I bought some cuttings from another F4F member several days ago. He shipped them via first class mail on the 17th. They just arrived, many days later. I asked the postmaster at our local post office about it today and was informed that 'first class' is no longer 2 to 3 days, but has been changed to 'first class parcel' and may take 3 to 5 days. I've asked a few other people I exchange things with around the country via the USPO and they all say the same thing--first class parcel is taking *more* than 5 days to reach it's destination.  I don't know if others have had this experience or not, but I thought I would bring it to everyone's attention just in case they, like me, assumed 'first class' mail was still 3 days, max.

I often use the USPO 'flat rate' boxes, which have always arrived in 2 to 3 days, and am now wondering if they too will start taking many more days to arrive at their destination. I'll ask the postmaster next time I go. 

I remember them saying that they would be running up to 4 days for first class. They may just be working out the kinks or perhaps they are just trying to discourage folks from using first class for packages and force us to use Priority so they can pocket more. Those bean counters finally figured out that first class was just as fast as priority in most cases. Now let's see if Priority gets any faster so they can start changing Express rates for that! Gotta love it!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-05/postal-service-cutbacks/51649828/1

No, the post office does not deliver within 3 days maximum, for first class.

Ordering vaping e-liquid via priorty from Utah or NewYork gets here in 3 days.
First class 4 days .
Was at post office and told the fella that i heard on the 10 o'clock news and read online about first class mail no longer being available in March when a round of cuts are suppoe to take place and he said no not happeneing.
He also stated uncle sam owes them money a whole lot of money .

I'll be there next week to ask more questions as i ship a few items.

Priority mail does pretty good in 3 days, but not always. And it doesn't always arrive.

They have lowered the standards (delivery times) for 1st class as a cost cutting measure.

Hey, I sent an Overnight Priority package to Hawaii and was told "will arrive by date/time"...it took 3 WEEKS!   Needless to say the postmaster refunded my money.

Just checked my email and person mentioned in new email he got his plant today via priority.
I shipped Monday arrived Wednesday.

Maybe that wink i gave the Lady at the post office helped.  ; )

Hey I don't know if anything has changed but the last 2 priority packages I sent out, 1 to San Diego and the other to Oaklahoma got there in 2 days!

I'm glad that some are getting their packages in just a few days.

I had to start using USPO overnight for business documents because FedEx was costing me between $26 and $30 to overnight a lb. or a little over of paperwork. USPO was $18 and change last time I used it. I was overnighting about twice a week.  I was lucky to have them actually arrive the next day by 3 p.m. about 60% of the time. They all went to the same factoring company in Las Vegas, and yet they kept getting delayed. Yep, they refunded me every time.