Reverb shipping snafu

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Here’s a depressing update. The Toob that was shipped to me from Helsinki on Sept 26 has now been sitting in Koeln for 6 days, if the UPS tracking site is to be believed. “An updated delivery date will be provided when available.”

At least they're communicating. I just got another email that it's still in Koeln for a 7th day, with no predictable arrival date. By the time it gets here, it could be vintage

[Cunamara]

A'zon US still ships using carriers they don't own? I can't remember when I had a delivery from anything but "A'zon Logistic Services" or some such name for at least the past year (I order too much to remember before that). From what I hear there was a time when affordable vans were almost impossible to find so many of them had been bought by people working for this carrier service (from what I understand all freelancers). There were some quirks in the beginning but nowadays it works pretty well. I've just learned not to expect deliveries before 15:00 or so.

Amazon, UPS and FedEx all use USPS for last mile delivery, not every package obviously but many. I suspect that's probably more prevalent in rural areas then in urban areas. Locally, I see a lot of Amazon trucks doing their own delivery to my neighbors, but there are several Amazon warehouses in the metro area; 200 miles outside of Minneapolis, that may be less true and they may use the post office for that service.

[sgosnell]

The shipping system seems somewhat chaotic overall. I buy stuff online all the time, because I don't like driving to malls and stores, and because local stores don't always stock merchandise I want. I buy from ebay and from individual websites, almost never from Amazon, but sometimes that's the only place I find what I need. The delivery method seems to have little rhyme or reason, and varies widely. Certainly, the cheaper the item and the cheaper the shipping, the more likely it is to be via some hybrid system, such as Amazon, UPS, Fedex, or some other company doing the shipping to either the regional USPS sorting facility or to the local post office, and then USPS delivers it to my mailbox. But sometimes one carrier or another does the entire delivery. I've had Amazon vans deliver stuff I bought on ebay. I think some companies which do a lot of shipping get preferential rates from one of the big shippers, who delivers either to the home or to a USPS facility, depending on something I don't know about. Cheaper rates seem to be more likely associated with hybrid shipments, though. I think if we want the cheapest possible shipping, we shouldn't be expecting the fastest possible delivery.

[wintermoon]

things can get wacky w USPS.
The item I posted about earlier in the thread was listed as being in St Louis late Sunday night but showed up here on the east coast Mon. morning. go figure....
I've only had one thing get permanently lost and it was only a $10 item fortunately. but I've heard of some very high ticket parcels getting pinched, hopefully that Toob show up nshsi.