I'd be interested in hearing any experiences about people waiting
for packages to arrive by Parcel Post. 4 weeks ago I bought a
vacuum distillation apparatus. The seller said it would be shipped
Parcel Post. This is from Illinois to Maryland and the fucking thing
hasn't arrived yet ! What does the Post Office do ? Do they wait
until they have a planeload ? I've shipped to Canada, Sweden,
the U.K. and it didn't even take half that long ! What's up with
the USPS anyway ?

tmp

You have been waiting for four weeks! WOW! I thought they were late with my package. I have a package that was supposed to be here (Canada) last week. The package contains 100 feet of Visco fuse and its coming here from Georgia. I think that USPS is really just busy, what with the holiday seasons here and what not. I’m sure you’re parcel will come. Unlike mine it is illegal to ship fuse to Canada so I had a buddy send it to me. I though that it was caught by customs and just wasn’t coming, but since you seem to be having troubles with USPS, I have just received some hope that it still just might come. :)

Yeah, right now the USPS is slower than a snail on valium. I've never
experienced a problem with 1st class or priority mail however. In the
future, that's how I'll have all of my shipping done if it's available.
The person who sold the gear would only ship Parcel Post - That Sucks !

Have you checked for online tracking? I don't if the USPS does this, but FedEx, UPS, and DHL do.

The US Postal Service does offer tracking on some types of mail.