I have had it with the massive Post Office problems. I just sent the
following to all my U.S. customers:
*IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT 3/03/2025*
First, some background. When I started in mail order 57 long years ago (and
in this business 35 years ago), the U.S. Post Office was incredible! It was
inexpensive to send packages, and everything got where it was going, in the
time promised. And yes, if you did not pack that well, packages sometimes
got damaged, which is why we started packing so great, and because of that
we almost never had *ANY* damaged packages.
In fact, in 2000, the U.S. Post Office had a "flat rate" box, that could
hold around 50 folded one-sheets, or around 200 lobby cards, and they only
charged $3, no matter where in the U.S. you sent it. But over the next 15
years, the U.S. Post Office went downhill in many ways. First and foremost,
the prices kept increasing dramatically. Second, shipping times started
getting longer, and more and more arrived "late". Worst of all, there were
more damaged packages, including ours.
But in the past few years, things have gone from bad to terrible. Prices
are *MUCH* higher, delivery times are *FAR* longer, and *FAR* more packages
are lost or damaged. *Worst of all, the * *U.S. Post Office's tracking
system has imploded*. Packages get scanned in, and then there is no more
tracking for weeks, and rightfully customers are furious, and they want a
refund, but we can't even put in an insurance claim for 30 days, so we are
caught in the middle.
And in the past few *WEEKS*, things have gotten *SO* bad that we feel we
must now take a major step:
1) Effective immediately, *WE WILL ONLY QUOTE UPS ON DOMESTIC ORDERS
(within the U.S.)*. If you insist on having your order sent USPS (the U.S.
Post Office) we will do so, but *ONLY IF YOU SAY YOU WILL WAIT UNTIL AFTER
WE HAVE FILED AN INSURANCE CLAIM (and collected on it) IF YOUR ORDER IS
LOST OR DELAYED.*
2) *WHY* are we doing this? Because, while some UPS orders in the U.S. are
delayed or damage, it is not *NEARLY* as bad as with the U.S. Post Office.
And with UPS, we have a personal representative who fights for us (and gets
many orders located and moving) and we have no one in the U.S. Post Office
who does the same.
3) *WHY* are non-U.S. customers excluded from this (for now)? That is
because the U.S. Post Office often does as good or better a job that UPS on
out of the U.S. orders. But this varies from country to country, so we give
non-U.S. customers the choice of UPS or USPS.
4) We *VERY* much hope the U.S. Post Office "gets its act together", and
that we can resume offering their service. The Postmaster General has
resigned and this entire massive problem is starting to get national
coverage, so *MAYBE* they will work on fixing this broken system.
5) The only "silver lining" is that, for now, just about all the packages
*HAVE* been showing up and getting delivered. But a very few have been
permanently lost, which is why we insist on full insurance on all orders
(unless you have your own private insurance that covers it).
To sum up:
*1) STARTING IMMEDIATELY WE WILL ONLY QUOTE UPS ON U.S. ORDERS. 2) YOU CAN
HAVE US QUOTE USPS (the Post Office), BUT ONLY IF YOU REQUEST IT, AND IF
YOU ACCEPT YOU CAN'T GET A REFUND UNTIL AFTER WE COLLECT ON INSURANCE.*
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