This winter's heavy snowfall and an unexpectedly high volume of packages sent to Mail Services have resulted in a recent spate of delays for students expecting packages.
Mail Services has seen a 20 percent upsurge in the volume of packages it has processed this academic year, an increase of 8,272 shipments, according to Support Services Manager Sheila Chisholm. She speculated that the increase stems partly from students' increased reliance on online vendors for cheaper textbooks.
Bad weather has also stalled delivery between local U.S. Post Offices in Medford and Union Squares and Tufts, further delaying when students get their packages.
Sophomore Benjamin Limoges said he noticed the backup when he received a package ordered from Amazon.com days after he expected it to arrive.
"I ordered mail packages from Amazon … so UPS sent it on time and Mail Services didn't clear it for four days," Limoges said.
The uptick in orders combined with the inclement weather have required Mail Services to hire extra help and to ask its employees to work overtime and on weekends, according to Chisholm.
"The post office was backed up, [and] they were bringing so many packages a day," she said. "So [for] about three weeks, we opened a full day on Saturday, and also, we hired another full−time temporary."
Chisholm recommended that students order their books for classes before the semester rush of textbook orders hits Mail Services at the start of the semester.
"If they know what they are ordering, they should try to do it sooner rather than later, so that when [they] get here, their books are already on the shelves," Chisholm said.
Mail Services is an intermediary between the post office and the university and cannot ensure that all of the packages will arrive on time, according to Chisholm.
"We're left at the whim of the post office," Supervisor of Mail Services Ronald Drauschke said.
Student frustration can often stem from the fact that the post office issues delivery confirmations to students when it receives and scans a package in its system, independently of when Mail Services receives and processes the package, according to Chisholm.
"The delivery confirmation that the post office uses is misleading," Chisholm said, adding that other area universities have also been impacted by similar miscommunications. "It just means that [a package] has been scanned at the post office. It doesn't mean that it has been delivered to Mail Services."
