USPS Fails

From News Nation:

“‘Unprecedented’ mail volume delays Christmas gifts”

Some who mailed holiday presents weeks early this year found they didn’t act early enough as Christmas arrived with their gifts stuck in transit. The U.S. Postal Service said on its website that it was “experiencing unprecedented volume increases and limited employee availability due to the impacts of COVID-19.” Austin Race of Grand Rapids, Michigan, placed an online order Nov. 30 for a collector’s model die-cast of a NASCAR racing car. It hadn’t reached his father after the Postal Service passed through his neighborhood Thursday night, even though he was notified Dec. 8 that it was shipped by two-day priority mail. His gift was in Opa-locka, Florida, the last time he checked the tracking number, about 750 miles south of where he ordered it in Mooresville, North Carolina. Race, 21, resigned himself to telling his father he will have to wait a little longer for his gift. “I do understand the situation, but it’s still kind of frustrating,” he said. Joanna Goldstein ordered Christmas ornaments online Nov. 17 for her 10-year-old son’s soccer coach and her son’s friend. She figured it was ample time to arrive from a store about 80 miles from her home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. All appeared well Dec. 11 when she received a notice from the Postal Service that the ornaments had been received in Columbus, Ohio. But then the package made a journey through distribution centers in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Lansing, Michigan, before apparently getting stuck in Detroit. On Wednesday, she received another notice that delivery would be later than initially anticipated. Her son was angry but Goldstein is taking it in stride. “I was frustrated last week thinking, ‘C’mon, get here,’ but now I am just sort of laughing it off,” she said. She told her son the ornaments will hang on the tree next year and they will have a story to tell about the long journey they took during the pandemic.

^ I ordered something that shipped on December 2^nd and as of December 15^th it has been stuck at a USPS 3 hours away. The USPS should just admit they have failed. They had months of increased mail deliveries to prepare for the holidays (usually their only busy time) and they don’t seem to have done a thing. Also, they can no longer use the slogan “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow….” because they did not deliver here when we got the snow storm last week and I have been told the same thing from friends in other States. It is sad to see the USPS sink to such a degrading and sorry state. The US Government really needs to step-in (probably not until January 20, 2021) and fix all the issues the USPS has from funding, to staffing, to training to equipment, etc. ^

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/unprecedented-mail-volume-delays-christmas-gifts/