So when two days after sending the package I checked the tracking number to find that it arrived in London the day after sending it, I was pleasantly surprised. If it were already in London a day later, it wouldn't take the full 10 days to arrive, would it? The answer to that question was given 10 days later when, after wondering why I hadn't heard from my friend I checked the tracking once more, and other than a note that it had departed London for the destination, there were no other updates. I asked whether that was "normal" with international mail and told that it wasn't exactly normal, but not abnormal in the summer, "Posties are a skeleton staff in the summer, July is when they usually take holidays - it's the trades' break so it may well be sitting at the local delivery office just waiting to go out."
That made me feel better about the wait, I guess. Until on the 25th, two weeks after mailing, I checked the tracking again and it finally had some movement....BACK TO THE US!!! Somehow after 13 days it has "arrived" in Jamaica (Queens), New York.
This is such a first world problem, but it's curious that we are SO ADVANCED in so many things, how is international shipping still this archaic.
Update: As of 6/26 the package has been "processed" in Jamaica, New York, "arrived" in Newark, New Jersey, and "departed" Newark, "currently in transit to the destination" once again. We shall see.
The reason is economics. It isn't worth it to fly one package on an entire plane from London to Scotland but if they get a loaded plane it is. That is why it arrived so quickly in London. Lots of international packages to Europe are first stopping in London so they fill up quickly.
ReplyDeleteI find the same thing happening when I send things to the Philippines. They arrive in short order to Japan or Korea but then sit there for long periods of time until they finally gather enough to make it worth going onto Manila.
It could be worse. It could have been delivered by boat and pony!
That makes sense, for the time it's taking anyhow. The detours are still a mystery though?
DeleteI have no explanation for the detour back to the U.S. I once had a package they wanted to return back to Europe because it had a bottle of wine in it. By the time they discovered that, it was somewhere in Tennessee. I told them to just open the package, remove the bottle and ship the rest to me. They refused and my only option was to drive to Tennessee to pick it up or return the package. I opted for the latter since it wasn't my dime to return the package. 15 minutes later they called me back and said that if I faxed them a waiver, they would open it up and remove the wine and "destroy" it. I'm guessing that last part never happened though I did finally get the rest of the package sans wine.
DeleteHa ha! That's a wacky story.
DeleteAnd how did they know the wine was inside, and what did it matter? I feel like a lot of the USPS rules are arbitrary.
Ed's story makes me think of this past Christmas when I was shipping gifts to my son and his girlfriend. Stupid me was honest enough to mention there was a bottle of nail polish in the (huge) box of gifts. alert! that's flammable and can't go USPS! She asked if I wanted to open my (well sealed) box and remove that one item and I said no. I knew it could ship somewhere since I'd ordered it online. She was just glad I hadn't asked her to "forget" I'd said it was in there (she could lose her job for that, she told me) and glad that I wasn't an irate customer.
DeleteI opted to drive a block over where FedEx was happy to ship it. I was determined to get the polish there, come hell or high water - it was the kind that changes color according to your body heat (so it looks kinda like a french manicure, but the color varies by person)
For nail polish!?!? That’s crazy. Weird that it can be mailed to you, but you can’t mail it.
DeleteYes, it's taken me years to figure out some of the tricks of the delivery services. You can't really say post office anymore.
ReplyDeleteI'm setting up for a portrait event for Culture Night in mid Sept getting A3+ 33cm x 48cm photo paper and inks. You see August is a bust here, so really I've about 20 ishy days. Nannyhoos, I got a delivery of paper three days ago that had a drag mark on the gloss, and today I got the replacement and that package was burst and the paper crumpled. Why so fast, I got Prime for the month.
Usually though it's a solid 10 working days for standard 'post', if not 20. You can get it quicker, if you pay. Otherwise it's an as and when they have the time. Basically we are back 120 years ago with 1st class, 2nd, and 3rd class.
Or I could've simply said 'what Ed said'.
Yes, there was the option of priority shipping but that was $30 plus to ship a 4oz package. Mine was considered 1st class, but not priority. I know we are spoiled over here with it being relatively easy to get things shipped in country and relatively inexpensive, if not free. Is the "when we have time" the case when shipping within country?
DeleteWhen we have time, is when it's not priority nor standard.
DeleteI haven't had any trouble with international packages or first class letters (knock on wood!), but I've found postcards can take forever (if they arrive at all). I've found they do better if stuck in an envelope which, unless I'm missing something, costs the same since I was told there wasn't an international postcard stamp.
ReplyDeleteThat truly is a baffling route your package is taking and I hope it eventually gets to its destination!
Post cards always take a long time to get, but this last one was about 6 months and that was a first.
DeleteI didn't see the images yesterday. For some reason they didn't load. OK, I think you need to get on to UPS. What I think has happened is the label has been applied to the wrong package. Or two bar codes were generated. Eitherway your package isn't connected to the tracking. Now I've seen things go from the UK to Germany to get to Ireland but that's when Amz sends via DPD German Post so there's a logic to it. Here, with you, I think differently. Once it got to London Heathrow sort facility it should not have recrossed the Atlantic again.
ReplyDeleteThat was my plan until there has been a couple of new updates that show it's been sent to Newark International processing and then departed Newark International. That was on Thursday night. Nothing new since. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it just got picked up in the shuffle and accidentally sent back to the US. I hoping it's making it's way again. I'm hoping the tracking gets picked up again soon!!
DeleteI'd still start a lost package process all the same. If by their own data it's back in the US it's astray.
DeleteIt arrived back in London and says in route to destination as of today. If it comes back across the Atlantic again, I'll file my complaint. :)
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