I have received two daylily orders recently, one from Florida and one from North Carolina, both were mailed on a Monday and both arrived on Friday. Is the three day delivery thing over or is it just living on the extreme south end of Alabama the problem. Anyone else seeing this trend with our mail service.

I haven't been having this trouble. I've mailed clothes recently from Indiana to rural Wyoming with them arriving 2-3 days later. I don't think the timing was ever changed but wasn't part of the USPS revamp plan to change the priority mail guarantee from 2-3 days to 3-5 days?

I send packages all the time. They usually get there in two days, some will take three. Only very occasionally will they take longer. They must have to go through more hubs to get to you.

Dot

Really, if you want something to complain about try the Canadian Postal NonService. From one side of Toronto to the other side of Toronto has taken three weeks 1st.Class! I could have walked there and back in much less time and I have a bad knee and hip.

Oh goodness Brian!

I am guessing with all of the money problems the postal service is having that priority mail is being "hubbed" more.

That said, every month or two I mail my daughter living in Hawaii a care package from our very rural post office (open a whopping 2 hours on Saturday morning, town of about 1000). Almost always, my daughter receives that package the following Monday, occasionally Tuesday. Amazing, since she isn't even on one of the major Islands, but in Kauai. If I mail it from anywhere else, any other day of the week, it can take 5 days.

Even the military boxes almost always arrive about 7 days later, sometimes 3-5 days, occasionally 2 weeks. I think it has more to do with when a package is mailed, and the hubs it goes through, and the size of the package.

I love the US postal service and their boxes, too bad Congress has their hand in controlling things. The system can be made profitable if allowed to. I haven't had what I would consider major problems with their priority mail system, but I certainly understand your frustration ~Jan

Fred, I used to have a similar problem with iris orders coming from an iris garden not even 200 miles away. I always specified Priority Mail, and it would always take at least 4-5 days to receive them. So I changed to UPS Ground, and suddenly it was 2-3 days and has been so ever since.

And I know Dot will remember the problem this last summer with the first shipment of seeds she sent me. They never arrived, so she had to scramble around to replace them -- and then right after I received the replacement batch I suddenly got a notice that the Post Office would only hold my package for another day or two (can't remember how long) and then would return it to the sender-- and that was the first notice had I received! So we let it happen, and hopefully she got her seeds back. Did you ever get them back, Dot? I admit I was rather steamed about that. I have a mailbox slot that actually drops everything into a box inside the house, so if he had filled out one of those notices it should have been there.

And I guess there are occasional problems with both delivery systems. Just a few weeks ago I received a call from a woman who lived around the block ON ANOTHER STREET, and UPS had dropped off my order of 3-1/2" pots at her place.

Fred, my former company shipped 100,000+ packages in 9-1/2 years I was with them. Postal delivery times are often inconsistent. As Jan said, much of it is due to when mailed and what hub. Certainly, shipping before or after any holiday will add 2-3 days to the usual delivery. One December, we had an entire pallet of Priority Mail destined for the Rocky Mountain area go to Philadelphia first, THEN was routed westward. Took two weeks-and made for some unhappy customers. And I can *firmly* support Brian's statement. We stopped shipping Internationally about a year ago and the Canadian postal service delivery issue was at the top of the why list (along with Italy and Brazil). With all its hiccups and occasional frustrations, USPS is still the best in the world.

Spunky,

Maybe the holiday season has put a glitch in shipping or slowed it down more than normal?? My favorite day to ship packages is Saturday, by far. If I take packages to the main hub here in town, they almost always get there on Monday. EXCEPT for the state of Texas. Either I've had extraordinarily bad luck or there is a black hole somewhere in TX that swallows packages!! <LOL> Monday shipping is not so reliable here - the packages MIGHT get there on Wed. or Thurs. but one shouldn't hold their breath. And I won't ship on W, Th, or FR.

Even first class mail can have strange glitches. When I used to tabulate the Awards ballots for AHS, it once took a 1st class envelope from Charlotte NC ( 3 hours away) 9 days to get here!! I could have driven down there and picked it up, for Pete's sake. There were cases of empty envelopes arriving opened with MIA ballots, once a ballot arrived with no envelope ( with an "apology note" from the PO no less) and it got to me because my name and address was on the ballot, presumably. There are definitely gremlins in the USPS!!

Yes Betty,

I finally got the seeds back. It was about a month after sending them. They appeared to not be damaged. I had the same thing happen with a package one time. It got lost and the woman refunded my money. About a month later, I got a notice in the mailbox "third and last notice", that they had tried to deliver the package and no one was home. We are ALWAYS home, unless we run to the grocery store or something. I had NEVER received a notice, until the final one. So then I sent the woman her money again.

Then there was the day that the postal service made me very angry. I had seven boxes sitting on the front porch waiting for the mailman to pick them up. I had turned in my package pickup notice the day before. They all had daylilies in them. Take note also that post office printed postage is only good for one day, the day that is printed on the label. Well my front door is always open with just the storm door there. I can see the mailbox from my computer. The mail person drove up, put the mail in the box and drove off. My son ran to the door yelling and screaming, and then whistled real loud, they were at the mailbox next door, no response. They just kept on driving. So then I had to try and find the number of the post office. I looked online and found one number in my area. I called and then they had to transfer me to another number. I finally got a real person and told them my problem. Later on the mail lady came back to get them. It seems that she was a worker who usually works in the warehouse. She had taken my package pickup notice and just put it in my mailbox with the mail. She had to ask ME what the pickup notice was. They really train them well don't they? I calmly explained to her, what it was and what to do and which copy she was to keep and turn back in. Then after she left I was just dumbstruck. The number to the post office is now on a sticky note on my computer.

Dot

Oh my DOt Oh My! It's stories like this, that make me fear my fabulous Mailman's pending retirement! I'm afraid I'll get one like that.

Fred, I have noticed that some packages are taking an extra day to get here and when being sent from here( Central MD). I once had a package that was going to Missouri first go to Massachuesetts, sit there for over 24 hrs and then wind it's way on to Missouri. IT took a week, yet a package mailed at the same time from the exact very same post office somehow managed to get all the way to San Jose, CA in just 2 days. I find anything going to the middle of the country takes more time than things going to the west coast or northeast. I always add the delivery confirmartion when I ship so I can track where the devil they send the darn things. IT's amazing how this stuff gets routed.

I've had the same thing happen before, sitting right there waiting for the mailman to bring the package to the door and they don't even bother to come to the door. This particular one would leave the notices in the mailbox (at least they did that), but never once came to the door to see if anyone was home.
I've had UPS and FedEx leave FINAL notices but never left any other notices first. This was before it was the norm for the companies to give you the tracking numbers so I couldn't actually see what was up with the packages.

But from what I understand, from a retired postal worker, these packages are shipped in planes and if one plane is full then they put the remaining packages on another plane even if it's going in the opposite direction. That's why 2 packages going to the same area may take different routes to get to its destination.

I do have to state that my dogs LOVE my postman - if they are outside when he stops at my mailbox, he tosses them small dog biscuits! If they hear his vehicle, they go racing around to the front yard, and sit nicely in the driveway until he tosses biscuits their way ! ~Jan

I've had absolutely no problems with delivery. The longest has been three days for priority, in their priority mailers. (I always use the medium), and two packages from NY to AK arrived in 2 days! I print the labels here the night before, and drop them off early in the morning.

My husband has an internet business, and ditto there.

Kinda makes me scared to admit that I work part time at the local post office.

Ive always had good luck with the post office,except when I have to go in person....need I say more . As far as delivery, I just sent something to Pa. and it got there in two days. I was happy, as they were quilt blocks for sandy relief quilts and there was NO WAY I wanted to go thru making those again. :-o. Its certainly still cheaper than ups or fed-ex.
I overwhelmingly agree with Jan...get it out of the hands of the government and make it profitable and efficient.

Kim, if I could get a part time job at the PO I would be so happy I would scream it from the rooftop, nothing that you should be scared to admit. Lots of great people at the PO. Ive always had great mail deliverers, well except the one that would not get out of the truck for love nor money nor mail,

Kim, the staff at my home post office are delights to work with and I am always happy with their service. The one at my former company is exactly the opposite. I think some of it is individual office management? I still say USPS is the best postal service anywhere.

I love my PO staff - in fact I owe the postmistress a daylily. I promised her one this past fall, but then I got Rust in that bed & I told her she would have to wait until winter killed it all. She also ALWAYS wins our chili cookoff every winter - and she comes up with some AMAZING chili recipes ~Jan

I will never forget when I bought some daylily seedlings from Tink(this fall) and how fast they came. She mailed them on Saturday and they were at my door Monday afternoon. That's from Florida to Washington state!!!! Saturday is a good day to send.
Mostly no problems with the mail service. My postal lady takes good care of me. In the spring I give here a garden full of plants from my greenhouse.
She brings my plants to the house and If I'm not home she always puts them in the shade. She's the best!!

I love the postal service and it's about our only option because of where we are located, if it were not for them I would have to take everything to the big city. It just seems odd that I can mail Betty a package and it will arrive in California faster than I can receive one 500 miles from us. It may have something to do with the holidays, this is the only time I receive daylilies, and I do not ship until March or April. Thanks for all the input.

That is odd, Fred. I can mail in state and it will arrive sometimes the next day!!