Remember MONTHS ago I had a giveaway where I put a bunch of my remnants up for grabs? I had everything packed up nice and tidy. I picked the winner, and very promptly shipped the package. It was about a week or so before Christmas, and I thought I had a shot of getting this to the winner before Christmas. I'm in Pennsylvania, the winner is in Washington state, so that's a cross-country trek, but I had faith. The postal clerk told me my package would be delivered by January 2nd. OK, not too terrible. I can live with that. I slapped a tracking number on it and called it a day. Or...a lunch break, to be precise. I informed the winner I had shipped it, and then joked that she would probably have it by Valentine's Day.
I went about my holidays, and it slipped my mind until I was back at work digging in my wallet for money for lunch and found the receipt. I typed in the tracking number, expecting to see an 'Out for Delivery' message. Instead, what I saw was 'Arrived at Honolulu, HI sorting facility.' Hawaii is decidedly NOT Washington. My stomach got all twisty as it was quite a box of fabric, and nothing I could replace. But then I thought "Hey now, they'll get it in Hawaii and realize the mistake and shoot it north." Which is what happened. After my package had a two week vacation in Hawaii. But then it finally moved on. It became an obsession to track this thing, let me tell you. I should have taken a screen shot from the very beginning of the process, but here's what things looked like towards the end of the journey.
My favorite part is how it took a month to get from Hawaii to California (not shown) but also how it was in Federal Way, Washington TWICE! When it hit Denver I surely thought it was coming back to me. Maybe I wrote the address wrong. Maybe she lives in a houseboat and they can't find it. These are the thoughts I had. Then, magically, it reached its destination. Please note how the delivery status was never updated at the final stage. A few days before Valentine's Day and this package finally got where it was going.
Instead of sewing I shall now be opening a psychic network as I predicted that so accurately. I shall also be doing some technological assessments to see if the post office is reading my email and chuckling, saying to itself "So you think January 2nd is a long time? Just you wait!"
I'm laughing really hard, while at the same time wondering if something similar has happened to a poor package I sent to Florida in early January. Since the cost of tracking would have been the same amount as the cost of the layer cake the lady was buying, I advised against it, but of course now we have no idea where it is, and it hasn't come back to me either. Grrrr.
ReplyDeleteI have sworn off of EVER using the USPS again!!! I sent a package to my son's family on Dec 17, I paid for the "expedited" Priority Service ($12.85) and the receipt CLEARLY STATED that it would be delivered Thursday, Dec. 19. (This was perfect because my son & family were leaving the morning of Dec 20 to travel to VA to have Christmas with my D-I-L's family.) I get a call from my son the evening of Dec 19, saying no package. I check the tracking, and it shows that the package hasn't even left TX! I tell my son to let me know if it's not there in the mail the next morning (their mail runs by 9:30 a.m.) Friday morning, NO PKG!!! I gave my son the tracking info because my PO said that only the receiving PO could track. Long story short, the package wasn't even received by the PO in my son's state until Tues Dec 24!!! Thus my grandkids didn't get there presents until they returned home from VA. Ok, I'll allow one screw up, cause heck it was Christmas....Come Feb and Valentine's day. Given my last experience, I send out my package A FULL WEEK before the holiday! Again, I pay the 12.85 for "Priority" mail...AGAIN, my package doesn't get there until the DAY AFTER VALENTINES!!!! I'm D-O-N-E!!! Fed EX here I come!!!!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever in your life seen anything to beat this? The poor winner, she must have been wondering what was going on! Crazy USPS!
ReplyDeleteMary
Thank you. That makes me feel better about the fact that the Canadian Post Office is going to stop delivering my mail, six months from now!
ReplyDeleteI have received shipments from China in less than 2 weeks time. I have sent things Priority mail and first class and they both arrive about the same time. Not worth the extra money to send it any faster because they do not guarantee delivery in 2-3 days anyhow. It's only a guesstimate when it will arrive. So even though your package had a rather long vacation, it still arrived at it's destination eventually. Too bad you didn't pack yourself into that box so you could have been shipped to Hawaii, lol!!!
ReplyDeleteOh lord, Beth, I luv ya!! Yeah, folks I was the winner and all I could do was chuckle. It was kinda funny, the day she sent me email to tell me it was in Hawaii, I was gonna send her email and ask her to track and see what happened.
ReplyDeleteWe had a good laugh, and the fabric is Beautiful, btw. But yeah, don't tempt the Post Office. :D
Oh, my goodness! Awful and hilarious simultaneously. =)
ReplyDeleteThe mail room is the best thing that could have happened to our office. We are sending out all these different things every day, and this service just makes it so much easier to do. There are lots of things that we have pack and ship every day, and we can avoid problems with our shipments using a service that does it for us.
ReplyDeleteKurt Bohling @ Philadelphia Mail Room