It's becoming painfully clear to me that US Priority Mail is badly broken and there is no guarantee packages will arrive at their destinations in the promised 2-3 days, or even in a week or more ... if ever.

This being the case, I'm wondering what I will do next year to ship my daylilies.

What advice/thoughts can you offer?

I have a Mail place in a strip mall near me that sends UPS. I've received plants via UPS and they did fine. I use UPS in the Christmas time because they hit their target dates well (in previous years) and they have options for faster delivery or cheapest delivery. I haven't tested it lately, but I'll mail some things Monday, and I can let you know how it goes.

We'll probably have to play it by ear this spring. Maybe things will be better by then. Certainly the funding and equipment removed from a lot of post offices will be reinstated urgently later this winter. But then, it will be "all hands on deck" for moving vaccines around the country until at least July. So I think the US Post Office may be fixed by late April, but we still might have other priorities muddying the waters until summer.

Thanks Tim. Please let me know how your Monday shipment goes and which option you used - faster or cheaper.

I used Priority Mail to send some cookies to my sister - from Virginia to Massachussetts. Sent on 12/03. Last tracking with a location was Boston on December 8. Since then I only get that it's currently in transit to the next facility. I guess they are circumnavigating the globe with it first. She only lives maybe 10-15 miles outside Boston. I'm pretty disgusted at this point.

I sent 2 boxes out in the fall. One arrived in 2 days, the other showed no signs of leaving the original post office. Or that I ever dropped it off, since there was a long line and with covid, I just dropped it in their box. Stressful, but it was insured

I think "in-transit" means they don't have a clue where it is 🤔 The usual hang-ups seem to be the regional sorting centers.

Aaah... I had the problem with their tracker all last year when I shipped daylilies. The tracker was awful. Looked like it was at the hub near me the whole time, and then all of a sudden it said it arrived. I think the other package said and looked Iike it was going to get there a day early, but it didn't say it arrived until the next morning.

Since last winter, when I mail at the US Post Office, they check their system that says when it will arrive, but tell me verbally that it could get there later than that admitting they are having issues nationally and they don't know which packages will be impacted. And once or twice they did arrive a day or two late. I think a package I sent to Robin was two days late. Grrr.

But in my friend's town, they don't have enough funding for carriers for all their routes, so people there feel like it's a good week if they get mail 3 times a week! So I figure I'm getting by ok if my packages are just a day or two late compared to that.

FedEx is just as bad. We had two packages that FedEx tracking showed as delivered but were noshows. The shippers replaced the missing packages but it's a pain.

I bought some Gnatrol on EBay (U.S.) in October, so I would have it for seedlings this winter. The first package didn't show up, so I checked tracking and it was in 'dead mail' in N.C. I contacted the seller and he was great and resent my package on Nov. 22. It arrived yesterday. Packages from the U.S. usually take about 2 weeks, but this took an extra week or so, but not bad, all considered.

I am hoping that by the time I ship this spring, USPS will have gotten back closer to normal. If the pandemic eases up and along some other changes, I am hopeful. I have used USPS for years and like many, was dismayed with what happened to packages this past fall. It was very stressful. I did submit a complaint and the local post office actually did call! All of my shipments ( not so many as normal, as I was recovering from surgery, about 45. ) did arrive, but they were all much slower than a normal year. Many took up to a week,a couple even longer. I do love the convenience of click and ship, and hate to have to give it up. Fingers crossed that USPS will come back. If we begin to get a grip on this pandemic, I think it will improve.

Like the rest of you I have concerns about shipping this spring. I was lucky and all but one package shipped USPS this year was received in the 3 - 4 day slot. The slow one took 2 extra days. As far as UPS or FedEx I've never used them for shipping. My understanding is UPS and FedEx have split the country, UPS east & FedEx west, for vaccine shipments. I plan to use USPS again this year and have hope they will be back up and running like they did before 2020.

I had seven UPS packages of DLs sent to me, Sept-Oct-Nov, and all arrived on time from various part of the US.

This year, for the first time ever (in close to 25 years) a shipment of daylilies shipped by USPS did not arrive here. I don't expect that I will trust USPS in the future.

With new appointments to the postal governing board, one hopes that Louis DeJoy will be ejected as postmaster.

USPS has always been my preferred service in the past. There's the convenience of the free boxes, click and ship and pick up at your home.

I do hope we get a new postmaster and some changes for the better (or reversal of changes for the worse).

I don't want to have to start buying boxes and taking them to the nearest UPS store. Too much traffic here.

I just heard that my package sent Priority Mail on 12/03 finally got delivered today 12/13. These were cookies, hopefully still good.

I think my future daylily buyers may have to agree to accept that these delays might happen in the future.

I support the USPS. I think the recent problems are political.

the US has one of the best postal systems.

Yes, my postal delivery person told me that many of the problems were political, as the postmaster general took actions (removing sorting machines and denying overtime) that in a time of extra volume could only be interpreted as sabotage. I also find greater indifference at other levels of administration. It took over two months for the post office to correct postage due errors, even while respondents admitted that there were system-wide errors and "discrepancies." This year has been a terrible headache with USPS. Unfortunately, DeJoy cannot be immediately replaced, as vacancies must first be filled on the postal governing board, and then perhaps the governing board will take action.

I am hoping that by the time I ship this spring, USPS will have gotten back closer to normal. If the pandemic eases up and along some other changes, I am hopeful. I have used USPS for years and like many, was dismayed with what happened to packages this past fall. It was very stressful. I did submit a complaint and the local post office actually did call! All of my shipments ( not so many as normal, as I was recovering from surgery, about 45. ) did arrive, but they were all much slower than a normal year. Many took up to a week,a couple even longer. I do love the convenience of click and ship, and hate to have to give it up. Fingers crossed that USPS will come back. If we begin to get a grip on this pandemic, I think it will improve.

Lots of packages have become "lost" in the mailing process. I sent a Christmas gift to my aunt who lives down in Texas. She was supposed to get it last Monday. It's been over a week and she still doesn't have the package.

I feel so bad for those people that have lost or had their packages delayed.

I am a collector/grower and I have had a number of packages go missing in the last 2 years. Fortunately, all the daylilies eventually showed up but from a shippers perspective, it has to be a nightmare. I just figure it is part of the territory and nurse the plants back to health but some customers can be demanding. A package of herbs I ordered about a year ago never showed up and the shipper replaced them. I love the post office and I agree that the problems are political. There are people in the government that want to destroy it. I hope we will see some improvements in 2021. I drove for UPS for some years in the 1980's and they are a top notch organization and very well organized. Given the current problems with the USPS, I would feel relieved to know plants I ordered were coming UPS.