Deeiamond, are these packages you're receiving in Singapore or in the US? If it's Singapore, I'm not sure it's the USPS fault.

Shootingstar, If you want to continue using calligraphy, just mail your letters out earlier (like early november) so that they have time to be hand sorted. There are just way too many people in the US and or Canada all of whom are sending Christmas cards and packages at one time to expect the post office to have enough personnel to hand sort letters or packages that can't be scanned by a computer. I think your relatives are just tearing open the envelopes anyways, so whether or not the the address is written pretty is somewhat immaterial - but possibly your relatives are a lot more sentimental than I am. I keep envelopes if I need the return address, and since yours didn't have one, I'd've just tossed it after possibly admiring your calligraphy for a few seconds... However, as a compromise you could do calligraphy on an envelope and then put that envelope in another one that you address in block letters.

That being said, I have terrible handwriting and the USPS always manages to get my letters or bills where they need to go on time.

I use USPS when I sell on ebay, buy as well... So maybe 5-10 packages a month for a few years. I've only ever had 1 thing go astray. So they've almost always done a good job for me.


I rarely go to the local post office, because I can do most of it online and put in a request for the post man to it up. I do find a lot of employees in the post office cranky and have been yelled at by them a few times in the last couple of years... And they get really irked when you print out a shipping label and then a few days later drop it off at the post office. So I don't go I can't say that I've ever been yelled at by a UPS or a fedex employee, however.

What I do find annoying is the USPS refusal to track packages. Yes, they technically have it with express mail, and you can often get info off a priority mail label... But half the time I have ebay packages being mailed overseas with priority or express mail and all I can see on the tracking is... "shipping label created" and then about two weeks to a month later, I'll get feedback from the buyer saying they received it... I just cringe everytime that happens, because I know at some point some buyer is going to take advantage of the fact that I have absolutely no proof of delivery to file a claim against me on ebay. I do ocassionally have buyers emailing me saying "the tracking says nothing, did you actually send it??" and I will ask them to wait another week or two and tell me if it shows up. It has invariably shown up, but packages should not leave the country without being scanned in AT ALL. The last time, it took nearly 2 months for a pair of shoes to get delivered in Australia... and luckily the buyer was very patient with it... but I had no proof that I'd sent the package.

If I call and complain, USPS will say "we don't offer tracking on priority mail packages" Even if these ones have delivery confirmation. It can't be all that hard if it's already in place for express mail packages, and come on... fedex & ups manage.