Adventures in Shipping
 

The wonders of the modern shipping ecosphere never cease to amaze me. This weekend I made two online purchases. I bought a headset from a company in Hillsboro, Oregon (about 10 miles from my house), and I bought a couple of Miche cassettes from Lordgun, which were coming from Italy (over 5000 miles from my house). Both orders shipped on Monday -- the local order by USPS, the overseas order by FedEx. The cassettes arrived at my door before lunch today. USPS says the headset will be in my mailbox in an hour or two.

It's funny. When I ordered the cassettes I was resigned to the possibility that due to pandemic-related delays I might not see them for a month or two. I never would have guessed that they'd beat the cassette (which literally would have gotten here sooner if the person shipping it had instead decided to walk to my house and hand it to me). I was in no particular hurry for the headset either, or I would have gone to get it in person. I'm just really amazed at the speed of the international shipping. I had a similar experience recently with some used Campagnolo Daytona parts I had shipped from England that got here in two days. but I thought it must have been a fluke,

Has anyone else had experiences like this?

Yes.

I've bought stuff from a couple states away that gave taken a week(or longer).

A few weeks ago I bought a seatpost on ebay. It was coming from Malaysia, and the seller stated as long as 4 weeks shipping.

It arrived in three and a half days...

Ordered some wheels from Velomine, shipped from Sumner WA in one day, I changed the delivery to the Fedex store by my house so they wouldn't sit on the porch, got the notification that they would go there then crickets for days, tracking kept showing delivery pending, called to have them investigate, never called back but then tracking said out for delivery, then pending, then out for delivery, went to store on day 11, they had no idea, day 12, Fri. tracking says I didn't pick it up and is being sent back, tracking said it was still in Troutdale, called again, rep said they would hold and redeliver, nope, went back to Sumner within the next 12 hours. I never got a text, call or email about any of that. I've had some of that before where it takes them 3 days to go from Troutdale to Mall 205 but never had it sent back after the tracking being screwy.:twitchy:

Velomine is resending them, we'll see, you can bet I'm not going to sit still this time if it gets hinky. ;)

Sunday night I order a motorcycle battery and air filters for a friend, they were to arrive Wed. and Thur., they both came on Tues.

@merziac, your story reminded me of a thing that happened earlier this year. I bought something small from a guy in Pennsylvania, I don't even remember what it was. Because it was in a small box, he had the shipping label folded across one edge of the box. The top showed my address and the side showed his return address. The thing bounced back and forth between his home post office and the next routing center for about two weeks before they finally got it sorted correctly.

Another thing with the overseas shipping. When I buy stuff from China, Italy, England, it gets to me within days (China sometimes a week or two). The couple of things I’ve bought from Germany sit in customs for more than a week.

I ordered some decals from Greg in Australia back in late Nov. I trust Greg that he sent them, but they never arrived. Louis DeJoy takes joy.

I know all the shipping has been ramped up with people stuck at home and ordering all kinds of things to keep busy, There has been news of them struggling, now with alot of opening back up, I bet they are even more taxed especially if they have any staffing issues, how could they not? ;)

My grandfather was a career USPS guy, so I have a deep respect for them. Considering the constraints they're working under, I think they do a good job. Some days better than others.

Since DeJoy took over the USPS, I haven't had a single USPS package ship or arrive on time.

One of my Priority Mail packages has remained "in transit" for 13 days...to an address 5 miles away. Yes, a trace was initiated days ago.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ec1bb5030c.png



For the first time in 22 years, I've shipped an eBay item UPS.

DeJoy needs to be thrown out on the curb like a package marked "Fragile."

-Kurt

Oh I agree and they are the ones getting dumped on because all others can't keep up so they are using USPS to cover their azz. :troll:

I'll hold the door open... :mad:

You'll have to hold it for a long time. Priority Mail is slow these days, you know.

-Kurt

I vote for fold, spindle and mutilate. ;)

Steeeeeeamroller.


-Kurt

@nlerner can tell the story of a jersey I sent him several weeks ago. Alright, I will. For some reason I sent it to the FedEx office that's walking distance from his house rather than his home address (my fault). It was lost for a few weeks, then finally reappeared in my mailbox. I relabelled wth the correct address, I think it took less than 2 days to get from Portland to Boston.

From the USA to Canada via China, believe it or not. Took a while and caused a lot of concern at both ends. Thanks so much to the sender(s) for his patience and assistance...
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...df4bc1eaa9.jpg

Mine took a month (wasn't worried, thanks Mr. Softley if you are listening, they look stunning).

Bought a rim in Portland Oregon. Shipper dropped at USPS in that city.
Tracking showed it went to San Francisco. Ok, I assumed that USPS trucks everything on the West Coast to a central location then forwards. But no. Tracking then showed it went back North and crossed the Canadian border and was sorted in Vancouver.

Nott even sure how to start explaining that

Hub and spoke system, algorithms to figure out the fastest/least expensive way to get you from point A to B. The optimal route might vary from day to day depending on supply/demand.

Fred Smith famously received a poor grade in an econ class paper that detailed his ideas for this exact system. His company, FedEx has done pretty well.

Made 2 orders from the same mid west ebay vendor 5 days apart. First order stopped at a local distribution center. . Apparently the black hole of Oak Creek WI. is full so my second package managed to achieve escape velocity and was delivered after 4 days. Still waiting on the first to resurface.

So we need Commander Sulu to fix the USPS, correct?

-Kurt

An Amazon order for three tubes of tubular mastic. After 2 months they refunded my money. After 3 months, it arrived. Via Germany.

That's the other Warp Speed that requires waiting.

Packages have been OK, it's my regular mail that is my issue. Didn't get the property tax bill from my rental, instead got a notice of delinquent with penalty & interest. Same property never got the homeowners insurance renewal. Did get the "we cancelled your policy for non payment" letter.