<p>Yes, Yale Station is a nightmare. DD is a Junior. Last year the birthday card/money from grandma never showed up (mailed one month before she left campus) and the cookies I sent 2-day delivery were signed for in 2 days, but not available for pickup for 2 weeks, by which time they were stale and in crumbs from rough handling.</p>
<p>Can someone comment here how good/reliable or not is the New Haven airport?</p>
<p>@IJustDrive, my son is a freshman and so far we’ve been lucky with mail. I sent him a large envelope using USPS and large box using UPS and both got there and picked on day promised. My son also had some packages delivered from Amazon with no problems so far…let’s keep the fingers crossed:)</p>
<p>Regarding the New Haven airport: I’ve read several horror stories on this thread and heard several from fellow Yale parents as well. There are maybe one or two airlines that fly there. Complaints I’ve heard seem to stem from flights get cancelled for no apparent reason. I think if the plane does not have enough sold seats, they just don’t go there. Search “Tweed airport” on this thread, I think you’ll find more than a few angry posts.</p>
<p>So frustrated. Last week I sent a big flat-rate box from USPS full of new shirts, socks, a couple of late graduation presents that came, and other goodies. My freshman son still hasn’t received it, and it was supposed to get there last week. My local post office says it should be there. So what’s the deal? Is the campus post office so disorganized that they have the box and don’t know it? My son has gone there every day, and they just tell him that if there’s no note in his post office box, he has no mail. Any suggestions as to what he (or I) should do?</p>
<p>^ are you sending everything with some sort of tracking?</p>
<p>Can you believe the package with her German book that was delivered to East Haven in error showed up today!? Amazon has already refunded my money but I guess I’ll send it back at some point. Nothing yo be gained from having two. </p>
<p>^^^buldogmom, hang in there a little longer. I know it seems ridiculous and that some folks on this thread have not had difficulties, but it has been the experience of my son and many others that the Yale P.O. is a complete disaster, esp. in the early weeks of term. You would think things would be ironed out after 4 weeks…but you would, alas, be wrong.</p>
<p>My kid needed something somewhat urgently a couple of weeks ago and he got permission to have it sent directly to the master’s office. It STILL got redirected to the package station and he had to chase it down, receiving it days after it had been reported delivered.</p>
<p>Chances are this package will still show up – but don’t hold your breathe while waiting. Truly ridiculous. My sympathies.</p>
<p>Saona63, my local office said that tracking is included with their flat rate boxes, and it should be in New Haven. And thanks, bookmobile, we’ll just wait it out. My son’s aunt wants to send him a care package, but I just told her to hold off awhile until we see if my package actually arrives. UGH. I smelled a rat when the first time my son checked his new PO box last week, the key didn’t even fit. They had to re-fit the lock, which took a couple of days. Bad vibes right off the bat…</p>
<p>This is why my kid has not done the USPS P.O. box even for freshmen year and we are shipping with UPS only.</p>
<p>@keesh17, did you get a UPS box down the street? It did not seem that convenient to campus. </p>
<p>We order mostly from Amazon, and they will ship with various carriers. We could receive at home and then re-ship, but that seems inconvenient and wasteful. </p>
<p>You’d think that a problem like this, that apparently has been inconvenient and costly for many years, would get the attention of Yale administration and the postmaster. The only org that wins is the bookstore, since kids are reluctant to order books online. </p>
<p>Actually the UPS store is just a few steps from Payne Whitney Gym/Morse/Stiles, at the top of Broadway. Can students have items shipped there? DD has a few packages that are being delivered to the house and she would prefer not to come home to pick them up. She is really trying to be “away” from home! Lol</p>
<p>You can rent a box at the UPS store. I wonder if a group of students could go in together on a box. We don’t ship much to our daughter, but if we did, I’d seriously consider a UPS box.</p>
<p>My son bought his books from Yale bookstore and ordered them on amazon. Once he got the amazon shipment in his hands he then returned the books to the bookstore and got a refund.</p>
<p>I just gave them a call. The fees are $140/6 months & $220/full year. They do offer a discount for Yale students, he will call me with that info when he finds out. </p>
<p>Hours are M-F 8:30am-6:30pm
Sat. 9:00am-5:00pm
Closed Sunday & major holidays</p>
<p>They receive all mail & packages. Worth considering and sharing with another student. Not terribly far from campus. A stones throw away.</p>
<p>Their phone # is 203-772-4445</p>
<p>Yes, Ixnay, it is a problem with on-line businesses which do let not let you select “send by UPS only”. He sends to our house and we re-ship via UPS to him.</p>
<p>Many colleges have their own internal postal carrier system which do the tail end U.S. mail delivery to various on-campus addresses and many dorms have their own (student) staffed package rooms/service desks. This was our experience at USC with our older kid. Yale saves a lot of money by staying out of the mail delivery business but the USPS, being the bureaucratic/unionized mess that it is cannot adapt to the ebb and flow of package delivery now that most students order books and everything else on-line. It is a situation worthy of a Ph.D. dissertation for some Yalie I think. </p>
<p>You would think with the volume of packages that UPS or FEDEX would open up a satellite somewhere on campus. Or I wonder if the school is opposed to that for some reason. They had the Post Office truck out there for the first days of school and everything else these days is done via truck (food trucks, etc). So that should be an option.</p>
<p>The UPS store is pretty close. It’s just a bit beyond the Yale bookstore. Not great for TD ;and Silliman, I guess.</p>
<p>So true!! But peace of mind with ones mail/packages will make it feel so much closer. And it’s actually not much farther than the USPS. A little over 2 blocks? </p>
<p>My son is at L-D, so the post office location couldn’t be better. I wonder if the Yale entrepreneur community can’t find a solution to this. Seems frankly to be a more pressing problem (pun intentional) than laundry. </p>