That is exactly what i am saying. And it doesn't really have anything to do with Pagoda World. Seems like Mike Salemi took this post personally.
Of course I take it personally! JonnyB and myself, along with our printer partners, have worked very, very hard--harder than most members know--to ensure everyone gets their mailings. It's a constant battle and we are on the front lines nearly constantly on this. And yet we have complaints.
None of us really know precisely how and where mail of various classes moves from one place to another. Maybe Brad Badali can enlighten us as I know he worked for the USPS. The assumption when somebody gets their issue later than someone else is that there is a failure in the system. The reality is unless someone with insight into the inner workings of how mail moves around the country lets us know, we're only guessing. I have enough experience to know, however, that from our printer in Raleigh, NC, to London, UK--those members in the greater London area will get their Pagoda World
faster than a good portion of the USA. Part of that has to do with the international mailings going FIRST CLASS which aside from expedited service, is the fastest class of mail. USA mailings go out STANDARD MAIL which provide a whopping discount. Standard mail isn't available to non-USA addresses, and the slower international services (we've tried them and were not happy) just are frought with issues. You may not remember (but I certainly do) that we've had to do two re-mailings with failures of international shipping in the past couple of years. Those days are behind us.
Putting it into perspective, on this last issue, we paid $1.24 per issue for each USA address we mailed to. Had we sent those first class, the cost would be $4.68 each. That's a savings of $3.44 each, and with 770 mailed out to the USA, a savings to our members and the group of $2,648.80 on this issue, #35 alone.
If anyone has any suggestion on how to improve what we are doing now with the mailings--let us know. Our printer is also what is called "a mailing house" so we work with them closely on this.