$30k Book’s Tracking Hasn’t Updated for 5 Days, How Long is Reasonable to not be Upset? 3 3

[Daveb25]

I am awaiting a shipment of a $30k book from a major seller/auction house.  It was put into the usps system 6 days ago and supposed to be 2-3 day mail. (We both acknowledged it shouldn’t have been sent that way but it’s too late to change).  It has been showing:  

Shipment Received, Package Acceptance Pending

since it was shipped on August 12th.  Today is the 5th business day in transit with no update.  Typical transit time for priority mail between the shipping place and me receiving the book has been 2 days in the past.  How long is reasonable to wait for them to make me whole or find out what happened to the book and where it is.  I know the post office is having issues but no updates and no book have me worried.  

[Daveb25]

Northern California about 30 minutes outside of San Francisco. 

[KCOComics]

I would call USPS. 

I had a book mistakenly sent to my old address in another state. It took a while to get someone on the phone,  but I was able to locate the book.

Then I called that location and drove up to get it just to avoid any additional complications. 

[lpsunburst]

It looks like the label has been generated but the package has not been received by the post office yet. No need to panic yet, its probably with a batch waiting to be dropped at the PO.

[Daveb25]

3 minutes ago, lpsunburst said:

It looks like the label has been generated but the package has not been received by the post office yet. No need to panic yet, its probably with a batch waiting to be dropped at the PO.

I’ve talked to them several times. It definitely was definitely dropped off at the post office on August 12th. 

[Daveb25]

Let me modify that and say they told me it has definitely been dropped off at the post office by their lead shipping person.  

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

1 hour ago, Daveb25 said:

Let me modify that and say they told me it has definitely been dropped off at the post office by their lead shipping person.  

I shipped a big book to rehnart park registered usps on 7/6. That’s near you, right? Same deal as yours - supposed to be 2 to 3 days delivery. It took 10. It arrived 7/16.

i understand your concern, but I think it’s just slow

[circumstances]

I'm currently waiting on a book. It was shipped 8/5. Moved every day until 8/8, when it said left Chicago on the way to destination, delivery date 8/12. 8/9 said in transit. 8/10 in transit. 8/11 in transit. 8/12 in transit in the morning, changed to in transit-arriving late that evening. 8/13 nothing. 8/14 nothing. 8/15 nothing. 8/16 nothing. 8/17 nothing during the day, then arrived in Miami that evening. 8/18 arrived at my local post office. Set for delivery tomorrow. We shall see!

[Incredible Pulp]

A 30K book sent by USPS  

 

If you had zero input/communication on the delivery method and are the buyer, I would put the onus on the shipper to produce a solution. I know you really want the book, but usually books stuck in that status in my experience have never shown up, just my 

Check into the insurance company as well, sounds like maybe employee theft? There's a lot of attorneys on here as well 

 

I'm sorry for you this happens 

[alexgross.com]

start an inquiry with usps via their website. this often helps move things along in my experience. 

[Keys_Collector]

9 hours ago, Daveb25 said:

I’ve talked to them several times. It definitely was definitely dropped off at the post office on August 12th. 

Being dropped off at the post office does not mean that A) it was scanned already and B) that it isn't in transit and someone at the post office missed the scan.  Both situations happen often but I understand your concern with that amount of value in the books.  USPS service right now is very backlogged.

[Mr. Lady Luck]

10 hours ago, Daveb25 said:

I am awaiting a shipment of a $30k book from a major seller/auction house.  It was put into the usps system 6 days ago and supposed to be 2-3 day mail. (We both acknowledged it shouldn’t have been sent that way but it’s too late to change).  It has been showing:  

Shipment Received, Package Acceptance Pending

since it was shipped on August 12th.  Today is the 5th business day in transit with no update.  Typical transit time for priority mail between the shipping place and me receiving the book has been 2 days in the past.  How long is reasonable to wait for them to make me whole or find out what happened to the book and where it is.  I know the post office is having issues but no updates and no book have me worried.  

Try not to worry. I know it is extremely frustrating because I had the exact same thing happen a few weeks ago. The package was pending for about a week before it finally moved out. But it eventually arrived - and in perfect shape.

[GACollectibles]

9 hours ago, Daveb25 said:

Let me modify that and say they told me it has definitely been dropped off at the post office by their lead shipping person.  

I've been doing dropoff at my PO for years at a separate location than front counter and packages have been scanned in a timely fashion(within hours).  A few months ago I had to stop doing this and take packages to front counter for immediate scanning as some packages had been taking up to a week to get scanned into the system due to a shortage of personnel.  Even doing that there would be instances where a scanned package would show no movement and get delivered and all scanning info got backfilled.  I also found that packages dropped off into the APC dropoff boxes were not getting scanned before heading to distribution area.

If package did get "dropped off" instead of immediately scanned then I would give it some time to resolve, despite all the glitches USPS has had in the past few months I would have confidence it shows up.

 

[NP_Gresham]

6 hours ago, Incredible Pulp said:

A 30K book sent by USPS  

 

 

That is the ONLY way to send an expensive book.

FedEx and UPS have no good option to insure that high, and for what they do have you will need an attorney to get pennies on the dollar. BTW for remote addresses, both FedEx and UPS drop shipments in the US mail. No profit in providing service to remote areas.

What would concern me is that it was sent 2-3day which means priority. If it was Priority, the sender was irresponsible.

This should have been sent Registered, whuich is very slow but as secure a method as you can find

[jimjum12]

31 minutes ago, NP_Gresham said:

This should have been sent Registered, whuich is very slow but as secure a method as you can find

GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[BarristerBaker]

1 hour ago, Mr. Lady Luck said:

Try not to worry. I know it is extremely frustrating because I had the exact same thing happen a few weeks ago. The package was pending for about a week before it finally moved out. But it eventually arrived - and in perfect shape.

I had something similar happen. Twice. Had a big book take almost 3 weeks to go from Chicago to Florida. All kinds of goofy tracking updates along the way. I just sent books to Joey and tracking never updated, but he received them safe and sound. 

The post office is a hot mess right now, and it’s sad and alarming to see. I’ve done a lot of comic shopping in the last 15 years. Never seen anything like this, not close.

Regardless the side of the political aisle you’re on, this should make your ears perk up. 

[Qalyar]

For a $30k book, I would probably ship it USPS Registered Mail, although I'd sure bite my nails while it was in transit.

Much above that, though, and the other logistics companies do have specialty high-value services. I'm only personally familiar with the UPS options, but I know FedEx has corresponding equivalents. For UPS, it's a semi-separate department called Express Critical that you have to contact directly. Secure transport moves packages by bonded private courier and (usually) the UPS private airline and will probably run you in the $750-1000 range depending on distance involved. If that's not good enough, they offer a Hand Carry service that does exactly what it sounds like. A courier takes the package and physically holds it all the way to the destination. That's not financially feasible for a $30k book (it'll run you a few thousand), but if I ever have to move a $300k book, it's sure something I'd consider.

In any case, with this shipment, it'll probably turn up and get moving, but you should definitely start an inquiry with USPS; that often encourages them to deal with the backlog. Although right now, well... they're clearly doing what they can given the, ahem, circumstances.

[Daveb25]

After waiting over an hour on hold having an investigation started and going up the ladder with usps yesterday the book showed up in the system at 2:15am with a delivery by 11:15am and just arrived. I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Originally the first person on the phone swore up and down mine wasn’t one of the 210 packages the auction house dropped off that day but when I asked them to run each and every other tracking number they said they would get back to me in 24 hours and 8 hours later it began tracking. 

[Scrooge]

Glad to hear all ended well 

[Chief1332]

I sent a book via registered mail, and fully insured.  It sat at the same facility for three days.  Buyer got it 5 days after USPS advertised timeframe.  But, in their defense, they acknowledged the slow process during these trying times.