I ordered an item from eBay back in July. It was sent via Priority Mail with tracking. It didn’t arrive after several weeks. I don’t remember the exact details of the tracking but it was non-conclusive. The seller opened an inquiry with the USPS and we waited a few more weeks. Finally I told the seller it looked like the item wasn’t going to show up and he agreed to give me a refund.
Fast-forward two months later (earlier this week), I arrive home and there is a Priority Mail box on my front porch. It was the eBay item, box and item were in good condition, and right on the label it said “Expected delivery date 07/24/2015.” No explanation of where it had been for two months when it should have arrived in 3 or 4 days. I checked the online tracking and it was reset to show it was re-shipped from the nearest processing facility ~50 miles away a couple days before, the previous tracking was wiped out.
I contacted the seller and re-paid him since it finally arrived and luckily it wasn’t an item I was in a hurry for.
Anyone else got any good delivery blunders to share?
There used to be a bar in Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy red-light district called Shadow Bar, owned by an old Vietnam War vet called Shadow Jack. He later sold it, moved upcountry and died in controversial circumstances. But that’s another story. While he still owned Shadow Bar, he came up with the idea of having all his bargirls shave off their pubic hair and hand it in to him. When he had enough, he’d encase it in Plexiglass for bar keychains. I still have one or two squirreled away somewhere myself. And I bought several and mailed them to friends in the US. But one friend told me he received an envelope with a large hole in it (I’d used padded envelopes) and nothing inside but a note from the Postal Service apologizing for the mishap.
Just to show that postal services worldwide can screw up:
Many years ago, I moved overseas for an extended period. I changed my address to my parent’s for that time and they’d forward it on to me. All went well.
When I came back to the UK, I took a temp job across the country for a couple of months, so I set up (and paid for) a diversion on my mail - any mail of mine addressed to my parents house came to my new, temporary address. Unfortunately, so did any mail addressed to my parents. :dubious: I even tried posting it back to them, only to have it redirected straight back to me again. :smack: It took a month to get this straightened out.
Eventually, I got a more permanent job and then a permanent address, so I cancelled the redirect. All good, and my mail started coming back to my parent’s house again. Or so I thought, until I got a call from my old (temp) place, asking me if I was ever coming to collect my mail, or should they throw it away?
It turns out, the redirect had been cancelled ‘occasionally’. Some of my mail was going where it was supposed to, some of it was still being redirected. This was even after the redirect should have expired anyway, even if I hadn’t cancelled it. When I called up to complain, I was told that this couldn’t possibly be happening as the redirect had been cancelled. They gave a few excuses as to why they couldn’t investigate, but I think it came down to ‘Eh, we can’t be bothered.’
I raised a complaint to the Royal Mail Ombudsman (I was actually out some money as a result of not getting the mail I was supposed to, besides the fact that they screwed up a service I’d paid for), but after about six months I just got a letter basically saying ‘Yeah, we really screwed that up, didn’t we? shrug’ No money was ever offered.
That was fifteen years ago, and for all I know that sort-of-redirect is still in place.:rolleyes:
Oh yes, but they don’t tend to be especially cheap, and all I wanted was a system where I could have someone send my post to a different address for a while. Royal Mail offer a temporary redirect service which was exactly what I needed (and what I took). If I’d known it would end up being such a screwup, I’d have just left my parents with a few stamps and envelopes and got them to just stick all my mail in an envelope each week and send it on to me.
Can we add UPS stories too?
Once back when VHS tapes were still a thing (the 90s), I ordered a set of underground fight tapes from a martial arts magazine.
After several weeks of not showing up, I put a trace on the package. This was back before electronic tracking was available so all UPS had was a note from the driver saying he left the package at my back door.
Not possible I said, since I lived in a third floor apartment with only one door. The helpful lady insisted the package was by the back door, and that I should double check. More debate, she softened a little to ask my to check by my back deck, or my side door (I had neither).
After a week of insisting they had left the package at my back door, I finally convinced them to send the driver back to my apartment and show me this mysterious back door.
He shows up and immediately admits he left it at the wrong address, and in 2 days brings me an opened box with 3 of the 4 tapes in it.
I never got an apology from UPS either.
Try having a relative living on a street that’s a state name. E.g., 1600 Pensylvannia Avenue.
No matter how well printed it is, complete with the bar code, some idjit pastes a new bar code over it and sends it to a random place in that state. Where the folk there bounce it back, rather than looking at the envelope and seeing where it’s supposed to go.
Fed Ex is the worst. They lost a very expensive box from a place I worked. I filed a claim and they say it was delivered. I prove it was not and in fact, lost. They deny insurance. I prove that it was insured. They deny ever having the box. I prove they did. They claim since the bill was unpaid, it was not their problem. I prove the bill was paid.
Then they just flat stopped talking to me. Quit. Nada. Zip.
So, I picked up the phone, called UPS, got set up with all kinds of nice hardware and software and dumped Fed Ex like a hot potato with NO NOTICE!
All of a sudden the sales rep is sniffing around. I ask about the claim, and he says he has to look into it. I bilk him for a few free lunches but told him no business till that claim gets paid.
They never did. And we never used them again. UPS did a good job, was cheaper, paid claims when they had to and was wonderful. And their sales guy took me to lunch more often.
Back when we were kids, our Grandmother in Michigan used to like to send us clippings from the local newspaper that she thought we might enjoy reading. She sent us one in the mid-70’s concerning the fact that the folks in the nearby town of Mass had voted to change the town name to Mass City. The reason: A lot of their mail would make an unintended journey to Massachusetts before finally reaching them. Zip codes were well established in that time but I guess a lot of postal workers neglected to read them.
About 20 years ago, I had my sister regularly mailing a package to me once a week. The packages all arrived safely except for one that was sent around Halloween. She and I both followed up, and she filed a report with the post office, but the package wasn’t insured and she was told that we were pretty much out of luck. I gave up on ever receiving that package until the following April, when it arrived along with a note from the post office saying that it had been found in the bottom of a supposedly empty mailbox in a warehouse.
This was years ago, but it has always made me chuckle. First, the background. My parents were academics and much like Emily Deschanel’s character on Bones, they didn’t always see the joke when things around them were funny.
At the time, my mother had a colleague who was living in Hell, Michigan (yes, there is such a town) and as they were collaborating on a scholarly paper in this day long before electronic media, they would send the manuscript back and forth as it progressed for each to add or edit something to it. One time my mother had sent the manuscript back to her colleague and it hadn’t arrived as quickly as usual. She confronted the postman one day “Did my package go to Hell yet?” He replied “Oh no, ma’am, I’m sure it is being properly delivered.” “Well, I hope so. It needs to get to Hell as soon as possible and we’ve been waiting quite some time.” Obviously confused, the postman asked timidly “Ma’am, does hell have a street address?” In high dudgeon, my mother rushes back into the house to fetch an atlas and show him what she was referring to. After he left, she ranted on for a while about USPS and incompetent boobs and why aren’t those people provided with atlases. I did notice we never saw that same postman again.
I’m dealing with a situation right now. The post office lost a laptop I purchased. It arrived at the destination facility last Friday, went out for delivery and was never seen again. After a few days I went to the local office to inquire. I was polite, they were rude, and eventually gave me number to call to help track down the package. I pointed out that I tried calling their branch all day and got no answer. They said just call the number, it’ll help locate the package. I said I understand what the number is for, I just don’t understand why I’m the one who has to call it. It’s for the post office…I’m at the post office. Seems like I’m doing their job. In a huff, I’m sent to a supervisor. To his credit, he was helpful, basically saying they have no way of knowing where it is at this point, that it should turn up, and that calling the number I was given was a waste of time.
So far the package is listed as arriving at the destination facility 4 or 5 times. There are no delivery notices, and it’s not being held at the facility. Here’s a screen shot of the tracking info. Keep in mind the time stamps don’t reflect the actual update times (the 9/25-9:09 am was posted the morning of 9/26). The adventure continues.
I’m not so amazed that there is a town named Hell in Michigan. I’m actually amazed that it’s distinct from Detroit, or distinguishable from any other point in the state.
After my BIL died, my wife and I were basically executors and all his mail was being forwarded to us. I got home one day to find a notice that he had something that he had to sign for personally. OK, no big deal - I snagged a death certificate and short certificate and headed down to the post office. The clerk is just not understanding the situation. “I’m sorry sir, you have to have him come down in person. I can’t let you sign for it”. Lady, I wish I could but it just isn’t going to happen short of the Resurrection; could you get your supervisor or Post Master for me? With the head of that particular post office/substation I’m still not getting anywhere. Look people, he’s dead! He isn’t going to be able to sign! This is important because it could involve assets we don’t know about or debts against the estate we need to deal with. Here’s the death certificate – show me where to sign and let me get along with my day.
Then the “important person” asked the bad question “Is he buried here in Pittsburgh?”
It wasn’t nice of me but my response was “Why? You want to drive out to his grave with a psychic and try to get his signature that way you idiot?”
It took another 20 minutes and some phone calls but in the end I got the letter and it was indeed important. But I couldn’t help wondering how this situation could be so unique to them as to take major consultation. I should have known better though; when closing out his PO Box in his home county (with the same level of documentation that he was dead) the clerk kept saying over and over “I hope this is right ---- I don’t want him coming in and yelling at me”. :smack:
We had a situation several years ago when my stepdaughter had moved back in with us for few months, moved out again to a different apartment, and at some point moved back in with us again. After each move she had filed change of address notices with the post office, but after the last move back she was no longer getting her mail. It turned out our post office still had her old COA on file from when she had moved back the first time, so when her mail was getting forwarded to our post office from the other post office, our post office was forwarding it right back! When they finally got it straightened out and got her mail to her, some pieces had a stack of forwarding labels 10 or 12 deep from bouncing back and forth.
I know a woman in Seattle who makes and sells small handicrafts. One day, she had an order to send to Montreal (her husband is from Montreal, so probably to someone he knows). She put it in a package, addresses it carefully, fills out required customs forms and takes it to the PO and mails it. A couple weeks later it has not arrived. She has a tracking number and tracks it. From Seattle it goes to LA. There are direct flights from LA to Montreal and not from Seattle, so okay. Then to NY. Whaa? Then I think to Miami. What are they doing. It says Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Hxx xxx (a valid postal code for Montreal). At this point, it really gets weird. From Miami, it went to Istanbul and from there to Tel Aviv. That was what I heard up to then (she posted it on FB) so I don’t know where it ended.
Someone complained about FedEx. When they came to my house and no one was there, they left a “final delivery notice” with a phone number. That is they try only once and there is no nearby depot. So I called the phone number, but gave up after a half hour of voice-mail hell. I called the vendor and they resent the package (by PO, but if they cannot deliver, it appears at a local office the next day). Three weeks later FedEx called me and asked what to do with it. Meantime, I had already received the replacement and I told them that. The asked again what to do with it. I told them.
