USPS can blow me

[feren]

Last week I bought a new headlight & fog light switch for my Expedition. I installed factory fog lights on the truck two years ago but the headlight switch that was in the truck didn't support fog lights, it was missing a necessary connection to the wiring harness. On a whim I checked eBay last week and found somebody selling the exact part I needed. I bid on and won the auction: $22, including shipping. Very fair price for something I would have paid $20 or so for at a pick-n-pull junkyard.

The seller sent me a USPS tracking number. Since Thursday the only thing it said was "Electronic Shipping Info Received June 11, 2008." That is until today, when magically two more lines were added: "Processed, June 15, 2008 8:48 PM, ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL" and "Arrival at Unit, June 16, 2008 5:05 AM, BOLINGBROOK IL."

I know from e-mail communication with the seller that this switch was shipped from the seller's home in Charlotte, North Carolina. So how badly does your tracking system have to suck when an item with a tracking number sits at "information received" for 4 days and then suddenly has the first entry be "Processed ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILLINOIS." How exactly did the item get from North Carolina to Illinois without you scanning that tracking number at least once on its way?

Lame.

Comments

[asetwoman.livejournal.com]

It's only been recently that they tracked even that much. It used to be good only for knowing it was processed at the post office of origin and then delivered. Everything else in between, including arriving at the final post office (unit), was a complete mystery.

[loboguara.livejournal.com]

At least you didn't get what I've seen on a UPS tracking once:

DESTROYED IN TRANSIT. PLEASE CONTACT (number)

[feren.livejournal.com]

Was that from when they had the big depot fire a few years ago?

[yakko.livejournal.com]

TEAM BROWN for the lose!

Seeing how it was UPS, it could've been accidental or it could've been mistaken for a soccer ball. :o/

[steelhelix.livejournal.com]

USPS tracking numbers are suggestion, not something that can be trusted... go with UPS or Fedex if you want trustworthy tracking, seriously...

[yakko.livejournal.com]

Wow... tracking online has been something UPS and FedEx had debugged in 1998! Why it's taking USPS so long to implement something like that is beyond comprehension.

At least USPS has, so far, reliably delivered packages or notified me when they were at the post office. And as much as I bag on UPS, they actually TELL ME they delivered a package to the office these days. And their tracking is better.