In some ways that doesn't surprise me me in the least - geesh

My mailman will take the mail I put in the box and the next day bring the same mail back.

Hi,

I don't always track my mail, but for the last couple things I bought off eBay, I wanted to check and see if they would arrive before I went on a trip.

I live in Northern VA, just a block or two outside Falls Church.  The Regional Post Office near me is in Merrifield and is only a mile or so away and is actually close enough to walk to on a nice day.  For the 1st item that I checked on, I saw it had arrived at the Merrifieild Office one day so I figured it make make it to me Post Office that night and go out for delivery the next day. 

However, instead the next day the tracker indicated that it had been sent to the Dulles Post Office, which is about a 30min drive away (or at least the airport at Dulles is) and its in the opposite direction from my Post Office.  As such, I initially thought that maybe the package had been misdirected and when being sent somewhere else.  The next day though, it got sent from Dulles to my Post Office and then was delivered to me.

At first I thought maybe there was some form of mixup in its routing, but for my next package they did the exact same thing. 

So I guess somehow someone in the postal service figures that it makes most sense to send stuff from the Regional Post Office about 30 miles west to another Post Office and then send it back east 30+ miles to my local Post Office, rather than just sending stuff directly the mile and a half from the Regional Office to my local Post Office

Pat

Union help keeping the trucks full and rolling.   Just thank your stars they don't charge by the mile.

I am a delivery supervisor for the post office. Carried mail for 21 years before coming inside.

Number 1 your taxes don't help the post office. We are a separate entity of the govt that is funded solely by postage.

Number 2. More then likely the reason the package was sent 30 minutes away first is because that is probably the pkg processing plant for your area. In my area it is 45 minutes to the north. Even if it's going to the next town from here it goes there first.

Number 3. Every business has its malcontents some mail carriers suck some don't

tempestjohnny

I am a delivery supervisor for the post office. Carried mail for 21 years before coming inside.

Number 1 your taxes don't help the post office. We are a separate entity of the govt that is funded solely by postage.

Number 2. More then likely the reason the package was sent 30 minutes away first is because that is probably the pkg processing plant for your area. In my area it is 45 minutes to the north. Even if it's going to the next town from here it goes there first.

Number 3. Every business has its malcontents some mail carriers suck some don't

 

Yeah, here if you want to send a letter to your next door neighbor it gets shipped to the nearby city 45 mins to the north for processing and then mailed back. Seems odd but I guess it's more efficent than sorting at the local post office.

tempestjohnny

I am a delivery supervisor for the post office. Carried mail for 21 years before coming inside.

Number 1 your taxes don't help the post office. We are a separate entity of the govt that is funded solely by postage.

Number 2. More then likely the reason the package was sent 30 minutes away first is because that is probably the pkg processing plant for your area. In my area it is 45 minutes to the north. Even if it's going to the next town from here it goes there first.

Number 3. Every business has its malcontents some mail carriers suck some don't

 

No,I understand why it went to the main post office in my town,but for some reason,instead of delivering it to me,someone sent it back to South Carolina

Please dont go postal on me 

A good friend of mine worked in the post office,his nickname was Chainsaw.

No insult to you guys,who is going to deliver a letter from NJ to California in 2 days for a buck

I often here people whine about our postal services, AusPost.

It can take upwards of 2-3 weeks for a parcel to leave the US, and take 3-4 days from customs to delivery here in Oz. That being said, 24 million to almost 326 million people makes a significant  difference.

I use AusPost whenever possible for domestic postage as the courier companies locally use morons to delivery the shipments, which either are not delivered or lost.

I had one small parcel sent from Calafornia USPS registered post to my home in Australia which took 5 working days from door to door!

Tojo72

 

 

tempestjohnny

I am a delivery supervisor for the post office. Carried mail for 21 years before coming inside.

Number 1 your taxes don't help the post office. We are a separate entity of the govt that is funded solely by postage.

Number 2. More then likely the reason the package was sent 30 minutes away first is because that is probably the pkg processing plant for your area. In my area it is 45 minutes to the north. Even if it's going to the next town from here it goes there first.

Number 3. Every business has its malcontents some mail carriers suck some don't

 

 

 

 

No,I understand why it went to the main post office in my town,but for some reason,instead of delivering it to me,someone sent it back to South Carolina

 

Please dont go postal on me 

A good friend of mine worked in the post office,his nickname was Chainsaw.

No insult to you guys,who is going to deliver a letter from NJ to California in 2 days for a buck

 

No insult taken. Trust me some of the guys I've worked with couldn't get a job in a car wash with their work ethic

We just canned a guy. "Again" The routes are 6 hours of delivery for an 8 hour day. He was asking for 4.5 hours of help and then bringing back mail because he couldn't finish. Basically delivered 1 hour in an 8 hour day. 

Gamera

 

 

tempestjohnny

I am a delivery supervisor for the post office. Carried mail for 21 years before coming inside.

Number 1 your taxes don't help the post office. We are a separate entity of the govt that is funded solely by postage.

Number 2. More then likely the reason the package was sent 30 minutes away first is because that is probably the pkg processing plant for your area. In my area it is 45 minutes to the north. Even if it's going to the next town from here it goes there first.

Number 3. Every business has its malcontents some mail carriers suck some don't

 

 

 

 

Yeah, here if you want to send a letter to your next door neighbor it gets shipped to the nearby city 45 mins to the north for processing and then mailed back. Seems odd but I guess it's more efficent than sorting at the local post office.

 

Same here in my area. There is a local Post office but anything I mail - be it a birthday card to a sister-in-law who lives in the next town over, the mail is rerouted to SYRACUSE, NY - an hour drive from here! I'm like WTF?! Why sort at the local Post Office and mail from there? Makes no sense of the changes. 

Then again I'm hearing the Postal Service is crying that they're broke and need to raise the rates of postage. Really?

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

 

 

Gamera

 

 

tempestjohnny

I am a delivery supervisor for the post office. Carried mail for 21 years before coming inside.

Number 1 your taxes don't help the post office. We are a separate entity of the govt that is funded solely by postage.

Number 2. More then likely the reason the package was sent 30 minutes away first is because that is probably the pkg processing plant for your area. In my area it is 45 minutes to the north. Even if it's going to the next town from here it goes there first.

Number 3. Every business has its malcontents some mail carriers suck some don't

 

 

 

 

Yeah, here if you want to send a letter to your next door neighbor it gets shipped to the nearby city 45 mins to the north for processing and then mailed back. Seems odd but I guess it's more efficent than sorting at the local post office.

 

 

 

 

 

Same here in my area. There is a local Post office but anything I mail - be it a birthday card to a sister-in-law who lives in the next town over, the mail is rerouted to SYRACUSE, NY - an hour drive from here! I'm like WTF?! Why sort at the local Post Office and mail from there? Makes no sense of the changes. 

 

Then again I'm hearing the Postal Service is crying that they're broke and need to raise the rates of postage. Really?

 

Just an update,package still not recieved,they are still working on finding it.

True story folks, the names were left out to protect the innocent............

I had a comission mailed to Virginia (East Coast) from my house in Florida (East Coast) via Seattle (West Coast) to Virginia (East Coast)

After calling the customer service number I was told by the USPS person on the phone that it was missorted and went into the wrong bin. It did arrive to its destination 5 days later and believe it or not, no damage!

I had something get lost in the mail.  It's been lost for years now, I doubt I will ever see it again. 

I had a package recently that originated in NY, but landed up going out of the state(I can't remember where it went) before coming back into the state, when it never needed to leave NY. 

I've also had stuff land up in the Rochester facility, but for some reason go off to Syracuse, which is farther away from me than Rochester. 

I have similar strange routing issues with my hannants orders.

Hannants is in Suffolk, the same county as me, about 90mins drive away. I have tracked parcels in the past and they go from Hannants to the depot in Norwich,which is in Norfolk, the next door county. It then carriers on going west to Peterbourgh in Cambridgeshire. From there it then makes it way back east, into Suffolk right past Bury St Edmunds, were our main post depot is, and goes to Ipswich. It then comes back to Bury St Edmunds and finally out to me.

Got to love the Royal Mail.