Gotta Love USPS Tracking

[captainsousie]

Ah, the beauty of the postal service.
I recently bought a bit of vintage tobacco and I've checked the tracking every day. I live in WY so that makes the rout it took a bit puzzling. It started in WI, went to Boston, and now is in NH. That is one funky route and I hope it isn't due to a major f-up. Same story with a pipe that was shipped last weekend and it started in southern CA, went to Providence, RI and has departed that station twice now.
Anybody else go through this kind of thing lately?

 

[teufelhund]

I've had stuff shipped from CA that went past St. Louis and ended up in the vicinity of Chicago where it sat for a while. I figured it was flown to Chi town and trucked to me. Nothing as crazy as what you have going on.

 

[jndyer]

I ordered a pipe and was sent a tracking number for USPS. Right now it shows that it was received in Brooklyn, NY on Monday but no more information. It is like it got dropped off at the post office and they have not moved it yet. I hope this is not true. I hate waiting....

 

[theboz]

I think the "random" steps are determined by the equipment that each post office has. I have shipped things that will go past the destination and then backtrack. There are probably locations that are labelled as a hub.

 

[captainsousie]

I have shipped things that will go past the destination and then backtrack.

Me too. The puzzling thing is that one of them has gone over 3000 miles and now is over 2000 miles away from me (point of origin is less than 1000 miles from me). The other has traveled about 1000 miles in the opposite direction from me.

 

[theboz]

Heh, mine was not that bad, but we wonder why they have finance problems?

 

[captainsousie]

Just confirmed zip code with the seller so it shouldn't be an address problem (he had the right zip+4 even) so here's hoping my packages just went on a little vacation and will come to me soon.

 

[oklansas]

Having living in quite a few part sof the U.S., I've notived that the effectiveness of the different carriers will vary widely, depending on where you are. Western Kansas was definately the domain of USPS; DC is the land of UPS...
Anyway, with USPS, it seems to hinge on two things: 1) Quality of your particular local post office staff and 2) The effectiveness of your regonal sorting center. Here, in DC, our sorting center suck (due in no small part to getting shut down for months everytime some yahoo sends anthrax or ricin to a conhressman).
In your case, my guess is the local post or regonal center of the shipper messed up the routing, and now your package is on a magical journey. Again, depending on the quality of your own local USPS staff - and if you a good local postmaster - a visit to your post office, and their help, might get the package put back on track.

 

[lucky695]

true Oklanss... I ordered from P&C last week, that starts in PA now. I live in Missouri, and when I checked it was in Kansas, but arrived on time today!

 

[ssjones]

USPS has been bullet proof for me. I always sign up for email updates on the tracking and lately I've seen that updates are sent out at least twice a day. My last two pipes arrived (one rec'd, one sent) before the anticipated day. I ordered a pipe from TX on Sunday night and had it by Wednesday, that is pretty impressive.
I also recently ordered a nice maginfying/LED backlit loupe for pipe nomenclature ($4.06 SHIPPED). It came from China and was here in exactly seven days.
That routing sure looks odd and there has to be a problem. I would definitely contact the shipper.

 

[rayje589]

Whenever I order from SP my order has to travel up the east coast and through my state to get to a hub just barely over the border. To my pleasant surprise as I was writing this it arrived at my local post office. Now I just have to wait for them to deliver...