Americas Mailbox in South Dakota Issues - What is Your Experience?

[BB&LAB]

We have been with Americas Mailbox now for 2.5 years and have experienced the following: Shortly after joining my wife who is a travel nurse was in the process of obtaining her SD Nursing license. The contact their indicated they were sending out the required paperwork to her. After a few days of not receiving it, she called the SD Nursing board who indicated, yes the paperwork was sent the same day they spoke, but would resend. We were still in SD at the time, so went into the AMB office who said they had nothing for us. Once again she waited a few days and nothing turned up, again AMB said they had not received anything. She called the Nursing board again who promised the paperwork was sent and once again verified they had the correct address and would send it out a third time. Meanwhile we mentioned this to AMB who again said nothing was received, but then an hour later they called and said they had the mail, not just the second mailing but the first as well. After that debacle we have received all mail that we were expecting until now when a month after the SD 2020 primary we received our ballots, so we lost out on being able to vote. Also during the 2.5 years we have been with them, on two occasions they sent us our mail as requested, but did not send the usual e-mail indicating it had been sent with the tracking number and was not recorded on their shipping history portal. The first time it happened was not a big deal as we picked up the mail when the next requested delivery showed up. The second time since we received no notice of mail being sent and it was not recorded in the shipping history, we left early for our next destination, only to find out by a delayed ship history entry mail had been sent out. Luckily we were only 50 miles away and not a couple hundred miles. Each time we experienced these issues and especially after receiving our ballots a moth late, I contacted AMB and each time they placed the blame on someone other entity, whether Pennington County offices, or the US mail. And do not get me started on their vehicle registration service, a whole different story, but one of poor service.

Here is the first of two replies I received after contacting them with regards to the very late ballot receipt.
"Good Morning,
We have received lost ballots, and since they are first class mail we still have to send them.
We are not sure just when your ballot arrived."

Because this made no sense to us, contacted them again to ask what they mean by lost ballots, since at least in our case they were addressed to us at our AMB address and here is there response.

"We get mail the post office often finds that they send within our mail bundles, where they get it is a mystery to us.
We have received Christmas cards that were post marked in Nov and Dec and we get them in Feb. sometimes even later
We have gotten packages from USPS that were shipped out by a family member and took months to get here.
It could have been sent on another truck going in the opposite direction and once it was noticed, it was redirected to us."

I am aware the postal service is not always 100% and sometimes mail is never delivered or delivered late, but in light of previous issues I am skeptical and starting to consider going to one of the other SD Mail services.

As mentioned in the outset I am interested to hear if others have had or having problems with AMB, but also interested to get recommendations for other SD mail forwarding services in case we do decide to make a change. Thanks.

 

[geotex1]

I do not have a recommendation, but can attest to the USPS being on borrowed time. The level of service has been in steady decline till COVID19 where it fell off a cliff. If you are not aware, the USPS has a staggering number of cases! To give you some personal examples... First Class mail sent from County Clerk in MD to my home in PA should be 2 days... I received first item 2 weeks after postmark. Items 2, 3, and 4 never showed in 4 weeks (not now at 13 weeks). Their re-mailing, the second #2 no show, second #3 in 6 days, and second #4 in 3.5 weeks. Item #5 , sent certified, lost. Clerk cannot use any other services so I drove down to get our paperwork! Parcel rate package from SoCal normally in 5 to 7 days. One received 38 days later and I just received the other shipped same day, same entity, 93 days! Another sent UPS smart post (so delivered by USPS). UPS had it to USPS a day early. It sat with USPS and not unloaded for 13 days! We are going to see the demise of the USPS in short time unless a Bezos bails it out! Also 8nteresting is FedEx and UPS have taken an enormous hit because of COVID19 as their most profitable services, which are the overnight and 2nd day letter, have plummeted by large double digit percentages with so many jobs offline or using digital document exchange methods.

Sorry for a little tangent here, but wanted to share that you might not be getting a story from your current forwarder but reality...

 

[BB&LAB]

I do not have a recommendation, but can attest to the USPS being on borrowed time. The level of service has been in steady decline till COVID19 where it fell off a cliff. If you are not aware, the USPS has a staggering number of cases! To give you some personal examples... First Class mail sent from County Clerk in MD to my home in PA should be 2 days... I received first item 2 weeks after postmark. Items 2, 3, and 4 never showed in 4 weeks (not now at 13 weeks). Their re-mailing, the second #2 no show, second #3 in 6 days, and second #4 in 3.5 weeks. Item #5 , sent certified, lost. Clerk cannot use any other services so I drove down to get our paperwork! Parcel rate package from SoCal normally in 5 to 7 days. One received 38 days later and I just received the other shipped same day, same entity, 93 days! Another sent UPS smart post (so delivered by USPS). UPS had it to USPS a day early. It sat with USPS and not unloaded for 13 days! We are going to see the demise of the USPS in short time unless a Bezos bails it out! Also 8nteresting is FedEx and UPS have taken an enormous hit because of COVID19 as their most profitable services, which are the overnight and 2nd day letter, have plummeted by large double digit percentages with so many jobs offline or using digital document exchange methods.

Sorry for a little tangent here, but wanted to share that you might not be getting a story from your current forwarder but reality...

This is certainly true and while with standard USPS mail delivery we have experienced similar delays in the past, I have found that with USPS Priority our deliveries are consistent and on time or at worst an extra day of delay, so when we have our mail forwarded it is always via USPS.