per the WSJ in the past day or so, 91% of first class mail continues to be delivered “on-time.” Thats down just a fraction since the April tracking report. So, assuming ballots are treated as first class, they will go thru on-time. Of course, nothing the USPS can do if states don’t require them to be mailed them out early enough.
(The slow issues seem to be with the packages, as first class mail volume has plummeted since COVID.)
There was an issue in NY State with ballot envelopes not being postmarked because the postage was pre-printed, stamps were not used. It is not USPS practice to postmark envelopes with pre-paid postage. So it was impossible to tell when ballots were mailed. And then arguments ensued about which ballots “counted”.
It is that kind of weirdness that will cause problems in November if there are any.
We had ex’s arrive late a week or so ago. My other half got an emergency 10 day supply written by the dr because they didn’t arrive on time. We’re in a city, so it wouldn’t be rural issues.
That being said, my usps person is a jerk. If he makes me mad again I’ll probably be calling to complain. Thankfully he’s been ok recently.
In PA, you request a mail in ballot online and its tracked by email the whole way… they also email you back once you they recieve it from you. We may drop them off as well, we’ll see how long they take tocome.
Well, my package(s) are still missing, and not tracking - since August 10th. Also, we had one day this week with no mail delivery, and another with only junk mail
LOL, a day with only junk mail is normal for us! No issues yet here. I had an Amazon order delivered the next day by USPS, and husband sent a priority mail package of figs cross country (to Manhattan) and it arrived timely. Historically such packages have disappeared in the past, so he was pleasantly surprised.
We have a reliable mail carrier. One day in May, she saw a Fed Ex package addressed to me on a porch up the street, so she brought it to our door and checked with me to see if I was expecting it. It was my new swimsuit so I was very happy.
Out of the last 7 delivery days, we’ve only gotten mail on 4 of them, and most of it has been junk mail. Even the junk mail is late. A new Target opened in my area a week ago, but today I received a $5 off coupon to celebrate the opening.
I also mailed a letter from NoVA to LI, and it’s still not there in 11 days.
Our regular mail carrier is great. I’ve praised her to the supervisors at our P.O. multiple times. It’s the substitute mail carriers who are all, without exception, awful. They’ve thrown packages out of their trucks, dropped things, and worse. Fortunately, we have pretty good security cameras and have taken still shots and video clips to the P.O. several times to back up our complaints.
The cameras also have been useful when Amazon or others claim a package was delivered. I’ve only had to submit proof using a time/date stamped still shot captured from playback one time. Usually I just mention the cameras and that I’ve reviewed playback, and the customer service rep backs down and offers a replacement or refund.
Very bummed that even with Amazon Prime, my textbooks are taking 1 to 2 weeks to arrive. Not a recipe for a successful start to the school year!
I’ve been mailing masks and as the envelops are more than 1/4", they count as a package. Bad news is they cost more to mail, good news is I can track. Most have been getting to their destinations within the estimated time (3-6 days), but a few have been 1-2 days longer. The tracking works fine as long as they get there by the date quoted, but it if goes beyond that day then it seems to freeze in the USPS tracking system and then pops up when ‘out for delivery’ and ‘delivered.’
I sent one package to my aunt and it only had 4 masks so I made them as flat as I could and put $1.65 (3 stamps) on the envelop. (I just didn’t want to go to the post office) She told me it got there pretty quickly. She said they failed to cancel the stamps so she’s going to peel them off and reuse them. My extra liberal, bra burning hippy, Pomona grad, Phi Beta Kappa aunt is going to cheat the post office out of $1.65.
No wonder USPS can’t balance their budget.
They’ve made the adhesive on the stamps really hard to peel and reuse. Ask me how I know.
But for $1.65, I guess it is worth the effort.
She was sort of into the ‘win’ as first, the gift package was a surprise and second, I used Christmas stamps because those are what I had. She thought Christmas came early. Don’t mail many things so there were left over from Dec or Jan (bought them at Costco).
She’s not that cheap, but I think liked the challenge.
Priority mail packages seem to work OK. But regular first class can take 2 weeks.
I just got a birthday card in today from my aunt and uncle in FL. It’s postmarked 8/15. Since my birthday was yesterday I called them to let them know so they don’t think I was rude in not acknowledging it yesterday!
I also asked my uncle if he thought I should mail his out this week. (His birthday is in Dec.)
FL to PA doesn’t have any excuses like wildfires.
Florida mail is always slow. When I’d mail things to College kids in 4 different states, the Florida priority mail ALWAYS took an extra day or six.
Weird. We’ve never had problems before. We used to live in FL and mailed things to family in NY often without issues. Since moving to PA our youngest lad went to college in FL (graduated in 2018) - never a problem getting things to him in college, often quicker than we expected. This was both cards and packages.
Even in May/June 2020 we had birthday card exchanges - there to here and here to there - same address as the one this card came from. We could count on three days or less. Last Dec I thought my uncle’s would be late because I only allowed two days. Nope. He got it on his birthday.
Our experience is definitely different than yours.
FWIW, our Anniversary card from them in early August also came in later than our Anniversary, but I didn’t save the envelope and can’t count back the days at this point to know exactly how many. I know they were surprised we didn’t have it on our Anniversary. So it’s two for two since June. Zero for oodles prior to June.
DS reports the item he ordered that shipped from Iowa the day before the derecho is stuck in tracking limbo. But that is likely not a postal service problem.
I’m going to offer an alternate view. Much if the discretionary mail (things like flyers and junk mail) were not being produced, much less sent, in March April and May…even June. So that mail stream was far less than in typical years.
We get bills in the mail and they have been arriving in the same timely fashion. Very recently, we have seen an uptick in direct mailing advertisements (mostly real estate).
So for me, the USPS had less to deliver. Far less. No surprise there were days when we had no mail at all from March to even late June.
Northern New England, rural part of a small city. The black turtleneck I ordered from Pendleton said “delivered” yesterday afternoon, but it was not. I left a paper note for the carrier in my box and will ping the system tomorrow if that doesn’t take care of it.
Informed delivery told me I would be getting a piece of my neighbor’s mail. However, when I got home from lunch it wasn’t there. Everything else was. I guess our carrier caught it.
I also admit we don’t get a lot of mail. Almost all of my bills are on autopay I resisted for years, but in 2015 my parents took us to Europe for 3 weeks. Many of my bills would have come after we left and been due before we got back. I set up autopay and I love it.
Most everything we get now is just junk and very little at that. Packages have seem fine too. (Knock on wood)