Hey Laz,
I sent your check on the 30th of May.
I do hope you get it soon. Sorry about the week delay in sending it back out, needed more checks.
Evanston is a royal mess for the last 2-3weeks when it comes to shipping things out. Students have been shipping things home and it is just a bunch of fairly large packages that have the post office a bit overwhelmed. I had 4 packages sent out over the past week and a half that didn't show any tracking information until Friday, Saturday, Monday, and even yesterday. Mind you all of these were sent out on the 29th and 2nd.
Then another package I sent out on the 18th of May came back marked "return to sender" with a red stained label and box. I feel bad for the guy whose bottle of red wine burst open during shipping. Hopefully it wasn't too expensive. Wine.woot.com usually has some decent deals though.
These sorts of things are all very common when dealing with packages. I have talked to other retailers (audio and non-audio) who all have had simiar experiences. Just the name of the game sort of thing.
- UPS is the most reliable, but their rates are just not economical enough for US domestic and far-reaching countries (great for Canada though)..
- DHL is similarly reliable, if not a bit late.
- Fedex is pretty decent, but their customer service is almost non-existant. They lost a package of mine that was insured and refused to pay on full insured value only giving me half of what it was insured for. Never getting these guys again based on that run-around.
- USPS runs the gambit. It can be extremely excellent. Best price, Best performance, etc. Or it can be a hellish nightmare when they are busy. They guarantee nothing when it comes to delivery time, only give suggestions. Insuring a package with them just means a longer stated waiting time to get your check than the other three. Used them the most, only had 3 packages get lost forever (even one that was to another location in Chicago).
Man I wish that UPS domestic were cheaper. I would use them as much as possible if they were close to comperable for small packages to USPS Priority mail.
I don't know what other people do when a package gets lost in the mail (tracking says nothing about delivery) or when it gets "return to sender", but something I have done in the past and continue to do is give a free upgrade and send it back out, or throw in a few extras or extra dollars for the customer. They waited and while it is the fault of the shipping company, they were still depending on the item. I hate waiting for packages in the mail, so anything that eases the pain and adds an extra smile is good.
b00t, the enamel is drying.
All the best everyone.
