Yeah, I believe the different Mandarake stores offer different DHL rates, which perhaps makes some sort of sense because those packages will need to travel over land a certain distance before they get to an airport. Mine was from CoooooCooooo, which is in Tokyo.
It seems like to me any packages on the East Coast & South have massive delays. I’m in PA and anything from the West gets here when expected. My stuff on the East Coast hasn’t updated in days/weeks...must be stuck in an overflow area.
I’m feeling the same. I’m in PA and I’ve had stuff mailed from California reach me in 3 days (but one priority package took about 10 days) but I’m still waiting for packages from Ohio and New York that were mailed in the first week of December.
Good news. Switching my order from Sahra to another Mandarake cut my shipping costs by more than half. Thank you @hellopike and @Roger for pointing that out. Happy camper
Excellent! The speed is still excellent, too. Ordered on Monday night and my package was here on Thursday afternoon. I feel very spoiled.
Yeah, I have been shocked how fast the DHL packages show up. Definitely helps scratch the itch for new stuff on the shelf.
I read on a local report that a postal worker speaking anonymously from the Philadelphia distribution center expects at least another 6-8 weeks before the backlog is clear. I’m still waiting on two items mailed at the beginning to December, and an item sent to me last week priority has been officially been marked as “arriving late”. Maybe by Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s day they’ll arrive?
I've read a lot about other people's mail getting screwed but haven't experienced it myself. Wonder what the root of the problem is--the postal network set up so some nodes are way overburdened?
So, it feels like I’m back here again. My priority packages are taking 3+ weeks (even when they are coming from neighboring states). Is this happening to anyone else? Or am I just crazy/alone in the world?
I am not experiencing this with what I'm sending or receiving with USPS for either Priority or Media Mail. I have both sent and received packages all over the country.... except perhaps to Bmore City.
Sorry to hear about that… what a pain. Texas resident here. Priority mail arriving in 2-3 business days. Domestic packages I’ve sent out (Priority, First Class) seem to be a spending a reasonable amount of time in transit before reaching their destination. 3 weeks is a long time… something definitely seems off.
Excellent, thank you very much for the info! Trying to figure out how big this thing is. Is it just the east coast? Maryland? Baltimore? Baltimore city? Or is it just me? Has the government finally figured out how many kaijus I have? Are they on to me!? Any east coasters willing/able to chime in to help narrow this thing down a bit more?
Sorry dude, that sucks! I'm on Long Island, NY. No problems at all. I just sent some First Class packages on Saturday and some of them actually started landing in neighboring states today. Could be a Baltimore thing...or even a local Post Office thing?
USPS Priority Mail has been good for me for the last many months to the west coast and beyond—3 biz days or faster. USPS First Class Mail is another story entirely—it could take 2-3 weeks, so hardly worth the savings of a few dollars, the unpredictability, and the lack of tracking details. I’d have to believe that First Class Mail would have the same problems on the East Coast too.
I'm from New York (Long Island) and I just want to say that I have never had a First Class Mail package take 2-3 weeks within the U.S. - in fact, most of my international orders take less than 2-3 weeks to arrive when using First Class international service. Also, First Class Mail is absolutely trackable! I get full tracking details with every order. In my experience, the only difference is really insurance coverage, you get more coverage by default with Priority but I assume the risk because Priority and First Class usually take about the same amount of time to arrive for me. Maybe I'm just in a really lucky spot?
Two data points for your ongoing analysis, Patrick: Priority Mail from NJ to OR (2,897 miles), took four days. Priority Mail from NJ to NJ (17.6 miles), took 3 days.
I’m in LI too! I echo your opinion on First Class. I usually do First Class if I can make the weight. My experience is it that shipping takes just as long / just as fast as Priority Mail. Really reliable.
This is all great information, so I should probably add a couple more thoughts from multiple experiences receiving stuff on the West Coast and Hawaii too.... I've had many items arrive in 2+ weeks in both San Francisco (mostly) and Honolulu (to a lesser extent) when shipped by First Class. I suppose the delay to Hawaii comes as no surprise! There is of course tracking information available, but it never seems to be as detailed as the tracking I can see with Priority Mail. Maybe this is because of more scanning points along the Priority (air?) journey, or maybe because the information just flows in more slowly as it gets moved more slowly across the country. Seeing the good experiences that folks on the East Coast have had from shipments that travel fewer miles, maybe one conclusion that can be drawn (at least from my repetitive experiences) is that Priority Mail is faster option when shipping from the east to the west--even to San Francisco, a major city and postal hub. And I'd have to assume from the west to the east too? I'd be interested in hearing about more experiences too--this is all great information to have!
I know the Philadelphia hub was severely behind for months after the holidays. I wanna say I was having delays in mid April. I couldn’t say how bad things are now, I haven’t gotten anything via the mail recently. But I think it was bad in major cities on the east coast. Thankfully I didn’t lose anything just long delays. The longest was 11 weeks for a priority package mailed from a town 25 miles from me...
Ok, thank u everyone for the data to help me solve the mystery of the missing mail. So here’s the update: my po is completely full of packages and they don’t have anyone to deliver them. So they just aren’t! Hah! Just in case anyone was ever curious how things are ran in Baltimore city. So I’m thinking about getting a P.O. Box the next town over. This has been an issue for quite awhile now (like 2 years). I’m def not impressed!
Do PO Boxes accept things like FedEx, UPS, and DHL these days? That was always what steered me towards getting boxes at the UPS Store.
Things are not good with USPS in my neck of the woods. There have been some days when I haven't received any mail at all, and others when the mail is delivered at 7-8 PM. I sent a regular letter to someone else in my town, it took four days to get there. I can only imagine things are going to get worse towards the end of the year. Has the system finally broken down after all of the changes during the last administration, or is it just my area?
