<p>I sent my D a small package to her campus address, via us mail. Should have taken 2 days to get there, but ended up taking 6 business days. Is this normal? Would packages sent Fedex or UPS get there faster? Is this a common problem?</p>
<p>It is a little early to figure out what your ‘normal’ is. The mail rooms are still inundated with packages from home with things forgotten, books from amazon, etc. Things that should take 2 days from here always take at least 3-4 days if you don’t hit a weekend.</p>
<p>For the first year dorms, I believe UPS delivers to the U. mail rooms, so that probably would not be any faster. I’d like to know if UPS delivers directly to upper class housing, or drops off it at a U. mail room.</p>
<p>As far as I know, all packages regardless are sent to the mail room. That was my experience last year.</p>
<p>I know this is an old thread but since I’m confused by UVa’s US mail system, I thought I’d seek some insight. I sent a small package to my son and USPS tracking information shows that it arrived at his US mail address on August 28 Thursday. My S received an email that the package was ready to pick up on Friday. He has been to pick it up on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and all three days they’ve told him they can’t find it. I have other stuff to send him that he needs but I’m not going to do that if it’s going to end up in a black hole. I have some questions about the mail service at UVa. His US mail address does not match his building, suite, or room number. Is that normal? He told me that when he goes to pick up his package they ask him is building, suite, room number, why do they do that if his US mail address doesn’t include that information? Why isn’t his US mail address a postal box number? When I went to college I had a post office box assigned by the university and that is the address all mail (including packages went to). Can anyone explain to me how UVa’s system works? I would call mail services directly but my son doesn’t want me to do that, he wants to handle it himself. Thanks.</p>
<p>@neon, according to our son (2nd yr), from a student’s perspective there is little consistency in the mail sorting and delivery process - especially from location to location - meaning the process as it works for Alderman dorms may be a bit different than Residential college dorms, etc. He also does not get emails this year when he receives a package in the dorm he’s in, and mail goes internally through two moves/sorts, as opposed to last year in 1st year dorms where he received an email and it was a single stop. </p>
<p>We’ve sent him 2 packages this year, both on the same day. One he received in 2 business days (sent UPS), and one took 6 business days (8 calendar days, sent USPS Priority). So, who knows? We learned the hard way last year - don’t send anything perishable 
As for the address, just send it where it states here for his dorm and it will get sorted appropriately: </p>
<p><a href=“UVA HMS - Housing Management System”>http://hms.housing.virginia.edu/addresses/</a> </p>
<p>While there can be delays, and it takes a few weeks at the beginning of the year to get everything back in sync, we’ve never had a package lost - so take comfort in that. </p>
<p>Our experience has been to add 1 day to the delivery time you’d normally encounter. I ordered something for our son on Amazon Prime last night. If I had sent it to our home I’d have it Saturday, I expect him to have it late Monday instead at UVa. </p>
<p>I sent my package usps 2 day priority. It did get there in 2 days but they can’t find it. Now it’s been a week since someone at a mail room received it, oh well. @grp2013 thanks I did use uva’s mail address finder and that’s where I sent it. It’s just that I sent the package 9 days ago and I suppose I should conclude that they are really overwhelmed and busy. I’ll keep the faith that he’ll eventually get it.</p>
<p>My daughter has packages delivered to her sorority house because it is faster than getting them at a dorm.</p>
<p>Amazon is testing out delivering to boxes inside stores. You get a code to open up a box and pick up your package. It is designed for people who are not home during the day to receive packages. I don’t know if that service will be available in Cville. </p>
<p>Just got a text from my S, he received the package. Wants me to send another one. At least I know that it will eventually get there. Thanks everyone :D</p>
<p>My mail ladies used to tell me to print out the confirmation email if I showed up and they couldn’t find the package. It always helped them find it. I never had to go 3 times.</p>
<p>My son doesn’t have a printer. I don’t know if he’s learned to use the campus printers or not? Anyway, they told him that bringing a printout of the email he received (the one saying that he could pick up his package) would not help because they were simply too backed up with text book deliveries which had priority. But they shouldn’t have sent him an email to pick up his package if they were not ready for him to do so.</p>
<p>Mail Services handles mail for 14,900 undergraduate students, 2,600 faculty, every department office, every administrative office, and the entire hospital system. It is totally normal to add extra days for the mail here. A package will probably get to UVa’s Central Mail facility in 2-3 days if using Priority Mail, but then it has to be sorted, transported, and redelivered. It’s a second delivery process.</p>
<p>The mail sorting/delivery process at UVA certainly needs some work. We have consistently had issues, last year and this year, first-year dorms and upperclass housing, early in the year and later. At a minimum the student should not receive an email to pick up the package until it is actually located at the pick- up site. We are currently trying to locate a package that USPS says was delivered Tuesday. UVa cannot find it. Wondering who will pay the insurance if it is lost? Postal service did their job…</p>
<p>@Mom2twins, that’s what happened to us. Perhaps an email that says your package was received and will be ready to pick up in 4-5 days would help. The email our son received on a Friday told him he could pick it up in the afternoon on Monday, when it wasn’t there and ready to pickup until Thursday. Perhaps being ready to pickup the next business day is how it usually works when they aren’t so busy with text book orders. Anyway, his a package was eventually found and ready to pickup, it took 4 extra days.</p>
<p>I wonder why it has changed so much – I lived on grounds 2006 - 2010 and I did not get one of those emails unless it was on site (and bringing the email it would help them find it there if it was not easily located the first time around – I remember this being common so I just started printing it the first time I went lol). I did get get my mail at Newcomb though since that is Brown College’s pickup location. I wonder if that is the main hub.</p>
<p>I think a lot of the issue is just that it’s the beginning of the school year and the mail room is jam packed with deliveries. I sent multiple packages to my son last year (old dorms) and we never had any problems. My son would always get an email, and pick up the package without any problems. There was always a one day delay - so for Amazon 2-day deliveries, it would always be ready to be picked up the third day. He also never needed to print out the email to take it with him.</p>
<p>I remember my mail being slow at first, but by the second month of school, packages were much more routine (if they came in the AM, I got the email that afternoon; if they came later, I got them the next business day). I was in on-grounds upperclassmen housing so my mail room was Newcomb, which like Hazel said, may be the main sorting center.</p>
<p>GrandMarc, on the other hand…holy crap getting packages there sucked. </p>
<p>Shoebox10…what was the problem at GrandMarc? Just curious, since my son is there now. He has received several Amazon packages so far without any delays. Maybe it’s improved? Just wondering though in case we need to be prepared for possible issues down the road.</p>
<p>It’s likely improved, I lived there a year after it opened and the front desk folks seemed to start getting their crap together as I was leaving (new office/building manager). I’d get delivery notifications and they’d sit in a back room and “couldn’t be found”. I’d say a good chunk of the office staff wasn’t very on top of things, especially my first year there, and there were serious complaints against the place and the state of it both of my years there to the point that at the end of my first year there, people who had resigned for a second year threaten legal action if they didn’t let them out of their lease or move them from the first floor (a huge thing for everyone that years was that our hallways were getting trashed and the outside doors wouldn’t lock properly). Starting the end of my first year there they really cracked down on that stuff and it improved going into my second/last year. GM had some serious growing pains at first…</p>