Unfortunately it can be quite common for orders shipped via USPS to have inaccurate tracking information due to USPS carriers inconsistency in scanning packages throughout the journey from us to you. Although we warn you of these issues with USPS during the checkout routine and in our Terms of Service, sometimes it's missed and you might ask about it after we ship. Here's additional details to help:

We often have customers report that a shipment shows "label printed" for several days or even a week after we've shipped the package, and often think we haven't shipped the package at all. Look at the below example of a common USPS tracking scenario:

This customer placed an order on January 8th and we actually printed and shipped the order the same day, on January 8th. USPS typically picks up from us at 6 pm every day, and even though this says "USPS Awaiting Item", they did pick it up on January 8th. However, you'll see above that for 9 full days, (from January 8 to the 17th), the tracking would only show "USPS Awaiting Item" even though they had it. This is because USPS typically does not scan packages at the receiving or intermediate hubs. You'll next see the package was scanned on January 17th and delivered that day. The customer had a quoted "arrives by" date of January 19th, so it arrived early and nothing was ever wrong with this delivery - it wasn't late, it was actually delivered early, even though the customer felt it never shipped for 9 days. This is a great example showing that USPS does not reliably scan a package at each step, which results in these inaccuracies. In virtually every instance the package is going to magically appear in the USPS system many days after we ship it and it's always delivered on or before the arrives by date you were quoted.

This can be common with USPS because our unique cardboard tubes cannot go through the automatic sorting systems and are manually processed.

It's helpful to remember that during checkout you're given a variety of shipping methods with a quoted "arrives by" date of when your package is expected to arrive, and warned before checkout that USPS tracking could be innactute.

As noted during checkout, USPS Priority Mail for posters is not the same as traditinal Priority Mail that arrives in one or two days. This is because the USPS must manually handle our cardboard tubes and they do not meet the ONE and TWO DAY Priority Mail standards. If USPS tracking is showing estimated arrival dates that are earlier than you were quoted, it is because their tracking system does not now the package is a tube. You were quoted an "arrives by" date during checkout for this shipping method, and your package will arrive by that date, not the date quoted by USPS.

We've found that in virtually every case your package will arrive by the quoted "arrives by" date and it's helpful to not focus on the USPS tracking information and instead expect your package by the date you were quoted. You can find this date on your order confirmation.

It is never recommended to choose USPS Mail for an order that you need to arrive by a guaranteed time or that you wish to watch the tracking progress. As our shipping screen states, USPS is a great and economical choice when you have time and patience to receive your print via a slower method at the cheapest price. If you need accurate tracking and faster delivery, we highly recommend UPS.