The Post Office...

[tschock]

I'm not a postal employee (nor do I play one on TV), but to put it into a bit of perspective, try the alternatives for packages larger than can fit in a standard sized mail box. Our experience is the USPS consistently provides a much better service in the handling and delivering of packages than UPS and even FedEx (to the small extent we get FexEx packages). We regularly receive UPS packages whose appearance would indicate their primary delivery measurement is to see how many packages they can damage in transit. We almost never see packages with this treatment from USPS. Also for larger packages, the USPS is either cheaper or on par with UPS.

As to seasonal delivery, delays abound in all areas of shipping. We had one USPS package with estimated delivery to be this past Saturday. It arrived the next day (Sunday). A major delay. One item in the package was broken, but the box wasn't damaged. Both my wife and myself agree it wasn't packaged properly (and definitely not how I would have sent it).

Of course it could be better, but it's also not Italy either.