Mail Fail

[Planet13]

Gotta love the postal service...

We are in Northern California, outside of San Francisco.

On Monday, I sent a letter by priority mail from the city I am in to a PO Box address two counties over - only 27 miles away. It was supposed to arrive the next day (i.e., Tuesday the 28th).

Instead, when I tracked it on Tuesday, the USPS website said that it had arrived at the USPS sorting facility in... NORTH METRO, Georgia... some 2,508 miles away!

Checked the tracking again this morning (Wednesday the 29th) and it says that it has just left the sorting facility in Georgia.

So this letter will have traveled OVER FIVE THOUSAND MILES by the time it makes it to its destination, only 27 miles away. (That is, IF it makes it to the destination.)

~~~~

Sometimes big companies make bad decistions...

Being a cutting-edge company run by technical geniuses, Amazon has decided to partner up with the US Postal Service. They have been using a combination of fulfilling orders by USPS for a while, and they use that hybrid service of UPS and USPS. And now, they are rolling out Sunday delivery in certain areas.

So on Friday morning I ordered a little $12 Magic Set for my son on Amazon. Since I am an Amazon prime member, and since they offer free two-day shipping on orders fulfilled by Amazon, the order summary said that it would arrive this last Sunday, the 26th.

It did, in fact, not arrive on Sunday the 26th.

In reality, Amazon gave it to the post office on Friday the 24th, and they, in turn took Saturday and Sunday to move it 30 miles, where it was handed over to UPS on Monday the 27th.

UPS normally takes two days to deliver from Southern California to Northern California, and checking the UPS tracking, it appears the magic set has left our local UPS sort facility and is out for delivery today. So at least, UPS is holding up their side of the deal.

But what was the whole point of amazon giving it to the Postal Service in the first place if the only thing they were going to do is waste two days to give it to their nearest UPS office?

[LifeinAsia]

Just before Christmas last year I needed to send a check and some paperwork to my financial adviser for some things that needed to be completed before the end of the year. It was on a Saturday, and I was going to see him the following Tuesday anyway (Christmas Eve), but I decided to overnight it with FedEx so he would have it first thing Monday morning and could send his paperwork with my paperwork and the check out Monday evening. (If it wasn't completed by the end of the year, it would have meant several thousand dollars in additional taxes. And with the financial markets closed at the end of the year, it was critical that it get there Monday.)

I checked the tracking online on Monday morning and saw that the envelope was sitting in Memphis! I am in Southern California and the recipient is in Southern California, less than 50 miles away. The nearest airport is almost 50 miles away!

Everyone I talked to at FedEx told me over and over again that EVERY article gets routed through Memphis (or their other hub, which is also in the Midwest). And with the Christmas rush, everything was backlogged at least a day.

It finally arrived late Tuesday morning, after I was already in the area. I calculated that I spent more time on the phone trying to get the package delivered than if I had just gotten in the car and delivered it myself. (And for a final insult to the injury, when I gave the envelope to the FedEx worked on Saturday, she looked at the address and said she lived in the area and jokingly said she could just drop it off that night on her way home...)

[engine]

Sometimes, it's reports such as there that make a business look stupid, and then, hopefully, they may learn.

[Planet13]

Well, it is the 30th now, and over the last two days that letter has made it all the way from North Metro, Georgia, to as far as... Atlanta, Georgia.

It's a rent check for November and was supposed to get there by November 1st. Oh well, hopefully it will be there in time for the December rent payment...

[Planet13]

Another day, another update:

Surprisingly, the letter is back here on the West Coast, and in Northern California, to be more precise.

It is now in the city of Richmond, so it is basically about 7 miles closer to its final destination from where it started originally.

I could have found some senior citizen and given it to them to power walk it to its destination and it would have arrived sooner.

:(

[tangor]

Then there are horror stories of USPS efficiency wherein a check (not fully covered) was delivered SAME DAY AS SENT with resulting calamity of bank charges for overdraft, etc. followed. Murphy's Law dictates that these things happen. :)

(Not that that ever happened to ME, but I know two who endured that efficiency!)

[lawman]

Nothing like a little check kiting to make the world go round.

[tangor]

True. Reliance on "guberment" bureaucracy motion will generally result in a painful hind side injury.

[Planet13]

Well, surprisingly enough, it did actually make it to its destination "on time".

The rent check arrived on the 31st of October, four days after sending it by priority mail.

Of course, when my wife found out that it was still in Atlanta on the 30th of October, she freaked out and sent a SECOND rent check to our landlord.

I will have to try and get the tracking number of that second check and see where it is. I am kind of afraid to track it...

[engine]

They don't call it snail mail for no reason! ;)