Author:  cosmicray  Posted:  Apr 24, 2024 18:05  Subject:  Re: How does USPS even operate? A short rant.  Viewed:  55 times  Topic:  Shipping Cancel Reply

BrickLink ID Card cosmicray (3492) Location:  USA, Florida Member Since Contact Type Status Collage Oct 1, 2000 Seller  Store: Cosmic Toys

In Shipping, kzinti writes:    Received a high dollar order on Feb 10th. Pulled, Packed, Invoiced, Paid, Posted all in about 24 hours. Post office received package on Feb 11th. As it's an international shipment, it goes through the Chicago International Distribution Center on the evening of Feb 16th. Then it basically disappears until April 12th. No one knows where it went, how it got there, what cruise line it detoured through, nothing. Here's what the time interval looks like on the USPS tracking page looks: - Processed Through USPS Regional Facility CHICAGO IL INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER February 16, 2024, 7:43 pm - Processed Through Facility NETHERLANDS April 12, 2024, 9:46 pm Did they travel through the Bermuda triangle? Where did it go? I cannot express the amount of appreciation I have for an understanding customer who paid so much for this order, and then patiently waited almost two months for a tracking update from USPS. TWO MONTHS! It's almost like the postal service is purposefully trying to kill off international business opportunities. First with huge price jumps, then with a decreased level of service that borders on apathy. The postal service told me that after it leaves the US there's not a lot they can do, 'it's out of our hands'. Why offer tracking at all when it's of little use? And when I asked them about filing a case for a missing package, they tell me that it has to be missing at least 60 days before I can file as a missing package. Insane, absolutely insane. Going to send a Christmas box of dog poop to Mr DeJoy... through Fedex. Based on a de-minimas amount of information that I am aware of ... When it clears an ISC (Chicago, Miami, whereever) it is typically loaded into a shipping container (ULD for air, probably TEU for sea cargo) then it is not tracked until the receiving agency gets it, and finds the time to enter it into their system. Some national post offices do better and some do not [1]. In any case, the national post office should have a manifest of what is in a particular shipping container, because USPS knows that. Somewhere in all of this is inbound customs inspections. As a complete side issue (but still illustrative) over the last 6 months I've placed 12-15 orders for electronics components from a large distributor in China. All but the first couple of small orders went via FedEx International Economy. Typically, the package would get to some FedEx warehouse in HK, then appear to just sit there. But in actuallity, it was (sometimes) already in transit. I've watched them transit thru Anchorage, Seattle, Chicago, and one or two other landing points. A FedEx rep told me that the inbound customs clearance was happening in Memphis. Tracking said otherwise. So it's not just USPS. I've seen these orders take 3 days to move from HK to my receiving box, and I've seen 9 or 10 days. Unless I was willing to pay for the premium level service, it gets there when it gets there. Nita Rae [1] and some countries, in less traveled parts of the globe, don't even attempt to deliver to your street. You have to go to the post office (with fingers crossed) and ask if they have seen any packages with your name on them. What we have here, is worlds better.

Message is in Reply To:

How does USPS even operate? A short rant. - kzinti (4925)

Received a high dollar order on Feb 10th. Pulled, Packed, Invoiced, Paid, Posted all in about 24 hours. Post office received package on Feb 11th. As it's an international [...] (24 days ago, Apr 24, 2024, to Shipping)

9 Messages in this Thread:

 Msg 1 - kzinti (4925) 24 days ago Apr 24, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 2 - zorbanj (820) 24 days ago Apr 24, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 3 - Adjour (2466) 24 days ago Apr 24, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 4 « - cosmicray (3492) 24 days ago Apr 24, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 5 - popsicle (6664) 24 days ago Apr 24, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 6 - knxguy11340 (0) 23 days ago Apr 26, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 7 - WildBricks (6350) 22 days ago Apr 26, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 8 - popsicle (6664) 19 days ago Apr 29, 2024 to Shipping
 Msg 9 - SezaR (1395) 24 days ago Apr 24, 2024 to Shipping