Mail interruptions announced

LawlessMan · Sep 17, 2021

I recently had a package that I sent to Australia returned marked "Return To Sender", with no explanation as to why. Now, I know.
I have just received an announcement from Stamps.Com, my mailing service, that, starting immediately and lasting indefinitely, First Class and Priority mail service to Australia will be suspended, for reasons related to Covid-19 and other local conditions, such as service interruptions in the subject country. If you are sending anything to Australia, it is recommended that you use UPS or some other carrier besides the Postal Service. However, from experience, this will greatly increase your shipping costs. There is no advice about how long the suspension will last, but packages and mail sent to Australia may be returned and you may (or may not) be able to either recover the shipping cost or re-use the postage when the suspension is lifted. This is not the first such suspension, and Australia is not the only country to which Postal Service is or has been suspended. To find out more, especially which countries may be impacted (their word), Google "What countries has the Postal Service suspended service to?"
For anyone in Australia waiting for a package from Lawless Drives, I have to say, hang in there and I will stay on top of this suspension until it is lifted.

Daniel's Racing · Sep 17, 2021

Several months ago out of the blue Bermuda sent all USPS mail back to US senders. There was a website setup for refund claims. That was 3-4 months ago. Has still not yet been refunded.

Gary Parker · Sep 17, 2021

Hi Lawless Man - I live in Australia and a little while ago Australia Post announced a pause on collecting parcels from domestic business customers as well. The reason they gave was a huge backlog of parcels due to surge in domestic online sales during continuing lockdowns of our two most populous cities and an ongoing shortage of workers due to sickness or being placed on mandatory 14 day quarantine. We expect a lot will change quickly when our vaccine rollout approaches the magical 80% of the population being double dosed.

BullDogRacing · Sep 18, 2021

Gday Guys
Well as a Australian its news to Us. Ive just had two items come over with in 8 days through the US postal service and I have two more im tracking now that at at LA, X airport ready to head strait over to Sydney. ??

LawlessMan · Sep 18, 2021

It would appear from Brad's comment that mail already en route is being delivered, but the post office made it fairly clear that we should expect that parcels (nothing said about letters) sent starting immediately will be returned. I hope this condition doesn't last for long. I will be watching for updates and pass info along as I get it.