Back on April 15th I ordered some postage stamps from the USPS website because I was trying to avoid actually going to the post office and because I don’t want to see the postal system disappear.
The site did point out that the order would be delayed due to the sheer volume of people doing the same thing.
I was ok with this but then got a notification that my stamps would be delivered on April 27th. The 27th came and went but no stamps. When I track the shipment it just says “In transit.”
Sigh… I have shit to mail. So now I will have to go to the post office to buy stamps.
Is anyone else having issues like this?
Everyone is. No deliveries are reliable now, the delivery companies are swamped with packages, the suppliers are swamped with orders, the delivery companies are swamped with complaints. Most of the stuff we ordered came eventually, still waiting on a couple of items, or we were notified that it wasn’t going to be delivered.
True. True. I’m not even angry hence why I didn’t put this in the pit. I just didn’t expect it to take *this *long. Who in the hell cursed us to live in interesting times?
Sorry, that’s a political discussion. Or a religious one. Does the populace deserve what it got? No, better stick to stamps. I wonder if postage-machine vendors are overwhelmed.
I’m always surprised how long it takes to ship those stamps during regular times. Like 1-2 weeks.
You would think the easiest thing to do would be to have your local post office pop them in the mail for ya but clearly that’s not the case. I’m sure their systems aren’t set up for that.
OP, I ordered stamps from the USPS on April 14th. I also got the delayed delivery message, but mine were due to arrive on 4/23, and they did. I guess I was just very lucky?
On a drive from Honduras to Alaska we bought stamps at a Canadian post office and were charged sales tax, both national and provincial IIRC. USPS is a bargain.
I’m a third-party Amazon vendor and have had an increase in delayed packages.
I’m also guessing that when one orders stamps via mail, they’re shipped out from a central location, the place of which could be anybody’s guess. I did buy a roll of them when I had to take a package to the PO a couple weeks ago, so I guess I did my share to keep them in business.
I did a Cologard a couple years ago, and that had a prepaid UPS label. Imagine being the driver who has to deliver those, knowing what’s in it, never mind being a technician who has to process those all day.
In recent years they have been shipped out of Kansas City. Stamp Fulfillment Services is located in an industrial park inside redeveloped limestone caves.
Speaking of odd deliveries, this week the FedEx deliveryman was driving a U-Haul.
There’s a lot of overlap between all the delivery services. Example: I met a man a few years ago who drove a truck for FedEx, and they often hauled U.S. mail and other cargo that needed to go to Memphis, or somewhere in the region. They like the trucks to be full, and this is one way to do it.
They arrived yesterday. It’s written in the accompanying paperwork that they aren’t valid as postage until May 7th. Which I knew, but thought I would receive them closer to the date of validity.
That said, the birthday card I sent a week ago Tuesday should have reached its destination two days ago. It hasn’t. My fault for not mailing it soon enough, given the current challenges.
I had to mail something yesterday (a rare event nowadays). The post office in our tiny town is just a bit bigger than a phone booth, but they had signs posted asking everyone to observe six feet distancing.
When I walked in there was one customer at the counter. I edged into a far corner and was safe. Then, a woman tried to enter and she realized there was nowhere to go. She stood in the doorway.
The customer at the counter finished his business and wanted to leave, but there wasn’t a clear lane to the door. The doorway lady went outside, the man left, I approached the counter, and the doorway lady took my old corner. What a clusterfuck.
