Why is Media Mail so slow?

[Johnny L.A.]

A friend of mine sent me a couple of DVDs from Washington using Media Mail. Even though a letter or parcel takes two or three days to make the 1,300 mile trip via the U.S. Postal Service, the Media Mail package took a month.

I recently purchased a video tape from a private seller at Amazon. Since he's in Oakland and I'm just a few hundred miles away in Los Hideous, I expected to receive the tape in a couple of days. I e-mailed him today and he said that it went out by Media Mail and it could take three weeks to get here.

What's the deal with Media Mail? If it's delivered by the Post Office, of what use is it? I know it's cheaper to the sender, but not by enough to make up for the slow delivery. Do they save packages so they can send them out (via USPS) all at once? What advantage is that?

[Hanna]

I have had stuff shipped media mail arrive on a Wed. after being sent on Mon. - two days. Sometimes it can be slow though. From what I understand, the stuff may be sitting at your local PO for awhile, they like to deliver the Priority mails first. So if they're busy, Media Mail gets shuffled to storage until they have more time to deliver it. If the PO is not busy, they have more time to deliver Media mail.

[Johnny L.A.]

(The title of this thread should have been "Why is Media Mail so slow?".)

Bobsico: Interestingly, I waited several weeks for a couple of Priority Mail packages around last Christmastime. They were large, so the P.O. shuffled them aside and it took quite a lot of prodding to get them delivered.

But is there another reason why Media Mail would be so slow? It's not really the "heavy season" for the Post.

[handy]

Media mail is 3 to 8 days......but you can check usps.com for info.

BTW, a tv newsprogram sent a bunch of stuff Priority Mail & some regular mail from select cities & more than half the time the non-priority mail got there as fast or faster.

[bibliophage]

Originally posted by Johnny L.A.
(The title of this thread should have been "Why is Media Mail so slow?".)

I'll fix it, but it might take a few weeks.

[Johnny L.A.]

Thanks, bibliophage!

[Violet]

Mail can be a sad state of affairs. I've had problems with both media & priority mail. And some parts of the country get so much mail, it takes forever to sort it out, I suppose. Of course, try sending something from the UK to the US by the cheap method, & it can take months!

[Johnny L.A.]

Violet: I ordered from Amazon UK, and it came in about a week. Of course, they used Royal Mail.