Amazon S-L-O-W shipping

[OrchidIslander]

I work for the post office and get many complaints about slow shipment of packages from Amazon. If you use Amazon to track your package, and if the carrier is Parcel Post - that means your package is being shipped by barge, not air. Parcel Post is a shipping contractor who offers less expensive shipping rates to Amazon - especially for remote locales such as Hawaii and Alaska. The service delivers shipped packages to the nearest postal distribution center, and from there the postal service takes over actual delivery. Parcel Post can and will hold packages until it has enough to make the barge trip financially worthwhile. It uses the slowest and cheapest method of package shipment. It also uses USPS issued tracking numbers. It may look like USPS is handling your package, but not if Parcel Post is the carrier. Using the same tracking number, it may also look like your package has gone nowhere. In reality it may have made its way on the barge, been delivered to Honolulu USPS, distributed to your local post office and out for delivery to you or awaiting pick up by you. When the postal service gets involved, the tracking info is more accurate and timely. Unfortunately, that only happens towards the journey's end. Also, if you are tracking a parcel and it appears to be eternally parked at the Richmond California postal facility, Parcel Post is usually the culprit.