We have a great post office here, but all mail is shipped to Portland, Oregon now for processing. So even mailing something within town can sometimes take 10 days.
I did a vacation mail hold, and slipped it in the slot on a Saturday, and it was shipped to Portland and never processed. I only found out because I came home mid-vacation for something else and was like WTF. Apparently, no one looked at it, just put it in the shipment to Portland. Now I make sure I personally hand these to someone at a window.