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Well I live in the Chicago area which of course is one of the world's major logistics hubs, so being out in the sticks isn't the issue. In fact it's not unusual for a package to sit at a distribution center just a few miles away for weeks after moving a thousand miles or more in just a couple days. The three primary culprits seem to be UPS distribution center here, the USPS distribution center here, and FedEx's Memphis hub.
I have had packages that for some reason stop and take the scenic tour of place called Grapevine, TX for couple week. Sometimes they like it so well there that they never leave.
Dont even get me started on small items direct mailed from China. I still dont know how they mail stuff cheaper half way around planet for less than it would cost me to mail something to somebody across town in my city/county. Anyway on the smaller cheaper items they tend to use some fake tracking that at best says it was strapped to passing seagull and made it to customs in USA, then disappears off the radar. Sometimes you get the package, sometimes Trumps post master general tosses it in trash I guess. Bigger items usually have real tracking, though they dont always share the USPS tracking number once its through customs and handed over to USPS, but at least they do tend to show "out for delivery" when it finally reaches my local PO.
And yea it would be nice if stuff was made in USA, but unfortunately its 2021 and USA made goods is so 1950s... hey its usually significantly cheaper to order from some guy in China than it is to buy the same China made stuff from USA middleman.
Oh I had Amazon order scheduled yesterday via UPS. No package at usual time of 3pm. I look online and says its delayed for either emergency situation (traffic accident??) or severe weather. And notice sent at 2:55pm. It was sunny if bit windy. Well it is high profile truck I guess.... Its on truck out for delivery today. Mine is apparently not to question why, just order and hope for the best, hopefully meaning my order of buggy whips gets here before Henry Ford delivers his Model T's.
Whether it's USPS, UPS, or FedEx, lately I've had packages that just stop moving through the system for up to two weeks at a time. Ground deliveries that would take 3 to 5 business days are taking up to 3 weeks. Even Amazon deliveries are falling behind schedule more than usual, though rarely by more than a day.
Right now a package of mine is parked at the regional FedEx facility where it's been sitting for 9 days now. When I call to get an explanation for why it's just sitting there, they tell me they don't have any more information than the tracking system has already provided. I mean, I know we had pretty severe winter in February but does that explain why seemingly everyone is still backed up in the last days of March?
I mailed a DNA kit back to FTDNA a few years ago, it took the scenic route I think it was Texas, I watched it go from one hub to the next, back to the other hub then back again and it stopped for 2 weeks. I was pretty hot because it was my 80 year old uncles kit that had made it to me in NJ from Budapest Hungary with no issues. It took longer to get out of Texas then it did to mail to me. If it didn't get found, he wouldn't have taken a 2nd. He didn't want to do the 1st.
I think it got tossed in a pile or fell off the belt until someone happened to find it and put it back in the system.
You may want to contact whoever you bought it from, have them send you a replacement if you can, unless it's from somewhere like ebay.
I mailed a DNA kit back to FTDNA a few years ago, it took the scenic route I think it was Texas, I watched it go from one hub to the next, back to the other hub then back again and it stopped for 2 weeks. I was pretty hot because it was my 80 year old uncles kit that had made it to me in NJ from Budapest Hungary with no issues. It took longer to get out of Texas then it did to mail to me. If it didn't get found, he wouldn't have taken a 2nd. He didn't want to do the 1st.
I think it got tossed in a pile or fell off the belt until someone happened to find it and put it back in the system.
You may want to contact whoever you bought it from, have them send you a replacement if you can, unless it's from somewhere like ebay.
I don't use FedEx.
Years ago I ordered a book for my husband for Christmas, it never arrived but Amazon quickly replaced it and I got the replacement right away. Forward to end of February and the lost book shows up. Amazon told me to keep it or toss it. This was USPS.
Recently my husband sent a package out USPS that never arrived after 3 weeks going two states away. Unfortunately he didn't get a tracking number. I don't know at the moment if it every arrived but it is now too late for it to matter.
I haven't had any issues with UPS other than maybe a day or two delay which might relate to weather. Fedx has actually been early.
I have an occasional delay with Amazon Prime where a package gets delayed but usually only a day and even once they delivered before 10 am on a Sunday a package that was due on Saturday so I am pretty happy with their deliveries.
Upon further thought, I have noticed lately, that in addition to some pkgs being out for delivery for days in my own 'hood (hey, call me & I'll meet ya in a local parking lot to p/u, if it means I can get it faster)... many of my pkgs arrive smashed up as if kids kicked them all the way from the local facility.
Whether it's USPS, UPS, or FedEx, lately I've had packages that just stop moving through the system for up to two weeks at a time. Ground deliveries that would take 3 to 5 business days are taking up to 3 weeks. Even Amazon deliveries are falling behind schedule more than usual, though rarely by more than a day.
Right now a package of mine is parked at the regional FedEx facility where it's been sitting for 9 days now. When I call to get an explanation for why it's just sitting there, they tell me they don't have any more information than the tracking system has already provided. I mean, I know we had pretty severe winter in February but does that explain why seemingly everyone is still backed up in the last days of March?
I order art supplies from time to time from Dick Blick. This firm uses FedEx, and I’ve had the same problem. Stuff gets hung up in Kent WA, for days at a time. I think Fed Ex is messed up, personally.
Amazon deliveries have slowed, but are generally dependable, whether arriving via Amazon or UPS.
Mine havent been delayed lately, but they get beat to crap.
I have actually seen delivery people throwing packages from the curb up on porches as if no one orders anything that might be the least bit breakable.
The best is when its something liquid that leaks all over everything else in the box that otherwise would have been fine.
Ive always ordered online, but I have cut back immensely recently. Tired of asking for refunds, or taking losses.
For the first time ever I had to order tools, various tech stuff, an incubator, and they were shipped by various: US Fedex to Canada, Fedex Canada, Purolator, and both Postal services in both countries. I'm not sure where "Brackenwood" is, but I'm in the bush on the western side of the Rockies, at the headwaters of the mighty Columbia River. The last guys of note that passed through here were LEWIS AND CLARK.
i'VE HAD FABULOUS service, all stuff arrived well ahead of time, and no complaints from this little cabin in the mountains.
I buy a lot of items from Amazon Prime. And where I live USPS delivers all of it. So less than 6 days a week means my stuff is delayed. Amazon actually shows up each morning at my post office with all the Amazon orders but the post office makes the final delivery.
My local po delivers my Amazon orders 6 days a week as well. A po 30 minutes away delivers them on Sundays. Any cutting back delivery days for the USPS would have a huge impact on many businesses especially small business who ship only with the USPS. This would in turn create unhappy customers who would blame the business for the delays not the USPS.
Shippers kept up for a long while, but now the virus is hitting in all aspects of the process.
Local pick up drivers are either ill, or scared, or both. So things don't get picked up quite so promptly and delivered to the shipper.
Inside the shipper you have a fair number of people out for "illness", so the backlog of items builds.
Then it goes onto the truck, where the same number/percentage of drivers are taking off sick, so fewer trucks leading to fewer packages moving. Throw in the rising cost of fuel, and there is less incentive for the truck to move.
Then the package gets to a central sorting facility, where it goes around and around and around until finally, someone gets to "that pile" and makes the package move...if only to another sorting facility. Like was posted previously, it is already "late", so the newer stuff goes first. Your package sits until someone has time to address the backlog.
And on, and on. You get the picture. People can't/won't work with the virus, so every part of the process is under pressure/delayed. And every step takes longer while protocols are adhered to.
And not to get political, but until EVERYONE wears a mask, gets vaccinated, and distances themselves, there is no end in sight to the slowdown. Just part of the new paradigm from what i can see. Get used to it.
By way of empirical evidence, some of my stuff comes promptly, and some of it goes for a wander which can be a couple of weeks ...or more. Seems to be no rational behavior as to why (two bags of fertilizer) can arrive in two days, and a can of paint takes nearly a month.
Last edited by Ted Bear; 03-31-2021 at 07:17 AM..
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