By now, most Americans are painfully aware of a major slowdown in USPS deliveries. This has been going on for months but has become painfully apparent in the past month. Packages that were sent out via USPS have disappeared for days and weeks at a time with tracking only showing “In Transit, Arriving Late.” Etsy and eBay sellers have been hurting as people are demanding refunds when they are not receiving their purchases in a timely manner.

There are slow shippers, those who deliberately wait for days before they will ship a purchased item. But these sellers are in the minority. Most Etsy and eBay sellers are either small businesses or people trying to supplement their income, people who do a good job, and are timely with their shipments.

Our town’s local weekly newspaper has been frustrated with at least two weeks of mailing out the paper to subscribers on a timely basis only to have them never delivered.

Unfortunately, USPS has dropped the ball in a big way in the past month or so. Yes, I too have been a victim of USPS’ poor service in the past few weeks. On November 27, a package was sent to me by “Priority Mail” which was supposed to be delivered on December 1. The package made it to a distribution center in Lancaster, PA on November 28 and then disappeared off USPS’ radar. On the morning of December 1, I checked USPS tracking and was dismayed to see the status was “In Transit, Arriving Late”. It remained in this status until the evening of December 14.

On December 7, I filed a Missing Mail report. When you report mail as missing, USPS dumps the problem in the lap of your local postmaster. What could my local postmaster do when the package had never made it this far? How ridiculous can you get?

Lo and behold, on December 15, tracking showed that the package had suddenly appeared at a distribution center in Evansville, Indiana, which normally is the last stop before being sent to my local post office. I am not celebrating yet, though. Who knows what is yet to come? It may be sent to Nome, Alaska, or San Francisco, or Maine. This, too, seems to be all too common with USPS routing. Someone Debbie knows is expecting a package from Missouri. The package was sent to California, then Ohio, then to Indianapolis. It is not in our area yet.

Numerous news stories are revealing how packages are building up at distribution centers nationwide. These events are out of the hands of people who have shipped items in good faith by using USPS’ services. Here is just one example:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/15/postal-service-holiday-packages-delays/

USPS has one answer to why this is happening: Because Rona. (Also known as Coronavirus, COVID-19, etc.) This is a major cop-out.

USPS management knew the Christmas season was coming. They knew more and more people were purchasing online than ever before – again Because Rona. Yet it appears that they did nothing to prepare for a larger than ever holiday onslaught of shipping, and their answer has so far been to just allow packages to pile up in distribution centers while not bothering to try and deliver in a timely manner.

By now it is too late to ship a package, no matter which carrier you use, and expect it to be delivered in time for Christmas. But if you care whether that package actually reaches its destination, you really need to use FedEx or UPS. Yes, FedEx and UPS charge more for small packages (although their rates are lower than USPS for large packages). But there are people who will pay more for a premium service – myself included – to ensure we actually receive our packages.

Personally, I would like to see USPS to get out of the package shipping business altogether and leave it to FedEx and UPS. Let USPS stick to doing what they do a mediocre job at, and that is delivering letters and periodicals.

I’m Ron Ramirez, and I approve of my commentary.