Monday, September 27, 2010

Media Mail Shipping

A message thread on Bonanza a few weeks ago had people discussing media mail. Among the comments were ones by people that stated that they do not use media mail because it takes longer or that media mail can take up to a month. People just don't realize how fast media mail has become when one uses the computer-generated labels from either USPS or PayPal.

The PayPal labels are faster than both handwritten and typed addresses. The handwritten addresses are the slowest, because those are harder for the machines to read. Some people type their addresses and pay for the postage at the post office, and those are faster than the handwritten labels since the machines can read them better. The computer-generated postage is the fastest, because of the bar codes which are read by the machines.

For a number of years, I typed or copied and pasted my addresses into a Word document, printed the addresses and taped on the packages, and paid for the postage at the post office. I began using printed addresses after I heard that packages with printed addresses arrive quicker than packages with handwritten addresses.

I was slow to adopt to the PayPal shipping. I waited until after the service was available for a couple of years before I finally began printing my labels at home. I did not use delivery confirmation on media mail packages prior to going to the PayPal labels, so I did not know exactly how long it took for my packages to arrive. However, I could judge by when buyers left feedback. After I switched to the PayPal labels, I noticed that my buyers were leaving feedback a couple of days sooner than before. The PayPal labels made a difference in the delivery time.

I decided to check some of my recent media mail packages to see how long they took to be delivered. I almost always generate the shipping label the evening before I drop the package off at the post office, so a day can be subtracted from the number of days it took for each package to be delivered.

Delivered, August 30, 2010, 8:11 am, SLINGER, WI 53086
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 25, 2010

Delivered, August 28, 2010, 1:45 pm, CHANTILLY, VA 20152
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 23, 2010

Delivered, August 26, 2010, 1:14 pm, EAST HAVEN, CT 06512
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 20, 2010

Delivered, August 23, 2010, 12:03 pm, DALLAS, TX 75287
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 20, 2010

August 23, 2010, 8:57 am, HIGLEY, AZ 85236
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 18, 2010

Delivered, August 18, 2010, 11:00 am, DALLAS, TX 75287
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 14, 2010

Delivered, August 17, 2010, 9:25 am, CLINTON, MD 20735
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered, August 17, 2010, 3:37 pm, MACON, GA 31210
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered, August 16, 2010, 1:43 pm, CHARLESTON, WV 25314
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered August 16, 2010, 11:35 am, ROCHESTER, NY 14617
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

Delivered, August 16, 2010, 2:25 pm, MANDAN, ND 58554
Electronic Shipping Info Received, August 11, 2010

It looks like most of my packages are getting delivered within four to five days via media mail. I used to tell people that media mail takes 7 to 10 days delivery time, but I now tell them that they will have the package within 7 days.

It has been quite awhile since I received a media mail package that took three or four weeks to arrive. In the rare event that it does happen, either the seller has used a handwritten address or an extra bar code, like from UPS or a previous mailing of the package, is present on the package. Extra bar codes from previous shipments can cause the package to get misdirected to a different part of the country. Sometimes the package will bounce back and forth between two locations before someone notices the problem. This is why sellers should never leave old bar codes on packages.

The only time of year that I find that media mail can take two to three weeks is during December, especially for the packages with handwritten labels. I find that during December parcel post takes just as long as media mail. Otherwise, media mail is a cost-effective service that takes no more than around a week for delivery.

1 comment:

beautifulshell said...

I always ship and request media mail, and I'm always surprised with how fast it is. It's getting rare for me to wait much more than a week for a package. Go USPS!