Measure the silence against the transit window quoted when the label was bought, counted in business days from the first acceptance scan. A ground shipment sold with a 6-7 business day window is on schedule through day seven even if the map has not moved, and weekends add calendar days on top. Stuck begins only after the quoted window has fully passed; from there, each carrier publishes a day count for opening an inquiry.
Every quote we issue names a per-service window up front. That number, not the mood, decides when to escalate.
To anchor the day-count talk in something real, we priced a 14 × 12 × 6 in box at 5 lb through the SMKlog calculator that day, once eastbound and once westbound. The last column is the carrier's own transit estimate for the route, delivered alongside the price.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Quoted transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS | Ground Saver | $13.65 | No window returned |
| UPS | Ground | $14.05 | 3-4 business days |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $14.31 | 4-5 business days |
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $14.67 | 6-7 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $19.94 | 3-4 business days |
| Carrier | Service | Price | Quoted transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS | Ground Saver | $19.25 | No window returned |
| UPS | Ground | $19.30 | 6-7 business days |
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $20.84 | 6-7 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $27.17 | 3-4 business days |
| USPS | Priority Mail | $32.26 | 2-3 business days |
Notice the spread: the identical physical box was promised in 2-3 business days by one service and 6-7 by another within the same afternoon. On a 6-7 row, day five of silence is simply the plan unfolding. On a 2-3 row, day five is overdue and ready for an inquiry.
The word stuck means nothing without the window your specific service carried. Judge the shipment against the row it actually shipped under, not against the fastest number in the table, and remember that the cheap ground tiers were slow on paper from the moment of purchase.
USPS: start a Missing Mail search at missingmail.usps.com once 7 days have passed since mailing, then a claim from day 15 on Ground Advantage or Priority Mail, closing at day 60, per usps.com, checked 2026-07-27. FedEx: a support ticket opens once a shipment runs a day or more late, and the tracking page's Report Missing Package flow issues a case number. UPS: claims go in within 60 days of the scheduled delivery date.
Re-read the destination address on the tracking page, because a bad ZIP can send a box on a detour that looks identical to a stall. Screenshot the scan history now; claim forms go smoother with dates already in hand. And give the recipient the quoted window instead of a guess, since expectations set in business days survive a weekend without a support thread.
Carriers put real numbers on it. USPS opens Missing Mail searches 7 days after the mailing date and takes lost-package claims on Ground Advantage and Priority Mail from day 15, with a 60-day cutoff. UPS wants claims within 60 days of the scheduled delivery. FedEx accepts lost-shipment claims as late as nine months from the ship date. All per the carriers' help pages, checked 2026-07-27.
On ground services, usually not. A box can roll through several states between sort facilities, and the tracking page only updates when a barcode meets a scanner. That said, ups.com does count days without a scan among its reasons to file a claim, so silence that outlives the quoted window deserves an inquiry rather than more patience.
The windows on this page arrived from the carriers in business days, so Saturday and Sunday never advance the count. A 6-7 business day window that opens on a Thursday stretches well into the second calendar week. Start counting from the carrier's first acceptance scan, not from the moment the label was printed.
Nobody can, honestly. We see the same scans you do, and transportation sits with the carrier once a package enters its network, as our terms note. What we can do is help pull together inquiry or claim paperwork for labels bought here, and when shipping protection was added, a lost-package claim can be filed from day 15 through day 60 after label creation under our protection rules.