Anybody Heard of This Before? And, If So, How'd It End??

[moose eater]

Ordered seeds from a reputable US seed vendor. No borders to cross or Customs declarations to fill out, right? Cool, right?

I used a Money Order, so as not to have to screw around with setting up a special credit card account at the request of the vendor.

Money Order arrived with no hassle. Seeds shipped very shortly thereafter, per notifications and tracking.

Last Thursday night the package was sent from the main USPS sorting facility in Anchorage to the Fairbanks USPS main sorting facility, meaning the package SHOULD have been in my box at our local rural post office by mid-morning to early afternon on Friday July 15.

Instead, Friday July 15, 2022, mid-morning, I run the tracking number (yes, I'm like a kid at 5:00 A.M. on Christmas morning), and the tracking that I anticipate will state it's delivered to my local post office, instead says (in bold, red, upper-case font, no less) 'FORWARDED'.

Phoned the local post office and the perosn there stated that I could drive into town and go to the main post office sorting center at the airport (as no one there apparently bothers to answer the telephone). I instead called the post office customer care 800 phone line, ran the tracking number again, and this time it says the same about the package being forwarded on Friday morning, July 15, 2022, but it further states I should have my package by Wednesday July 20, 2022.

I phoned back the customer care number again today, and the recording on the tracking info states, again, that the thing was forwarded on Friday morning July 15, but no longer states that I should have it by July 20th, this coming Wednesday. No information re. an estimated arrival date at ALL!!

Short of someone really doing a shitty job on the packaging and the thing coming apart in a conspicuous manner, I'm at a loss as what might have caused this?

Anyone have similar experiences? And if so, what was the end result?

Vendor in reference was SHN.

 

[iTarzan]

I had that happen a couple times. It went to the main one but instead of going to my office it went to a different office even though it said it went to my local office. The wrong local office then forwarded it to my local office. It took about a week longer. The other time it got lost when forwarded, went back to the main office and it took 3 weeks. I did get them though.

 

[moose eater]

I had that happen a couple times. It went to the main one but instead of going to my office it went to a different office even though it said it went to my local office. The wrong local office then forwarded it to my local office. It took about a week longer. The other time it got lost when forwarded, went back to the main office and it took 3 weeks. I did get them though.

Thanks.

Lately, like this -ENTIRE- year and even longer, I don't think I've had a single package that traveled within the specified timeline. But this one was extra-different.

 

[St. Phatty]

Ordered seeds from a reputable US seed vendor. No borders to cross or Customs declarations to fill out, right? Cool, right?

Anyone have similar experiences? And if so, what was the end result?

Vendor in reference was SHN.

The USPS is dangerously close to the US government

and for sure, you can not trust the US government.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

We're just really lucky that mail shows up in the box six days a week?

I'm going to bet moose eater gets his package and admit that sometimes I trust the government.

Sometimes.

Postal workers don't have it easy but many of them believe in the cause to which they dedicate their careers.

I have seen people that know what they do and understand the service that they provide.

Mail running correctly and timely is a great service.

Pigs kicking in the door before sunrise screaming and killing your pets isn't that cool.

 

[Hammerhead]

USPS is run by the feds. To get around any fed laws just have them label them as Hemp seeds. Hemp is fed legal(farm bill).

 

[moose eater]

We're just really lucky that mail shows up in the box six days a week?

I'm going to bet moose eater gets his package and admit that sometimes I trust the government.

Sometimes.

Postal workers don't have it easy but many of them believe in the cause to which they dedicate their careers.

I have seen people that know what they do and understand the service that they provide.

Mail running correctly and timely is a great service.

Pigs kicking in the door before sunrise screaming and killing your pets isn't that cool.

John Prine was a letter-carrier until that ONE night......

---------------------------------------

Package that possibly still contains the beans showed up and is waiting for pick-up. I'll know more when I get there.

The $200 cash I sent in a larger cardboard-like USPS Priority Mail envelope/pouch to a forum member to help with hs rent is still MIA, and that's over 2 weeks over-due now.

The tent I ordered, to add to my tent collection, but which I need for this trip next week to the Yukon Territory? That says it's still sitting on a freight dock in St. Paul, Minnesota, but the company that sold it to me insists it was picked up.

At some point this sort of series of events surpasses the probability of simple happenstance. I'm starting to think the Universe or Murphy have drawn my number for 2021 and 2022... But I'll postpone any further consideration of such ego-based paranoia... except the evidence seems to continue to mount.

I usually eventually get my mail, seeds, and even more risque stuff, but every now and then something happens that just has 'THIEF' written all over it. (I'll spare you the anecdotes, but one involved a loss of thousands of dollars worth of family heirloom jewelry).

As soon as the Soul Mate finishes that is in a test grow right now (which I'll have to re-veg for the first time in over 24 years of horticulture, due to missing anything remotely resembling an opportune window for clones), and assuming my seeds are in that package still, then I'll be planting some of the Wizard Express beans that ought to be in my mail today. I'd chased Blisful Wizard, then Blisful Wizard F2's for quite a while, and then the Wizard Express sorta' kinda' fell into my view, so we'll give that a go. Would've been Wizard Gum, had my faculties not been taken hostage by nostalgia.

Thanks for everybody's help.

Until the next anxiety/panic moment...

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Atlas Shrugged comes to mind... Incompetence seems to be blossoming everywhere.

 

[moose eater]

Atlas Shrugged comes to mind... Incompetence seems to be blossoming everywhere.

I tend to view it more as an Eyore experience..

With a shrug I can say, in my best Eyore impression, with just enough sarcasm when I next see my truly jovial post master, "Thanks for noticing.."

 

[moose eater]

Seeds arrived OK, with a freebie on-board I'm not familiar with (a 5-pack freebie of Ethos Seeds 'Chem Di95 x Lilac Diesel BX2', no less).

Missing tent shipment scanned through Anchorage, but there's some weirdness with that series of scans. Better than nothing at this point.

USPS Priority Mail Envelope with $200 cash in it is still missing.

 

[midwestkid]

Did you get a tracking number when you sent the $200?
Maybe just take a break from ordering for a while. I know that mail-related worry can eat at a guy...
The green customs tape can ruin your day for sure.
I tried for some old Headband seeds from Midweek Song. 3 months later and 3 snagged packages later We decided to give up. Unbelievable but the guy actually sent my cash back. I got a coffee mug and tons of anxiety for free!

 

[midwestkid]

I hope someone at the customs office grows pot and has an epic seed collection

 

[St. Phatty]

Google Search

People used to talk about using Colchicine to induce plant mutations.

Maybe some of the seeds that get X-Ray'ed will do something useful.

 

[moose eater]

Did you get a tracking number when you sent the $200?
Maybe just take a break from ordering for a while. I know that mail-related worry can eat at a guy...
The green customs tape can ruin your day for sure.
I tried for some old Headband seeds from Midweek Song. 3 months later and 3 snagged packages later We decided to give up. Unbelievable but the guy actually sent my cash back. I got a coffee mug and tons of anxiety for free!

Yes, the cash was sent via USPS Priority envelope, so there's a tracking number. Last scan on the $200 was in Fairbanks, the night I mailed it from my rural post office, the end of June.

Fell off the map, and some folks in customer service and the 'missing mail' depts at USPS will invest a fair amount of effort trying to track down a loose piece of wayward mail, but others won't invest shit. They looked into it in California for a day or so, told me what I and my local post master already knew, and offered for me to escalate the case by sending it up to the next dept. with a more formal rating of 'missing mail' (Huh??), as well as a link to file for my $50 insurance claim for my $200 cash, which, especially at the moment, with escalating inflation, seems rather 'short'.

I asked the Fed (the postal guy with a gun and badge) if as a kid he'd had one of those magician circus kits that had a double-bottomed tray in it? Put in a $1 dollar bill, or a $100, close the tray into the box, open it up so the other bottom comes out, and the bill's gone. I told him that's a lot like what this feels like. Except with the kid's magician's kit, you can rest assured that the money's still in there. In this case, not so much.

But no Customs were involved in any of these fiascos. Specifically for the purpose of avoiding that stress. And you can see where all of that careful planning has led to, right?

 

[Hammerhead]

Cash if found will never make it to the intended person. If at all possible use Paypal or a similar service to send $$ to fam/friends.

 

[moose eater]

After the tent that should have been in my box this morning failed to appear, I figured I'd run the tracking numbers on the USPS Priority Mail envelope with the $200 in it. It's now about 2-1/2 weeks overdue from when it was supposed to have been delivered.

Lo' and behold, tracking came up for it!! And now, the punch line... IT LEFT A MAJOR HUB IN SOUTH FLORIDA YESTERDAY!!. WAIT??!! WHAT??!! (*It had absolutely no reason to divert to Fla. on its way to California form Alaska. None).

Yep, it seems that for no real logical reason, the USPS sent my friend's rent money to southern Florida.

The next time I need to send something via the USPS that I wouldn't want my priest (if I had one) to see... I'm going to try and remember this series of events, and maybe consider a private third-party carrier instead. 4th Amendment protections or not...

Or, maybe it's time to consider retiring to some warmer, overly-populated place like Florida, and my wallet was simply trying to get there ahead of me?

 

[PanchoVerde]

I've seen some weird stuff from USPS when I lived further south. On several occasions I tracked packages to find they arrived in the town close to where I lived, and then were transferred to a sorting or processing facility about 100 miles up the road, adding a day or two to transit time. I have no idea why.

 

[moose eater]

I've seen some weird stuff from USPS when I lived further south. On several occasions I tracked packages to find they arrived in the town close to where I lived, and then were transferred to a sorting or processing facility about 100 miles up the road, adding a day or two to transit time. I have no idea why.

This last yeaar to 2 years has been absolute nuts re. this sort of experience. THE USPS used to screw up MAYBE 1 shipment a year for me. Lately it seems as though if they get it right, I need to put a gold star on that day on the calendar or something. Last year at some point, a friend in Arizona sent me (or I him?) a vhs-shaped/sized flat rate box (2-5 day mail from or to Alaska), and the thing took something like 33 days to appear. It was camped out in a mial bag in the back of a USPS trailer some placein Oklahoma, where folks had thought the thing was empty.

Another shipment the USPS had sent somethign like two full bins (the larger rolling carts) to the entirely wrong destination.

The USPS flat-rate Priority envelope is out for delivery at the moment, so we'll see if my friend received an envelope with $200 USD in it, or an address attached to a shredded piece of carboard. Time will tell, but it ought to be within an hour. Again, per tracking.

Maybe they do this kind of shit to us old folks so they can help keep the plack out of our arteries? Kinda' like a defacto roto-rooter made of caustic bio-chemistry and adrenaline?

It did make me re-assess just how badly I need another order of beans, however. I still have lots I've never tried, and this excperience may head me in that direction.

Thanks again, all.

 

[moose eater]

The $200 cash in the USPS flat-rate LARGE envelope arrived at the other forum member's address, intact, with more actual air miles on it than I've earned lately, crumpled, tattered, hole punched clear through the envelope, etc., but the one $100, one $50, two $20's, and one $10 were still inside the inner envelope.

Another totally unnecessary mystery resolved. Seeds, cash, and hopefully, the tent, all where they ought to be... Just had to wait for the incompetence factor to stop vibrating so hard.

 

[buzzmobile]

Or, maybe it's time to consider retiring to some warmer, overly-populated place like Florida, and my wallet was simply trying to get there ahead of me?

Stay north of Orlando. Well north.