Rant on shipping

[Diggin It]

Got one coming today. Ordered from a private seller on the Bay place Wednesday the 27th about 5-600 miles away. USPS shows it scanned through four stops yesterday each over 100 miles from each other.

I once placed an order and paid for expediated delivery because I was leaving town in a few days.The package didn’t show up so I set a big Rubbermaid container on my doorstep with a sign reading”please leave package in container.”
When I got home 3 weeks later my package was setting on the doorstep right next to the box. Luckily it hadn’t rained.

I think I told this story once before. Ordered an air conditioner from the Sears website (when it still worked). On the day tracking showed it out for delivery, I set a hand truck out by the drive way with a note to leave the box on it. Figured I'd just roll it inside to open.

Problem was, there was a screwup with their item numbers and instead of an air conditioner, they sent a small handheld digital camera.

After delivery, I go out and there it is ... a tiny little 4" x 4" box setting on the hand truck.

Driver must have thought I was nuts.

 

[PILOON]

Favorite delivery stunt here is to simply place or tie a delivery onto the roadside trash bins.
The kind that a mechanized dumpster uses remote arms to dump.

If U are lucky the delivery was tied to the trash bin otherwise it joins the garbage and gets compressed.

All our drives are long so we don't have any idea that the delivery took place until U take out the trash.
Many times I've noticed such a delivery and call that neighbor to advise him, especially if it is pick up day.

 

[Pixguy]

On a better note, I have to order parts for our retail stores occasionally and when we order from Partstown, like 5pm last night they'll UPS overnight for $27.50 (for a screw or 10lb motor) from PA to the Canadian border. It arrived today at 4:30 and dirt cheap imo.

 

[MossRoad]

I ordered a chainsaw off of Amazon on October 20 and they said it wouldn't arrive until November 1st. It showed up October 23! I was pleasantly surprised.

I ordered a gift for someone and they said it would ship USPS and arrive in 10 days. It arrived in 6.

Last week I ordered a carb for an older chainsaw that I want to get running. Ship USPS. They said about 10 days. It showed up in 4.

So 3-for-3 in the past weeks. Maybe they're just putting out long arrival times so if it shows up early, you think you're getting great service.

Kinda like when you go to a restaurant and they say it'll be a 40 minute wait and call your name in 25 and you think that's just great!

 

[ultrarunner]

The furnace motor I order this week with 4-6 weeks delivery arrived in 7 days and at will call this morning.

 

[Frankenkubota]

i guess this qualifies. in the past i've detailed how lowe's has screwed up my interior door order so bad they had to buy me a replacement from home depot.

i could go into details but in a nutshell,

i ordered 5 interior doors, about $500 each. they sat at lowe's for months because they had the wrong phone number for me. they were shipped back. 5 new doors were resent, 1 was damaged. reorder, damaged again. reorder, this time lowe's lost the door and say they can't get it anymore so they buy me one from home depot.

home depot door arrived last week, damaged!

i don't know for sure but i'm guessing all this damage occurs in shipping?

$500.00 for a door made of Cardboard!

 

[Diggin It]

^^^ I go to the stores and look at $50 doors. I dig through the stock and find ones with small dings that I can get for $25. Haul 'em home, no shipping.

 

[Frankenkubota]

^^^ I go to the stores and look at $50 doors. I dig through the stock and find ones with small dings that I can get for $25. Haul 'em home, no shipping.

here's the damage. it's on both sides. i tried to reglue it but it's frigging cardboard and turns to mush.

here's the door. They weigh a ton and i'm a puss so dragging these things around is no bargain.

i would just buy something else but all 5 interior doors are
3 ft x 8ft with frosted glass panels and i think one odd ball would look stupid.

Bastages!

 

[Oaktree]

So 3-for-3 in the past weeks. Maybe they're just putting out long arrival times so if it shows up early, you think you're getting great service.

Kinda like when you go to a restaurant and they say it'll be a 40 minute wait and call your name in 25 and you think that's just great!

That's probably exactly what they're doing, as opposed to promising ideal-conditions-only ship times like they used to. Makes sense to me.

 

[Diggin It]

Ordered something from Northern Tool via AMZ. I wenrt that way instead of direct from the NT website so I could get the equal monthly payments the AMZ card offers.

Though I had read up on the item several times before, I missed one detail that made it unsuitable for my needs.

I contacted NT through the AMZ seller contact portal and requested cancellation BEFORE the item had shipped. NT gave me a song and dance about a fully automated system they couldn't intercede on and cancel the shipment, but that after it shipped, I could call the carrier and request return to sender. Two days later, I get the ship notice coming via FedEx. I'm in town today, so I stop by one of the FedEx offices (the one that the package would be processed through) and make that request. They refused, told me I had to call the 800 number.

I've spent that last 20 minutes on the phone punching buttons and yelling at the stupid voice system before finally getting through to a person ... in Asia ... that I could barely understand. This person was fully uncooperative and as it turns out incompetent. After being 'done' with her and demanding a Supervisor several times, I finally got transferred to someone here in the US. This one knew her job and took the cancellation/return request and gave me a case number. She also told me she instructed the overseas agent how it should have been handled.

Now it remains to be seen if the package proceeds or stops.

Yes, it was my fault initially, but I gave them plenty of notice and there is no reason for NT to have shipped it and incurred that cost.