I was just about to start a thread on crazy USPS routing, but I'll just toss it in here....hope I'm not going sideways.....like my package.
My order on 3/8 from CT to NY where I live is only 250 miles max/5hr drive, has already been in 3 locations, and left PA 3 days ago supposedly on it's way here, but will either go to Syracuse or Rochester first before it gets to my hometown.
In 1985, I flew from Frankfurt Am Main (Germany) to London (Emgland), a simple trip after my sojourn with USAREUR.
My luggage had the holiday of a lifetime arriving back just over 6 months later - it had been to many places including Abu Dhabi, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brazil, New York, Toronto, Glasgow.
Heathrow asked me to come and collect it but grudgingly delivered it when I refused; their lawyers had the effrontery to ask me to repay the compensation. I told them I would call a press conference instead, they threatened me but decided to waive their repayment claim.
I will finally be getting an 1885-S Morgan today that I purchased from Great Collections on March 1st. It was picked up in Irvine, CA and once it got to Anaheim it spent 10 days there. No idea why. I've had other times when something I sent to a buyer ended up zig zagging all across the country. Crazy, indeed.
A few weeks ago, I finally got a Franklin half (plus a bunch of other stuff) sent to me in early December.
It went, essentially, like this:
December 6 - sent out from Middle-of-Nowhere, Volga, Russia[1] Dec 12 - arrived at local post office, Moscow, Russia Dec 13 - local post office decides not to send me a notification early January - I start worrying why it hadn't arrived yet Jan 13 - local post office gets tired of waiting for me, sends the package back to Volga Jan 17 - package arrives in Middle-of-Nowhere Jan 21 - sender realizes something is wrong, resends the package back Jan 23 - after some confusion, I finally receive the tracking number Jan 24 - package arrives at main Moscow post office, something probably slipped on the way Jan 25 - package sent back to Volga!! never reaching my local post office Jan 27 - Middle-of-Nowhere post office sends it back to Moscow Jan 30 - after arriving in Moscow, it is again sent back to Volga
There were a few more cycles after that; sometime in early February, after a heated conversation with the post, it was resent again under a different tracking number. I finally got the notification (luckily) and then the package another two weeks later.
[1] I don't include the actual town name for privacy reasons, but it basically was middle of nowhere
I don't think Canada is quite large enough (in population) to need a non-centralized system. Everything seems to get sent to a Toronto depot, then to Edmonton's own depot, and then it makes its way to my mailbox. (Stuff that comes from across the Pacific and not across the Atlantic gets sent to Vancouver.)
I wonder what would happen if you mailed something from Chukotka to Yukon. Would it be sent to Moscow, then Toronto, then to you?
I think it actually serves Fedex financially to bring everything in the system to Memphis overnight. That way, all the downstream distribution centers can be simple rooms - scan the package and it'll even tell you what delivery truck to put it on. No sorting anywhere except Memphis.
Bring up Memphis Airport sometime on Google Maps or Earth. You'll see the big airport with all the north-south runways, and a space almost equally large to the north with its' own runway and a bazillion aircraft.
I don't buy it. Sure it's an edge case, maybe 0.0001% of all packages. But they scan them ANYWAY to decide which plane to put them on. A hole in the wall to toss the 1 in a million would save a lot of fuel. I believe it just wasn't something they thought about.
-----Burton
50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973)
Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA
Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club
Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983)
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Posted 03/12/2015 7:03 pm
