Send thoughts and prayers out to anything you might have ordered online from America recently, because the United States Postal Service (aka the USPS) has announced a temporary suspension of deliveries to and from a bunch of countries – including Australia.
In a service announcement over the weekend, the USPS said that it wouldn’t be sending or receiving mail from 22 countries, including Australia and New Zealand, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and “other unrelated service disruptions”. It stressed that people should refrain from mailing items to those countries until further notice.
So I guess this tweet’s a damned LIE, then.
New mail 🤝 Your mailbox
— U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) September 23, 2021
Just a bald-faced lie posted on the internet for everyone to see, who would have thought.
So what does that mean for us down here on the other side of the world? Well, anything that we may have ordered online, or is being shipped from mates or family in the US, might be returned to the sender – even if it’s already on the way.
This news sure as hell doesn’t bode well for all the little presents we’ve bought ourselves to get through the last of these lockdowns, I tell ya what.
The suspensions in place from the USPS affects anything sent by a range of its international services, including Priority mail, First-Class mail and package, priority Airmail, and surface mail. So make sure you’re looking out for those services if you’re buying something from the States, or you’re sending something to friends or fam over in the US, because those deliveries are more than likely just going to end up being sent back.
Between this and Australia Post pausing parcel pickups to try and wade through the literal mountains of mail at post offices, our lockdown online shopping treats might either be sitting in the void for a while, or never get to its destination.
Please, my delicious treats, I need them to make my brain feel better.
