What pens are still "Tracking" in the Postal Slowdown

[Bill P]

Seems to be some serious delays at the USPS Distribution Centers.  (not just Philadelphia)

 

A package of mine was scanned in at the Philadelphia USPS Distribution Center in November 2020.

 

On 12/3 the scan indicated deputed Philadelphia...as of 1/2/2021 no further scans....has not arrived.

 

I then a read a newspaper article quoting several USPS employees at the Phil USPS Distribution center indicating they are overloaded and can't even move within the the facility...they say it will take MONTHS to dig out and get back to some degree of normalcy.

 

Trucks have been lined up for up to 12 hours (and a few miles) to drop off mail and packages, but there is no place to put the incoming items.

 

Sarcasm:  Many thanks to the new Postmaster who decided to cut costs, employees, etc...in the middle of 2020.

 

[NumberSix]

24 minutes ago, Bill P said:

Seems to be some serious delays at the USPS Distribution Centers.  (not just Philadelphia)

 

A package of mine was scanned in at the Philadelphia USPS Distribution Center in November 2020.

 

On 12/3 the scan indicated deputed Philadelphia...as of 1/2/2021 no further scans....has not arrived.

 

I then a read a newspaper article quoting several USPS employees at the Phil USPS Distribution center indicating they are overloaded and can't even move within the the facility...they say it will take MONTHS to dig out and get back to some degree of normalcy.

 

Trucks have been lined up for up to 12 hours (and a few miles) to drop off mail and packages, but there is no place to put the incoming items.

 

Sarcasm:  Many thanks to the new Postmaster who decided to cut costs, employees, etc...in the middle of 2020.

 

Wow! I am sorry indeed to hear that.

 

I guess I should feel myself fortunate that one of my packages made it out of Bethlehem, PA last week - even if they did route it to Florida instead of Denver. . .

[inkstainedruth]

3 hours ago, Bill P said:

Seems to be some serious delays at the USPS Distribution Centers.  (not just Philadelphia)

 

A package of mine was scanned in at the Philadelphia USPS Distribution Center in November 2020.

 

On 12/3 the scan indicated deputed Philadelphia...as of 1/2/2021 no further scans....has not arrived.

 

I then a read a newspaper article quoting several USPS employees at the Phil USPS Distribution center indicating they are overloaded and can't even move within the the facility...they say it will take MONTHS to dig out and get back to some degree of normalcy.

 

Trucks have been lined up for up to 12 hours (and a few miles) to drop off mail and packages, but there is no place to put the incoming items.

 

Sarcasm:  Many thanks to the new Postmaster who decided to cut costs, employees, etc...in the middle of 2020.

 

There have been stories on the news recently about people waiting for packages.  And a while back (right about the time the pandemic was having many parts of the US go into lockdown) there was one about how the sorting equipment in I think the Erie, PA distribution center was TRASHED and removed. 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[NumberSix]

This issue is not the fault of "now", as it could happen any time. But that it happened right now is just a case of "But of course it did":

 

I have 4 pens on order from PenBBS. I paid extra for shipping fast, and the package was out for delivery to me today, on the 9th day. 

 

I checked the tracking, and they are now showing it returned to sender for "No such address". I know the address was correct on the etsy order, so someone has simply screwed up. But you can't get anyone from the post office on the phone (if this were UPS, I could probably get it sorted). 

 

I just needed to vent, in the most appropriate thread. 

 

That said, I have at least half a dozen items that have variations on "arriving late", including a single bottle of ink from Dromgoole's whose tracking suggests it's coming to Denver via bicycle messenger. (Houston to Dallas, a few days. Dallas to Amarillo, a few days. And no update yet from Amarillo.) 

[NumberSix]

Just kidding. The post office sorted my PenBBS issue all on their own, and my package is now delivered.

 

I counted wrong, too. Today is day 8 from when shipped from China.

[mizgeorge]

Well the only thing I'm still waiting for (I've got stuff coming that I'm not even thinking about yet) is coming from Texas, and has been meandering slowly around Chicago (including a couple of trips to the airport, then back to the processing centre) since 28th December. If it ever gets onto a plane it will then vanish into the black hole this end until someone puts a VAT sticker on it and makes me pay a ransom for the privilege of paying the tax. Then it will be another few days before they actually deliver. All very frustrating, especially given that a package posted one day earlier from slightly further away reached me before Christmas.

 

 

43 minutes ago, NumberSix said:

I have 4 pens on order from PenBBS. I paid extra for shipping fast, and the package was out for delivery to me today, on the 9th day. 

That's super quick from PenBBS - they usually seem to take four or five days to even think about putting stuff in a mailer...

[NumberSix]

28 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

That's super quick from PenBBS - they usually seem to take four or five days to even think about putting stuff in a mailer...

Good point. 

 

I placed the order on 25 December. 

They mailed it on the 29th. 

 

I was only counting from Tuesday, Dec 29. 

 

 

I feel bad about your package status, but I confess that your story was amusingly told. 

[mizgeorge]

On 1/6/2021 at 10:23 PM, mizgeorge said:

Well the only thing I'm still waiting for (I've got stuff coming that I'm not even thinking about yet) is coming from Texas, and has been meandering slowly around Chicago (including a couple of trips to the airport, then back to the processing centre) since 28th December. If it ever gets onto a plane it will then vanish into the black hole this end until someone puts a VAT sticker on it and makes me pay a ransom for the privilege of paying the tax. Then it will be another few days before they actually deliver. All very frustrating, especially given that a package posted one day earlier from slightly further away reached me before Christmas.

 

And today I'm surprised - I got a notification from USPS that my package has finally made it to the right bit of the airport, and may well be on its way. I was pretty much ready to give up on this one, but it's now looking a little more hopeful!

 

Of course it will now move into the fourth circle of hell and spend weeks in our hateful customs/VAT system before they work out how much the ransom demand is going to be. 

 

I think I'm done with ordering from overseas for a while - I'm just not patient enough to cope with it at the moment. Which is a bit sad (though my bank doesn't think so) because I have a whole bunch of coloured liquidy things I'm coveting that I can't get here. That's presupposing that anyone will sell anything to me in the first place of course!

[Mr Bill]

Things here just north of Philidelphia are also running

on the slow side , normally 3 day delivery can take up

to two weeks. I was going to order some ink but lucky

for me Goldspot pens isn't too far from my home so I

can simply drive over for same day gratification.

[NumberSix]

Counting a mechanical pencil and a ballpoint, I believe I have 5 pens in transit. So far they are behaving in the post, unlike an ink order from ebay that's now 15 days "in transit arriving late". Ironically, that one made it to Denver within a few days and has since gotten misplaced. Even a pen from Canada blazed through Chicago customs and pretends to be arriving on Tuesday. But I don't believe it yet. 

 

Still, another almost-as-long-term ink item suddenly updated yesterday, so hope springs eternal. 

[bunnspecial]

I'm caught up on all but two packages.

 

One is a Montblanc 24 OB that's seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.

 

The other is a domestic package with repaired and purchased pens from Ron Z. I'm itching on that one because it has my red-veined gray oversized Balance plus a few other pens in it. It's been bouncing around sorting facilities in the big neighboring town the past couple of days.

[BinaEliora]

USPS is a bit all over the place these days. I have a package being “in transit” from Maine since 12/23. Another package from Maine arrived after 2 weeks. On the other hand, a pen I ordered from Japan on 12/22 arrived 7 days later. 

I have one pen awaiting shipment, and one I ordered last night (a restored Waterman from the 30ies ). This one will travel across the country, so it might take a bit. It will extend the anticipation.

[inkstainedruth]

There was a story on the news last week about how the main center in Pittsburgh has something like a 2 million piece backlog -- mostly ad flyers and coupons, which will be obsolete by the time they make it out the facility's doors -- taken over from the CLEVELAND post office.

Because of the way the mail has been around here recently (even before I heard that story), the Secret Santa gift got delivered to the recipient's house Friday afternoon by me directly.  And the person who got my name?  Well he apparently has mad ninja skills!  Because Friday night, around 10:15 PM I saw some sort of movement out the front window while I was watching TV, and it wasn't a reflection of the living room OR the street lights on the hillside on the other side of the ravine behind our back yard.  Then I saw movement which seemed to be going the other way (we didn't have the porchlights on).  So I said "Huh...."  The first time I thought it might be some low-flying bird or some sort of four-footed critter -- we're 5 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh, and have had deer, raccoons, possums, rabbits, woodchucks, and wild turkeys in our yard, (not to mention squirrels and chipmunks); and I actually spooked a deer one time a couple of winters ago that was ON MY PORCH!  So after the second set of movement I went out and found the package (a wooden trivet with a nicely wood burned design, and four cork-backed wood trivets with the same design).  

I know so many talented people (his wife does amazing woodcut prints)!    And now I'll have to add him to that list.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[bunnspecial]

FWIW, I made one international purchase a few days ago, and I may be making another in the next week or so. I have started to request non postal service shipping providers. They may be 2-3x the cost($10-15 postal shipping may be $30-40 by UPS, etc) but to me it's worth it now to not get a package tied up in USPS.

 

I've made a few purchases from Japan that were shipped by a carrier that partners with UPS on the US side, and the longest took a week and a half.

[inkstainedruth]

Well, last night I hit the buy button on some stuff from Andersaon Pens, including the Sailor 1911S Wicked Witch and Loch Ness Monster pens, a few ink samples, and a 100-pk of the six inch cotton swabs (I was going to get some empty sample vials too, but they apparently didn't have enough in stock for a 10 pack and the order wouldn't go through until I spotted the pop-up warning).  
I'm not expecting to get tracking info until at least tomorrow, because, of course, today (1/18/21) is a Federal holiday in the US.  But, due to the cost of the pens, I decided to spring for Priority Mail shipping, just to be on the safe side.  That way, once I DO get the tracking info, I can plug the code into the USPS website and get email updates.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[PAKMAN]

Joy! My pen coming from Poland back on Dec 10th now shows to be in Memphis Tn about 200 miles east of me! 

[inkstainedruth]

Awesome!  How long have you had to wait for it?

The two Sailor 1911S pens have, according the the USPS tracking update emails, have departed the Oak Ridge, WI Distribution Center as of around 4:30 this afternoon, with an ETA of Friday evening.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Safari_Camo]

Ordered from a well known store in UK on December, last status:

Days in Transit: 47   Finally the package has arrived to it's destination (southern hemisphere), hopefully I'll get it this week 😬

[heathydraws]

I have a Sailor x Wancher Shamrock Green that is supposedly arriving on the 22nd from Japan, but the last shipping update I got was on the 3rd and it wasn't even in transit. Just said that tracking was provided. 😕

Also waiting on a Kaweco x Hello Kitty Al Sport, but I feel like that one won't take as long (hopefully...)

[mizgeorge]

Well I've just had a USPS notification to say that my package is now in the UK, having been on a trip to Denmark in between. It's going to be one very well travelled pen by the time it finally reaches me...