USPS Tracking - what are your current experiences?

I have 4 media mail items that have been sitting in New Jersey. The oldest has been there for 10 days, the newest 2 days. A number of older items never showed up and I have already received refunds.
I`m probably not going to order anything else for a while until things get back to normal.

 

I'm curious if this older thread was started back up because there were too many members posting in the other thread defending the USPS because it's not their fault they have to make so many concessions to their services because of regulations unjustly heaped on them...people looking to dump on the USPS wanted to give them a fresh canvas to gripe without people also getting informed about how other services make a lot of donations in order to get the Post Office constricted, hoping to run them out of business.

You can either complain about how the most purposefully-over-regulated agency in the country fails to get your packages to your door fast enough...OR, you could stand in amazement at how they ever get anything done at all with so many governmental fingers on their scales, taking bribes from UPS, DHL, FedEx and the other for-profit couriers who want to replace them so their own rates can zoom.

(OR...you could do something about that, but going into detail about it would make the pearls rattle here... )

 

I just had one arrive after 26 days. But at least it made it. Haven't had any go missing yet. Had a UPS ground one go missing though!!

 

I'm in NY. The last few discogs/ebay media mail packages sent to me have been extremely late. One came from Vermont, went to North Carolina, then to NJ and finally to me in NY. Took 2 weeks. Not too bad I guess, but before would have been a few days. Another one shipped from CA to me on April 1st. It's been over a month and no sight of it yet. And the last tracking update is from April 6th, over 3 weeks ago, saying its "moving within the USPS network and is on track to be delivered to its final destination." Afraid to ask what it's final destination is?

 

Things are extremely slow with one package from a city 4 hours away. If it doesn't arrive this week, by next week it will have been a full month. Media mail is extremely slow right now and I would avoid using it if at all possible.

FedEx is now slowing way down as well. I had a 2-3 day package filled with perishable goods that has been in transit 8 days from a nearby state. The contents are spoiled by now and will have to be thrown away.

 

Always mixed. Sometimes packages arrive quickly and sometimes not (my latest Dave's Pick spent a few days in the local PO before it arrived yesterday). Of course, generally quicker, but not always, with 1st class over media mail.

 

This has been my experience as well. I have 5 different LPs coming from different places, some from within my state, some from across the country, all via media mail. They're all arriving late. I'm not complaining. I understand we're all in a horrible situation. Just want to let you all know that wait times are long for me also.

 

For sure. I am being patient with this order and will no longer use media mail until things get back to normal. Luckily my delayed package of music was simply CDs and the risk of damage from extended transit is low.

 

From your experience, I would suggest hold off on ordering any Cream albums unless they ship them in dry ice. Or Frank Zappa's Uncle Meat.

 

I live in a large apartment building with front desk concierge staff who handle all packages, and they've mentioned that it's "worse than Christmas" right now. The entire system is overloaded, it would seem.

 

Here are the USPS postal service guidelines for being able to file a claim for lost/damaged mail. These should also be the guidelines for the minimal time before providing a refund to a buyer who is waiting for the item. The first number is the minimum number of days after shipment you can file. The second number is the maximum number of days after shipment you can file.

So, for anything except Priority Mail Express, the minimum is 15 days. For uninsured Media Mail, the right number is probably at least 22 days, since the delivery window is approximately a week longer than for first class/Priority.

As a buyer, provided tracking shows that the USPS at least took possession of the item, I certainly allow for at least this amount of time, annoying as it sometimes is. And as a seller, I won't provide a refund earlier than these amounts of time, since the item may still shake itself out for delivery. I do try to start a trace on any wayward package ASAP with the USPS, because they are EXTREMELY slow to respond. For a Priority Mail package, you can't start a trace before 7 days.

Priority Mail Express® 7 days 60 days
Priority Mail Express COD 15 days 60 days
Priority Mail® 15 days 60 days
Insured Mail 15 days 60 days
Collect on Delivery (COD) 15 days 60 days
Registered Mail® & Registered COD Mail 15 days 60 days
APO/FPO Priority Mail Express Military® Service 21 days 180 days
APO/FPO/DPO Insured Mail, Registered Mail (Priority Mail, First-Class Mail, First-Class Package Service - Retail, SAM, or PAL) 45 days 1 year
APO/FPO/DPO Insured Mail (Surface only) 75 days 1 year

 

Not TOO bad, all things considered. I would say on average my packages have been lagging about one day behind. However, I have a package now that shipped from Long Island to NJ last week,that has been stuck at Teterboro, NJ since Monday.

 

Ha! My packages are stuck in NJ on their way to Long Island!

They didn't close the GWB again, did they?!!!

 

Been doing a lot of online shopping these days, what with being home so much, and for the most part my stuff has been pretty timely. I did order a shirt from a seller on Poshmark that shipped it April 30th via Priority, and it's still nowhere to be found, so that's a bit concerning to me.

 

My most recent (first class) package had regular tracking, each time saying "on time," then it was delivered 4 days late.

 

Two incoming Media Mail packages, one stuck at the Jersey City NJ Network Distribution Center for the last four days, and the other stuck at Pittsburgh PA Network Distribution Center, also for four days. Jersey City is almost 200 miles from me and Pittsburgh is almost 400 miles from me. Looks like I have some waiting to do.

 

Jersey City NJ Network Distribution Center has been an ongoing problem. Nothing new here, just bigger now.

 

One of these packages finally made its way out of Pittsburgh. Ordered on April 23, shipped on May 1, made its way to Pitsburgh on May 3 where it sat till May 10, now it’s Out For Delivery! Been waiting nineteen days! Finally! Now, waiting for the other package to start moving.

 

We are seeing significant delays with our USPS shipments. We are based out of Southern New Jersey. Jersey City has been the hub for all of our media mail shipments and then the parcels would be routed across the country. I’ve noticed that the parcels are now going to Pittsburgh as the hub and its like a black hole. Parcels sit in Pittsburgh for days if not weeks before moving on. Clearly something is going on at the Jersey City hub and Pittsburgh is overwhelmed.

Luckily so far nothing has been lost. Its not a rule but I’ve seen delivery times as long as 4 weeks for media mail. Some of my customers have told me they have seen similar delivery times from other music vendors.

For the most part first class and priority mail service are unaffected and delivery times are normal. UPS has been business as usual.

 

Preordered the Band Of Gypsys splatter vinyl from EH. It made it to Jersey City last month, but then along with 5 Discogs orders, it just disappeared. This is the latest tracking info:

April 20, 2020
In Transit to Next Facility
Your package is moving within the USPS network and is on track to be delivered to its final destination. It is currently in transit to the next facility.
April 16, 2020, 10:22 am
Departed USPS Regional Destination Facility
JERSEY CITY NJ NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 13, 2020, 12:16 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
JERSEY CITY NJ NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 8, 2020, 11:41 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
GREENSBORO NC NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 7, 2020, 2:42 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
GREENSBORO NC NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 7, 2020, 1:27 pm
Accepted at USPS Origin Facility
CROZET, VA 22932
April 3, 2020, 10:08 am
Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item
CROZET, VA 22932

 

All media mail at the Jersey City NJ distribution center - the largest mail distribution facility in the World - is delayed at least four weeks in my experience.

 

I ordered a CD from local store Dusty Groove last Monday that since last Tuesday had been marked "shipment received, package acceptance pending." FINALLY, this morning it was "accepted" and is in the Chicago Distribution Center, where it may well be routed to Des Moines or God knows where. And this is first-class. I'd have been better off walking the 20 miles to their store and grabbing the CD off the shelf myself.

And, IF the discs arrive tomorrow (they're somewhere in Chicago today, but again see above), it'll be 12 days since I placed an order with Acoustic Sounds. The package apparently sat in Des Moines for almost a week. The expected delivery date was yesterday, but then sometime over the weekend the status changed to "arriving late", then that admission was wiped out and it just said "in transit to next facility."

 

Well that was disappointing. After waiting 19 days, the CD arrived, but the booklet is heavily yellowed and reeks from cigarette smoke. And the seller had the nerve to list it as “Like New”.

 

My findings are that Jersey City is making this even more difficult for themselves as the mail usually departs JC to my local Post Office in Central Jersey. Lately it's beed departing JC for some random US city before returning to JC 5-7 days later - so in my eyes they are creating double work as this mail that should only circulate through their hub once is now doing it twice. This has been happening on about half of my media mail items. The other have either sits there in limbo for 10-14 days or miraculously shows up to my house the next day after it departs JC.

And I still have 2 items that arrived in JC on March 28 and are still "moving within the USPS network".

Either way it's a mess. I wonder if they are intentionally re-routing mail in order to get out of their backlog?

 

Pretty sure this item is lost. It was sent via First Class mail with signature required. No movement in ten days. I have had multiple Media mail items that passed through Jersey City after May 2nd that have been delivered.