11-03-2016, 06:05 AM
quote:
Originally posted by HI_Someday
I don't know if this is germaine to this thread but I've had multilple instances of shipping with the USP/USPS combo that were downright wacky. Tracking showing a package going from here (Sacramento) to San Pablo, then up north to Washington, over to Illinois, on to somewhere in New England, back to Illinois (there were approximately 12-14 stops) before it got to its final destination in Texas. The on-line tracking list showing it's travels around the country was just ridiculous.
This instance was for something I sold on eBay. The buyer thought I was pulling something so I ended up calling the post office. They actually have inspectors (or was it investigators?) and I opened a case with them. The package finally arrived, but from what I gleaned it's possible items are bulked together and get passed around from one facility to another as stuff is added and removed, and the handoff from one carrier to another can add several days to the shipping time.
And this is just on the mainland! I can't imagine adding the complexity of dealing with the Hawaii logistics.
This was similar to our experience, we ordered an obscure part for the demand hot water heater not available here. Our tenant was going to install it, so we used their cluster box address since the ordering page showed it was shipping USPS, then it got sent back from Honolulu to the shipper by sea turtle, it disappeared for months and no one would reship or credit us the purchase price because they didn't know where it was. We also opened an "investigation" on the missing package, the weird thing was USPS still showed it as missing after the company finally got the part back and credited us the purchase price and shipping cost. so the left and right hands of this hybrid system clearly don't communicate with each other.
The second time our tenant ordered the part (because they wouldn't ship to us unless we paid again) and included both addresses and it got here within a week. But our tenant just had an IPad gifted to them by a family member that was shipped and returned 4 times before their family member grasped the fact that people really do have to have 2 addresses to get a package from the mainland. Christmas shipping is going to be a real mess this year is my bet.