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Mon Dec 3 2018 14:21:13

ALERT No USPS Mail on Wednesday December 5th

By: Ina Steiner

There will be no mail pickup or delivery on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, though there will be limited package delivery service.

President Trump proclaimed December 5th a national day of mourning throughout the United States to honor former President George H.W. Bush, who passed away on November 30th at the age of 94. The US Postal Service announced:

"Out of respect for President Bush, the nation's 41st commander in chief, and to honor his vast contributions to the United States during his lifetime, and consistent with the presidential proclamation, the Postal Service will observe the national day of mourning.

"The Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery and retail service Dec. 5. USPS will provide limited package delivery service on that day to ensure that the Postal Service network remains fluid and USPS does not experience any impacts to its package delivery operations that might negatively affect customers or business partners during the remainder of the busy holiday season."

eBay has yet to announce the news, but sellers were discussing the possibility prior to the USPS announcement. One seller wrote, "Wonder how eBay would handle all of those late Guaranteed Deliveries? That could be very expensive for eBay!"

Naturally sellers must also concern themselves with buyer expectations and marketplace performance standards. It's of special concern given the potential to disrupt orders with Christmas only 3 weeks away.

Federal government offices will be closed, the Supreme Court will postpone arguments, the stock markets will be closed, and it looks like some states will close their offices on Wednesday (Kansas).

We'll update this post as we learn more details.

Update 12/3/2018: Here's a link to the announcement.

Update 12/3/2018: Looks like there may be some very limited package pickup on Wednesday for certain business accounts. (Doubt that would include small businesses.)

I'll try to get some clarification, it hadn't occurred to me that would be a possibility, even though the announcement said limited package delivery. (If true, could it have a lot to do with Amazon fulfillment centers???)

Update 12/3/2018: Stamps.com published a chart with some additional information, though we're still left with a lot of questions that we're trying to get answered.

Update 12/4/2018: It appears Amazon sellers will not be impacted by Wednesday's observance. Amazon will not penalize sellers for late delivery in case the promised delivery date was 12/5 or 12/6, since sellers cannot do anything for shipments already in transit, and Amazon will remove defects from their metrics. And Amazon won't penalize merchant-fulfilled sellers for standard shipments with ship date as 12/5.

Update 12/5/2018: eBay said it would protect sellers from any fallout resulting from postal delays resulting from the day of mourning observance by the US Postal Service.

Update 12/5/2018: The USPS updated its alert with some helpful information, see the Newsflash story just posted.