This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Delivery Delay
Mar
3
2021
Not so unusual: last month I ordered something online.
Quite unusual: it took a month to be delivered.
There has been a bit in the news recently about how slow the USPS is, due to more packages being shipped and lack of staffing due to COVID-19.
But my experience tells me that some of their problems are self-inflicted. I don’t know how typical my situation is, but if it happened to me I imagine it’s happening to others too.
When the package first shipped on Jan 25th, the tracking website gave an estimated delivery date. I forget exactly what it was, maybe 3-4 days out from there.
But then that date came and went, and the tracking page just said “In transit”.
After a couple of weeks of that, I submitted an inquiry via the USPS website form. I got a response the next day that said basically “Don’t worry, we still have your package and it will still be delivered. It’s in transit to the next stop.”
Which wasn’t helpful, because it had been in transit for a while, and didn’t seem to be getting any closer to me. At this point, the package had started from PA, went to AL, then IN, then AL, then MI, then back to AL. And it was sitting there for many days.
It seems my inquiry spurred some action, because the package then went back to PA. And then over to NJ, and then back to PA. And then nothing, so all that action was useless.
So I confirmed the seller had both tracking and insurance on the package, and I told him that it’s been almost a month and my parcel hasn’t arrived yet, so let’s get going on that insurance. He put in the claim on Feb 22, and magically the package found its way from PA to MI and to my mailbox in 2 days.
My purchase spent a month travelling the country. Nice little vacation at someone’s expense. Not sure whose expense, but I’m guessing USPS didn’t come out ahead on that deal.
So far, I’ve been attributing this mishap to incompetence. Were people scanning it wrong? I can understand going to a central distribution point and then out from there. And if they’re overworked, I can understand it sitting somewhere for a while. But PA to AL to IN to AL to MI to AL to PA to NJ to PA is neither of those situations.
The alternative to incompetence is malice or causing the problem intentionally. Maybe someone didn’t like the look of the box and sent it the wrong direction. But everyone at every location?
Once they were going to have to pay a chunk of money for their delay, there was no problem sending it the right way, so I know there was not problem with the shipping label.
Maybe their tracking system is broken, like the package didn’t actually go all those places. In which case the problem at USPS are not so much a personnel problem as an equipment problem. But if the equipment is bad and the package wasn’t where the tracking said it was, how did they find it so quickly?
‘Tis a puzzlement.
In summary: if you ship something via USPS and you care at all about it, make sure it’s insured. I hate to think how much longer my purchase would have been in limbo, taking the scenic route, had it not been insured.
In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the roads were deserted, And travelers went by roundabout ways.
Judges 5:6
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:07 am and has been carefully placed in the Mishaps category.
