Shipping Christmas Packages – A Lesson in Patience

I sold a few things on eBay before Christmas. All three of these packages are going overseas via the United States Postal Service. This morning I went to check the tracking to see where the items were in the system. This is what I found:

Package #1

• Dec 19, dispatched to sort facility. Big Lake, MN
• Dec 27, arrived at sort facility. Chicago

This one actually took eight days to go from Minnesota to Chicago? I could have taking it via bicycle and gotten it there faster. It still has to be sorted and moved onto customs. I’m not holding my breath for this one.

Package #2

• Dec 19, dispatched to sort facility. Big Lake, MN
• Dec 20, arrived at sort facility. Chicago
• Dec 27, processed at sort facility. Chicago
• Dec 27, Cleared Customs.
  

Seven days to get from one end of Chicago to another? Of the three, this one is the most disappointing because this customer ordered the ‘faster’ of the two shipping options in hopes of receiving it before Christmas. At least it finally got through customs.

Package #3

To be fair, the USPS did quite a bit better on this one.

• Dec 20, dispatched to sort facility. Big Lake, MN
• Dec 22, arrived at sort facility. Chicago
• Dec 22, processed at sort facility. Chicago
• Dec 26, Cleared Customs.

That’s better, thank you very much. I’m still trying to figure out how this one made it to Chicago before package #1 since it left Big Lake one day later. Did the other driver get lost on I-94?

Conclusions:

Based on my very limited test, it appears like the USPS needs to improve on their speed and efficiency. I also recommend that they give the driver of package #1 a new GPS for the New Year.

What were your results with shipping packages this Christmas season? Hope it was better than mine.