USPS is confused

[MONK]

So, I bought something from Pierre up in Canada (Can Am Spyder Accessories). It shipped on 5.2.20 (fast shipping) and passed through customs in NY on May 5th. It was scheduled to be delivered today. As of (4) hours ago, it arrived at a USPS facility in St. Paul, MN. That's great except I LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA. Now, my US geography is pretty good so the shortest route (even for USPS, UPS, Fedex, etc) from NY to NC is NOT through MN. There is a chance Pierre put the wrong address on my package. I'll give him a call Monday. There's also a chance that the post office needs to brush up on their US geography.

HAGO!

 

[troop]

Ha .. I have a cheap ebay item coming from China. It arrived stateside in 6 days. Four days to clear customs and make two route stops. Last route stop was in Carol Stream (Chicago). I live 120 miles away near Madison. Cool. But nope, it is routed from Carol Stream > Sparks, NV > Carl Stream. Coulda been a record delivery time

 

[PW2013STL]

Where I used to work as a purchasing agent. I once ordered something from across the river (St Paul) to Eden Prairie which is about an 1 hour drive and it went to from MN to TN to MN:banghead: Took 4 days to get it.:shocked:

 

[ARtraveler]

Looks like an update on the routing where it is today.

Airlines do this all the time. They go out of the way in a crazy sort of way. Back, and forth, back and forth when the destination is somewhere in the middle.

The fact that the airlines are all screwed up may be making the situation worse.

 

[Gwolf]

I can mail something to the guy lives across the dirt road. I can see his top of house from my yard. It takes 3 days to get there. I asked why one time. The mailman told me the nearest postal sorting facility is in Jacksonville, over 100 miles away. Everything has to go to Jacksonville to be sorted. If it goes across the road, it will come back in 3 days.

 

[pegasus1300]

I can mail something to the guy lives across the dirt road. I can see his top of house from my yard. It takes 3 days to get there. I asked why one time. The mailman told me the nearest postal sorting facility is in Jacksonville, over 100 miles away. Everything has to go to Jacksonville to be sorted. If it goes across the road, it will come back in 3 days.

We have the same situation here in Spring City. Fortunately we have a Spring City box we can drop local mail in USPS will get it into the right box the next day. Anything else in the county has to go to Provo (100 mi) to be sorted and comes back in a couple of days. Crazy.

 

[2dogs]

I can mail something to the guy lives across the dirt road. I can see his top of house from my yard. It takes 3 days to get there. I asked why one time. The mailman told me the nearest postal sorting facility is in Jacksonville, over 100 miles away. Everything has to go to Jacksonville to be sorted. If it goes across the road, it will come back in 3 days.

Sorting machines don't take coffee breaks or family sick leave. That's why it takes a letter 3 days to travel 3 hundred yards.

 

[Joel The Biker]

Your package might still arrive today. The tracking system sometimes isnt up to date. I have had that happen MANY times with USPS. It will say the package is in another state, but I check my mail and there it is.

 

[EdMat]

The computer knows best. It is futile to believe otherwise. You must submit to the computer.
The computer knows best. It is futile to believe otherwise. You must submit to the computer.
The computer knows best. It is futile to believe otherwise. You must submit to the computer.
The computer knows best. It is futile to believe otherwise. You must submit to the computer.

 

[ThreeWheels]

It's not uncommon. All the shipping companies do odd things like that. I've tracked stuff that left a warehouse in Long Island, shipped to St Louis, then goes to Jacksonville, then Chicago, then finally Brookfield CT and out for delivery to Danbury CT.
That's usually my fault because I'm too cheap to pay for the quicker delivery.
It's almost like they punish you for being cheap. So if you don't want to pay for expedited delivery, they'll do what they can to make sure it doesn't get delivered in less than 3 days.
Still, it's got to cost them more money to keep moving the package back and forth across the country than it would to ship it direct.

 

[Copperman]

Try calling Pierre now. I called him last Saturday late in the afternoon and he picked up. Give him a try.

 

[MONK]

I called Pierre earlier. Nice guy but he said to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to see if it arrived. I get that although I was hoping to install the floorboards today. I called USPS, too. What a waste. I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs but I can see why they're ready to go out of business. The guy I spoke w/said it appears that Customs sent it to the wrong place. I noted that it showed "USPS" as it "went through customs". He said.......nothing. He said he figures it will still get to me. Thanks, guy. Big help. I asked if he had any idea how long it might take to get a small package to me and if the sorting center in MN would send it tomorrow or if it wouldn't move until Monday. He said he had no idea how long it might take to get to me and didn't really know if the sorting center would ship it on tomorrow but that "they DO work 24/7". Great, guy. But you're USPS. Don't you know if they'll send it on tomorrow? Can't you ask someone? I mean, it took me 45 minutes to reach a real person (their IVR is rubbish).

If it's not moving in the right direction by Monday PM, I'll see if Pierre can file a claim and ship me a new set of floorboards.

 

[MRH]

Monk, consider giving it at least a few more days before you start looking at filing claims and calling the business. These calls are very stressful on small businesses (most really try very hard to serve their customers well), there isn't much he can do (it isn't lost), and it's still in transit (things do get misrouted from time to time, but I'm sure it will make it this week). Right now, perhaps we all need to give each other a bit more grace. I wish this was the worst of the problems so many of us are contending with, but it's really just package that may come in a few days late.

 

[bikerbillone]

I can mail something to the guy lives across the dirt road. I can see his top of house from my yard. It takes 3 days to get there. I asked why one time. The mailman told me the nearest postal sorting facility is in Jacksonville, over 100 miles away. Everything has to go to Jacksonville to be sorted. If it goes across the road, it will come back in 3 days.

So true, mail has to go through distribution centers and again sorted by bar code, then loaded on a truck or air to follow that route. Thirty years in the Post Office by yours truly here, times have changed, and have changed more in the last two months.

 

[triplethreat]

Of the three, USPS, Fedex, and UPS, the USPS is by far the worst at tracking information and staying updated. Several times I've had something coming USPS and get a notification of the package travel for tracking purposes. Over several days I would keep checking and ZERO updates on tracking info. Is the package just sitting in a corner somewhere taking a break? or is it actually moving? A couple of times it has actually been delivered to my house and I would get an update, via tracking number that it is now in the next city along the route to my house. I recently placed an order for a product that the company is located in the Chicago area (suburb) and instead of coming directly towards Tennessee, where I live, it took a trip to Pittsburg, PA and sat there for 4 days, then finished the trip to my house. Eight days total and since I order that product quite frequently, the normal trip is 3 or 4 days. USPS is absolutely the worst as far as I'm concerned when it comes to getting a package delivered in a timely fashion.

 

[bikerbillone]

Time to switch to Prime, FEDEX, or UPS. Might work better.

 

[teninospyder]

Time to switch to Prime, FEDEX, or UPS. Might work better.

Out here (don't know about your area) but Amazon can't/will not directly deliver to a PO box. In fact this shows up usually right in the order form), when you try ordering from amazon and show a PO box address.:banghead:
The main problem is the local mail office isn't open "all hours" so a delivery truck, outside of a USPS truck, has no way to drop off overnight at the facility. :gaah:
I have LOST the benefit of "AMAZON PRIME" a few times now by having to order directly from a vendor, not an Amazon Warehouse :banghead:

 

[ARtraveler]

Out here (don't know about your area) but Amazon can't/will not directly deliver to a PO box. In fact this shows up usually right in the order form), when you try ordering from amazon and show a PO box address.:banghead:
The main problem is the local mail office isn't open "all hours" so a delivery truck, outside of a USPS truck, has no way to drop off overnight at the facility. :gaah:
I have LOST the benefit of "AMAZON PRIME" a few times now by having to order directly from a vendor, not an Amazon Warehouse :banghead:

The United States Postal Service has a special address to give places like Amazon when you use a PO box for an address.

Mine goes to a street address, (the post office actual address, and it says Unit # **** (the box #) then the city, state, and special box # zip code (here 02 instead of 01). Been getting packages from everyone, including Amazon, for over a year now.

 

[Lew L]

These services are slammed pretty bad now with everyone ordering online and not shopping in fear of catching " something". I've seen the UPS guys running to drop off a package------ not so much with USPS.

 

[oldgoat]

I called Pierre earlier. Nice guy but he said to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to see if it arrived. I get that although I was hoping to install the floorboards today. I called USPS, too. What a waste. I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs but I can see why they're ready to go out of business. The guy I spoke w/said it appears that Customs sent it to the wrong place. I noted that it showed "USPS" as it "went through customs". He said.......nothing. He said he figures it will still get to me. Thanks, guy. Big help. I asked if he had any idea how long it might take to get a small package to me and if the sorting center in MN would send it tomorrow or if it wouldn't move until Monday. He said he had no idea how long it might take to get to me and didn't really know if the sorting center would ship it on tomorrow but that "they DO work 24/7". Great, guy. But you're USPS. Don't you know if they'll send it on tomorrow? Can't you ask someone? I mean, it took me 45 minutes to reach a real person (their IVR is rubbish).

If it's not moving in the right direction by Monday PM, I'll see if Pierre can file a claim and ship me a new set of floorboards.

IMO, that's not fair on Pierre if USPS screws up.
Just wait & be patient. The chances are great that it will turn up.

As people have said, USPS routing has a mind of it's own. I know, as I have suffered from it with packages coming from the US to Canada.