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Post by mailartist on Feb 2, 2016 22:03:17 GMT
These past few weeks, US snail mail has seemed unusually "snail-maily," in that a fair share of US letters have taken two or three times longer in transit than expected. Today, for example, I received a postcard from the east coast that was mailed two-and-a-half weeks ago, although I've had slow mail coming from other areas of the country also.
Are other US folks noticing mail lags?
(This is something for those new to InCo to keep in mind. Namely, that it may take until March to begin receiving replies, whether the addresses are international, or domestic.)
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Post by ritak on Feb 3, 2016 14:11:08 GMT
mailartist, I can't say that I have noticed any significant delays lately. Even with the recent record snowfall USPS has performed admirably in this area.
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Post by Mia on Feb 6, 2016 0:47:23 GMT
I am amazed at the speed post can travel, especially overseas. According to one postmaster, the joke was posting two Christmas cards from Wales - one to the US and one to a town in Wales within 30 miles - the card to the US arrived first!
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Post by DJW1066 on Feb 6, 2016 3:03:36 GMT
I often travel to Mexico for business, and have learned to not put any international letters into the mail until I'm in the USA or back in Canada. Anything mailed from inside Mexico takes weeks and weeks.
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silverbreeze
Crayons
Posts: 29
Looking for Penpals?: Yes. Global penpals welcome
Country I live in is: USA
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Post by silverbreeze on Feb 6, 2016 14:13:44 GMT
Speed of letters from UK and Australia weird me out. I have family in Poland. Two weeks is normal, three is within acceptable. I have had full turn around in a week from England and Oz. yes I got a reply back by day 7 or 8 of my original postmark
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Post by skye on Feb 6, 2016 18:17:56 GMT
mail to my mum in the caribbean takes longer than mail to Australia or europe. 2 weeks to mum is fast, 3 weeks is normal, 4 weeks is acceptable and longer than that means it got sidetracked somewhere along the way. Those time frames are for letters, packages now one needs to add another week to those aforementioned times.
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Post by mailartist on Mar 10, 2016 17:26:25 GMT
This lovely letter was written on October 23, 2015: It has a postmark from Virginia on October 24 (the very next day). It arrived in Minnesota today. Today . . . is March 10. By my calculations, this letter has been in transit for 138 days. By Mapquest calculations, there are 1160 miles (1866 km) between the two cities. By my calculations, this letter averaged 8.5 miles (13.5 km) a day (!). The letter has not been even remotely damaged, nor is the address incorrect or hard to read. No idea WHAT it's been doing for Halloween, AND Thanksgiving, AND Christmas, AND New Years, AND Valentine's Day. But lots of news in it about Halloween, which seems weird, since we're going on St. Patrick's Day.
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silverbreeze
Crayons
Posts: 29
Looking for Penpals?: Yes. Global penpals welcome
Country I live in is: USA
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Post by silverbreeze on Mar 10, 2016 17:40:13 GMT
This lovely letter was written on October 23, 2015: View AttachmentIt has a postmark from Virginia on October 24 (the very next day). It arrived in Minnesota today. Today . . . is March 10. By my calculations, this letter has been in transit for 138 days. By Mapquest calculations, there are 1160 miles (1866 km) between the two cities. By my calculations, this letter averaged 8.5 miles (13.5 km) a day (!). The letter has not been even remotely damaged, nor is the address incorrect or hard to read. No idea WHAT it's been doing for Halloween, AND Thanksgiving, AND Christmas, AND New Years, AND Valentine's Day. But lots of news in it about Halloween, which seems weird, since we're going on St. Patrick's Day. And that's a clear Forever stamp too
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Post by distractedmom on Mar 10, 2016 19:26:39 GMT
This lovely letter was written on October 23, 2015: It has a postmark from Virginia on October 24 (the very next day). It arrived in Minnesota today. Today . . . is March 10. By my calculations, this letter has been in transit for 138 days. By Mapquest calculations, there are 1160 miles (1866 km) between the two cities. By my calculations, this letter averaged 8.5 miles (13.5 km) a day (!). The letter has not been even remotely damaged, nor is the address incorrect or hard to read. No idea WHAT it's been doing for Halloween, AND Thanksgiving, AND Christmas, AND New Years, AND Valentine's Day. But lots of news in it about Halloween, which seems weird, since we're going on St. Patrick's Day. The handwriting is perfectly legible too. I have made a couple of dark envelopes. I now worry about those letters. :0
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Post by stormymorning on Mar 11, 2016 5:58:58 GMT
Wow that's an insane long travel!
I'm in a very small country, The Netherlands, so that's no comparison. Usually delivered the within two days, if not it's lost and you'll never see it at all. Must say that last scenario doesn't happen regularly.
Mail I used to send to Iran took the longest - between two weeks and 3 months. I don't know if all mail was delivered because we had no other contact (for her safety). Still, this is easier to believe than US domestic mail taking half a year!!
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nevamo
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Country I live in is: Germany
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Post by nevamo on Mar 12, 2016 19:36:16 GMT
When mail takes so long I'm always amazed that it didn't get lost entirely. Where did it get stuck and..who unstuck it?
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bruce
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Country I live in is: Canada
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Post by bruce on Mar 28, 2016 10:31:34 GMT
I've noticed delays back and forth between Canada and the US over the last couple of months. Not extreme but substantially longer (3-3.5wks). It's sporadic and doesn't seem regional at all. My bigger concern being the amount of 'returned (as undeliverable)' we've been getting. It has been suggested that machine readability and compliance with addressing guidelines is a contributor.
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bruce
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Country I live in is: Canada
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Post by bruce on Mar 30, 2016 21:01:18 GMT
Thank you for letting me know that Bruce, I will see if this happens with other destinations within the USA. Oh it must be so frustrating getting returned mail. I was just speaking of envelope art in another thread but I tend to forget mail must meet machinery as I only ever write with a person in mind. I hope your returns lessen, if not stop completely. It is frustrating. In many cases there doesn't seem to be a way to tell why it was returned. Delays and returns have been increasing enough to notice even though they are relatively few. A lot has been made of new legislation/requirements that have been introduced since January in a supposed effort to co-ordinate and facilitate mail delivery here and abroad. I spoke with the manager of the local post office and she pointed me towards a page of standards for international addressing - cloudup.com/cCi0kFYY-NR - and a new and very disturbing publication by Canada Post on how to prepare envelopes to meet the new standards for "machineablility" - cloudup.com/c1DtF2uXkzM -. The second document is rather lengthy and obsessively detailed = covering everything from the glue requirements on envelopes to the colours permitted on the "quiet area" for addressing. She mentioned that these standards are pretty international now for any country that machine sorts mail and technically, any failure to meet them would be grounds for them to be refused or addition charges levied. When I showed her my returned mail for example, one of them was returned because I addressed the letter to 'Deutschland' which is not an officially recognized english or french name for a country.
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bruce
Crayons
Posts: 32
Looking for Penpals?: Yes. Global penpals welcome
Country I live in is: Canada
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Post by bruce on Mar 31, 2016 10:13:38 GMT
I know. I was a little bowled over myself when I read it and the manager was nothing like our Hyacinth. There used to be a simpler page for preparing mail but it seems to have disappeared. I do have one for the USA and they too have an extensive document about letter standards. Over the past number of years I have notice that 'compliance' has been an increasingly profitible way for many institutions to squeeze any remaining money out of the econome. Particularly in transportation and handling with multiple little charges for infractions or additions to meet standards. Personally I would rather have Onslow looking after the mail, it certainly would get there with much less fuss and in the end may be just as reliable. Thanks for the reminder, I think it's about time to rewatch the series for the umpteenth time :P
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Post by DJW1066 on Apr 1, 2016 3:10:07 GMT
When I showed her my returned mail for example, one of them was returned because I addressed the letter to 'Deutschland' which is not an officially recognized english or french name for a country. Now I'm worried because I recently addressed one of my bespoke envelopes (which probably already violate a host of stringent envelope rules and regulations) with NORGE, being the way the return address was spelled on the letter I was responding to. And I suppose if I were brave enough to try Japanese or Chinese language characters for those countries, there's no telling how Canada Post would respond: probably arrest me and send me off to postal jail.
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