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The USPS is really making it convenient for home businesses to ship items.  You print postage online, and schedule your mail carrier to pick it.  It really couldn’t be much easier…No more waiting in those long post office lines.

On March 6th I sent 4 Priority Mail packages.  Now their website clearly indicates that Priority mail is delivered in 2-3 days versus Parcel Post which can take a week or longer.  In the case of my 4 packages we’re talking delivery on March 16th.   Sixteen minus six is 10 days for delivery.   My customers paid a premium price for 2-3 day delivery and it took longer to get them than had they been sent via a much less expensive level of service.

After multiple calls to the post office I was informed that the plane that my packages were on had to make an emergency landing due to engine problems at the airport in Missoula Montana.  I was also informed that they had no idea when they were going to be able to get my packages delivered because Missoula did not have the necessary equipment to remove the containers from the plane so they could be offloaded to trucks and transported to a processing center.  They also had no idea if they could get the plane fixed, since the plane wasn’t theirs .  (Did you know that your USPS packages are often sent via Federal Express?)

The packages did finally arrive.  When I called about refunds I was basically told that Priority Mail is NOT guaranteed and they had no way of knowing if my packages were even on that plane.  You can bet that the USPS is going to ask Federal Express to compensate them.  I think the least they can do is compensate their customers.   Interesting thing about this…when I was talking with the Customer Service agent she explained to me that if she gave me a refund the media may get wind of it and then they would have to process refunds for all 42000 pounds of Priority Mail that was on the plane. 

So eBay sellers, and other small business people don’t get suckered in with the 2-3 day delivery time they advertise because your package is in NO WAY guaranteed to arrive any quicker than a parcel post package would arrive.  For Spokane I was told that they have a very good on time delivery rate of 91%.  That means 9 percent of the time it isn’t 2-3 days and they consider this good!