Posted by Dana on 8/9/2020 to
Azure Aster News
Hello everyone!
I am sure by now you have seen the news about the recent changes made at USPS and how they (as well as Covid) are affecting mail deliveries. USPS employees are no longer allowed to work overtime to work on pending shipments. Instead, they will leave unfinished work for the following day or return to base if they have not finished delivering the mail on their routes. Some folks have said they are only getting mail to their homes a few days out of the week. Add in the increased number of packages hitting the system from folks ordering online, changes to trucking routes and some facilities working with less people and you can imagine why we are all experiencing mail delays.
When tracking your shipments from us, do not be alarmed if you see this sort of message (below) saying the acceptance of your package is pending. The wording they use is a bit confusing. This means that the package was in the possession of our local USPS office at the date and time indicated, but it has not been scanned again in the system (usually this happens at one of the big postal distribution centers). The current postal delays are causing the next tracking update to sometimes take 3 or more days for first class mail. So your order can stay in this pending status for a bit before that happens.
I am sure by now you have seen the news about the recent changes made at USPS and how they (as well as Covid) are affecting mail deliveries. USPS employees are no longer allowed to work overtime to work on pending shipments. Instead, they will leave unfinished work for the following day or return to base if they have not finished delivering the mail on their routes. Some folks have said they are only getting mail to their homes a few days out of the week. Add in the increased number of packages hitting the system from folks ordering online, changes to trucking routes and some facilities working with less people and you can imagine why we are all experiencing mail delays.
When tracking your shipments from us, do not be alarmed if you see this sort of message (below) saying the acceptance of your package is pending. The wording they use is a bit confusing. This means that the package was in the possession of our local USPS office at the date and time indicated, but it has not been scanned again in the system (usually this happens at one of the big postal distribution centers). The current postal delays are causing the next tracking update to sometimes take 3 or more days for first class mail. So your order can stay in this pending status for a bit before that happens.
**Your shipment was received at 5:22 pm on August 5, 2020 in AURORA, CO 80014. The acceptance of your package is pending.**
Update! I spoke with USPS business services yesterday (8/10/20). Many of the postal distribution centers are backed up right now. All of our shipments used to be processed at the Denver center. Denver is swamped so when trucks are available, they are putting some loads of mail onto them and sending them to other distribution centers for processing. So some stay at Denver awaiting processing and some go to other states. This means the processing and delivery times for first class mail are going to have huge differences depending on the availability of trucks, which distribution center they go to and whether or not the distribution center in your state is also swamped.
If you ship by priority mail, they are giving those shipments priority so the delays are not as long. So if you have items that you really need by a certain time, be sure to checkout with priority mail for the best chance at a timely delivery. It will still have a bit of a delay but it will not be as great or as wonky and unpredictable as first class mail.
We are keeping an eye on all of our shipments and apologize for the unforseen delays you are experiencing. Hopefully USPS will fix some of these issues soon! USPS has assured us that these packages have not been lost, they are still in their possession, and are just awaiting transport or processing due to the backlog.
On a side note, you might want to mail in your bills ahead of time or pay them electronically. There is no way to know if it will be delayed and not all utilities honor a postmark.
Thank you all for your patience and we will continue to update you with more information as it reaches us!
Sincerely,
Update! I spoke with USPS business services yesterday (8/10/20). Many of the postal distribution centers are backed up right now. All of our shipments used to be processed at the Denver center. Denver is swamped so when trucks are available, they are putting some loads of mail onto them and sending them to other distribution centers for processing. So some stay at Denver awaiting processing and some go to other states. This means the processing and delivery times for first class mail are going to have huge differences depending on the availability of trucks, which distribution center they go to and whether or not the distribution center in your state is also swamped.
If you ship by priority mail, they are giving those shipments priority so the delays are not as long. So if you have items that you really need by a certain time, be sure to checkout with priority mail for the best chance at a timely delivery. It will still have a bit of a delay but it will not be as great or as wonky and unpredictable as first class mail.
We are keeping an eye on all of our shipments and apologize for the unforseen delays you are experiencing. Hopefully USPS will fix some of these issues soon! USPS has assured us that these packages have not been lost, they are still in their possession, and are just awaiting transport or processing due to the backlog.
On a side note, you might want to mail in your bills ahead of time or pay them electronically. There is no way to know if it will be delayed and not all utilities honor a postmark.
Thank you all for your patience and we will continue to update you with more information as it reaches us!
Sincerely,
The Bates Family
