I have discovered that the whole "track your package" thing is not only cool, but can be quite aggravating. Has anyone actually been waiting on their online order and tracked your package every day? Because sometimes it really makes NO SENSE whatsoever.
Just sayin'.
Awhile back, I went ordered a couple books on Barnes & Noble online. My order got to me in about three days. Awesomeness.
Eventually I wanted a couple more books, so I went back to Barnes & Noble online to order the next couple of books in the series. For whatever reason, the website never processed my order. Two freaking days later, I was still trying to place the freaking order. No joke. I even emailed their help center. That was a joke.
So, I did what anyone would do. I want to Amazon and made my purchase there. Unfortunately I didn't get my Barnes & Noble discount, nor the free shipping, but it was only a couple of books, no biggie. Fortunately for my temper, the website processed the order the first time round and then it told me that it would be 7-10 days shipping.
Oh. My. God. My heart dropped.
I kept telling myself, "don't worry J.Day, it'll get here sooner than that."
So, I tracked the package. Wow. I did a lot of face-palms for a week. Here's why.
As you can clearly see, it starts out in Kent, WA and makes it way to Sacramento, CA. Sacramento is about 5-6 hours south of me. I figured it would make it's way to either Redding or Reno and then up here to Sticksville. Wow, I couldn't have been more wrong. The damn package goes back to Kent, WA from Sacramento. Now, I can't quite figure why the hell it would go back to its original location. Kent is near Seattle, which is not far from the Canadian border, so we're looking at about an 11 hour drive from Sacramento to Seattle. So . . . I repeat, why would the package go 11 hours in the wrong direction?!
Then it eventually makes it to Portland, OR, then to Klamath Falls, OR, then to me. I mean, seriously? Talk about a wasted trip. Not to mention it had to bypass me just to get to Sacramento in the first place. I'm curious why it couldn't have just gone from Kent to Portland to Klamath to me in the first place. Wouldn't that have been, oh I don't know, more efficient?
Now, I recently went back to Barnes & Noble online for a couple more books in the series. Luckily for me the order was actually placed, I got free shipping plus my member discount, saving about $10 total. Not bad. I got an email last night saying it had shipped. I checked it this morning and it started in Sparks, NV (or Reno if that's more familiar to you) went to West Sacramento, up to Anderson and it tells me I should expect delivery tomorrow. Hot damn. No face-palms there. How simple. (Turns out it arrived a day before the "expected delivery". Talk about ecstatic!)
This whole "track your package" option is great. Until you watch your package travel a days journey in the wrong direction, and to make matters worse, it had just come from there. It's like watching a tennis match - the package just keeps going back and forth. And eventually, it will show up. Yikes.
Perhaps the Fed Ex folks are trying to keep their jobs just as much as the people who work for the snail mail system? If the package goes back to its original location that equals more work.
ReplyDeleteEntirely possible, especially in this economy. lol
DeleteDid you order "The Biography of Wrongway Feldman"?
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, I didn't. lol
DeleteI've never ordered anything from Amazon.com - I'll keep this in mind if I ever do...that is friggin' insane! And I thought newegg.com was bad.
ReplyDeleteA couple of months ago I ordered a new mp3 player as a birthday present for myself, from walmart.com (cheaper than in the store). The tracking number given me kept coming up "invalid", so I had to email them to find out what was going on. Turns out it was shipped via snail mail, and it wasn't being tracked as a result. Still arrived when they said it would, though!
Well, usually you get shipping done faster but you have to pay extra for it. I refuse to. lol
DeleteI have my theory about all these companies that charge for shipping. They want you to get the most expensive shipping, the one that take 1-2 days, but if you go for the regular ground shipping, they delay it as long as possible so you get pissed off and get the more expensive shipping next time. My husband is a package tracker too, I don't really care as long as it gets here, looking at all those tracking screens gives me a headache.:)
ReplyDeleteI'd rather complain about their lack of efficiency than pay extra for faster shipping. lol
DeleteWorking for the USPS we see this all the time. The worst is that now UPS and Fed-Ex both ship from their warehouses and then drop ship to us for the final destination. (It was an act a few years ago to help cut their costs.) So I'd start out ordering something, think it was coming one way, then have it end up coming either through UPS or USPS.
ReplyDeleteOf course, USPS would be fine, because they'd just hand it to me. But UPS always ends up on the neighbor's porch, in the rain for a week until she arrives back in town to discover it on Friday night.
I had 900 pictures ruined that way last year. :(
900 pictures lost?! That's terrible!
DeleteIt was thanks to the tracking system that my bf discovered that his camera had been delivered to the wrong house! The tracking system said it had been delivered yet he hadn't got it. Cue a lot of angry phone calls. Thankfully it all worked out in the end so I know how frustrating this was for you!
ReplyDeleteWell, that would be aggravating - being told it was delivered while you're saying it wasn't. Glad it was found though!
DeleteGood grief, your package really went on a tour there! I am insane with those tracking things. I check it constantly like a dog running to a window to see when its master will be home.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really fun is when it's one town away, and then I really AM running to the window and pushing my dog aside to look out...