Crazy postal system

Why is it that some stuff I ordered from the USA on the 6th June arrived today (7 days) but my MSQ package ordered the previous month took 27 days to arrive?

The packages were the same size and similar weight and I paid over $50 for PRIORITY shipping for both orders so I could track their progress and receive them quickly.

I'm about to order again and will choose the cheaper option which takes 12-20 days (and a more reasonable $20) as it is certainly not worth wasting $30 in the hope that the order would arrive sooner.

RANT OVER! Sorry ladies - I'm just unhappy that the extra I paid for a 'better' service could have bought me a layer cake or at least 3 metres of fabric instead!

Hi Jane...

It must be so frustrating for you! I feel frustrated when I have to wait 7 days!! BTW, you have a really nice blog. I had fun checking it out! You do lovely work....Barb

I don't blame you for taking the cheaper option. I did that once - paid more for faster service and it ended up taking just as long to get to its destination as if I paid the cheaper price.
It's too bad we don't what we pay for these days in certain industries.
Enjoy your packages. Bet you are still drooling over them!

Hugs,

Jane, I know how you feel. I live in Hawaii, part of the USA lol - yet according to business on the Mainland...I might as well live in Europe, Africa, or Australia. lol

My daughter, Burbank, CA - Priority = 1 or 4
MSQC, Missouri - Priority = 2 or 5
BFF, NY - Priority = 2 or 6

Dad, Amsterdam, Holland - Airmail Package = 7 - 10 or by Boat = 20 to 30 If Customs inserts a tag, that means they held it up 48 hours on average.

I sent Kizzie/Victoria, Australia - a Priority Mail package a week ago and I was told two weeks at best. It's a crap shoot at best and Canada isn't any better. Don't believe it's really the USPS holding it up, I believe it's Customs at the receiving side.

In Hawaii, we have the problem of Environmental and Agriculture Departments wanting to make sure nothing dangerous comes in to mess up our Ecosystem - which is worth it to me time wise. Just not cost wise since we're part of the USA.

In my case Airmail was more expensive, not sure if it would be an option for charm packs. Or what the timeline would be.

It takes two weeks go get anything from US for us in Canada. It took two weeks to send my swap to Suzi in Florida. It is crazy.

I sent something to the US once from Canada and paid an express charge and told it would be there within a week. It took three weeks. I could have saved the extra and bought fabrics instead. I could have sent in a complaint to Canada Post and "maybe" would have gotten some money back. I didn't bother. I know I won't do it again.

I've ordered supplies from WA state and British Colombia the same day and the order from WA arrived well before BC did. I thought that was very strange.

Last fall, I sent 1 yard of fabric to a lady somewhere in Canada standard USPS. I contacted her in January because I had not heard from her so I didn't know if she had gotten it or not. She had not but was too nice to contact me and didn't want to bother me! I immediately sent her out another yard of the fabric and she got it within 1 week! The first package never showed up. . . So, there is a package of really pretty fabric sitting around some customs office somewhere! Hope they put it to good use!

The postal system makes no sense to me. We can send or receive packages from our son and his family in Japan in less then a week when packages within the continental US sometime take up to 2 weeks. I quit paying for Express service long ago because it wasn't any faster than regular mail.

I've just placed another order and gone for the cheapest option - lets see if it gets here in less than a month!

When mailing from US. if you are just mailing a block, DO NOT go through expense of shipping priority. Anything under 13 oz will ship first class, for a lot less money and get there faster.

I really scratch my head with the postal system sometimes, and it's not always USPS/Canada Post, I've had UPS and FedEx make major boo-boos and take almost forever! And UPS, once it leaves the US, becomes Purolator (at least here in Newfoundland) and then if a package doesn't arrive, Purolator can't talk to you about it because it's a UPS package, and UPS don't know anything because it's under the care of Purolator.... Makes me want to tear my hair out lol

And I had a lady from somewhere in the US (Don't remember exactly where) send me a necklace last year that I was waiting to receive for my wedding and after three weeks I still didn't have it, so I contacted her and she went to the post office to check on it. Before USPS got back to her about what had happened to the package she got it returned to her house because it got returned at the border for a missing postal code. You'd think "Oh, maybe the lady isn't familiar with Canada's postal system and just forgot to put it on" Nope. She brought my address to the post office with her to put on the package when she filled out the label and the lady at the post office told her it wasn't necessary because the postal code meant nothing to her. Well of course it means nothing to USPS, it's a Canadian postal code! lol Oh my... Sorry, rant over :icon_giggle:

If it's something that can be damaged in the mail then I usually get it shipped as fast as possible. But for anything else, whether it's in Canada or outside, I just send it the cheapest way possible because it's only going to get here when it wants to anyway lol

Ordered some goodies from M&S in the UK last week (4 days after my M*QC order) and they arrived today!!!
Hope the package from the USA doesn't take as long as the last time!

We here in the USA have a postal system called the Pony Express. A man on a pony picks up your package right in front of MSQC's storefront, and off he goes. The problem is, it is a long way to New York's airport, especially if they see a little filly along the way. Hey, that's why the mail is so cheap here!

:icon_wave::lol::D:icon_happy::D