My mother used to run the post office in the little town I was raised. She has told many, Go ahead and send the fanciest card you want but in a plain envelope unless made by the manufacturer. The manufacturer go according to postal guidelines. And since the adhesive isn't as good as it used to be go ahead and tape the closure.. My DGD's birthday was last month on the 27th. I didn't get the card out until Saturday before in the afternoon. She got the card with giftcard intact on Monday. I thought that was pretty good since I didn't send it Priority Mail. As long as it is secured well and the right zipcode is on it. Shouldn't be a problem. If she gave you a P.O. Box shouldn't be a problem. But could be in next box. If a physical address, maybe a neighbor has it. I would go ahead and stop payment on the check. Also did you write her name on the check or leave it blank. I always ask who to make the check payable to. Banks don't like nicknames. I was told by a banking officer that if the recipient of the check has a short name such as lol, Jane Doe to make the check out like --------Jane Doe-----------------That way no other names can be added to it. Just like when you write in the amount of the check. Also ditto to what Misty's Mom said. Stop payment on it.

I live in Corpus Christi, Tx. and send most mail to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. If the zip code is right there shouldn't be a problem. If you live in the same town, misseva why not just hand deliver the check or have the recipient pick it up?

Because it's business and it would take too much time to deliver all the local mail. I have more than one customer and when I'm out of the office there's no one to answer the phone except my manager & parts people and if they're on the phone it creates a problem. And I don't think our vendors would appreciate having to come here to get their check.

I have had birthday cards take 4 days to go just across town. You can't out guess the USPS. lol

The automation machines will not process mail with punctuation on the destination. That has been in effect for more than 15 years. Please do NOT use punctuation!

I send out checks all the time for our business. We tell anyone that hasn't received their check to allow at least 3 weeks for the delivery because we know it can easily take that long to some areas. If they don't want to wait that long, I have them pay the stop payment fee and I'll re-issue the check. If they wait that long and it hasn't cleared the bank, I'll pay the stop payment fee and re-issue it. In 20 years, I rarely have had to pay the fee.

We've had mail returned to us 6 months after it was sent out marked that it was caught in a machine and found during maintenance.

We've had other mail delivered to us in error and have had to put it back in the box to be delivered correctly...some people will just rudely toss it away (think that might be illegal in some way).

We get mail that has been ripped, torn in half and just plain nasty arrive in postal envelopes saying "something appears to have happened to your mail during delivery", well duh!

Bottom line, please allow more time as long as the seller is understanding also.

Even years ago I knew mail to take up to 2 weeks to get from one podunk town to another 20 miles away. It had to go from the post office in our town to the sorting facility 30 miles south, then to the bigger one an hour the other way, then to the smaller city 45 min east of us then to the post office in the town of the addressee and finally out to his/her house.

I know that currently the local mail goes to the sorting facility and back rather than being sorted locally.

In the last few months we have not received 4( first class) letters. I have lost faith in the US Mail.