9 percent this summer, sending the cost of a first-class stamp from 55 to 58 cents, as it leans into an expansive restructuring plan that codifies slower mail delivery and streamlines agency operations."

"codifies" does that mean they are making slower mail delivery part of the code?


https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...e-hike-stamps/

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Time2 Don't worry ! The price of a stamp is going up in August as part of a 10 year plan. "The U.S. Postal Service is raising rates on letters, magazines and marketing missives by as much as 6.9 percent this summer, sending the cost of a first-class stamp from 55 to 58 cents, as it leans into an expansive restructuring plan that codifies slower mail delivery and streamlines agency operations." "codifies" does that mean they are making slower mail delivery part of the code?

Seeing hardly anybody uses first class stamps anymore, why not raise the price to a dollar?

[Time2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 Seeing hardly anybody uses first class stamps anymore, why not raise the price to a dollar?

That would cost me an extra $2.50 a year to send my quarterlies and tax I have due!
But it's true, I doubt I send more than 8 first class letters a year.


But, I get abut 40 letters from Comcast wanting me to signup. And another 20 wanting to buy my house.

[Koolau]

Due to the extra 2500 miles, we're usually a day slower than we were on the mainland. Other than that, no big differences noted of late. YMMV

[Aerides]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 Seeing hardly anybody uses first class stamps anymore, why not raise the price to a dollar?

First class small packets and Priority have gone up significantly in the past few years.
(online rates):
1st class 3oz used to be $2.64 coast to coast, now it's zoned and goes from 3.12 to about 3.45

Priority mail small flat rate box is now $7.90! In the late 90's it was $3.20. It's gone up at least 2 bucks in the last 5 years alone. I don't think letter mail is the issue, since it doesn't take up space. It's the small packages, which small businesses rely on the most.

Still, that same $3.45 is at least $10 with UPS...

[jollystomper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Time2 Don't worry ! The price of a stamp is going up in August as part of a 10 year plan. "The U.S. Postal Service is raising rates on letters, magazines and marketing missives by as much as 6.9 percent this summer, sending the cost of a first-class stamp from 55 to 58 cents, as it leans into an expansive restructuring plan that codifies slower mail delivery and streamlines agency operations." "codifies" does that mean they are making slower mail delivery part of the code? https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...e-hike-stamps/

Uh-oh, time to start hoarding "forever" stamps ...