Mail Forwarding Delay

[ghs]

We have been rving for ten years. We have our mail forwarded to a service.

At first the post office was very efficient at getting our mail to the service. It seems that they get slower each year. We pay what we can online but we are now getting some bills a week after they are due.

Are other people experiencing the same problem or is it just our post office.

[Dutch_12078]

2gypsies wrote:
We use Escapees Mail Forwarding. We send an email request when we want it shipped and we always receive it Priority Mail within 2-3 days - even in the Tucson area. It only took 5 days to ship it from Texas to Alaska!

The problem here is with those that are using the USPS temporary forwarding service to forward their mail while snowbirding, etc. Those of us that use a PMB forwarder such as Escapees, St Brendan's Isle, etc., as our primary address, would not be seeing the same delay issues.

[2gypsies1]

We use Escapees Mail Forwarding. We send an email request when we want it shipped and we always receive it Priority Mail within 2-3 days - even in the Tucson area. It only took 5 days to ship it from Texas to Alaska!

[dezl_dr]

Premium forwarding (if it fits it ships), JMO, is only way to go. Yes, it will cost you, but you get a better service. It works like this....your mail accumulates at your regular post office (hold area) for a week (or two) and a clerk addresses a priority box to your forwarding address and fills it with you mail - 2-3 days later your get your box of mail.
Standard forwarding (for snowbirds) is a pain in the a$$....the change of address card gets sent to the CFS office for entry. Then a label is generated at the local office (3-5 days later) to notify your carrier of your change of address. Once the first piece of mail is put into the forwarding tray, it could take 7-10 days before you receive it. Yes, this service is free, but....you get what you pay for.
Keep in mind that when you have a temporary forward (a forward with a start and ending date) ALL of your mail goes to your permanent post office first...then gets forwarded on to you - that is most of the delay!
And yes, my wife works for the USPS.

[hoopers]

2-3 weeks for USPS mail forwarding.

We now have a UPS mailbox, where we have most of our important mail sent all year long. We changed all our important account addresses to the UPS mailbox. That mail is forwarded whenever I want and promptly done.

[John_Joey]

Yes, plus not everything is making it to us like years past. Had friends e-mail us that their Christmas card was returned to them, and wanted to know if we changed our primary address.

[Popsie]

We are in Tucson now. Using USPS tracking, I will find a status that says that the package has arrived. In fact, it has arrived in Tucson, but apparently Tucson mail is sent to Phoenix to be sorted and then sent back to Tucson to be delivered (or something crazy like that - I learned this at the Post Office, but they weren't very clear about what was going on). So the actual delivery may be days after the online tracking system says delivered. Also, the guy at the Post Office said that if you send something like a birthday card or invitation to a neighbor on your street, it may take days or a week before it is actually delivered depending on the backlog at Phoenix - which is processing the mail for a lot of Arizona towns and cities.

I also have been told that all Colorado Springs mail is routed through Denver to be sorted for delivery. I assume this scheme is being used in many places.

This is supposedly being done to cut costs. Another side effect is a reduction in the number of counter workers at local post offices leading to longer delays sending or picking up mail.

Also, the personnel cuts are done based on how long a person has been with the Post Office (union rule apparently) which means that the person at the counter to "serve" you may be really good at delivery, but not so good at going through all the Post Office gobbledy gook to send mail overseas etc- which helps to back up the lines.

Are any other members here running into these delays?

[ronfisherman]

We are getting USPS forwarded mail as much as 3 weeks later. From MI to AZ. Not very good service like we have had in previous years. That were 2 weeks at the most.

[2oldman]

I suspect the USPS is, by now, in pretty terrible financial shape.

With the general public's acceptance of email, along with the USPS's continuation of Saturday delivery, plus UPS and FedEx doing a marvelous job, I can't see much of a future for them.

[2oldman]

ghs wrote:
We pay what we can online but we are now getting some bills a week after they are due.

If these are medical bills I feel your pain. Online? hahahahaha

If they're not medical, perhaps you can pay them in advance. I never see a water bill, I just send them $120 a quarter.

[amandasgramma]

The USPS has closed down many of the distribution centers. In Bend, Or we went from mail taking a few days to over a week to get to Salem, Or. On the other hand, I had mail sent from podunk town, Oregon to Quartzsite, AZ not long ago.....took 4 days. 🙂 The package that was sent on Dec 16 to Parker, AZ took a month to get to AZ....and showed up in the Quartzsite post office. Go figure. Only because I started whining about our mail not coming did the woman realize that odd package over in the corner was ours. And yes, it was addressed to Parker........sitting in the Quartzsite office for a month.

[dons2346]

No problem here but I use priority mailing. Usually 3 days from request to delivery

[Dutch_12078]

I've heard the same complaint from several RV'ers here in our current park in Florida. Our primary address is a mailing service, so we're not seeing the issue ourselves.

[Ed_Gee]

ghs wrote:
We have been rving for ten years. We have our mail forwarded to a service.

At first the post office was very efficient at getting our mail to the service. It seems that they get slower each year. We pay what we can online but we are now getting some bills a week after they are due.

Are other people experiencing the same problem or is it just our post office.

Yes, it seems to me that it is taking the USPS a very long time to forward our home mail to my forwarding service this year.

[WyoTraveler]

When I have mail forwarded they put it in a if it fits it ships and goes priority mail. It does cost more but worth it.