Fedex changed the world of shipping. They came up with the idea that everything would be taken to a regional hub, sorted, and then sent back out. So wanting to send a package from Orlando to Miami could result in the package going to Atlanta before being sorted and sent back out to Miami.
Even though it seems counter intuitive, it is actually faster and more efficient to do it that way. I fully understand that.
However, I don’t understand what is happening right now. I ordered a tablet computer on Monday.
- It shipped via USPS two day air on Monday evening from Pineville, North Carolina.
- Six hours later, it arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Twelve hours later, it arrived in Jacksonville, FL.
- Nine hours after that, it arrived in New Castle, Delaware
- From there, it went to Wilmington, Delaware.
- Another 13 hours, and it arrived in Philadelphia.
- Twelve hours later, it left Philadelphia.
- Now, six hours after it was last seen, and two days after it was shipped, no one appears to know where it is.
This is the tenth package that has disappeared for me in the past two and a half months.
- A shipment of gold eagles
- A roomba disappeared in December
- and now this tablet is gone.
I can’t even blame the train robbery in California for this one.
14 Comments
PapaSierra · January 26, 2022 at 8:23 pm
Well, the creation of FedEx and UPS were enabled by Reagan’s deregulation of the trucking industry. He also deregulated the phones, airlines, and radio (by ending the “fairness doctrine”). Oh, and finished off the Soviet Union. He wasn’t perfect, but he did okay for a 2nd-rate actor.
T Town · January 26, 2022 at 8:44 pm
I had FedEx try to leave a package at my house a couple of months ago that wasn’t addressed to me. In fact, the package should have been delivered half way across the country. It turns out that one of their fancy stickers with the barcode that contains the shipping info got transferred from one of my packages onto that package. I can only assume that the sticker had not adhered properly to my package, and when it came into contact with the other package on a conveyor, the sticker hitched a ride on the other package. Of course, what really bothered me is that the FedEx guy never looked at the printed address label to verify that he was trying to deliver it to the wrong place.
Big Ruckus D · January 26, 2022 at 9:10 pm
USPS has been all screwed up with stuff like this fubar routing of your tablet for at least a year, as I’ve seen stuff I ordered go 2000 miles out of its way in the process of getting to me. I can understand an occasional misrouting like T Town above posted, but it seems to be happening beyond the frequency of random error anymore.
I figure a combination of staff problems (both shortages and competence), massive increase in parcel volume due to much more home shopping in the covidian era, and technology/systems that are not up to snuff from overuse, lack of maintenance and pobably not being 99.9% reliable to begin wth all contribute. Honestly, I’m amazed they can still do as well as they are.
As an aside, I recently ordered an item from Japan, sent Fedex international priority (not next day, I’d guess this was more like 2-3 day service). It went out on 12/24 from Tokyo and had it by 9am on 12/27, which included having to clear customs and presumably some downtime for Christmas. I was suitably impressed. Meanhwhile, repair parts for a project I ordered from a vendor in California took 10 days to reach me by priority mail only halfway across the country. Go figure.
ChuckInBama · January 26, 2022 at 9:22 pm
USPS. There’s the problem. A more incompetent group of miscreants you will never find. And that was back in the good old days. Knuckle-dragging bastards probably can’t read.
Therefore · January 26, 2022 at 10:32 pm
Remember that USPS 2 day is only a suggestion… If you purchase 2 day delivery from FedEx or UPS they have a requirement to deliver within two days. USPS has no such promise.
I had an upper shipped from Florida to new England. It was shipped priority mail.
They lost it for nearly 2 weeks.
Seems the regional hub got busy so they were not bothering to scan packages. So instead of getting put in the next truck north it went into the “get there when it gets there” bin and didn’t leave Florida for 3 days. Was next seen in NY when the package was first scanned. And then not seen again until my local po scanned it.
USPS really is bad and getting worse
Keep Failing Upward · January 26, 2022 at 11:29 pm
They are busy preparing the midterm Big Steal in muh democracy.
Family lost a package on that North Venezuela train in the land of fruits and nuts.
Sadly the USPS is rated too big to fail and the Peter Principle is the law of Chiquitastan.
Some members of the best government that money can buy get sweetheart deals on old post offices that they resell at great profit.
It's just Boris · January 27, 2022 at 12:01 am
Re the Los Angeles train robberies, certainly it’s been well publicized recently. But I seriously doubt it only happens in LA, and only to trains. Criminals do copycat other criminals, especially when the risk/reward ratio looks really good; and FedEx, UPS and Amazon semi trailers are usually blatantly marked as such.
Not that this explains all of your recent troubles, necessarily. But we’ve been seeing an uptick in our part of the world also, of damaged and missing deliveries.
Jay Bee · January 27, 2022 at 2:58 am
We’ve lost 3 packages through USPS in the last 9 months.
– Box of books (bounced around the country, then reported as both packaging destroyed and lost)
– Package of toys (lost)
– Package of clothing (lost)
Also have had problems with their tracking. I’ve both received and have had delivered packages that still listed themselves as “received by the origin facility.”
joe · January 27, 2022 at 5:22 am
they took all the smart workers (hahahahahaha) to use on their new surveillance of all of us and left all the dumb people to deliver mail… my wife had a package sit at the regional point for almost a month before it got delivered to us…. to me it’s just normal great gov customer service…
anonymous coward · January 27, 2022 at 5:27 am
Same here, many tales of packages lost and delayed for months.
Rather than fix their sh!t, the post office just works over time to make it harder to do anything about asking them to look for lost packages and put in claims against them.
rain, sleet, snow or gloom of night my a$$.
“We are the post office, we don’t have to care.”
Glypto Dropem · January 27, 2022 at 6:35 am
Last December I ordered a small gun part from a seller on eBay located about 30 miles from my house. That package came in two days and routed as expected. A couple of days later, I ordered an additional small part from the same seller. There was no differece in shipping or receiving addresses or the size and type of package. That package went on a 10 day, 2000 mile odyssee across several states, actually passing through the same sorting facility TWICE! In hindsight, I should have driven to the guy’s house to pick it up.
I asked a friend that retired from the USPS about it. He said that situation is usually the result of human error, human laziness, or falsifying scans. He said once a piece of mail is misrouted, it takes a while for the system to correct it. Even he could not believe the crazy tracking history when I showed him.
Hedge · January 27, 2022 at 7:33 am
At least it isn’t sitting on the train tracks in LA.
TechieDude · January 27, 2022 at 9:11 am
I’m going to guess that you didn’t have a choice shipping.
For anything important, I use Fedex or UPS, never, ever USPS.
Russell G. · January 27, 2022 at 6:45 pm
There are two black holes in FL…Opa Locka and JAX. Consider the demographics of the workers (see Memphis below). Also, all Parcel Select mailed in FL goes to JAX, regardless.
Also, about 50% of my firearms related stuff is stalled or opened then resealed at Ft. Myers. Even Midway stuff.
Try this out for size…What we have here is a Win 94 pre-war 30-30 mag tube plug. About 50 bucks now to get a good one…sent first class mail by the seller. That’s the problem…unless it is sent priority with a defined delivery window, you’re dead meat. Even that fails, as you note.
You ain’t alone, dude….17 days below.
2:38pm
DELIVERED IN/AT MAILBOX
Jan 27, 2022
6:43am
OUT FOR DELIVERY
Jan 27, 2022
6:32am
ARRIVAL AT UNIT
Jan 27, 2022
4:19am
DEPARTED USPS REGIONAL FACILITY
FORT MYERS FL DISTRIBUTION CENT, 33913
Jan 27, 2022
3:57am
DEPARTED USPS REGIONAL FACILITY
FORT MYERS FL DISTRIBUTION CENT, 33913
Jan 27, 2022
12:27am
ARRIVE USPS FACILITY
FORT MYERS FL DISTRIBUTION CENT, 33913
Jan 26, 2022
11:52pm
ARRIVED AT USPS REGIONAL FACILITY
FORT MYERS FL DISTRIBUTION CENT, 33913
Jan 26, 2022
7:54pm
DEPARTED USPS REGIONAL FACILITY
YBOR CITY FL DISTRIBUTION CENTE, 33605
Jan 26, 2022
7:08pm
DEPARTED USPS REGIONAL FACILITY
YBOR CITY FL DISTRIBUTION CENTE, 33605
Jan 26, 2022
1:04pm
PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
YBOR CITY FL DISTRIBUTION CENTE, 33605
Jan 24, 2022
11:26pm
PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
MIDDLESEX-ESSEX MA DISTRIBUTION, 01889
Jan 24, 2022
11:03pm
MISSING MAIL SEARCH REQUEST INITIATED
ATLANTA, GA 30378
Jan 23, 2022
11:54am
PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
NASHUA NH DISTRIBUTION CENTER, 03063
Jan 23, 2022
11:12am
PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
NASHUA NH DISTRIBUTION CENTER, 03063
Jan 18, 2022
1:11pm
PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
MEMPHIS TN DISTRIBUTION CENTER, 38118
Jan 15, 2022
11:07pm
PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
MEMPHIS TN DISTRIBUTION CENTER, 38118
Jan 14, 2022
10:03pm
PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
MEMPHIS TN DISTRIBUTION CENTER, 38118
Jan 11, 2022
4:46pm
DEPART POST OFFICE
HOUSTON, MS 38851
Jan 11, 2022
12:23pm
PICKED UP
HOUSTON, MS 38851
Jan 10, 2022
10:11pm
SHIPPING LBL CREATED USPS AWAITS ITEM
HOUSTON, MS 38851
Jan 10, 2022
11:42pm
PRE-SHIPMENT INFO SENT USPS AWAITS ITEM
HOUSTON, MS 38851
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