This is a bit gear related, as some of us must go through the game of defective-lens-roulette. Last month, I ordered a lens for my Sony camera, which turned out to be horribly decentered.
To make matters worse, I received a return label for Fed Ex Smartpost. Never used this service before, but what could be so bad about it? It's "smart" after all, right?
Well, going on 23+ days from WA to NJ, and still not there. I might submit the tracking info to Guinness World Records.
What's really sad is that the box has been at the destination city of Edison, NJ, TWICE, and even went to the USPS once and then sent back to FedEx where it then went for a long vacation in Pennsylvania.
I called FedEx and they said it was normal for a package to do this and can take 2-3 weeks. I asked why it went to the USPS and then back to FedEx in the destination city and he replied that it was in a container, as if that cleared everything up and I should be happy with the reply.
Even the Pony Express in 1861 would have had my package to NJ in 10 days.
It's slow. Not usually 20 days, that seems quite excessive, but it is always fairly slow. It is just the transfer to the USPS that seems to take forever. I've had the transfer take 5-6 days before, but I don't think I've ever had it go back to FedEx.
As I understand it, this service (and UPS's version as well) simply delivers to a post office for delivery to you. Where the saving (for them) comes in is in pre-sorting by zip code, the way mass-mailings are done. So your package will just sit at Fed Ex until they have enough pieces going to the same zip code to reach the quota. With some locations, that could take awhile. I've had things come to me in NC from NY that took 10 days, whereas regular UPS or mail takes 3. Kind of a shame because the savings per package is negligible, just adds up when you're dealing with a few million of them.
I recently sent a big camera bag to a buyer in Alexandria, Va by USPS, it's 30 miles away from where I mailed it, it took 8 days! According to the tracking, it went to North Carolina, then came back up to Virginia. I had to scratch my head.
Well, I guess I can at least be thankful the package wasn't lost/stolen. After a month, it finally arrived at the seller. I can't imagine how beat up it must be at this point with the many changes it made taking a vacation around the country.
I think I will just pay for return shipping on my own for defective items than ever take the SmartPost option offered by the seller.
After all those bumps it’s probably perfectly centered. Just tell them you changed your mind and to smartpost it back. ha ha ha
JohanEickmeyer wrote:
Well, I guess I can at least be thankful the package wasn't lost/stolen. After a month, it finally arrived at the seller. I can't imagine how beat up it must be at this point with the many changes it made taking a vacation around the country.
I think I will just pay for return shipping on my own for defective items than ever take the SmartPost option offered by the seller.
Smart post is routinely terrible but 23 days or more cross country seems particularly bad. On the other hand I have recently had a small order from B&H take ten days to get from Brooklyn to Annapolis MD. Another package shipped by them on the same day arrived in two. Regular FedEx fround i sone day as is USPS.
