U.S. Postal Service mail delays


This seems pretty obvious, given the headlines and TV news, but anything shipped during the last few days to or from DC and possibly NJ (because of the illnesses of workers at the Trenton Distribution Center) may be delayed beyond the normal mailing times to these locations. The Washington Post has a map today showing that mail service to and from more than half the zip codes in DC has been suspended. I have been receiving emails from a very disgruntled buyer in Jersey City who still hasn't received the cables I mailed him last Thursday. He wants to know what I intend to do about it. I can only apologize and ask for his patience as mail facilities and Postal Service workers are screened for anthrax! You'd think he would be a little more understanding, esp. since I mailed him the cables before his PayPal payment even cleared into my account. In fact, I mailed the cables about 15 minutes after I received email from PayPal indicating that he had made the payment. I thought I gave him express, speedy, ASAP service, but he is quite upset anyway, since the package hasn't yet arrived (it should only have taken 3 days max, from VA to Jersey City). So if anything is CRUCIAL and MUST be received without delay, please think of using FedEx, UPS, and the like until our mail service is back to normal.
I would like to thank our Postal workers for even continuing to show up for work! At the federal agency where I work, our clerical help, who receives and opens mail for us every day, now has to wear latex gloves and a chintzy mask while performing these duties.
sc53
Hi again Sarah, ask the buyer to call the Head Postmaster at his local PO for an explanation. Maybe he doesn't have a tuner, no TV & doesn't read the paper. I drive for a mail contract carrier & for everybodys information, any post office is subject to shutdown at a moments notice. It happened yesterday at a facility our company deals with multiple times on a daily basis. The mail has to be rerouted to another sorting facility & of course this delays everything except express. Express is still guaranteed. Good luck!
You are not in this alone. I sent Lorne Cherry ( in Canada ) some cables a quite while back and they've never shown up yet. Those have probably gone the way of the wind. Then there was a remote control that was shipped to me. The seller, who lives in Pennsylvania, forgot to pack it in the box and sent it via the postal service. That one seems to have disappeared. I also sent payment out via priority mail to another member here ( Nice_Tom who lives in Cali ) and it took well over a week to show up. Keep in mind that i live near Chicago, so it is affecting EVERYONE EVERYWHERE.

As such, we need to take this into consideration when making transactions. If the person doubts your word as to when it was shipped, there is such a thing as a postmarked date on the package. Once the post office gets it, there is NOTHING that you or anyone else can do about it. Sean
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I noticed US Post Office deliveries to be slower than normal this summer and that was before 9/11/01. People need to be sensitive to the events taking place in our country and the world, patience is crucial. Since 9/11 if you ship out an item UPS the box must be unsealed so they can check the content. If it's a sealed package you are going to have to open it for inspection. That's just the way things are going to be, purchaser be understanding!
Sarah, I have done business with you numerous times with no problems. Times are different now after the 9/11 incident and now anthrax. The buyer should be more patient about the situation. Parcels usually take a little longer than regular mail in envelopes from my personal experience. Please invite the buyer to contribute to this forum and he'll know he's not alone in this situation. We all are.

Good luck!

John aka genesis168
The delays seem to have begun even earlier in the Washington DC area... On the 8th of October, I mailed a check from Arlington, Virginia (just outside Washington, DC) to an ebay seller in North Carolina which wasn't received until the 16th ... resulting in negative feedback and substantial bad feelings between us.
In times like these it seems all of us should exercise a degree of tolerance and not be so quick on the trigger ... I think most people are trying to give it their best..........