....................sux the big one... I've had a package that was supposed to be here by last Thursday.. Nope can't get it.. Called, they said they'd get it on a truck for delivery the next day... Nope, can't get it... I get emails that now say they have NO delivery date... The freakin' box is sitting in St. Paul and they can't get it a mere 40 miles in excellent weather conditions????? And my wife has some medical supplies that were also supposed to be here last Thursday... NO delivery date posted for that either..

She's gonna be on the phone this am talking to the supplier - see if they can break it loose.. .Otherwise, I told her to have THEM issue a call tag and get 'em back while they send a new shipment via UPS or USPS... I'll be doing the same thing when I call Home Depot today; let them try to get their box back...

I'm done with anything Fed-Ex... Rant over...

I've got one from FedEx that shipped from 2 hours away on Wednesday... tracking shows it went all the way to to Aurora, CO... then to Billings, MT... and delivery status is now delayed...

If I have a choice in how a package is shipped, it's always USPS first, UPS next, and Fed-Ex last.

Sorry guys,
FedEx ground sucks balls.
I work for FedEx freight.
We are real FedEx employees, not contractors, like ground.
We do our best to go above and beyond.
Many of my customers are shocked at how fast items arrive.
One downfall to this shipping thing is, all items go to central hub centers, then put on other trucks to go out for delivery, or to go to other centers, then out for delivery.

Question - if these are sitting in some building/dist. center in St. Paul, can civilians actually go there to pick up deliveries directly??

Every package that I have had lost in recent memory has been shipped thru FedEx. Even USPS has a better track record than those guys.

The Fedex hybrid shipping is the worst available. Your stuff will ricochet all over the map until the container it's in gets full, then it will finally come to rest at the destination depot. I've seen my package actually go to the same hub twice. I raised so much Hell about it that a couple of my vendors put NO FEDEX tags on ny account. The UPS hybrid is better, sometimes just as fast as regular.

This is how a UPS driver left a nice Rem 788 30-30 on the front porch without even ringing the doorbell.

I use USPS or UPS! No FedX for me!!

United Parcel Smashers?

Fed Ex Groung is awful based on my experience. Lost packages never to be found, system address changes that are uncorrectable, poor tracking, poor handling etc...

I go out of my way avoiding them.

Wow! I've got a couple of 788s, but I've never seen a 30-30 788. They are that rare. How did this end for you? Was the stock the only thing broke or was the barrel or receiver screwed also? Sorry about that loss.

I see why he hightailed it out of there! Thats sickening.

if they managed to break a hard case thats impressive. Dang.

I've had issues with all and fast service with all. Just depends.

I understand your being pissed off, but it appears that the person that shipped it to you didn't have a proper box and patched it together. I would go after the person that sent it to you. Fed Ex is terrible in my area, UPS mostly has a good driver here, but unfortunately he is not the only spoke in the wheel. USPS is by far my choice, but I've had problems with them also.

My grandmother worked my BB gun over like that, punishment for a culmination of many apparent offences.

+100 , that is one horrible packing job. Fedex ground is terrible as far as delivery times..There is a package I will receive tomorrow(hopefully) and it has been sitting in Charlotte(85 miles away) since Friday.

That thing looks like they drove over it with a fork lift.

Ordered some ammo from Brownell's six weeks ago. They said it was delivered by Fed Ex and handed to a woman. Trouble is that we weren't home that day.

Brownell's says they will make it good after one month if Fed Ex can't figure it out. They are supposed to have GPS tracking on their deliveries but it was disabled.

We'll see.

In a hard case or not, someone had to put some effort in destroying that package. How do you bend a front sight like that by just throwing it on and off a truck???

Given the current state of affairs in this country, I am surprised when anything that can be identified as a firearm turns up undamaged. There are people in the chain that despise firearms and will purposely destroy them if they can. FedEx, UPS, USPS makes no difference.

I have done that a couple of times after missing three delivery attempts on a package that had to be signed for. They are not really set up for that though and it took a long time for them to find the package.

Good luck,

Jerry

sumbich didn't want the ass chewin' he knew was coming......


Lol, I wouldn't ring the door bell either, I'd run like hell!!

I'm not sure if you can go to a ground terminal and pick things up ?
It happens at my freight terminal every day.
It would boggle your mind how many people order things, and when we show up, have no way to unload it off our trailers.
If I can't manage it with a lift gate, it goes back, and many times the customer shows up with a truck or a trailer, and our dock guys use a forklift to load it up.
Many times, things come in for dock pick up.

Do you have the terminals number? If so, and called, what did they say ?

as some here may know....I retired from UPS package after 27 yrs.......in 2011

the 788 shown in pic should have never been placed on the UPS truck for delivery.....

Or...the driver seeing the condition of the carton should have never delivered it....

Along with that...the shipper did not know squat about how to package a rifle...it should have had

the stock removed and barreled action and stock wrapped/packed seperately ...tightly together in box

Fed Ex ground......? had real problems a while back....but they have gotten better......new driver I blame

Like these tires in pic....he was too damm lazy to bring inside my closed gate....luckily no one ripped them off

Tracking ? This time of year...any of the three shippers....? I never even believe it.....just wait for the box to show up...

UPS in some states is on a 'incentive system' (Utah).....driver takes out a planned 10 hr day....delivers it in 9 hrs...he

gets paid 9 hrs straight time & 1 hr time & a half.....follow....that's why you see them busting balls in some areas...

The term 'driver release' for a package delivery also can mean 'Driver Runs' especially if he delivers a box like the 788 was in...

OP......good luck with your claim & finding a replacement stock....that sucks...had a busted stock a few yrs ago on a 1956 Marlin 39

Shipper refunded my full price of the rifle from Gun Broker...poor pack job......Fed Ex ground...

Fed Ex guys are not required to open gates if they dont feel comfortable.


Also, they are not required to attempt delivery if they dont feel comfortable with the roads or weather.

I don't, but fully expect what you stated above; even if I show up - where the hell is the two boxes??? There's probably a few MILLION items there..

Called Home Depot - she said her screen says they should be here by end of day today.. I told her I have five bux that sez they won't... And I know that this particular time of year - what with the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that shippers are overwhelmed... As long as they're here by the 24th, I'm ok.. It's my wife's medical stuff that really concerns me...

Lesson learned - do NOT NOT NOT order anything withing 10 days of those two shopping days...

Good friend of mine worked for UPS for 15 years as a driver. He said he used to cringe when he would walk through the DC and watch how the grunts handled packages. He said what ever I do don't mark something as "fragile" He said almost all of those got extra special rough treatment.

As Jim Conrad said.
As a semi delivery driver, no I don't have to make deliveries to places I may get stuck, or can't get back out of safely.
Snow !
We are told chains are for the highway, not the drive way.
Can't make it ? Call customer. They can't, or wont come out and meet, it goes back to terminal until the roads clear up, or customer makes some kind of arrangements. A delivery item is not worth the value of a truck and trailer, nor the life or injuries of a driver.

I've wondered the same thing, but will never find out. I suspect it was run over by one of their delivery trucks or an 18 wheeler.

Our UPS driver, even with the runners this time of year, just will not put our packages on our covered front porch, he leans them up against the garage door, we've already had some packages get wet. Anyway, this was our last package when I got home, dog got a hold to it, not to mention the brick of cci 22 that was all over the yard.

Lee, I just went through the same with them. Called Gander's blueing outfit and told them never deliver via FedEx. They called back and said they had a contract with them and it wourl cost quite a bit more to deliver with USPS or UPS, would have to drive a long way to the post office. How about "Clik 'N Ship?? I waited all day for a package that was suposed to be here that day, never showed up, wasted a whole day.

Back when my brother was running the gun shop, he ordered a receiver from MidSouth, which of course qualified as a firearm, meaning it was supposed to be signed for upon delivery. Fed-Ex delivered it........but not to him. As far as I know, they never figured out what happened to it.

Fedex SUCKS here for delivery, UPS is much better.

UPS sucks here for shipping, Fedex works much better.


Such is life.

I also once sent a rifle to an FFL and ammo for said rifle to the guy purchasing it. Fedex delivered the rifle to the buyer and the ammo to the FFL.

Good times

Ordered some cbd distillate in hope of relief from pain.

Finally arrived w a pound of hemp flowers. 🤦🏼‍♂️

After some head scratching & closer inspection saw where the flowers were supposed to go to NYC. 😳

Honest mistake. Fbks AK, NYC People must get the two confused often. WTF. The ways of shipping remain a mystery to me.

Gonna flat rate the flowers to the dude via USPS

If you need a stock for a short action 788 i have one not doing anything.

If you still need one.

PM incoming.

To my knowledge most all full time UPS delivery drivers are career drivers and members of the Teamsters union, whereas generally speaking, FedEx delivery drivers come and go, some stay long term but most don't and the last I knew are non union.

Don't know if they still are but the majority of FedEx Ground delivery drivers are (were?) essentially small business owners.They buy and maintain their own delivery vehicles, bid on delivery routes, get paid a percentage of each parcel. Some acquire additional routes, buy or lease more delivery vehicles and hire their own extra drivers to run those additional routes. A local woman FedEx delivery driver/owner owned several routes and delivery vehicles she sold to other FedEx Ground drivers when she retired.

This has been 10 plus years ago.... I sent an order of Medical items to a customer in Nebraska... $3500 worth..

Fed Ex was the closest carrier, so I ship it via them... paid for the insurance for the $3500 items...

Several days later I get a call from Fed Ex in Lincoln NEB....

my packaged arrived to their station... for some reason, the box arrived, but had been busted open and the contents were gone....

" would you like us to deliver the empty box?" ya gotta be kidding me...

I called the customer and let them know what had happened... their administrator called back two days later and told me Fed Ex had delivered an empty, smashed box..

I reordered the product and shipped it UPS... it got there 4 days later...

Filed a claim with Fed Ex for the product they lost....

they denied the claim, saying their job was to deliver a box.... not the contents... so therefore, since they delivered the empty smashed box, they had no liability to pay the claim on the insurance I paid for...

I haven't used Fed Ex EVER since that time....

I've had several suppliers who have started using Fed Ex over the last year.... I've refused the box and told them I want the items sent via UPS..
they tell me that they are now using Fed Ex exclusively.. Each time I have changed vendors....

screw Fed Ex.. no wonder they are called FED UP... I certainly was over them costing me $3500, and call delivering an empty box as them doing their job...

My younger years, I have spent some time working in the shipping industry, in a variety of rolls...

so how they do they things they do, and the screw ups...

Packages come into a distribution center and they are logged.. they are suppose to be on site only a certain amount of time..
its a common every day occurrence....if a package is nearing the time, it was supposed to be off site, they throw it on the next container out of there,
doesn't matter where its going.. they are just covering their asses at the center .. they don't give a damn about your package...

that is why a package would show up in Fairbanks AK, when it was addressed to someone in NYC....

Fed Ex is all about time, so they just get rid of packages so they are off that site's loading docks with a certain amount of hours...

UPs and USPs do the exact same thing.... every day...

as a former loader for UPS, I can see how that happens.

Its a volume business.

don't know what its like today but its not the truck drivers that do the damage, its the guys loading the boxes at the hub

Wow.... Don't blame you...


And yeah, the Fed-Ex drivers are contractors - not dedicated employees (related to me by one of their drivers a few months ago) like UPS drivers... To be fair, the Fed-Ex drivers I've encountered have been very, very nice and friendly to talk to.. But they can't control what's on their truck - that's the loaders' job at the centers..

yes............UPS are with the Teamsters Union.....proud retired member of Utah Local 222 here

But then Utah and other right to work states......do not have to join the Union.......total bull schidt in my book

If a full time/full pay scale UPS driver is making the same $35/hr as a dues paying member...

no reason for him not to be paying or want to pay monthly Union dues......

Fed Ex is non Union last I heard......not making $35 an hr either

I have some items on a FedEx truck somewhere. Left OH 10 days ago. Tracking says no scheduled delivery date, but with Standard they should arrive today.

"Local" FedEx is a contractor out of the bigger town 100+ miles away. Freezing fog here today, roads are slick. Last time the guy was here I commented on the tires on his van, how they needed replaced before winter really gets here. Said the boss doesn't like to hear scheidt like that. Hopefully his van and my packages aren't off in the weeds now.

Still, a First World problem, right?
Stuff ain't being delivered on Bubba's Burro Express.

Geno

I would have hired an attorney and sued the chiit out of them.

I talked to the local UPS office about sending a floor mounted New Hermes engraver. They said let us package it for you for $125. The fellow that was getting it was very happy with that. Of course it was damaged in shipping and he had a lot of photos. I filed a claim and they refused it saying it wasn't packed properly. I blew a gasket and said you A$$ wholes packaged it. Yes, I got an attorney and eventually got my money and attorney's fee. I refunded funds to my buddy and he fixed his $1500 machine for $20. He ended up being the real winner.

Can't be true. According to the consensus of the 'fire, non-union labor is superior to union labor.

Lee,
The local FedEx ground hub near me let me pick-up packages from their location. I had to bring my picture ID to get it.

Hmmm... Well maybe I should give 'em a call and see if that's possible to do here... I did get another email saying they're due today - but I've read that song and dance for 8 straight days now so I'm not holdin' my breath.. Thanks for that info sir...

This was on the local news a couple of nights ago. Turns out that the driver shown is also the driver that delivers to the LGS!

FedEx Driver Meltdown

Unbelievable customer (non)service, Redneck.

Hope you get everything wrangled out. Geez.

Our USPS here is covered up in "diversity". Carriers that don't even speak English now. Increi'ble.

Both FedEx and UPS offer a 'Hold for Pickup' or sometimes termed 'Hold at Station (or Terminal)' as a delivery option but it's generally done by shipper at the recipients request.

The recipient gives the shipper the address of the UPS or FedEx office they want the parcel held at along with personal contact info (email/phone #,etc.). When it arrives and available for pickup the recipient is contacted and has 3 business days to pick it up. A personal I.D. will probably be required to pickup.

It's a handy service for those that can't or don't want to hang around at home all day waiting for delivery plus less risk of delivery to wrong address, exposure to weather and porch theft.

(Also one less chance of handling damage from loading and transport to final delivery.)

IIRC too H.F.P. may be a little cheaper as well (as are delivery to business addresses).

I ordered a pair of Vortex binoculars for my youngest son from Cabela’s for Christmas. Ordered on cyber Monday and Fedex said it was delivered Dec. 6th. It wasn’t. The wife was here all day. No package.
I just got off of the phone with Cabela’s customer service and they’ve got another pair on the way free of charge.
In 25 years of ordering all manners of items this is only the second time this has happened.........both times Fedex!

There is a woman in our area who owns the local FedEx delivery route. In the last few years she has purchased several new trucks and has several drivers working for her. I see them in the morning loading packages from a semi into the smaller trucks. The drivers are always courteous and try to put the packages out of the weather. She has capitalized on the increase in internet shopping.

Customer of mine is a rather serious trap-shooter.. He had ordered a new Kolar un-single combo several months ago... When it was done, the shipper sent it to UPS yesterday.. This morning I got an email from UPS that it was to arrive here tomorrow...

I got back to the shop after dropping Nancy off at work and there was a quite large, and damned heavy box leaning at the door (no sig required - IMHO not a good idea). There was his Kolar... He's picking it up this afternoon.. That was damned fast - comin' from TX...

It's also one helluva shotgun... Best guess is he spent 20 grand or close...

Hah.. I was wrong. Just looked 'em up - he's in the 30 grand ball park.. Yike... First one he bought, IIRC, was about 10 grand.. Not a combo though.. Beautiful guns, these..

Only times I had packages go "poof, lost in thin air" was with FedEx. I don't use them from my end and always request alternative carriers from the other end when possible.

DHL is another one I've had herky-jerky delivery issues with, but the stuff always arrived in the end. Don't care much for them either.

I have two different items being shipped fedex. Tracking says they are both on the truck for delivery since last Friday.

Had a check fedexed to me yesterday morning. Arrived at my door 500 miles away in less than 24 hours.

Good thing it wasn't marked "FRAGILE".

Glad your funds made it ok.:) Nothing worse than waiting for the ol' check is in the mail routine.

After my fall, I ordered a harness off E-bay. They sent it Fedex and it was delivered to the wrong address. Without going into a lot of detail, I had to get the shipper to sign a waiver saying he wouldn't file a claim. Once that was done, Fedex refunded me the full amount. The process took nearly 4 mths, but I got my money.

Fedex refused to deliver to my address, after that. I would go to the PO for my mail and they would have a Fedex pkg for me. I asked why she had my pkg and was told the driver said he couldn't find my address and would ask if they could leave it there. That PO lady was really good. Oh, I lived across the highway in sight of the PO. This went on for about 3-4 years. UPS never had a problem finding my address.

Out here there is a delivery company called On-Trac, and you would play hell to convince me that they don't go to the local homeless camps every morning to find the dirtyist tweekers possible to deliver packages for them. They are only in 4 or 5 West coast states but they manage to make FedEx look good.

After searching and searching to find Varget before I ran out, I found one 8#. In transit, FedEx sent a note saying it was destroyed while in transit.

The vendor said that one of the FedEx shipping points informed them that FedEx was destroying powder shipments at one particular hub and had happened to other orders from the vendor.

FedEx did not return the powder to the shipper, but informed everyone it was "destroyed" in transit and tough luck.

Sounds like some warehouse employees are needing some powder for Christmas.

The vendor refunded my money including shipping charges and was tearing into FedEx for fraud and filing some sort of complaint with ATF too.

Checked Fedex tracking on two items and they claim they couldn't deliver because of weather. I live 15 miles from the Fedex facility and it was 50 degrees and raining today. LOL! One they handed over to the post office and I will pick up the other. What a clown show!!

I had a Browning Safari .243 with a chunk of exhibition grade Claro walnut arrive with tire tracks on the box. Needless to say it was in two pieces. UPS ate that one.

hope that rifle was insured for 3 times the buying price, I always over insure with UPS

After having a similar occurrence once I asked our UPS delivery driver about the why of situations like that. His reply was, "Off the record,... that's been known to happen sometimes if a driver is running behind schedule much and/or loaded down with too many deliveries and a single delivery is a bit out of the way of his normal daily route coverage."

In my case it was a next day delivery by noon to a small town bank that the driver reported "unable to deliver -- closed". I called the bank and confirmed that it was indeed open full regular business hours and did not close for lunch.

UPS totally destroyed a classic ML target gun for me in similar fashion and substantially damaged a new Highwall in similar fashion. They are on my list right after the lawyers.

had a UPS drive delivered a package to the shop a few years back, it had like s 1/2" hole in the side so I signed for it. He walked out the door and came right back in and Reach into his pocket and said this goes with the package, it was the bolt handle off of a Remington 700 rifle. told him I'm refusing the package he said too late I already signed for it, told him he defrauded me by not telling me he broke it, also told him every thing is being recorded on my Surveillance system and i will be taking it to the hub which was only a mile down the road after I close up. He changed his little pad and marked it refused due to damage.

USPS is best here followed by UPS. FedEx is dang near non useable. Still waiting on some Badlands rain gear and a Christensen Mesa that was ordered 2-2.5 weeks ago as the shippers used FedEx. They may show up before Christmas.

FedEx lies like a cheap rug, every one of them. Must be company policy.

I wonder seeing some of the firearms if the damage is 100% on purpose damage to the package/contents.

That must be what is happening because they said they tried to deliver Friday and I know they weren’t there.

People don't commonly know this... about this "Smart Post" Stuff..

Fed Ex largest customer is the Postal Service... and the Postal Service's largest customer is Fed Ex...

the postal service uses Fed Ex freight to deliver their shipping containers to the receiving Sectional Center..
and Fed Ex uses the Postal Service to deliver a lot of their packages to the recipient.

Yep!

Our Spokane Fedex facility is unbelievable. I've never seen such an Orwellian creation. Scores of cameras, barred gate turnstyles, brutal.

Finally got one of the shipments yesterday.. Two still in limbo somewhere; wife's medical stuff is one of 'em... She called the outfit last night and they said they can use USPS but can't track the shipment... Total bullchit - every time I have something sent via USPS the clerk circles the tracking number on the receipt... I told her when she calls again tonight to let ME talk to that woman - and when she tells me they can't track a USPS box I'm gonna inform her in as tactful (yeah, right) manner as I can that she's full of chit...

Timely subject as I just waited two weeks for Fed Ex to delivery a package from Illinois to Texas. I could have ridden a bicycle up there and back quicker. The time it took wasn't so bad, but watching the tracking just makes you wonder. For instance, the package arrived at one point and sat for about 9 hours. Then it left at 10:30 pm Wednesday and arrived at the next stop around midday on Friday. The distance between stops? About 20 miles!!

A couple of years ago I got a phone call from a female Fed Ex driver asking me if I could come to the local depot and pick up my package as she was supposed to get off work in 10 minutes and she was 15 minutes away from my house. WTF?! Glad she's not a surgeon.

4-5 years ago, I was bitchin about how bad Fedex was and 1/2 the people that responded took up for them. How good they were, on time, etc. My how things have changed.

Me and ole renegade ran that bunch off.

on 12/2 i ordered something from brownells, on 12/5 suppose to be here next day. I am still waiting. following fed ex moving it around the country it got to phx two days ago, and delivered to a U.S.P.S. for them to deliver it. I am still waiting.
brownells has this customer satisfaction survey. if i ever get that package, i am gonna pile it up on that survey.

Agreed.. It's the unintended consequences of a good economy. It's harder and harder to find reliable people who can pass both driving and drug tests.

and even harder to find one that'll pass a GAF test.....

True....very true. If someone has the "want to", you can teach them darn near anything.

Things are starting to look up.........

Brownell's uses Spee-Dee (sp?) delivery service and they've been unreal.. I ordered a 24# spring for a Ruger 77 yesterday. It got here at 11 am TODAY!!

This happens many times here with Brownell's... Rarely do items take more than 24-48 hours and they're in my paws... Can't beat 'em.

That's because they aren't taking it to the post office to ship it out. They're using their postage machine in the shipping room and have a daily pickup scheduled. No longwinded receipt with a tracking number on it, just weight, stamp and toss it in the pile with all the other packages going out.
We do it every single day here. I can get a tracking number, but then I have to send a driver to the post office, wait in line, ship and get that receipt with the tracking number. I'm happy to do it for you, but I have to charge you.

UPS has made some errors with my stuff. Claimed they delivered a package on such and such a date and the driver even described driving across my bridge over the creek and where he left it. They just said someone must have taken it. Turned out it was delivered to my neighbor who has no bridge and who wasn't home when it was left off. He called me about it a day or two later.

USPS is the best where we live. We have a great carrier on our rural route and she goes out of her way to get oversize packages that won't fit in the mailbox up to the house which is a 1/4 mile from the road. Previous carrier wouldn't drive up here, said it was too far per their rules when in fact they are supposed to deliver up to 1/2 mile off the county road. I was glad when he retired.

The customer gets an email from an online shipper - in the email is the tracking #...

I've gotten those before... Here's the link to the info:

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input

Here's the sentence there: "The shipping confirmation email you received from an online retailer"

Last January 1, I ordered an AR upper from Brownells. They are 3 hours away from me, in the same state.The package went from Grinnell to Otumwa(closest FEDX depot),to Chicago, to Lenexa KS, where it was handed off to USPS to deliver.....9 days later. I filled out their survey, but see nothing has changed.

The UPS has been hit or miss over the years.

I had 2 rifles coming from FT.Worth and one was left at the Sandy Land office in Plains.
I live 15 miles south of town.

The other was left at a vacant house there along with a large box of parts for my Land Crusier.

After a day of it not being here they said it was delivered at this house and guess what it was gone.

The box of parts was there and they were soaking wet.

The driver that day was a replacement and the regular guy was some kind of pissed because he did care about doing a good job.

The idiot i believe was fired after several more deliveries went to places they were not meant for.

Never herd if the ATF found the rifle.the customer finally got his money refunded.

I can imagine.

That sounds like an issue on the shipper/seller end due to them using FedEx's "SmartPost" economy shipping option where a shipment is handed off to USPS for final delivery, rather than a FedEx issue. A lot of vendors are using "SmartPost" nowadays to save money. Pretty much anymore when you see "Free" or "Reduced" shipping advertised, most likely that's the shipping option used. (UPS has their version too called "SurePost")

FedEx SmartPost

UPS SurePost

How do people ship and keep stuff out of the contractors hands.

When/if you have a choice, choose an upgraded option shipping method, which will be at higher cost, of course. Personally, though, we never had any problems with incoming shipments via FedEx Ground but then we had an excellent young man delivery driver/owner that was beyond conscientious. At times we had hundreds of incoming packages at a single delivery. The FedEx Ground delivery driver/owners are FedEx employees as well, wear FedEx uniforms, trucks painted with FedEx logo, etc.

Interesting of you to say something like this. BEWARE: gemby58 aka Greg Miller aka Gregory B. Gemberling

I ordered THE Christmas gift for my daughter on 12/8. You know the one that Santa just has to bring? The number one gift of the year. Well, the website had a banner up - order by x date and it’s guaranteed there by Christmas. Now, granted, I live in Alaska, but they still told me two weeks tops using FedEx and I placed the order a week before their deadline.

So I start watching the tracking information and it makes it to Washington in about 5 days (from Massachusetts). It sat in the same city for 2 days before it moved again. Then it moved to another city that’s about 175 miles away, still in Washington. At that point, it sat there for another three days before the tracking information updated and said expected delivery was 12/30. It has since updated to something along the lines of having been turned over to USPS and tracking information is no longer available.

Obviously I wasn’t happy so I called FedEx and was told it would be turned over to the local post office because the seller chose the Smartpost option to save money. I can understand that when shipping a large item to Alaska. And, to be fair, the original delivery date was before Christmas so I don’t fault the company for choosing that method.

Now what is going to piss me off is the USPS. We live on what they refer to as a “contracted rural route,” even though I’m about 3 miles from the post office (and downtown) and live in a neighborhood across the street from one of the biggest high schools in the area. Because of this, their contracted delivery driver, who isn’t a sure enough USPS employee, rather a 1099 employee just delivering mail, has THE CHOICE whether or not she wants to deliver our packages. So any time we have a package coming, if it’s something bigger than about a shoe box, if it’s cold that day, if there has been snow within the last month, etc., this lazy woman (we’ve met in the driveway, she’s insanely worthless) will decide she doesn’t want to bring it to the house and then I’ll get an update that says “Delivery attempted, no one available to receive package.”

We then have to go to the post office to pick up our packages which kinda defeats the purpose, but I get it. My rant is that even if this Christmas gift gets here in time to make it under the tree, which is highly unlikely at this point, it’s going to sit at the post office rather than being delivered. IF that woman decides to do some paperwork, we might know it’s there and be able to grab it before Christmas; but it probably won’t happen and because of the way it’s all played out, I now have no way to track it. I’ve got a crisp $20 that says those 5 days it hung out in Washington are going to end up being critical when it’s all said and done.

Just last week our local postmaster told me that even when FedEx and UPS hand-offs to the USPS do arrive earlier than estimated final delivery date they are not allowed to scan them into tracking information as received and ready for pickup/delivery until the estimated date of delivery.

Great.

I have run into this before; it is to make people pay for the faster service types instead of getting expedited delivery for no extra charge. Supply logistics are so fast these days it is sometimes unbelievable. I ordered a tube of some special sealant (then living in Alaska), order placed about 5 pm Central time (shipped from Dallas) We had it in Kodiak the next day.

Gees Merry Christmas...