Do you track your online orders? Had a good laugh today....

Colleen

Colleen

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
I order a quilting book from Walmart 2 days ago. I live in western PA near the Ohio border, only about 10 miles from Youngstown.
I got an email confirming my order and it said it would be arriving on April 14th. OK...that's longer then I expected but we live in an Amazon world where everything is at our doorstep within 2-3 days. I got another email today saying it was arriving earlier. It would be April 11th. Sigh :(
I always check the tracking to see where packages are and where they started out. In this case, my book started out being shipped from West Mifflin, PA, which is a suburb of Pittsburgh, which is about 65 miles south of me. Then it went to York, PA, which is 284 miles east of me! What??
I guess it's taking the scenic route. Made me laugh :)
 

I once had an order that took a tour of the whole eastern half of the United States. It came from Bulgaria, which I had no idea at the time of my order. Then it got stuck in customs for over 3 months and finally went from New York to Chicago. Then it went to Minnesota. I got a little miffed when I saw it went from Minnesota to Mississippi before going to Memphis, TN and totally bypassing my house in Kentucky. It was held captive for about a week in Memphis. When I saw it finally made it to Nashville, I received it the next day.

What's odd is that the company in Bulgaria actually shipped out my order in 3 days. I gave the company 5 stars. It wasn't their fault at all.
 

Most people do not realize that mail and packages are sent to various facilities for processing. I live in Dallas Fort Worth, I know if I mail something to the next door neighbor it is still going to go the Fort Worth processing center instead of the post office where I put it in the mail. Each piece of mail must be counted down to the city, zip code, street address. This how the USPS decides when a new route should be added to a post office, reflects how much mail is being carried by one mail person. It affects their salary and when the route needs an additional carrier. I could be wrong but I think all FEDEX packages go through the Memphis Hub for counts and are then dispatched to the appropriate center for delivery.
 
Ordered a tile mosaic once from a shop in Beirut. Just before the last Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Got to see online that the Beirut airport was shut down and so they sent it overland to Damascus where it flew out to Germany I think and then on. That was a fun one to track, and much to my surprise I did get the mosaic undamaged. A little late, but I didn't complain.
 
We used to have a mail processing center in a nearby town but it was shut down and the work went to another about 100 miles +/- away. It makes me laugh when I send a Christmas card to my next door neighbor.
 
About a year ago I was tracking something that had been lost in the mail for about a week. When it finally started moving again, I thought the trouble was over because I saw it was at a post office about 25 miles from here. When I checked again, it was in an entirely different state. :rolleyes:
 
Alligatorob said:
Ordered a tile mosaic once from a shop in Beirut. Just before the last Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Got to see online that the Beirut airport was shut down and so they sent it overland to Damascus where it flew out to Germany I think and then on. That was a fun one to track, and much to my surprise I did get the mosaic undamaged. A little late, but I didn't complain.
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It does get interesting when tracking packages overseas. After reading your post it reminded me that my package from Bulgaria also was routed through Germany. Germany must be a "hub" like Memphis is here in the U.S.

After my experience, I always have to remind myself to look for information about where the package is being shipped from before I order. If it's from anywhere outside of the U.S. I just keep looking. But to be fair, my package was also delivered with no damage...I was astonished!
 
Yes, I do track my orders and our packages do travel around to get to us but it always brightens my day to get the message that my package has been delivered or better yet a picture showing my package by the front door.
 
Colleen said:
my book started out being shipped from West Mifflin, PA, which is a suburb of Pittsburgh, which is about 65 miles south of me. Then it went to York, PA, which is 284 miles east of me! What??
I guess it's taking the scenic route. Made me laugh :)
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I live in southwestern Virginia. I ordered a thing from Ohio. UPS took it to Pennsylvania, and then it was shipped down toward me. It went down a highway that is 3.7 miles from my house to terminal in North Carolina 200 miles south of me. I know they wouldn't go 3.7 miles out of the way to take my order to me, because they have shipping centers that send out the home deliveries. But from North Carolina, they shipped it back up to a different city in Pennsylvania, then back to the same terminal in North Carolina, which put it on a local delivery truck that came to my house. I've seen this same thing happen 3 times, but other strange routes.

Of course, they make mistakes in shipping. I'm actually surprised the do as well as they do. But every once in a while, some guy at a terminal is half a sleep, or it's some other glitch.
 
CarolfromTX said:
@Colleen, sounds like you’re near New Castle, PA? Hubby grew up there. One of our first dates was an Italian restaurant in Sharon.
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Yes...we're near New Castle (19 miles!). Did you ever eat at Quaker Steak & Lube in Sharon? Sharon is getting a major reno, which is long overdue. Any good restaurants in New Castle?? BTW, we lived in Victoria, TX for a few years and when we first retired in 2001, we spent the winters in Brownsville. Are you near San Antonio?
 
JustDave said:
I live in southwestern Virginia. I ordered a thing from Ohio. UPS took it to Pennsylvania, and then it was shipped down toward me. It went down a highway that is 3.7 miles from my house to terminal in North Carolina 200 miles south of me. I know they wouldn't go 3.7 miles out of the way to take my order to me, because they have shipping centers that send out the home deliveries. But from North Carolina, they shipped it back up to a different city in Pennsylvania, then back to the same terminal in North Carolina, which put it on a local delivery truck that came to my house. I've seen this same thing happen 3 times, but other strange routes.

Of course, they make mistakes in shipping. I'm actually surprised the do as well as they do. But every once in a while, some guy at a terminal is half a sleep, or it's some other glitch.
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Last year, I ordered a quilting tool called a clapper. They're made of wood and used to make your fabric really flat after you iron. Anyway, I ordered one from a guy in Maine that made them but I never got it. He sent me a copy of the receipt from the post office so I could see that he had actually sent it. I still haven't received it. What do you suppose happens to things that are in a larger box???? How can they get "lost"??:unsure:
 
I have had orders shipped here only to take the sightseeing route and come back later in the week, or they sit in the local distro place if they have arrived early until the delivery day
 
deaver said:
I have had orders shipped here only to take the sightseeing route and come back later in the week, or they sit in the local distro place if they have arrived early until the delivery day
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One of those three back and forth round about deliveries I mentioned above actually arrived on the estimated delivery date. It's almost like they planned that wacky route on purpose, or maybe the final terminal sent it back to where it came from because they weren't supposed to get it that early, and they needed the shelf space for something else. :unsure:
 
If only packages could talk ... lol .. I have had deliveries make strange stops and detours along the way.
And when they are transferred from one carrier to another, it adds to the confusion.
 

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