We sometimes use USPS for domestic shipments. Like many national postal services, USPS are not awesome. They don't pretend to be, as anyone that's visited a post office recently will be aware.
Despite appearances, they're not in the business of losing mail, they're just not good with tracking, and can sometimes be very slow. With this in mind, please note the following:
- USPS frequently misses the pick-up scan. This makes it seem as if your package hasn't shipped, when in fact it has. We try to ship every order within one business day, and we've done that over 98% of the time this year.
- Sometimes there will be no scans while it's en-route to it's destination, this often happens if the arrival scan is missed.
- The USPS network operates as a series of 'batch jobs'. Just like airplane connections. Sometimes they'll hold the next truck, sometimes other reasons dictate that they cannot. Just like at an airport, where sometimes you're running to make a connection, and other times you're stuck there for an entire day, waiting for another flight, it appears to be very similar.
If visibility of tracking and a guaranteed arrival date is important to you, we absolutely recommend using one of the express carriers, such as UPS. Abstract Ocean does not profit on any of the shipping quotes, which are provided real-time.
All our shipments are out of the Fort Worth postal district, and the maps below provide an approximation of the delivery times, in federal business days. If your order has not arrived after this time, and shows no tracking information, then feel free to contact us, as we can at least look at other similar orders in the same time-frame, and see how their status compares.
We sometimes also use USPS Priority Mail for domestic shipments over 1lb, as it provides some insurance, but is still susceptible to the scanning issues described above. Generally Priority Mail is a very reliable service. The map for that service is below:
