I thought this might be an amusing topic.
I have a specialty parts co. in Texas that I have dealt with in the past. I live in California, and usually my orders arrive in 2 days. However, my last order took the slow boat to China, so to speak. I needed the part to finish a project and was very anxious to get it. When I looked up the tracking #, I found that my package took two days to go from San Antonio TX to ...Springfield MA!! And I live in California, as I stated. I couldn't believe it. Who would send a package a thousand miles in the wrong direction? Answer: USPS. And we wonder why they are in trouble.

Anyway, let's have those stories.

 

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. Couple of years ago I ordered in some 15" 10 ply tires. They were shipped via FexEx. They were shipped from CA. to Harrison, AR then back to CA. then back to Harrison. Normally it takes 4 days, it took 10 that time. Harrison is the local FedEx terminal.

 

not quite a nightmare but ...
i ordered a set of front and rear rotors and pads or my daily driver. i got a set of front rotors and 3 sets of rear rotors drilled and slotted.
called and reported the mistake they said to keep them. they have a life time warranty on the rotors.

very nice.

 

I placed an order from Jeg's a couple years ago. I like ordering from them, but they seem to default to FedEx for shipping, which doesn't work out well for me most of the time (my address was changed 4 years ago: the house isn't new, but the old house address is now a business address on my property and my home address is new). Apparently, this has absolutely ruined FedEx, and they can never seem to find my house. To make it worse, it doesn't seem to matter if I use the house address or the business address; either way, packages never come. Anyway, for the aforementioned Jeg's order I waited about a month, called them and they re-sent the order. Another month goes by and still nothing. I call back. They ship it again, this time using UPS. That one arrives. Luckily, Jeg's has top notch customer service and they were a breeze to deal with throughout. I still avoid FedEx like the plague.

 

Must have been a fluke ... I am often amased at how fast stuff arrives. There was that balsa wood airplane I ordered in 1963, was like 65 cents ... it still ain't showed up. Other than that, my only issues have been my fault where I didn't see that the shipping address was to my mother's address because in the past, I had had some parts shipped there.

 

The trouble with the USPS here is that sometimes UPS makes drops at the PO. If it fits it ships, if it doesn't fit, make it fit. The things I have had to pry out of the mailbox are unbelievable. Every magazine I have ever had delivered folded and neatly creased. A replacement window sticker for my truck from Ford, packaged in cardboard, yep neatly creased and pounded in box, all my mail including a dvd movie and 2 pair of 36x36 523 Levi jeans in package in the box at once. The best by far was the set of windshield wiper blades. My house is like 50 ft from the mailbox at the street.

 

I ordered some propane parts for a D17 Allis tractor. The guy taking the order asks if I had bought form them previously.
No.
Asked for zip, asked for street address. As soon as I said the block numbers he cuts me off and responds with a county road probably 8 miles away.
I said no and gave him my Farm to Market highway number xxxx.
Are you sure you don't live on county road blah blah?
No
A month or so later I call asking where my order is.
It says here it was left by the gate at my block number county road blah blah.
No I live on Farm to Market highway number xxxx.
I go over there and no one lives on the property but a neighbor says yes the box laid there for several weeks and we tried to figure out who it belonged to but we don't know what happened to it.
The company replaced it and my order only took about 5 or 6 weeks.

I could write a book on the experiences we had ordering stuff from JC Whitney. Ordered a set of gray seat covers for a VW Beetle. We received white. Box clearly marked white. Sent them back several times only to get white over and over.. Finally gave up and just took took the white ones. JC Whitney said it would take 4 to 6 weeks for your order to arrive and they weren't kidding. It's hard to imagine that today when I order from RockAuto and get my stuff in a week or less. Amazon maybe tomorrow.

 

I'm still waiting for the 100 plastic soldiers I ordered from a comic book ad, back in 1972. Sumbich's stole my dollar!

 

I mailed the push button glove Box clips to a fellow FTE member,,,,back in July .He received last week USPS

 

My stories mostly have happy endings with the occasional late or redirected package.

I ordered 3 12 oz cans of Kroil from eBay.

Received 3 12 oz cans and 3 16 oz cans.
Ordered a dead man's cable for my mower and received these crazy pads in a separate package from the same seller.

Foam with gold stars and dots on them.

If anyone knows what they are for I would appreciate it.


My eBay history shows that I ordered a space heater a few months ago. I didn't, it was a release handle for my recliner.

I click on the space heater icon and it takes me to the release handle. Damn Russian disinformation.

 

Amazon. I'm a prime member. Decided to splurge on myself for my B-day and placed an order Nov.9 for a Eotech scope that was an exceptional deal, supposed to be 2 day shipping.... This past Friday Dec. 2, they just pushed the delivery date out another week, for the 3rd time. Tried getting a slight discount, or a month of prime comped, cause why am I paying for prime if I'm not getting the benefits?.. nope. The last time this happened was for a Dewalt drill set I found atan great price which they eventually just cancelled the order on me, which is kinda what I'm expecting to happen here.

As far as the shipping goes, my buddy that worked at UPS told me the routes are figure out by the computers, which is why you sometimes ends up with packages traveling all over the place just to get to you in a set time. UPS isn't gonna fly a plane from say TX to your local CA hub for your one package, and there might not be a scheduled flight from TX to CA anytime in the next week, but they will fly that one package on a scheduled flight from TX to NY to pick up another scheduled flight going back to CA which will get to you in 3-5 days.

 

UPS only wants drivers to turn right, So if your driveway is on left they may have to drive around a couple loops to turn right in your drive

 

That is USPS that I am sure of as my son worked for USPS it so is they dont have to cross traffic.
I dont know if UPS is the same or not?
Dave ----