Christmas, The USPS, guns and delays.

[Enfielder]

I bought a bing bang and paid for it right away. It was shipped on the 7th from the very center of Kentucky and since the 11th it has not updated its tracking info. I was told that rifle packages are “outsider” packages and that they have to be handled by a human. Given the time of year and the sheer volume of Amazon etc packages wandering the country, packages like a small rifle get kicked to the corner of the building.
The seller shipped two rifles out that day from the same P.O. and the first one went right through to its destination. Mine, however, is lost in the digital and no one can seem to find it.
Is anyone else having issues with shipping this time of the year? I told myself that I wouldn’t be buying anymore guns while living in NY but I broke down and bought one I’ve been eyeing for several years. After this, I’m done.

 

[trackskippy]

We have rural delivery and our mail lady is constantly bitching anymore, about both the USPS and Amazon.

This time of year is always bad, but now that Amazon, and a number of others are around, its just exponentially worse. Even the normal letter type mail is screwed up, and that's a whole other issue. The paper bills I still get are always late getting to me anymore.

Ive been having this "lost in space" problem with Amazon a lot lately too, and Im going through it right now as a matter of fact. It ships from one of their places fairly locally, and would normally be here in a day, and yet it goes across the country in the opposite direction for some reason, and then sits there for about 10 days. Of course, it has to sit there for a number of days before they will even deal with it. And that's before USPS even gets it, if it ever does.

I have the same/similar issue with USPS with the heavy gun stuff, like bulk bullets, paper targets, etc. Ive had to go to the post office and bitch about stuff sitting at a hub an hour away for days on end, and when I do, it usually shows up the next day or so. If you haven't already, and its in their system, Id try that.

 

[CapnMac]

None of this is helped by how the "tracking software" often is keyed to where the information is loaded down to, not the actual product or item.

So, an item scanned in to ship, can have that info then sent to the tracking system at the airport terminal. But, all that's happened is that an "expect [barcode number] at [location]. Nobody told the web page developer this (or no one paid the web monkey to care), so, each reported location is given equal value.

Some shippers will send tracking info to both ends of the shipping route, but fail to incude [expected to ship from] or [expected to receive from] in those notifications. So, if you eyeball the receipts, it looks like the thing has moved six, eight, a dozen times, before it even gets scanned into a truck to go to the next place in the line. This is counter-intuitive at best, but is part of the machination wanted for creating an audit trail for single items passing through many hands.

But, it very much means that, the person keen to get [thing] just sees a confused tangle of notifications, and not the product.

 

[jar]

Have a Christmas present holster that made it to within 250 miles but seems to have disappeared now for three days. But It finally does say it is delayed and considering it was supposed to be delivered here on the 12th I had kinda sorta maybe guessed already.

 

[Speedo66]

I’m tired of the BS where a vendor notifies you the item has “shipped”, but when you check the tracking #, you find all they did was give the info to the shipper, not the actual package.

It can be several days or longer before the actual package makes its way to the shipper. I don’t know who they think they’re fooling with this nonsense, it only tends to irritate the consumer.

 

[jar]

Well it seems bitching works. The Prodigal Package shows as out for delivery.

 

[rayatphonix]

4 or 5 years ago I purchased an air gun/rifle from Midway for a Christmas present to myself. 2 or 3 days later I receive the shipment notice from Midway. A week or so later I received an email from either Midway or the USPS about the package being sent to the wrong facility (I forget which). I never received the package. After 30 days Midway sent me a second rifle via UPS. Rifle arrived in good shape in a timely manner.

Lesson I learned was not to order something like that during the holiday rush. Somewhere someone is enjoying a free gift.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

There are black holes that packages can drop into. One is a UPS center in Louisville, KY. Recently some canned fish I had shipped from Finland (kalakukko, long story) got stuck in the special package purgatory there for two weeks, after the shipment was flagged by customs for special treatment. At that point tracking meant nothing, nor did any prodding on my part. Eventually the package just showed up at my door, no warning.



One would think firearms would be more closely tracked, but I suppose that's just naivety on my part.

 

[Jim Watson]

A bullet vendor sent a shipping notice on 12/6. Tracking number came up "Shipping label created, USPS awaiting item." And that is still all it shows a week later. No reply to an e-mail to vendor.

 

[Walkalong]

I bought a police trade in P-320 from Aim Surplus. Supposed to be here two Thursdays ago, then Friday, then it showed in town at the main USPS distribution center.............and then showed it. delayed......and delayed..........then finally showed for delivery last Wednesday and made it, so almost a week late. Meh, a little aggravating, but tis the season.

 

[Walkalong]

There are black holes that packages can drop into.

Yep, or maybe a time warp, or is that the same thing, but yep.

 

[irishlad]

I bought a police trade in P-320 from Aim Surplus. Supposed to be here two Thursdays ago, then Friday, then it showed in town at the main USPS distribution center.............and then showed it. delayed......and delayed..........then finally showed for delivery last Wednesday and made it, so almost a week late. Meh, a little aggravating, but tis the season.

Same thing happens to me here now.

Yep, or maybe a time warp, or is that the same thing, but yep.

Salt Lake City use to be our distribution center, they changed it to Las Vegas a month or so ago. It's added 1-3 days for deliveries. One of the very few people I shoot with is the postmaster here. Poor guy here gets complaints all day long now. We do not have home mail delivery here, so everyone has to go to the Post Office. UPS is the best for deliveries here. USPS was good until the change. FEDEX is last by a large margin.

 

[Enfielder]

It’s coming up on two weeks on Monday. I’ve heard nothing. The post office it was being shipped to inquired about it at the facility it made it to but they didn’t respond. I was told that i just need to wait.

 

[silicosys4]

Sportsman's outdoor superstore still has me in limbo over primers I ordered on black friday. It took them over two weeks to even ship them, now the tracking number only intermittently works and hasn't for the last two days. So I guess we'll see.
I have an antique Marlin that is supposed to be shipping to me in the next week or so...I'm really biting my nails on that one.

I carried mail for a few years, and this is a hazardous time for shipping fragile goods. I try not to have things shipped during this time, but sometimes you can't avoid it. There is no care, and "fragile" labels don't do anything. It's particularly painful knowing a 125 year old rifle is probably at the bottom of a pallet of dog food, tv's, and bottled water. Yes, people order bottled water.

 

[jar]

Well, one Prodigal Package did come home but now three others have gone WalkAbout.

 

[Enfielder]

Sportsman's outdoor superstore still has me in limbo over primers I ordered on black friday. It took them over two weeks to even ship them, now the tracking number only intermittently works and hasn't for the last two days. So I guess we'll see.
I have an antique Marlin that is supposed to be shipping to me in the next week or so...I'm really biting my nails on that one.

I carried mail for a few years, and this is a hazardous time for shipping fragile goods. I try not to have things shipped during this time, but sometimes you can't avoid it. There is no care, and "fragile" labels don't do anything. It's particularly painful knowing a 125 year old rifle is probably at the bottom of a pallet of dog food, tv's, and bottled water. Yes, people order bottled water.

I had a beautifully figured Mauser stock broken in half by USPS. Yes. In half. As in the rear part touched the front part. I’m figuring that the plastic stock on my missing package might fair better.
The Mauser wasn’t a total loss but there are chunks missing in the glue joint. I had sold that rifle to a guy in Oregon and when he got it it was halved. It was insured but they denied my claim three times. After the second appeal, one cannot appeal again. I sought out the phone number of someone who cared above the people I was dealing with and they got the results I needed. Still it took six months of phone calls and e-mails and the money they sent didn’t even come close to covering a replacement for the highly figured stock. It’s my rain gun now.