Is This Normal For Usps?

[Uncial]

Wasn't quite sure where to put this, but it sort of concerns pens in that the package has a pen in it! I've never really used USPS much and on a whim ordered a pen a while back that seemed to take a rather prolonged two weeks to get from Arizona to the LA International distribution centre. The strange thing is it arrived on 16th June, then it was listed as sent on the 17th, the date changed to the 18th on the next tracking request and so on until today in which tracking says it was sent today (22nd). Presumably this it will eventually be sent and this is not an indicator that the package has gone astray. Is this normal practice for USPS to continually change the 'sent' date until they actually do get around to sending it?

[Charles Skinner]

To answer your question about the post office, ---- I have no idea! I have always had very good service from them. For example, I mailed a small package, Wednesday afternoon, and was just informed that it will be delivered to a city almost a thousand miles away THIS AFTERNOON BEFORE 6 pm! I sent it by Priority Mail, something less than $8.00. Perhaps someone here on this site who works for the post office will respond to you question. C. S.

[Ron Z]

Maybe not the USPS, but the seller, yes. The notification from Paypal or Ebay will say "package shipped" when they print a shipping label. But it won't be in the system until it is actually mailed - i.e. picked up by, or delivered to, the post office. Then it will show progress through the system.

 

Having said that I've seen packages get bounced around between distribution centers on occasion, usually overseas packages. One almost made it to Pittsburgh, went back to NJ, to NY, and then back to Pittsburgh before making its way to our post office.

 

We use the USPS almost exclusively, and have had very good service over the last 14 years. ...except for one delivery guy in NYC, but that's another story.

[Tseg]

Maybe not the USPS, but the seller, yes. The notification from Paypal or Ebay will say "package shipped" when they print a shipping label. But it won't be in the system until it is actually mailed - i.e. picked up by, or delivered to, the post office. Then it will show progress through the system.

 

Having said that I've seen packages get bounced around between distribution centers on occasion, usually overseas packages. One almost made it to Pittsburgh, went back to NJ, to NY, and then back to Pittsburgh before making its way to our post office.

 

We use the USPS almost exclusively, and have had very good service over the last 14 years. ...except for one delivery guy in NYC, but that's another story.

 

^^^^^ This. The seller could sit on it for days after printing the label. Also, I've had a pen go USPS from NYC customs to my Midwest city and delivered in 24 hours... I've had a different pen make the same journey through USPS and take 1 1/2 weeks.

[Mulrich]

Aside from the customs offices, USPS has generally done a good job with my packages. The customs offices are total blackholes, information never comes out from them and a package can sit there for days or weeks, seemingly randomly.

[wallylynn]

Ugh, customs. My previous job actively avoided FedEx because of customs. It would always, always get stuck for 2 weeks in alaska.

[peterg]

I would be concerned.

 

Yes, the sender can delay sending after printing the label but your pen is sitting in the USPS LA International distribution centre. Are you tracking it through the USPS site? Once the package leaves the US USPS cease to track it.

[Mulrich]

Ugh, customs. My previous job actively avoided FedEx because of customs. It would always, always get stuck for 2 weeks in alaska.

 

That surprises me because I've generally had FedEx packages get through customs much faster than USPS (1-2 days compared to 1-2 weeks). My primary international pen shop is Appelboom specifically because they use FedEx.

[Uncial]

I would be concerned.

 

Yes, the sender can delay sending after printing the label but your pen is sitting in the USPS LA International distribution centre. Are you tracking it through the USPS site? Once the package leaves the US USPS cease to track it.

Yes, it has reached the L.A. distribution centre and all along I've been tracking it through USPS own website.

[inkstainedruth]

For the most part USPS is pretty good. But not this time. I've been waiting on an ink shipment from Goulet Pens which I ordered over the weekend. All was pretty much normal until the package arrived at the Pittsburgh sort facility, from the regional distribution center.

Then things went horribly pear-shaped....

I was hoping the package would arrive for me in time to bring it along to the Steel City Nibs meeting on Wednesday evening. Only instead there was this gap in the transit tracking....

The next thing I knew, the package had tracked to Washington, DC (!). From there it went to the "Southern Maryland Distribution Center Annex", and then back to the Hyattsville, MD Distribution Center which was practically where it started from.

I spent the better part of an hour on hold with USPS Customer Service on Thursday around lunchtime. Then OVER an hour today before getting an actual person instead of the same bits of muzak over and over again (while still dealing with voicemail Hell and requesting a redelivery for *tomorrow* (although Hyattsville is a 6 hour drive from Pittsburgh). And trying to deal with it on their website didn't work because for some inexplicable reason their server for contacting them was "down". I finally got through to a person who was somewhat patronizing and also fairly useless (she tried to give me yet a SECOND redelivery code, which I could only see as just causing further chaos). I then asked to speak to a Postal Inspector and was put through to some Cerebus type woman who was reluctant to let me talk to an inspector (even though I had told the first person that I wanted to speak DIRECTLY to a Postal Inspector). I asked if Cerebus-lady was an inspector and she said she wasn't and I asked why I was directed to HER. She finally (grudgingly) put me through to an actual inspector and he was a complete jerk and said "It's a Customer Service issue" and seemed peeved that I was tying up his line while he waited for actual law enforcement since the package wasn't STOLEN, even when I made "Do I need to be contacting a lawyer to SUE you people?" noises. He did give me one USEFUL piece of information -- that the package was back at the Warrendale Distribution Center. It's now (theoretically) has left the Pittsburgh facility AGAIN. Where, is anyone's guess (my theory is that someone screwed up the optical bar code and it went -- or will go -- to the address in a different town (different town name, different zip code) because I've gotten that person's mail in the past, and presumably vice versa.

Of course there was also the time when I was returning a pen to an eBay vendor. That snafu took the better part of a month and included repeated and semi-hysterical PMs to the seller going "OMG I can't believe they did this to me...." Then the tracking gleefully announce it was delivered.... Yeah, back to my front PORCH. Even a Postal Inspector couldn't get them to snag the package that time. That time it was partly my fault -- I didn't realize the old bar code label was still on the package. But this time, with my ink order? That's all on the USPS, and in particular the Pittsburgh Woods Run sort facility....

And there was also the time I was expecting a pen back from repair, and got the tracking information that it had arrived. And my response was "Really? Because I've been in my LR all morning and nobody has been on my porch except for me occasionally checking to see if the mail had arrived...." When the guy finally showed (and he wasn't my regular carrier) he seemed really miffed that he had had to make a special trip....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[FarmBoy]

The 94030 Post Office sucks. I'm sure it is run by people that failed at the previous Post Office they were working at. Yesterday the 94030 Post Office really sucked and I dealt with the Post Master. Today they sucked even more. Hopefully tomorrow they will attempt to not suck as much.

 

If I could use Pony Express to deliver my mail I would.

[aardvarkbark]

Uncial -- I don't know if this helps, but for domestic US shipments, I usually see three types of comments at the USPS tracking site: (1) Arrived at [location], (2) Departed [location], (3) In transit to next facility. I've been told that the Arrived and Departed comments require that the tracking bar code be scanned; the In Transit shows up each day between a Departed and an Arrived without the package being scanned.

 

I've never seen a Departed comment for the same location over multiple successive days. I think you are right to be concerned if that is what you are seeing, and I would not personally have any greater confidence that today's comment can be believed any more than the same they provided each of the past five days.

 

What does your country's postal service tracking show for it?

 

Timely delivery is the obligation of the seller, and USPS has told me they only respond to Lost Package requests from sellers. You should make the seller aware if you haven't already and bring this to their attention.

[ENewton]

I recently sent a nice thank you gift--a vintage ring-top fountain pen--to a lady in Japan who hosted me on a recent stay. I was very anxious that the parcel would get stuck in customs in Japan, that my wrapped gift would be opened and possible damaged, and that the recipient would have to pay duty, because the pen wasn't quite a hundred years old (after which time I understand it would have been exempt). Not being in the habit of sending parcels overseas, I was somewhat surprised by how much USPS charges for international shipments, but I thought I had better ask for tracking, which I always do within the United States, where mail seems to be delivered to the incorrect address with some frequency.

 

On the day that the parcel was to arrive, there was an earthquake of significant magnitude affecting the prefecture where the recipient lives, so in addition to worrying about the recipient herself, I immediately wondered how an earthquake would affect the delivery of my parcel. Congratulating myself briefly on having paid the extra money for tracking, I referred to the USPS tracking website, where I learned that the parcel had been delivered the day before...to Japan, which left me wondering for several days whether it had been delivered to its actual destination in Japan or simply to the country.

 

Eventually I heard back from the recipient that my gift had arrived, so in my case the story has a happy ending, but had I known that USPS tracking would cover only the US part of the route--as opposed to there being reciprocal agreements on tracking of international shipments--I might have saved quite a bit on postage...

[praxim]

Some countries have reciprocal agreements on international tracking, in which case my experience is that it it is tracked to import then disappears into the dark of Customs for a week before re-emerging into the light of your home country's postal system. I too would prefer that such agreements were more widespread.

 

eta: in recent correspondence with a seller who has not sent anything to Australia before, I observed that I had imported pens from [listing] eight countries. It is eleven but who was counting?

Edited June 23, 2018 by praxim

[inkstainedruth]

Some countries have reciprocal agreements on international tracking, in which case my experience is that it it is tracked to import then disappears into the dark of Customs for a week before re-emerging into the light of your home country's postal system. I too would prefer that such agreements were more widespread.

 

I haven't shipped anything overseas, but this is definitely the case for a couple of orders I've placed, specifically from Rolf Thiel at Missing Pens. He sends Deutsche Post tracking info within a day and I can track the progress both in Germany and once it gets through US Customs.

It must depend on the country, though, because that hasn't been the case for stuff I've ordered from the UK, or some pens I've gotten on eBay from a guy in the Netherlands.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[praxim]

Here is the opposite. Royal Post flick passes to Australia Post to track to destination, Deutsche Post lovingly waves it goodbye at the airport.