I sent a package via USPS from my location (Missouri) to Arizona on December 15th, 2020. According to the USPS tracking site, it stayed in my local postal distribution center until the 3rd of January of this year; that's 19 days without moving. It's finally out for delivery today. So, yes in my experience, that's certainly possible nowadays.
It reassures me, thank you
the sad answer is YES. USPS is proactively holding material upstream until there's more movement downstream.
It's a sad state of affairs, partially force majeure and partially man made (Odious DeJoy; apologies to Bait n Switchoven)
I received a letter with stamps from an ebay seller postmarked Portland, OR October 1, 2020 and it finally appeared in Bellefonte, PA on December 31. I had to resend payment since the seller already gave me a refund.
I am sure this has to do with online shopping due to the lockdowns, Christmas and the number of Postal workers contracting the Chinese Virus.
Vince
Same thing happened to me Vince, with that cover from LA that I posted here.
Sixty-six days on that one, transcontinental. First-class mail. Seller provided a refund, and to my surprise, the item showed up. So, I paid him again.
Again, I cannot remember ever NOT receiving an expected delivery from USPS. But, eventual delivery is still unexpected, until it happens.
At the moment, I have two other domestic shipments that are overdue, shipped Dec 11 and 17.
I have an international order, from Spain, of November 19 that has not yet arrived.
But, the all-time record was 5 covers that I bought from a seller in Argentina on March 29 that didn't arrive until October. Apparently, that was because all flights from Argentina had been suspended due to COVID.
No tracking on any of those 4 orders, so I have no idea, until they show up.
-Paul
I ordered a package for Christmas at the end of November. Was issued a tracking number immediately with information that it would be delivered in 6 days.
6 days later, the tracking information said the same thing. Then 2 days after that, it was updated to be delivered in 5 days. It appeared to still be in the post office in the city where it was to be shipped from.
I asked at my local post office, and the postal clerk just laughed. She said there were delays due to the high volumes of stuff being mailed but what likely happened here was that the seller immediately assigns the tracking number but doesn't actually ship the item until they have enough stuff to make a trip to the post office.
So while it appeared like it was shipped the same day, it really sat in the business for 8 days. When it was presented at the post office is when the updated information was registered. Still took 14 days to go from Michigan to Iowa but at least it arriived.
When I applied a similar strategy, the postal clerk held up her hand ("Talk to the hand"), and told me to initiate a missing mail search. She also said, "We don't leave items lying around." My reply, "Well, it's lying around SOMEWHERE!"
Here's where you do that (it's not at the main usps.com website):
Missing Mail
I did it for another (valuable) order that had a tracking number, and my search was accepted (there are criteria), but nothing whatsoever happened after that. Then, about 10 days later, the shipment showed up, so I cancelled the search. I seriously doubt that anyone wandered around the post office looking for my item!
From the tracking info, I could tell that the order was stalled at a distribution center about 50 miles from my delivery location, and I was contemplating going to that PO and asking them to hand it over. I also considered approaching the stamp dealers in the area (Phil Bansner, for one) with an image and asking them to watch for a fencer. The envelope was stamped INSURED in red ink. To me, that's like painting a target on it. I was certain that someone in the postal service had filched it. Nope.
Tracking numbers are not very useful as a remedy, but at least you know if the sender actually shipped the item. And, the tracking number may actually be a mild deterrent to devious postal service employees, especially at smaller locations, with fewer employees.
-Paul
This is my take on it - I had some late Christmas deliveries I was trying to get to the bottom of - the Rochester, NY processing center was overwhelmed even after hiring 500 temps. I guess UPS and Fedex were overwhelmed too but they can refuse new items whereas USPS is not allowed to so they also got USP/Fedex overflow.
Anyway - if they have warehouses full of unprocessed pallets and bins of mails, they cannot stop processing just to go look for one person's missing package (how are they going to dig thru a bin of 1000's for a specific item without handling what's on top?), they can only keep plugging away at the backlog.
Josh
please also note that a post mark, unless it's a hand stamp, is meaningless. it tells you when a thing was PROCESSED not when it was MAILED. Hand stamps document the exchange between sender and PO; spray documents when a BMF got to it. My sister mailed things on 12.2; it was processed on 12.15. Processing seldom happens at the originating PO but at BMF that handle mail from many stations. it is the machinery of those stations that has been in the news in the run up to the elections.
I too have had to refund sellers after items seemed to have disappeared.Then finally arrived But one I paid for in june last year from Argentina I am still waiting for and also one from The Netherlands Antilles.thats a couple of months overdue.
Brian
I am still waiting for a REGISTERED envelope sent from a New York post office to Portland Oregon on Oct 01. The tracking shows a manual scan when it was received at the post office on Oct 01, but the last scan (a system-generated scan, not a manual scan) was Oct 06. Nothing since then.
The seller has refunded my money and filed a claim for the insured value, but was denied by USPS. He's getting his lawyer involved as the value of the claim is rather large.
There are only three reasons for denying a USPS insurance claim:
1. The item was not lost (really? after three months of tracking inactivity?)
2. The item was not insured (he has the paid USPS receipt)
3. The value of the loss was not proven. (he has scans of what was in it along with the Scott catalogue values and the invoice I paid)
And folks complain about the poor performance of the Royal Mail, Canada Post, and Australia Post.
"3. The value of the loss was not proven. (he has scans of what was in it along with the Scott catalogue values)"
Respectfully, that defies logic. Even as mismanaged as the USPS is, I'm hoping they're smarter than that.
The value of the item SHOULD BE whatever the buyer paid for it, assuming the seller also purchased and paid for at least that much insurance. Any difference between what a seller paid for an item vs. what they sold it for should not part of the equation; you cannot insure a profit. How many folks keep every invoice they received over the years, and what about trades and show sales where there ARE no invoices?
And since the seller has no control over what happens to the item once the post office receives it, any risk of deliberate insurance fraud for missing items should be miniscule.
That said, private insurance beats that of the USPS any day. Members of the APS (American Philatelic Society) can purchase insurance through Hugh Woods Inc. that covers not only their collection but also any philatelic items they ship to someone else.
"Respectfully, that defies logic."
In that case, perhaps the BUYER should pay the postage and insurance costs (which is often the case), not the seller. The SELLER should not offer free shipping, and would act as the buyer's shipping agent.
The BUYER can then show the seller's invoice to prove what he (the buyer) paid to acquire the item as well as the postage and insurance costs paid to his shipping agent.
The buyer would be the one who would have to file any insurance claim for non-delivery.
Heck of a way to run a railroad. and I don't know how many buyers would go for it - or if the postal authorities would accept it.
I recently received a parcel from a neighboring state. It came from less than 300 miles away. I got a notice from the postal service on a Monday, saying it was to be delivered to me on that day. When it did not arrive, I checked the tracking on it, and it said my parcel was delayed in delivery. It finally arrived, almost a week later.
Especially in areas hard hit by Covid, like the NYC Metro area and NJ, they are barely running the sorting centers. I have a relative who works in Trenton, NJ and they've had several employees die of Covid. Each time someone tests positive, those in contact with that person go on a 14 day furlough / quarantine. That's like whole departments / shifts! My relative has done that twice.
There is lots of OT offered, but few takers as those who do have to work there, want to lower their time exposure in the building. So stuff is sitting...
Fortunately my relative has not tested positive, as he says... YET.
"Especially in areas hard hit by Covid, like the NYC Metro area and NJ, they are barely running the sorting centers. "
Good news, it arived two few das ago
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
I sent a package via USPS from my location (Missouri) to Arizona on December 15th, 2020. According to the USPS tracking site, it stayed in my local postal distribution center until the 3rd of January of this year; that's 19 days without moving. It's finally out for delivery today. So, yes in my experience, that's certainly possible nowadays.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
the sad answer is YES. USPS is proactively holding material upstream until there's more movement downstream.
It's a sad state of affairs, partially force majeure and partially man made (Odious DeJoy; apologies to Bait n Switchoven)
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
I received a letter with stamps from an ebay seller postmarked Portland, OR October 1, 2020 and it finally appeared in Bellefonte, PA on December 31. I had to resend payment since the seller already gave me a refund.
I am sure this has to do with online shopping due to the lockdowns, Christmas and the number of Postal workers contracting the Chinese Virus.
Vince
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
Same thing happened to me Vince, with that cover from LA that I posted here.
Sixty-six days on that one, transcontinental. First-class mail. Seller provided a refund, and to my surprise, the item showed up. So, I paid him again.
Again, I cannot remember ever NOT receiving an expected delivery from USPS. But, eventual delivery is still unexpected, until it happens.
At the moment, I have two other domestic shipments that are overdue, shipped Dec 11 and 17.
I have an international order, from Spain, of November 19 that has not yet arrived.
But, the all-time record was 5 covers that I bought from a seller in Argentina on March 29 that didn't arrive until October. Apparently, that was because all flights from Argentina had been suspended due to COVID.
No tracking on any of those 4 orders, so I have no idea, until they show up.
-Paul
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
I ordered a package for Christmas at the end of November. Was issued a tracking number immediately with information that it would be delivered in 6 days.
6 days later, the tracking information said the same thing. Then 2 days after that, it was updated to be delivered in 5 days. It appeared to still be in the post office in the city where it was to be shipped from.
I asked at my local post office, and the postal clerk just laughed. She said there were delays due to the high volumes of stuff being mailed but what likely happened here was that the seller immediately assigns the tracking number but doesn't actually ship the item until they have enough stuff to make a trip to the post office.
So while it appeared like it was shipped the same day, it really sat in the business for 8 days. When it was presented at the post office is when the updated information was registered. Still took 14 days to go from Michigan to Iowa but at least it arriived.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
When I applied a similar strategy, the postal clerk held up her hand ("Talk to the hand"), and told me to initiate a missing mail search. She also said, "We don't leave items lying around." My reply, "Well, it's lying around SOMEWHERE!"
Here's where you do that (it's not at the main usps.com website):
Missing Mail
I did it for another (valuable) order that had a tracking number, and my search was accepted (there are criteria), but nothing whatsoever happened after that. Then, about 10 days later, the shipment showed up, so I cancelled the search. I seriously doubt that anyone wandered around the post office looking for my item!
From the tracking info, I could tell that the order was stalled at a distribution center about 50 miles from my delivery location, and I was contemplating going to that PO and asking them to hand it over. I also considered approaching the stamp dealers in the area (Phil Bansner, for one) with an image and asking them to watch for a fencer. The envelope was stamped INSURED in red ink. To me, that's like painting a target on it. I was certain that someone in the postal service had filched it. Nope.
Tracking numbers are not very useful as a remedy, but at least you know if the sender actually shipped the item. And, the tracking number may actually be a mild deterrent to devious postal service employees, especially at smaller locations, with fewer employees.
-Paul
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
This is my take on it - I had some late Christmas deliveries I was trying to get to the bottom of - the Rochester, NY processing center was overwhelmed even after hiring 500 temps. I guess UPS and Fedex were overwhelmed too but they can refuse new items whereas USPS is not allowed to so they also got USP/Fedex overflow.
Anyway - if they have warehouses full of unprocessed pallets and bins of mails, they cannot stop processing just to go look for one person's missing package (how are they going to dig thru a bin of 1000's for a specific item without handling what's on top?), they can only keep plugging away at the backlog.
Josh
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
please also note that a post mark, unless it's a hand stamp, is meaningless. it tells you when a thing was PROCESSED not when it was MAILED. Hand stamps document the exchange between sender and PO; spray documents when a BMF got to it. My sister mailed things on 12.2; it was processed on 12.15. Processing seldom happens at the originating PO but at BMF that handle mail from many stations. it is the machinery of those stations that has been in the news in the run up to the elections.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
I too have had to refund sellers after items seemed to have disappeared.Then finally arrived But one I paid for in june last year from Argentina I am still waiting for and also one from The Netherlands Antilles.thats a couple of months overdue.
Brian
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
I am still waiting for a REGISTERED envelope sent from a New York post office to Portland Oregon on Oct 01. The tracking shows a manual scan when it was received at the post office on Oct 01, but the last scan (a system-generated scan, not a manual scan) was Oct 06. Nothing since then.
The seller has refunded my money and filed a claim for the insured value, but was denied by USPS. He's getting his lawyer involved as the value of the claim is rather large.
There are only three reasons for denying a USPS insurance claim:
1. The item was not lost (really? after three months of tracking inactivity?)
2. The item was not insured (he has the paid USPS receipt)
3. The value of the loss was not proven. (he has scans of what was in it along with the Scott catalogue values and the invoice I paid)
And folks complain about the poor performance of the Royal Mail, Canada Post, and Australia Post.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
"3. The value of the loss was not proven. (he has scans of what was in it along with the Scott catalogue values)"
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
Respectfully, that defies logic. Even as mismanaged as the USPS is, I'm hoping they're smarter than that.
The value of the item SHOULD BE whatever the buyer paid for it, assuming the seller also purchased and paid for at least that much insurance. Any difference between what a seller paid for an item vs. what they sold it for should not part of the equation; you cannot insure a profit. How many folks keep every invoice they received over the years, and what about trades and show sales where there ARE no invoices?
And since the seller has no control over what happens to the item once the post office receives it, any risk of deliberate insurance fraud for missing items should be miniscule.
That said, private insurance beats that of the USPS any day. Members of the APS (American Philatelic Society) can purchase insurance through Hugh Woods Inc. that covers not only their collection but also any philatelic items they ship to someone else.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
"Respectfully, that defies logic."
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
In that case, perhaps the BUYER should pay the postage and insurance costs (which is often the case), not the seller. The SELLER should not offer free shipping, and would act as the buyer's shipping agent.
The BUYER can then show the seller's invoice to prove what he (the buyer) paid to acquire the item as well as the postage and insurance costs paid to his shipping agent.
The buyer would be the one who would have to file any insurance claim for non-delivery.
Heck of a way to run a railroad. and I don't know how many buyers would go for it - or if the postal authorities would accept it.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
I recently received a parcel from a neighboring state. It came from less than 300 miles away. I got a notice from the postal service on a Monday, saying it was to be delivered to me on that day. When it did not arrive, I checked the tracking on it, and it said my parcel was delayed in delivery. It finally arrived, almost a week later.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
Especially in areas hard hit by Covid, like the NYC Metro area and NJ, they are barely running the sorting centers. I have a relative who works in Trenton, NJ and they've had several employees die of Covid. Each time someone tests positive, those in contact with that person go on a 14 day furlough / quarantine. That's like whole departments / shifts! My relative has done that twice.
There is lots of OT offered, but few takers as those who do have to work there, want to lower their time exposure in the building. So stuff is sitting...
Fortunately my relative has not tested positive, as he says... YET.
re: Is it possible that cover stay at same transit post for more 17 days
"Especially in areas hard hit by Covid, like the NYC Metro area and NJ, they are barely running the sorting centers. "