Mrs. Martian ordered a couple of shirts for Xmas. The order entered the USPS tracking system on 12/11/2020. At the time we were staying in Rehoboth Beach, DE through the end of the year. We had a PO box which the package was mailed to. The package tracked as follows:
12/11 Arrived Nashua, NH
12/12 Arrived Springfield, MA
12/12 Arrived Southern CT Distribution Center - so far, so good…
12/14 Arrived District Heights, MD - seems a bit out of the way, but whatever…
12/17 Arrived Philadelphia, PA - just backtracked 140 miles…
12/23 Departed Philadelphia, PA - just hanging around in Philly for a week?
12/31 Arrived Wilmington, DE - and another week to go 30 miles…
1/2 Ready for pickup, Rehoboth Beach, DE - tried to pick up, but they didn’t have it…
At this point we were heading back to AZ, closed the PO box and set forwarding back home.
1/4 Another “Ready for pickup” at Rehoboth Beach - stopped by the PO on the way out of town, still said they didn’t have it.
1/4 Forwarded from Rehoboth Beach - OK, at least they are forwarding it home…
1/6 Arrived Charleston, WV - Good, it appears to be heading west…
1/7 Arrived District Heights, MD - uh oh…
1/9 Arrived Wilmington, DE - this is not good…
1/18 Arrived Philadelphia, PA - nine days hanging in Wilmington, then back to Philly…
1/21 Arrived Wilmington, DE - WTF is going on with this package?
This in not just a package sitting in a bin somewhere (OK, that did seem to happen at least three times) - it is getting routed in circles.
We ordered something for family in Colorado. Realized there was an address error and called the company to clarify that it was to go to Colorado, not to us. Told all fixed, common error. Were told it would arrive there 12/23. It sat in New Jersey for at least a week. My partner called and checked, was told it was USPS delay, sorry. Finally, it started moving west. Notified it was delivered January 7. I went outside that evening, and found it on our doorstep. Supposedly, new one is scheduled to go to Colorado on Feb. 1. I’m not holding my breath.
The circles thing is from post offices literally having nowhere to sort packages. They have semitrailers full of packages that they literally don’t have the space to unload and sort. So they call around the region to see if another facility has room, then that one fills up… Just what happens when you dismantle part of the postal service ahead of the election – I mean holiday season.
Last week, a package arrived that was supposed to have arrived a month earlier. (It was one of these monthly boxed of goodies that one can subscribe to. We got the January box, then the next week, the December box got here. The Dec. box had been shipped November 30.)
Also last week, a Christmas card mailed on November 18 arrived. A credit card bill for which my payment was due on January 3 arrived. And to top it off, just yesterday, January 21, I got my December Comcast bill, payment due January 4. (Since I’d already paid these online, it was no big deal, but I did send a note to my credit union saying hey, be kind to people paying late because they got their bills late.)
Trump and Louis DeJoy have seriously fucked the USPS. Trump’s gone, but AFAIK DeJoy’s still there. If he can’t be fired, he needs to be impeached.
We’re waiting on a package from Japan that was sent around Thanksgiving. Usually it doesn’t take anywhere near this long. I’m afraid someone cheaped out and sent it on a slow boat. It’s a family care package, so it’s not critical, just annoying. It used to be so much easier when my brother-in-law was stationed in Japan and we could use the military mail to get packages over there and back, cheap and fast. But he retired and then died, so that was the end of that.
I just got one monday that was due to arrive on Dec 3rd. There were two count 'em two post office investigations (according to the tracking information provided by USPS), neither of which produced any results. I guess they finally moved the table it fell under and found it.