Although it's easy to sympathize with this example of ridiculous incompetence on the part of the local postal service, the notion that all will be solved by privatization is not a solution. It's always dangerous to correlate the micro with the macro. It's like saying, well, we're having such lovely weather, how could there be climate change? The privatization of the postal service would disproportionately affect the segment of our population that can't so easily buy their way around the problem; namely the poor and elderly. Also, if we're going to extend this philosophy to other government programs, perhaps we should consider the Air Force's F-35 program, which has already cost the American taxpayer $400 billion (and counting), is a decade behind schedule and over twice its original estimated cost. Should we privatize the Air Force? The solution is to properly fund and re-tool the postal service, just as a corporation would do to protect its own financial health; not to starve it and gloat as it withers on the vine.

I'm not so ready to give up the USPS. They do have problems and generally from my experience when they screw up it's big time. I've been doing mail order and ebay for 30+ years and I haven't had 30 significant problems in all those years. Over the last 10 years I've averaged 1200 packages and 300 letters outgoing through the USPS.
I can say that mail sent inside NYS seems to be bogged down somewhere. I can get a small package to WA just as fast as getting it to Albany.
You have to understand the USPS also. Most mail is sorted by machinery now until it gets to the local post office. So if the zip code is wrong, address changed or other problems the mail is held up and maybe sent to another station or location for further sorting to be corrected. Your package sounds like it went through a machine and was torn and sent for repackaging which held it up. Another cause for delay could have been when the change address was made or how long ago the address change was made. Address changes for customers is good for only 6 months but businesses one year. So my point is there are a lot of factors about why there was a delay including proper packaging. If you can work through

Lousy service and mistakes like the one Mr. Quigley points out notwithstanding, we might also keep in mind that the rate to mail a letter in this country is extraordinarily inexpensive compared to other (much smaller) nations.

Our current postal rates fall somewhere in between Hungary and Estonia, which is amazing considering how large the US in geographically.

If the USPS had not been the target of numerous attempts to weaken, undermine, and defund it, we might see better service today.