Adventures in Amazon Shipping

Last (Black) Monday I bought a tablet from Amazon. I wasn’t in a big hurry to get so I opted for “Free Shipping”. they gave me a arrive date of December 6th. Fine with me

Wednesday night I got notification that it shipped and it was scheduled for delivery on Thursday Dec 1 by 8 pm. with a UPS tracking number.

Wow, terrific, 4 days early.

I looked up the tracking info and found out it was it shipped out of Murpheesboro at 5:30 and arrived Memphis 9:30 pm. I live about 180 miles from Memphis so good chance that the delivery will meet the expected arrival at my house at 8 pm Thursday.

I check again Thursday morning

2:39 am, package is picked up by carrier in Memphis.

Thursday evening, I am home. No UPS delivery. Bummer but no big deal. I will get it Friday.

Friday morning check the tracking number. Still says it is to be delivered Thu Dec 1 by 8 pm. I check everywhere around the house where UPS might have left it. Don’t see anything.

Friday afternoon I check again and my package is in Horsham Pa (google to see that Horsham is near Philadelphia). at 12:22 pm, my package is again picked up by carrier. Looks like it is not getting delivered on Friday.

Saturday it leaves Horsham at 1:38 am and Sunday, package arrives in Hodgekins IL (near Chicago) at 1:40 am and picked up by carrier at 10:50 am Monday. Chicago is about 500 miles away so I am not expecting it until tomorrow.

I don’t buy much online, is this circuitous delivery typical?

I’ve never seen anything like that. I have seen it get to the local USP center a few days ahead of time and sit there for a day or two before being delivered.

“Don’t rush! There ain’t no special delivery stamp on it!”

I once bought something via ebay, and the seller was in Port Angeles, about 35 Km away. There is a daily ferry.

The seller shipped it via a courier. Spent a lot of money to send it. More than I paid for the item. It was sent via a circuitous route, south to Seattle, then via Montana, South Dakota, to Chicago. Finally made its way to Buffalo New York, where it lay for many days, to undergo an intensive border and security clearance. (it was a dangerous ceramic bowl). From here, it made it’s way to Toronto, were it sat for a few more days to recuperate.

Then back on a truck, where it wended it’s way across the trans Canada highway, stopping a Thunder Bay for a few days for some reason (maybe it had relatives there).

Finally got to me in about 4 weeks. A distance of 35 km turned into a cross-continent tour of over 7700 km.

UPS seems to do everything they can to NOT deliver a package early.

UPS executive: “God forbid that happen, we might get a good reputation!”

I don’t think I have heard of UPS-based “free shipping.” Assuming you are not a member of Amazon Prime, which has 2-day free shipping (and can - and has - deliver on Sunday), I was under the impression that free shipping was usually USPS Media Mail.

Maybe it was pining for the fjords.

I find that you never know whether you’re going to get UPS, USPS, or OnTrac.

Its getting closer!! Earth City St Louis at 4:09 pm

It will probably be in my local hub tomorrow morning.

This sort of thing can happen if there is an old label on the box with a different address, but I wouldn’t think Amazon would use an old box. Was this tablet purchased from Amazon or from a “partner”?

I was once waiting for a package which Amazon said was delivered by their self branded delivery service. I look on my porch and nothing. It’s no where to be found. I decide to give it a day to see if it turns up and as I am walking out of my house I happen to look up and I see the package wedged into the a nook in the wall over the outside doorway. For some reason the delivery guy thought that was a good idea rather than just leave it on the floor.

Purchased from Amazon.

Package left St Louis at 12:30 am this morning was at my local UPS hub at 4:30 and picked up for delivery at 6:09 am.

Local UPS hub is about 150 miles from Memphis where the package was last Wednesday before it went to Philadelphia, Chicago and St Louis.

Got to admit, UPS did their best to get it delivered on the scheduled delivery date.

Just the other day, a friend was complaining about a package to northern Indiana that went California to N. Dakota to Chicago… to Phoenix to Atlanta to Indianapolis. I don’t remember if it was technically late or not but he was obviously thinking “It was maybe two hours away!”

On the flip side, I was having a TV delivered FedEx and they told me Tuesday. So I figure for someone to be home that day and instead, go-getters that they are, FedEx delivered on Monday and left it sitting in the rain. Fortunately, between the box and styrofoam shell it was okay but, c’mon guys.

When the package arrives, make sure it doesn’t have a Flat Stanley sticker on it. :slight_smile:

I ordered a new wedge pillow a couple weeks ago. They said it would take 10 days. After 5 it was still saying "shipper has been notified. On the6th it was delivered. I reviewed the status update and saw that apparently the warehouse is pretty much next door to the local ups hub,and I guess they basically just carried it to my delivery truck because the entire time from package recieved to package delivered was 4.5 hours.

It’s usually several of the above. It seems that, very often, it gets shipped by UPS, but somewhere along the way, UPS just gives up and mails it, and it arrives through the post office.

Don’t get me started on that stupid SmartPost/SurePost shit.

2:15 pm.

Package was delivered!

You really want fun times, you should order from AliExpress. Your best bet there is to buy something at 2am, immediately forget that you ordered it, and then it’ll be a fun surprise in nine weeks when your stuff shows up :smiley:

Well, on the other hand…

I’ve ordered stuff Sunday morning and had it delivered by that same evening. It’s nice living in an Amazon warehouse city.

Better than nine MONTHS!