Unbelievable USPS
You how when someone tells you a story and you think, that cannot be possible. She made it up. I can tell you that is not true when it comes to the United States Postal Service. It truly is unbelievable though it is going on right now.
I mailed a 2-pound package, a box about 7×9 inches, certainly large enough to see, inside the post office at Oral, S.D., on Friday, March 27. I shipped it priority to Austin, Texas.
It is now April 8, which is 12 days from shipment. I have been tracking it and here is where it is today: Sioux Falls, S.D. Using the tracker system with the number provided by the U.S. post office, this is the circuitous route — so far. And the tracker can’t even keep track of where the package is.
The first time I tracked, it showed the package mailed on March 27 took until April 2 to get to Rapid City, S.D., 60 miles away. Today the tracking device tells a different story, so I’ll go with the latest. All are USPS distribution centers. Remember the package was shipped to Austin, Texas.
March 27 — mailed at Oral, S.D., Priority Mail
March 27 — arrived Rapid City, S.D.
March 28 — arrived Denver
March 29 — arrived Dallas
March 29-March 31 — at Dallas
March 31 — arrived Olathe, Kan.
April 1 — arrived Sioux Falls, S.D.
April 2 — arrived Rapid City, S.D.
April 3 — arrived Denver
April 4 — arrived Dallas
April 6 — left Dallas
April 7 — arrived Olathe, Kan.
April 8 — 10:05 a.m., arrived Sioux Falls, S.D.
Apparently the package hasn’t moved since then.
And it’s somewhere in USPS limbo. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the package shows up in my mailbox. I wish it would, then I could take it to any other shipper but USPS, and pay again to ship it.
Before I shipped with USPS, I attempted to send it via FEDEX from my home. I spent 90 minutes signing up, then expected a printable label, and a scheduled pickup. After spending that much time navigating their system, when I got to the screen that tells you to print the label, the message was that the machine was down and I would have to try again later. Since it is my computer printer that does the actual printing, that didn’t make sense. But I had wasted enough time. Eight days after signing up to ship via FEDEX, I received a welcome email, saying I could now ship from my home through them. I wonder who is in charge of their circus.
Where we live it is 60 miles, going north or south, to send a package with FEDEX. On the other hand, if you can get through the maze of creating a label, UPS has drop-off points just 30 miles away. Again, it is 60 miles to send a package, if you don’t have a label and one has to be created on site. I made the mistake of thinking I would save myself time by mailing it five miles from my home. How wrong I was.
Lesson learned.
Sanders can be reached through her internet latchstring, peggy@peggysanders.com.
