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The situation with the postal service in the USA has become one of political football.  The current president is using the postal service as a tool to suppress voting in the hopes it will ensure his reelection.  The result of president trump's meddling is serious and dangerous. Postal service employees have been laid off and forced into early retirement. No more overtime. Sorting machines have been turned off and removed from service system wide.  Postal delivery times have have become very bad here in the U.S. and it effects not only domestic mail/packages but also international service.

I sold three items on ebay over the weekend. Two were domestic and one was overseas.  I had to send the overseas package by Ebay's International Delivery service. That or Global Shipping were my only options. I could drive the package to the local post office and ship it, but that would be cost prohibitive (for all involved) as it would double the shipping costs.

One of the domestic packages I was able to send using the USPS but the second package was going to a more remote area and the only option was to use a private package service. With each passing day, the US post office service is getting worse and our president seems Hell bent on completely destroying/eliminating the post office.  I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.  I don't know how this will effect things like ebay and other sites where collectors buy and sell, but for now it simply means you will probably pay more to receive items than the items actually cost. And that's for domestic packages, international packages are already too expensive for small purchases.

I regularly buy from US eBay sellers that I trust and to date have not experienced any problems with USPS getting my purchases across the pond. It would be a crying shame if what you suggesting becomes reality Joe as it will impact massively on collectors like myself and equally sellers shipping to foreign shores. Such a shame.

I have been following this story in the news and it's very, very worrying. it is yet another example of Trump's total disrespect for the rule of law. I think this political catoon from The guardian Sums it up.

To me, before ebay global shipping service, I found USPS the more efficient service and far the cheapest one.

I made one exception until couple of year, buying an item from USA. The seller did agree with an under $25 value declaration for the custom.
And though covid conditions I recieved it for only $12 cost.

Idris wrote:I have been following this story in the news and it's very, very worrying. it is yet another example of Trump's total disrespect for the rule of law. I think this political catoon from The guardian Sums it up.

In a similar vein.

I've just taken delivery of an eBay GSP package from California. As can be seen from the attached photo, starting with FedEx it took a month to reach Kentucky and be processed by Pitney Bowes. During which time for 25 days there was no update. I'm not blaming any party as this has happened with things I've sent abroad using Hermes and the Royal Mail. I've even been paid for something lost that was delivered before the compensation cheque reached me. Generally there seems to be more in the shipping system worldwide but Trump meddling with USPS can only exacerbate the situation. The man seems to be both in trouble and Trouble at the same time. God bless America, coz if he doesn't The DJ gets to play again. And that's a frightening possiblity.

It’s all about stopping mail-in fraud which is the only way that sleepy Jo & the Ho can win the election.

tjlglass wrote:It’s all about stopping mail-in fraud which is the only way that sleepy Jo & the Ho can win the election.

The solution? Vote early, vote often!

tjlglass wrote:It’s all about stopping mail-in fraud which is the only way that sleepy Jo & the Ho can win the election.

Millions vote by mail for years now. There has never been any fraud associated with this method. These totally unfounded claims are all voter suppression. Today, he told his supporters in the State of North Carolina to break the law and attempt to vote twice.

It's a tragedy unfolding. Wife gets all her diabetic supplies by mail and the service is now undependable and is causing major problems for us and a few million others who depend on timely delivery of medications and associated supplies. No excuse for this kind of political rigging of a system and that same tampering is hurting the population in a very real ways!

Tinman wrote:
Millions vote by mail for years now. There has never been any fraud associated with this method. These totally unfounded claims are all voter suppression. Today, he told his supporters in the State of North Carolina to break the law and attempt to vote twice.

I find it a bit distressing that 50% of the population believe him!

Rod