If I may return to the subject of shipping woes, the package I sent to Paul’s sister still hasn’t budged. I signed up for email AND text alerts, since some commenters reported having success with that, but to no avail. It took from the 11th to the 15th to travel 20 minutes away, and nothing has happened since the 15th.
The gift cards I ordered on the 8th to give to UPS and USPS have not arrived, either; they were shipped USPS on the 9th, and the tracking info shows nothing since the shipment notification. Target still shows them as “arriving by the 18th,” even though today is the 22nd.
We got two Christmas cards in the mail yesterday. One was postmarked the 17th, which would be a normal sort of mailing time for this time of year, but the other was postmarked the 11th, so it took ten days to get to us, which would not be normal, even for this time of year.
One of Henry’s Christmas presents was shipped USPS on December 11th, and hasn’t been seen since. It’s fine, he’ll be okay with getting a wrapped notification that it’s coming sometime soon, but I’m worried it’ll be lost.
Rob said he read somewhere that to save time, the post office has stopped scanning as many things? I don’t know if that’s true, or if it even makes sense (i.e., maybe the scanning is inherent to the way they process packages, as opposed to being an extra step), but it gives me some hope. Rob said what he read is that people were refreshing the tracking page, which would show the package at a standstill, and then suddenly the package would just arrive. Well, isn’t that just EXACTLY what I’d like to happen with Paul’s sister’s package.
I keep finding my mind drifting to what if it’s just LOST? What if it burst open, the contents strewn throughout the package-processing system?? And then I turn my mind back to THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW. And: I WILL DEAL WITH THAT IN REALITY IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE THE CASE, AND NOT MENTALLY IN ADVANCE.
Back to the more cheerful subject of holiday baking. Yesterday I was less zealous than the day before, but I made Triple Layer Cookie Bars and Flourless Fudge Cookies (Elizabeth: “I want to eat these for every meal”). Today I am thinking I’ll make Christmas Crack(er) and fudge/penuche.
I am waiting on a pair of joggers for my niece. Amazon said they would be delivered between the 18th and 22nd. But I’m not sure if I had them delivered to my house or my office. I’m hoping house, because I’m hoping to not work tomorrow at the office.
I am easing the Postal burden by not getting my stuff together early enough to do Christmas cards this year. Or at least that’s the story I’m sticking with.
I have absolutely been trying to track packages that stuck “in transit” and then suddenly appeared at the door, with no steps in between, so that could very well still happen. It doesn’t stop me from obsessively tracking, but it eases my worries a little bit, to know that might be it.
I get the informed delivery digest emails, and I am even noticing Christmas cards that are scanned as being delivered on a certain day, but aren’t, and then are scanned again the next day. They are just SO swamped.
I made those Christmas crackers last night, although the recipe I used includes pecans on top of the chocolate. It is so good! And I am going to have to try those flourless chocolate cookies, they look like ones I used to get from a bakery near an old job.
I have also been having similar frets about one of my missing packages — it has two presents for my mom and they shipped it in November and it has been stuck since Dec 12th with no updates. Is it lost? When can I consider it “long enough” to contact the company to ask them to replace my order, which also had two things for me in it? Will my mom believe me that I ordered these presents before Thanksgiving so that they would have plenty of time to get here and how disappointed is she going to be to not have them? (Henry is more able to deal with delayed present getting than my mom, apparently).
Maybe I should just go do some more baking.
Send your mom the email showing when you ordered it.
I sent Paul’s sister the tracking number, “in case you want to keep obsessively refreshing the page with me!”—but also so she could see I GENUINELY DID send it two full weeks before Christmas.
I also was tracking something that was many states away and late. The last update was a week prior saying it was in transit. I also held little hope. And then in the middle of the night a note came through saying it was at my local distribution center. I woke up to that message and another saying it would be delivered that day. And then a couple hours later, it was. I still have hope for you and your gifts.
I sent my Christmas cards in mid-November (Canada switches to Christmas mode right after Remembrance Day on November 11th since our Thanksgiving is in October) to try to alleviate burden on the postal system this month. I got some mocking and complaints from recipients – my Dad told my stepmother that it was ridiculously early and refused to let her open the envelope before December – but I still stand by my decision now that the mail is indeed jammed. See also: finished ordering most Christmas presents in November.
In contrast, my baking will start on Christmas Eve with a batch or two of cookies with the kids. My entire province goes into full lockdown on Boxing Day, so I’m thinking that week when I’m off is the perfect opportunity to fill my time with some baking and fill the house with yummy smells. And thanks to recommendations here, we’ll be unwrapping a couple of games to pass the time as well.
I can’t speak to what the larger problem is, but my sister works for the post office delivering mail and she’s been having to go into work at 5:30 in the morning and doesn’t get home sometimes until 930 or 10 o’clock at night. They normally have subs deliver packages and there’s been some kind of hiring freeze so they don’t have enough people to deliver, plus anyone who’s gotten Covid is out. So they are short staffed but working frantically to get everything delivered. At least in my neck of the woods.
I am trying to channel patience and zen with the post office BUT. We sent four packages to family on December 14, paying quite a bit for 2 day shipping on all four and they haven’t left my zip code yet.
It’s fine it’s fine it’s all fine it’s handmade gifts that we spent a huge amount of time on it’s fine it’s fine it’s fine.
I am extremely here for further discussion of shipping woes. After commenters on the last post said they’d seen their packages move after signing up for text/email alerts, I did so for a package I’ve been waiting on since the end of November, and now I’ve received updates on three consecutive days that the package has left their Memphis facility. (Of note: I live nowhere near Memphis.) Somehow this feels worse, receiving nonsensical Groundhog Day-ish updates vs. having no information at all. Quit trolling me, USPS.
I don’t know if this will make you feel better, but I have had a number of packages get stuck for days/weeks in USPS distribution centers, and so far almost all of them have made it to their destination. (I still have 2 that are in limbo, but those only shipped last week, so I’m not surprised.) My MIL shipped us multiple packages from MD on Dec. 8, they made it to the Kansas City distribution center on Dec. 11, and then sat there until they left on the 20th & were delivered to my house in the KC suburbs on Dec. 21. It seems like the distribution centers are definitely the problem. Some of my packages have gotten stuck in the ones near the sender, and some of them have gotten stuck in the one near the recipient, it doesn’t seem to matter.
I read a thread on Twitter over the weekend (which now of course I cannot find to share) by a USPS employee who said part of the problem is that USPS uses commercial flights to ship packages, and there are so many fewer commercial flights these days that a lot of packages are just waiting around for a flight. This employee said that if your package was going more than 10 hrs away (by car) it would be flown instead of put on a truck.
I do think that most packages are not lost right now, even when their tracking information doesn’t update for 10+ days, they are just stuck waiting to be directed on their way.
The package I priority-mailed December 4th, with a delivery time of December 7th, arrived yesterday! After leaving Tulsa three times over a two-week period. So there is hope.
But yes. Way, way past time to fire Dejoy so that we could maybe, you know, have a functioning Postal Service through the remainder of the pandemic… (I do not understand them trying to kill off the Postal Service *during a pandemic* – I grasp that if the USPS didn’t exist at all, private businesses would make a lot more money, but the American public as a whole would be *spending* more money, and in some cases, esp. rural, *vastly* more money, and this does not seem like a net gain for America? AND ESPECIALLY NOT DURING A PANDEMIC.)
If we can keep military equipment up to date and stowed in warehouses, surely we can put money into getting postal infrastructure adequate and also, you know, hiring people. Many of whom are currently unemployed? This seems like it would have been a good thing to be working on in July and August, rather than applying Austerity Measures to the post office, but it all depends on whether your preferred outcome is the demise of the USPS and the cessation of public support for the USPS to make it easier to kill off, or whether your preferred outcome is, you know, postal service for Americans.
The real issue is that we take too much money out of the post office. It barred by law from taking taxpayer money but cannot set its own prices. Then in 2006 the tea party decided to make the post office more “fiscally responsible” by pre-funding 75 years worth of retiree benefits in 10 years. USPS had to defer some of those payments, because it’s crazy unreasonable, so the amount they have to pre-pay goes and USPS is still spending about a billion dollars every year on future retiree benefits. No private company would have to do this, no government entity would have to do this. If the USPS did normal retirement benefit saving rates it would be a PROFITABLE entity.
DeJoy isn’t helping but the problem can only be fixed by Congress.
The thing is, the bonkers retirement thing was enacted *specifically to kill* the post office so it could be replaced with private enterprise. And yes, Congress needs to fix that.
But also, I’d be *really happy* to have the post office receive government funding at least through the duration of the pandemic but instead: we get “savings” measures… which result in the post office working less well, so the public will get mad at it, so the anti-post-office crew can replace it with entities where the profit can flow in specific directions rather than feeding back in to providing a public service. It is… not good… at any level.
I mailed two packages on the 10th and one made it without me checking on it (thanks nephew for the text!) and the other…. appeared to not have lever been checked in at all. Yesterday I filled out the “could you look into this” form and Libby and behold they closed my case because my package had been delivered “to my house” except I was sending it to my brothers house. Anyway, I texted him and yes indeed he had the package- I still have no idea what was up with tracking.
I, too, have had the “your package is on its way, then crickets” situation for several packages now. All of them went from shipped to delivered with absolutely no location tracking available. As Rob read, I assumed they were not scanning as normal this year. Who knows, but thought it might be hopeful to hear it has happened with good delivery outcomes.
This is making me so stressed out for everyone!! I have only 1 gift that I’m worried about, and it’s for my husband and I know he’ll be fine opening a proxy gift. I know one for my mom won’t make it, but it’s not the “main” gift and will be fine. I am so upset and distraught for everyone who is counting on important things!! Especially those of you who mailed things so early in an attempt to avoid this exact situation!!
I realized last night that Santa should really top off one kid’s gift, but whereas in Normal Times I could have hopped on Amazon and primed some Barbie clothes to our house with days to spare, that is 0% an option now. Currently dithering between going in person to a store vs. hoping the 4 yr old doesn’t mind the size discrepancy between gifts :-/
Is it possible to just hold back some of Sibling’s present(s) so the size difference is smaller? I only know about this strategy because my mom used to occasionally hand me gifts several days after Christmas, explaining that she had bought too many for me relative to my siblings. (I now wonder if she had done this for my siblings too on other years?) Maybe save part of sibling’s gift for a post-Christmas scavenger hunt or something? That would give you time to get the Barbie clothes!
Yes yes please let’s discuss. My husband is sick of my “usps package missing” google searches.
A package has been sitting in Jersey city warehouse since December 12. No updates. I signed for email updates for everything (I can’t handle being disappointed via text as well). One of mine that hadn’t moved since the 14th got one of those in transit updates with no location. Does that mean its finally moving somewhere?
Also, what if our packages are lost? I’ve been trying to use more small businesses but I also feel a lot less bad having Amazon send me replacements if they lose something. Argh.
Hank Green (he has an online store) just tweeted: Hey! So, as expected, lots of packages are very late. This is because shipping volume is up 30% to 40% year over year, but there are fewer people working because of COVID cases and quarantines. Please, understand that this is a pandemic and be kind to customer support reps.
Apparently it’s called Shippagaedon
For a real thrill cast an eye at the UK’s current postage situation 😵 it’s even stoped motorways.
Who knows if when/where anything has ended up it’s carnage. Nothing in , nothing out anymore either, it’s like regular Christmas post wasn’t crazy enough.
I really hope everything turns up where it’s meant to in time, especially the sil care package/Christmas.
What your son says rings true here, even at regular times we totally have things say recieved at depot and then I’ll be a bit glum that that’s still quite a way up the chain and then it appears at our door that day!
My sister posted me parcels yesterday (using Royal Mail) and they arrived in 24 hours as promised. I think the regular UK post has been slower but as far as I know everything I posted last Wednesday had arrived by the beginning of this week. So our domestic post seems to be handling things ok. International is trickier!
Does it make you feel better to hear that I have had several packages stop making any progress in shipping and suddenly end up on my doorstep? So all is not lost!! I also got an email from a seller saying my package was delivered, when it most certainly had not been. And the next day that package mysteriously ended up on my doorstep, too. Weird.
Add me to the list of people who had a package mysteriously go from sitting in a regional distribution center to out for delivery with no notice in between. I ordered a DVD box set for my mom through Amazon. I ordered it Nov. 27 because it was coming from Toronto and would go through customs. Packages can get slowed down at customs. I checked Amazon in early Dec. and saw that it had made it to the Pittsburgh regional sorting center Dec. 3. AWESOME! Nope. That was the last update I got for 3 weeks. It got to the point where I contacted the seller to request a refund figuring the box was lost. The seller asked for a few more days. At that point I knew my mom was not planning to come to our house on Christmas (which given the current weather forecast was prescient) and it was very unlikely I would see her before Christmas. So I did give it a few more days. Why not? And then on Dec. 22 I got the email that it was out for delivery. And it was actually in my mailbox that day!
I’m still disappointed that there is no way I can get it to my mom before Christmas. I don’t know what (if anything ) my brother and sister get her. At some point in the last decade I realized that my mom doesn’t really have anyone to buy her Christmas and birthday gifts. I’m sure she would tell me she is just fine without them. But I’m also sure she likes being thought of on both of those days.
I think C read the same article, tweet, whatever that Rob did because he said much the same thing. That postal workers are forgoing scanning items. Which I find odd. I thought the postal service was very automated and one would *need* to scan barcodes to get the items on the right truck/plane. Apparently not. Anyway, maybe all of us rooting for Paul’s sister’s package to get to her in time will work, much like clapping for Tinkerbell.
Yes to the stuck in transit message! I ordered something at the beginning of December and still haven’t received it. I don’t need it for Christmas since it is for me, but still how long do I wait to notify the vendor. My tracking information just says it is at a regional transit center (the one closest to the vendor), and will be arriving late. So my hope is that it’s out there somewhere wending it’s way slowly to me. I am going to wait until after Christmas to notify the vendor because I don’t want them to lose money by sending it to me again, but I also hope they don’t run out of the product in the meantime. Other than that I was fortunate, a couple of items I shipped to my daughter and sister actually got there before they were scheduled to arrive, whoo hoo!
I just had a package I’d given up on (picked up the 17th… stuck on “USPS is waiting to receive this parcel” since then) appear at its destination city this morning! Admittedly, it was listed as arriving at and then departing the distribution center… and just arrived at the same distribution center, five hours later. But still! It hopped halfway across the country! And has decent odds of getting there before its recipients leave the continent!
I sent a $50 gift card to my kids’ piano teacher through the mail six days ago. I put it into a Christmas card in a regular card-sized envelope and only used one stamp because internet research assured me that a single gift card send through the mail did not weigh more than a single stamp’s worth. Since I sent it in the normal “envelope” mail instead of as a package, there’s no way to track it. And since I have not received a text or acknowledgment from the recipient, who lives a single town away, I can only assume it’s stuck. Or she’s got her mail in quarantine. Or one stamp was NOT enough (grrr, I should have used two stamps). Or someone stole it out of her mailbox because it felt like a credit card/gift card. Whee, this is fun!
I am so invested in Paul’s sisters package right now. Hope it shows up tomorrow.
SAME!! I REALLY want this package to be there tomorrow!
Same. Came here to the comments just to see if there’d been an update and found a wee little club for us all.