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I’m wondering if anyone else experiences delays in receiving FedEx packages due to weird shipping routes to small towns. First this never happens to me with UPS packages. UPS packages come in a straight line right to my door. But FedEx packages travel all over hell before getting to me.
Recently I received a FedEx package that was shipped from southern California. It traveled right by me here in Southwest Oregon, up to Portland, where it was then dispatched back south again to get to me. OK not really a big deal. But I figure it probably took an extra one day to get here, then if they had just taken it off the truck in a town closer to me.
But the package I’m tracking right now takes the cake for the most insane routing I have ever seen. First it's a so called “SmartPost”, where the package is delivered by the USPS after being shipped FedEx. Which I always hate, because it takes forever.
Anyways, it was shipped from LA and scanned in transit in a town 50 miles away from me on Friday. It was then scanned again near Seattle, 400 miles away from me, where it has sat the weekend waiting to be tendered to the post office there. So it can then come to me by USPS from Seattle, and be delivered on Wednesday. Granted that is the promised delivery time, so I’m not getting it late. I suppose thats what I should expect for free delivery. But still I have to wonder what the world is coming to when a package has to be FedExed from LA to Seattle, so it can then be mailed to Oregon.
To make matters worse, the package contains glassware. Given FedExes track record of breaking my glass items, and considering how this package is traveling all over the West Coast before getting to me, I don’t have a good feeling about it.
Anyway I’m just wondering if anyone else notices this, or if it’s just my bad luck.
If I have to order online, I find my items get here faster, by a more direct route, if I have them delivered to businesses owned by friends in town. Otherwise, yeah, the packages are better traveled than I am.
they have a terminal not too far away from me which services the city nearest to me. All of my shipments come through that terminal, but then they are sent to another terminal quite a bit further away from me ...
but it's the terminal that does the rural delivery routes in my area.
I can count on most shipments taking a minimum of an additional day over the normal delivery times, and often 2-3 additional days before they are delivered to me.
It's faster and more direct for me to have my FEDEX ground packages held at their terminal in the nearby city for me to pick up, but that's a 60+ mile round trip for me. Means more time and expense to get a package when we've paid for it to be delivered to our doorstep.
It's also not uncommon when FEDEX ground doesn't have enough parcels to deliver on the route that would come to my place to tranship an item USPS from the terminal that services my area. I've seen more than a few times when the USPS charges were more than the FEDEX ground fees that I paid for the shipment. With the recent cut-backs of USPS post offices in our area and the difficulty of finding a replacement for our rural route carrier who retired after 25 years of service, it's not uncommon for the USPS to add a couple of days to deliver an item for FEDEX.
My last town was isolated--two dirt, mountain roads were the only access. But despite that (well, more like because of that) there was enough mail and deliveries to keep both the USPS and UPS busy every day. But FedEx would only come once a week. That is fair enough, it is business, they can deliver when they want to. What got me, though, is that they would gladly charge two-day and overnight fees AND still only deliver once a week! I made companies swear up and down that they wouldn't ship FedEx. I must have had interesting customer notes on my orders.
they have a terminal not too far away from me which services the city nearest to me. All of my shipments come through that terminal, but then they are sent to another terminal quite a bit further away from me ...
but it's the terminal that does the rural delivery routes in my area.
I can count on most shipments taking a minimum of an additional day over the normal delivery times, and often 2-3 additional days before they are delivered to me.
It's faster and more direct for me to have my FEDEX ground packages held at their terminal in the nearby city for me to pick up, but that's a 60+ mile round trip for me. Means more time and expense to get a package when we've paid for it to be delivered to our doorstep.
It's also not uncommon when FEDEX ground doesn't have enough parcels to deliver on the route that would come to my place to tranship an item USPS from the terminal that services my area. I've seen more than a few times when the USPS charges were more than the FEDEX ground fees that I paid for the shipment. With the recent cut-backs of USPS post offices in our area and the difficulty of finding a replacement for our rural route carrier who retired after 25 years of service, it's not uncommon for the USPS to add a couple of days to deliver an item for FEDEX.
Thats what I don’t get thought. My package was scanned in Eugene OR, which is the same city where the Area Mail Processing Center for this area is located. If they dropped it there, I would have had it the next day. But instead they drive in another 400 to another Mail Processing Center out of state. Not that I think about it, the driver must have messed up and dropped it at the wrong place.
Thats what I don’t get thought. My package was scanned in Eugene OR, which is the same city where the Area Mail Processing Center for this area is located. If they dropped it there, I would have had it the next day. But instead they drive in another 400 to another Mail Processing Center out of state. Not that I think about it, the driver must have messed up and dropped it at the wrong place.
Interesting. I just had a mix up with the smart post (or whatever it is called) through the Eugene distribution center, too. But mine was UPS to USPS. Literally, just last week. It was sent to the wrong post office, so it was most likely USPS's fault in my case.
I live in a small rural town and both UPS and Fedex will gladly charge for overnight delivery, problem is neither can actually deliver overnight, if your lucky you get 2 day delivery. My other complaint is that neither can actually find me and they typically mark the item as "undeliverable" and return it. My home sits right on main street, but its not a tiny little home like the rest of the town, and everyone calls my place "the abandoned building", even though I've been living here for 13 years
Interesting. I just had a mix up with the smart post (or whatever it is called) through the Eugene distribution center, too. But mine was UPS to USPS. Literally, just last week. It was sent to the wrong post office, so it was most likely USPS's fault in my case.
Why would the Post Office be at fault if UPS delivered it to the wrong one?
I have found that there are addresses to which FedEx won't deliver. I had to send some stuff out a couple years ago that the recipient demanded be sent FedEx. They wouldn't deliver it (it was just paperwork) so it ended up going via US Mail.
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