[M_Six]

An item I ordered online left the shipper in NC on Thursday, made its way through KY and ended up in Champaign, IL, an hour north of me, early Saturday morning. I saw it had departed the Fedex facility in Champaign at 4AM, so I'm thinking maybe they'll deliver it that day. But nooooo. It's now on its way to Overland, MO to be transferred to the Postal Service so they can ship it back to Champaign and the USPS can ship it to my town and deliver it on Thursday, five days after it was an hour north of me.

This efficient system is called "SmartPost." Not so much, I think.

[Sea-Tac]

You've got to admit it is kind of funny...

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Sea-Tac

You've got to admit it is kind of funny...

Not the first time this has happened. I just don't see the business case for it. Surely they have a system that tells them this particular package is within an hour of its final destination. Why waste the time and cost to ship it a few hundred miles away to have it shipped right back? Makes no sense at all.

Unless it's in a trailer filled with stuff that won't be unpacked in Champaign and just driven on to MO. But if it was unpacked and handled in Champaign, shipping on to MO and back is idiotic.

This is just a shirt. I don't care if it takes a month to get here. It just bugs me to see such inefficiency.

[Sea-Tac]

Its sort of like the birthday card my mother sent that was delivered by the post office 7 months late.

BTW...i've enjoyed looking at your photos. I wanted to say that a while back in the photo forum...some nice shots!

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

well you know its a problem if USPS gets involved

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Sea-Tac

Its sort of like the birthday card my mother sent that was delivered by the post office 7 months late.

BTW...i've enjoyed looking at your photos. I wanted to say that a while back in the photo forum...some nice shots!

Thanks. I've barely touched my camera gear since I got into cycling. But there's an airshow coming up at the local field in two weeks, so I'll be out shooting that.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

well you know its a problem is USPS gets involved

Any service that transfers to USPS just delays the delivery. At least UPS will deliver if they're coming to our house anyways rather than transfer it to USPS. Fedex doesn't do that.

[CO_Steve]

I live off I70 in western Colorado. If I buy something from west of me it usually goes to Denver, then to Grand Junction, then back to Glenwood Springs. My package has come within 10 miles of my house three times before I receive it.

[JerryW235]

Maybe I'm just lucky, or it's because I live near major transportation and carrier hubs, (Atlanta, Greenville, Charlotte) but I've never had problems with Smart Post, always get the package in a reasonable amount of time, and the routes they used always seem reasonable.

On a related note, just had a very positive experience with DHL. Ordered a set of front grills off of eBay on the afternoon of the 8th, did not notice they were located in Taiwan. Got an email that it was shipped, and a Fed Ex tracking number, went to track it on the Fed Ex site, said it was not found. Started thinking it would take weeks, if I ever got it. Saw tracking activity the next day in eBay, but still nothing on the Fed Ex site. Thought I got scammed. On the afternoon of the 10th, DHL delivered the package. Only took 2 days from Taiwan to SC! The only problem was the seller said it shipped by Fed Ex, when it was really DHL.

[DETRoadster]

Another place where Amazon is killing the competition through innovation and technology. I logged in to track a package a few weeks ago that was headed for my office in downtown Seattle. To my shock, the tracking pulled up a map of downtown Seattle and showed me where the package was, as a pin on the map, the route the driver was taking, how many stops before he hit my building, and an estimate of what time he would arrive. I could watch the driver move in real time. Crazy!

Meanwhile, DHL "delivered" a pair of motorcycle gloves to my building after hours and dropped it in one of the 100 or so lock boxes for each suite. Apparently numbers are hard and they put in the wrong box. Never got delivered to me. Took 2 weeks to dispute before they admitted fault.

[EL Jeffe 5]

what is in the package???

[kscarrol]

FedEx has gone downhill in general. For anything but Express/Overnight they use a local contractor to deliver packages. The trucks look like FedEx trucks but if you get close you can see the writing declaring it is another company contracted by FedEx. We've had nothing but problems since they made this switch with packages not being delivered, tracking shows a delivery attempt but we are home and there was no delivery attempt, packages delivered to the wrong address... I use UPS whenever possible.

[R3dliner]

The quality of these carriers did go down lately. However I will say this, USPS is much better than some of these other carriers. If anyone here has encountered carrier Lasership, they are contracted by Amazon and never delivers on time, marks shipments delivered when they are not, leaves packages just sitting in the front with no delivery, etc.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by JerryW235

Maybe I'm just lucky, or it's because I live near major transportation and carrier hubs, (Atlanta, Greenville, Charlotte) but I've never had problems with Smart Post, always get the package in a reasonable amount of time, and the routes they used always seem reasonable.

On a related note, just had a very positive experience with DHL. Ordered a set of front grills off of eBay on the afternoon of the 8th, did not notice they were located in Taiwan. Got an email that it was shipped, and a Fed Ex tracking number, went to track it on the Fed Ex site, said it was not found. Started thinking it would take weeks, if I ever got it. Saw tracking activity the next day in eBay, but still nothing on the Fed Ex site. Thought I got scammed. On the afternoon of the 10th, DHL delivered the package. Only took 2 days from Taiwan to SC! The only problem was the seller said it shipped by Fed Ex, when it was really DHL.

I also had a recent positive experience with DHL. I bought a watch from an online only company called Linjer. They shipped the watch from Hong Kong. Didn't pay anything for shipping; but we all know it's factored into the price. Got it the next day and I live in the DC area. Now that's fast service and shipping...even better than Amazon.

[UncleWede]

I'm reminded of the old Bugs Bunny where he shows up after having been around the world

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

i love when I track the shit out of something...and after receiving it I don't use/install for days/weeks after.

[Banana Hammock]

I had a similar experience with "SmartPost" about a month ago where my package sat at a Fexdex facility 15 minutes from my house for a week waiting for USPS to pick it up. It's asinine.

[TXSTYLE]

Originally Posted by M_Six

An item I ordered online left the shipper in NC on Thursday, made its way through KY and ended up in Champaign, IL, an hour north of me, early Saturday morning. I saw it had departed the Fedex facility in Champaign at 4AM, so I'm thinking maybe they'll deliver it that day. But nooooo. It's now on its way to Overland, MO to be transferred to the Postal Service so they can ship it back to Champaign and the USPS can ship it to my town and deliver it on Thursday, five days after it was an hour north of me.

This efficient system is called "SmartPost." Not so much, I think.

As someone who shops online 90% of the time for the past several years, I foking HATE this method!!! I have complained to FedEx MANY times to no avail. How foking stupid of them to "hand off packages to the local post office" for final delivery! All it does is DELAY shit. They only need to drive a couple of blocks in my case to deliver directly to my house.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Any service that transfers to USPS just delays the delivery. At least UPS will deliver if they're coming to our house anyways rather than transfer it to USPS. Fedex doesn't do that.

If you think UPS isn't part of this USPS final delivery thing, think again. I placed an order for a motorcycle helmet. All goes well with tracking the shipment but wondered why UPS was showing final delivery to be an extra day over what it should be. I scroll down the tracking history and see the additional notes of a USPS tracking number.

And you know what is a bit more frustrating? The helmet is sitting at a UPS shipping hub which I can walk to. Yet I have to wait another day for it.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

If you think UPS isn't part of this USPS final delivery thing, think again. I placed an order for a motorcycle helmet. All goes well with tracking the shipment but wondered why UPS was showing final delivery to be an extra day over what it should be. I scroll down the tracking history and see the additional notes of a USPS tracking number.

And you know what is a bit more frustrating? The helmet is sitting at a UPS shipping hub which I can walk to. Yet I have to wait another day for it.

Oh, I know UPS does this, too. But we get UPS packages almost daily (Wifey's side gig), so they always skip the PO transfer and just deliver the packages to us instead.