Shipping Follies

It goes without saying that most of us who dabble in old camera gear probably receive our fair share of packages. Most of us shop for our gear on eBay or from an online seller like KEH, B&H or Used Photo Pro. Not too long ago, you would order something mail order and it arrived when it arrived. Today, we have tracking numbers and websites or push notifications that tell us where our package is every step of the way. This is very cool and also sometimes frustrating as I have watched packages languishing at a FedEx hub or taking the great circle route around the globe.

Not too long ago, my folks in small town in Upstate New York mailed me a letter, sent First Class, on Monday. It was in my mailbox in Northern California on Wednesday. This week, I am watching a USPS Priority package, mailed last week from a location 34.8 miles from my house, bounce around the San Francisco Bay Area for going on four business days plus the long weekend. It might arrive today. Or…it might not as the delivery status has not yet been updated.

I once ordered some film from a photo shop in San Francisco, 51.9 miles from my house. The package left San Francisco and then traveled all the way to Denver, Colorado before it worked its way back to me over the course of nine days.

I once had a UPS Overnight envelope, sent from a friend in Phoenix, that zipped in hours from the Phoenix hub to the Oakland hub and then disappeared from radar for two days. UPS customer service, which is not in the US, was no help. Finally, through a friend I knew who worked for UPS, I got a back-office phone number for the Oakland hub and spoke to a nice woman who eventually found my envelope. It had slipped off of a conveyor belt and was wedged there out of sight. She got it routed to me the next day, a Saturday, for free.

There doesn't really seem to be any rhyme or reason to the shipping madness. I use a camera repair guy near Chicago who ships my cameras back to me USPS Ground Advantage. They arrive back in California consistently in two days. Another tech sent me back a camera FedEx Priority Two Day that took five business days. Oddly enough, B&H uses some secret FedEx shipping that is very reasonable and arrives coast to coast overnight.

I just got a notification on my phone for my USPS Priority package that was shipped last week from a place I could drive to in 45 minutes. The notification says PACKAGE DELAYED. Ya think?