Shipping woes?

[Mana Minori]

Has anyone ever had a package status say it was delivered, but never received it? Does anyone have postal horror stories to share?

[Nemesis]

I once received a package that had fallen apart in transit and been hastily taped back together by the Post Office. Two thirds of the items were missing, and sadly never recovered.

(It was an Ebay lot of Lalaloopsy dolls, if anyone is curious.)

[BlackCurtains]

This just happened to me. I bought a free standing shelf unit so I can turn one of my closets into a pantry. I ordered from Amazon. Now I've been buying on Amazon for a decade and have had very few issues.

It took two days to ship (which is a long time, normally things ship right away) and nothing updated after that. Finally it said it was running late and gave another two days for it to arrive. It never came so I got a refund.

The very next day it showed as delivered, to the town over. Just to be sure I checked my balcony and called my sister to see if it was at my parents house. Nope.

It was weird. I don't know why it was delivered to the neighboring town. Like, what address were they looking at? At least I got my refund.

[Emillia]

Yeah, that has happened to me before. Track & Trace said it was delivered, but I never got anything.

Also, I live in a flat with pretty small mail boxes. I can't tell you how many times I've walked downstairs just to see a package sticking out of my mailbox because it couldn't fit! Many times when I open it up, the product inside was broken or crumpled. Because of this, any time I order something online, I just opt for a pick-up point instead. Unfortunately I couldn't do that during lockdown, so guess who has a crumpled, brand-new paperback novel....

[Taffeta]

Our local post depot constantly signs for my parcels (I mean before Covid) so I'd get a confirmation of delivery quite often before it arrived at my house. It's a bad practice and I hate that they do it ><. But the packages always (so far) arrived even when they did that.

I remember one courier claiming a parcel had been signed for but it was actually left under a bush as everyone was out. It's a smart bush.

Quite often a neighbour will take delivery of a parcel too (again, in more normal times). We have pretty decent neighbours. Nothing has ever gone missing that way either.

But nightmares...two MOC ponies (separate purchases) who fell off their card in transit because of bad packaging.

And the MOC ponies sent in a box of plushes as packaging...>< but not hugely secure. Fortunately they arrived ok.

[kittyhasnosoul]

I used to live in an apartment complex in a bad part of town, and our packages constantly got stolen. I would order dolls and such and they would be delivered but stolen and most of the time when it happened I couldn't get a refund It made me cry a lot.

[banditpony]

I've bought and shipped a ~lot~. I've actually been really lucky with USPS. Both my last area and my current area are really cool.

My worst experience with them is someone bought something from me and it said delivered-- but they claimed they didn't receive it. I have no clue if they were serious, or if they were lying. But they didn't want to listen to my advice in steps to try to figure out where it could of gone and just wanted to open a case against without trying anything first. (Ask delivery driver, ask local post office, ask neighbors, figure out similar streets/addresses). Sad thing is I would have done half a refund if they decently tried to find it.

I consistently have a bad experience with Amazon. I try to use them for things I can't find elsewhere, or really it's a good price. Since I don't do prime, most things take 7+ days to ship out, sometimes up to 3 weeks.

They never provide enough packaging. Like, I got SHARP knife-like garden tools sent in a bubble mailer.. on more than one occasion. This year I have been getting wrong things (dog bones instead of an icecream scoop -- took almost 1.5 months to resolve), or just missing the item completely (multiple times).

But I guess the worst is I waited 3 weeks for them to send something. Then they "sent" it. Except it was the packaging for the item (garden sheers), but no item. There was no evidence of it being tampered with, so they very much just sent me nothing on purpose.

They ok thing about amazon is if you fuss enough you can get your money back.

I recommend USPS informed delivery for anyone in the US. You get daily emails about your packages, so you know what day something will arrive. That way you can act immediately if it doesn't show up.

[BlackCurtains]

Wow. Amazon sounds like a totally different thing if you're not a Prime member

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I've had great experiences for receiving mail, my post office is very good at what they do, and they always take outgoing first-class mail that I leave so I've got no complaints on that front.
I did sell a pony that was marked as Insufficient Address, and I had to refund the pony's price and have the buyer re-purchase using a different address, but aside from that I've had no large issues...
I do hang around Depop and eBay subreddits and have heard horror stories about things breaking in-transit because of insufficient packaging. I've also heard that some people have had things marked as "Delivered" a day or two before it actually comes in? I wonder if it may be that. I wonder if you could open a missing mail case or something.

[banditpony]

Wow. Amazon sounds like a totally different thing if you're not a Prime member

Yeah, it's gotten pretty annoying lately-- although I use the free shipping and usually it has a wide range for the arrival date. ONCE it ships, it usually takes a day or two.. so sometimes it feels like they just put it off until the very end of the arrival quote.

I try to be forgiving, as I can't imagine working at Amazon is easy.. and slip ups can happen. But the garden shear thing really made me angry because I felt like that was on purpose.

If I need something quickly, I usually ask my mom to order me something through her prime. No issues there

[Ponyfan]

I’ve had packages take a very long detour (going past the city I live in by hundreds of miles) before eventually being rerouted correctly.   I’ve also had packages marked delivered that didn’t get delivered but I usually got it the next day.  A couple of packages came looking like they were run over by the delivery truck.

One time I ordered a stuffed animal for a swap and the seller wrapped the package directly around the animal instead of putting a layer between it  and the outer packaging (not even a box) .  When the animal arrived there was a hole torn through the package and I could see the animal inside.  Luckily it was fine but I couldn’t believe the seller didn’t use a box or something to protect it.

Ponyfan

[flapflap]

The worst thing I ever had was a pony lot I bought because I thought there were some nirvanas in there. Turns out there were (some italians and a french pony) but the seller had shoved them in a box that they filled up with sawdust. And to make things even worse these ponies all smelled horribly and had some sticky goo all over them. Imagine pony hair + stinky sticky stuff + sawdust....

[Taffeta]

I also remember a G3 Rainbow Dash which someone sent me in 2003 because I was looking for one to graduate with (the irony is palpable isn't it). She was out in the US first and I graduated in July, so she was sent from California in June.

And didn't arrive.

Fortunately a Uk friend managed to pick one up for me as they showed up here just in time for me to get her and make her graduation gown.

...Six months later the pony from Cali showed up.

I asked the sender if she wanted me to return her, but she told me I should just keep her (who knew how long she'd take to get back!) so I still have her - still MIB.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Ponyfan]

@Taffeta I wonder what stories your Rainbow Dash could tell about her travels if she could talk?

I got a package today with a hole torn through the back enough that you could see part of the contents inside. Luckily nothing was missing and everything was secure but  how does a package end up with a hole like that in transit?

Ponyfan


Ponyfan

[LadyAmalthea]

Not pony related, but once I ordered a wedding gift for my cousin and had it shipped directly from Target. It never showed up, although upon investigation it was supposedly delivered. I don't know if porch pirates took it or what; I know she and her new husband lived in an apartment complex at the time, so anything's possible. It was expensive, and I didn't have the money to replace it...I felt bad about it. There didn't seem to be any recourse on it since it said it was delivered. I've never had good luck ordering from Target.