Shipping shit, weekend

by Duf Anything and Everything

I have had multiple bad experiences with shipping recently. I mentioned a little while ago that UPS’s rates suck. Add slow and unreliable to the list. I also am not thrilled with USPS priority mail service. I used USPS priority mail to mail my brother’s laptop back up to him. Typically priority mail takes 2 days to get to PA from here. I mailed it on Saturday, my brother didn’t get the box till Thursday. I had the tracking service for it and it said it left Jersey City, NJ on Monday yet somehow it took an additional 3 days to go the remaing distance to PA. When I tried to get additional info from the post office they could tell me nothing except what I already found online. They said they don’t consider an item lost until it has been in transit for 14 days. Nice. I was relieved when my bro said it showed yesterday.

UPS is way overpriced. Even ground service costs a fortune and it is as slow as shit. I bought something on ebay that shipped last friday from the west coast, it isn’t scheduled to get to me until next Monday, 7 business days. The max coast to coast used to take was 5 days. So they raise the prices and decrease the service level. I have another shipment in progress that was sent 2nd day air. It was supposed to arrive yesterday. The tracking info shows it made it as far as Orlando and no further. My calls to UPS yesterday yielded no info, just canned responses that the system still shows an ontime delivery, even though there is no tracking beyond Orlando which is 3 hours north of us. Well it never came so I called first thing this morning and let them know that the tracking still hasn’t changed. The first guy I talked to sounded like was just awakened from a 10 year sleep. He said “We have until 5pm Nov 4th to deliver it…” I said today is November 5th. “Oh, mumble mumble, let me transfer you…” So now I have a tracking investigation going on. I fear someone got sticky fingers at UPS. DHL, here I come.

I have to work tonight and a good chunk of Saturday. The rest of the weekend will be spent watching football and driving around to check out potential investment properties. Nothing thrilling.