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Christmas gift arrives one year later

An Orlando, Florida family says the Christmas package they sent last year has finally arrived in Maryland.
Justine Nielsen said they sent a box to Maryland December 17, 2009, and marked it "open the box. There are some things to enjoy right away."
"They got it this year, December 7," Nielsen said.
Nielsen said the Henry family, to whom the package was addressed, called them to say thanks for the package.
"I said, 'What package? I didn't send you a package. I'm not that organized yet. Wait, don't eat the candy canes. They're really old,'" Nielsen said.
The Henry's sent the Nielsen's an e-mail listing the items that were inside the package, including three belts, two pairs of pajama pants, a pair of suspenders, a pair of flip flops and a T-shirt.
"We couldn't remember what was in it. I said, 'What did I send you?'" Nielsen said.
Debbie Henry said her children had already outgrown most of the things in the package.
"They were kind of wondering why we sent them this," Nielsen said.
Post office workers in Orlando and Maryland told both families the package does not have a tracking number.
"It's a mystery," Nielsen said. "Where can it sit for a year and no one notice it?"

(Red, large, bold text is emphasis mine)

Eric

where can it sit for 1 year and not be seen?...

We just discussed this on lunch today.
We have a building, that the post office rents. It used to be used 24/7, then with cut backs, downsizing, less mail to work, it's sits..almost empty.
It's used to store empty equipment and at Christmas/December, it gets 'reopened' and the few sorting areas are cleared and set up for the holiday casuals.
That's where excess, holiday mail MAY get sorted. If it gets sent there, and somehow overlooked/forgotten, and the building gets closed down; it could easily get left till the building is reopened.

[since it's a contract, USPS can't cancel the lease without a heavy penalty. Something like all the rent for the remainder of the contract, plus 'damages' and rent to cover renovation/repair till it gets a new leasee.

Also, now, since the is less mail volume, there is more emprty equipment. Empty equipment is stored in buildings, semi-trailers; stored on property and on train cars; and where ever there is available space. If somehow the box was in a sack, hamper/gurney, or large rolling container, and buried under other empty equipment; it can be easily over looked.

Now see why I say always insure anything worth over $10 and use d/c for EVERYTHING.

One out of a million doesn't seem like much, but it is if it's your one piece.

Now see stories like this is why Im still hopin to get that mystery letter from rich uncle so and so sent years ago,,lol

Sadly, tracking may help, but not enough. A package I shipped earlier this year, tracked, was last updated as "Delivery status not updated" and has not been seen since after being "Out for delivery".

PhoenixEnvy wrote:Sadly, tracking may help, but not enough. A package I shipped earlier this year, tracked, was last updated as "Delivery status not updated" and has not been seen since after being "Out for delivery".

Was it insured?
How did you send it? Did USPS pick it up or did you take it to the office.
Personally, I always take them to the USPS. That way, I watch the DC sheet get scanned and I see it get put into the clerk's hands with my own eyes.


Eric

MagickalMemories wrote: Was it insured?
How did you send it? Did USPS pick it up or did you take it to the office.
Personally, I always take them to the USPS. That way, I watch the DC sheet get scanned and I see it get put into the clerk's hands with my own eyes.

It was dropped off, and the delivery confirmation number functioned just fine, until I guess it went out on a truck and never got delivered or returned to the post office. I can imagine a number of plausible situations, but of course the Post Office blames gremlins and assures me that it couldn't possibly be their fault. It was not an immensely valuable package, so no, it was not insured. This is the only package I have ever had a problem with.

I bought something off Ebay, USPS with delivery confirmation. The tracking number said they made a delivery attempt which is crazy because my wife was at home that day. For the next week it vanished into thin air and no one could tell me where it was. Some nonsense about the post office around the corner not being my actual post office, rather a different one miles away. Neither place had the package but they told me to keep calling them
to check. They had no idea where it was. A week later it arrived. No idea what the hell happened, but at least I got it.

I also had 2 separate shipments from Chicago go on a tour of the northeast before coming back to me in Pittsburgh. Tracking let me see my packages as they went on vacation

I sold something on Amazon.com to a guy in the west, AZ or such.
His package, which had d/c and possibly insurance, went to his house was marked by the carrier, 'Not deliverable as addressed" and sent back.
3 times.
Before I got it back.
He sent me a statement saying that his address was correct. I brough it to my delivery post office, and the supervisor there re dated the postmark, and crossed the NTAA endorsement, and it went back out. He got it in 3 days.

I shipped a 40k codex from Ohio to Florida. Used DC. Parcel went from Ohio, to NY, to NJ, to nebraska, and finally to FL.. and the DC worked for all stops. It perplexed me and the guy in florida. At least he ended up getting it 2 days later..

-P

I started out trading CCG's years and years ago in GAB, and the stories of delays I had heard there as head of the Inquisitor and Application Teams was astounding. Even in my 210 trades there, I had a couple of incidents myself. Canadian shipments and Australia was just the worst.

I have bought, sold and traded professional music related items such as guitars, pedals and PA gear for years. I have heard nightmare stories about not just the USPS, but UPS and Fedex as well. For these lower dollar items it isn't too bad, but even with tracking and insurance I have seen $2800.00 guitars disappear into thin air, even with receipts and tracking.

Tracking is only somewhat useful; even less so when the carrier will lie or plugs in a "form entry" format for the history, so you NEVER get real information, just generic statements. Example:

As a Buyer for a Calif. manufacturer, we had a work stoppage due to a tool breaking. We purchased replacement tooling, on a Thursday, going to 3-day delivery from UPS & expecting to get the tooling Monday from Michigan. We did not see the tool until Friday, over a week later. The tracking history showed it went from Michigan to Nebraska, to a Southern CA UPS branch on Monday (only 10 miles from our location), then to Denver where it sat for two days, then to Sacramento and San Diego before finally reaching us.

We refused to pay the shipping bill, which 3-day pri at 180lbs is substantial. They came back with, "extreme weather delay," documented in Nebraska, and claimed, "not their fault."

I came back with links to Weather.com and their tracking for every stop the package made, there was no extreme weather documented at ANY location... THEY LIED. UPS ate the cost of the shipment.

BUT - Notice how quick they were to insert fraudulent "official documentation" to try an cover their tracks and change the liability. Tracking was only somewhat useful...

Well, UPS is a different monster than USPS.

With USPS, though, if you've got tracking, you have some coverage.

Is it perfect? Nope.
It's better than just sending the box out to *who knows where* to arrive *who knows when* without any sort of way to keep an eye on it, though. You know?


Eric

Delivery staff can be idiots too. Like I ordered a book from Amazon Japan and had it sent next day shipping. I had waited home the following afternoon and evening because I was really looking forward to getting this book. Nothing. So I type my tracking number into the computer and it says there was an attempted delivery, but the recipient wasn't home. That was total BS so I called the company the next morning. They said their local carrier reported that he was unable to deliver it and left a undelivered notice. Well, I didn't get any notice and I told the company as such. When the guy came that day to deliver the book I asked him what happened. At least he manned up. He told me he thought it was too late at night to deliver the package so he decided to wait. Not that that's acceptable when I'm paying extra for express and the guy lied and said it was my fault he couldn't deliver it.

But yea, sometimes it's not the fault of the company, but of the minions on the ground who try to cover their own butts.