If A is here, and C there and B is...

[Tcei]

The destination and in the middle, why not just ship it directly from A to B?

I bought a necklace a few days ago, and been tracking the darned thing. The store is located in Califonia, I live in Texas, and while watching it move thru the postal service, it went from Cali to Mass, ON THE FRIGGIN OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY! I live almost directly halfway between the two points! I want my darned necklace! Why couldnt they just ship it right to me!?!?
*Storms off in a huff* Stupid thing is already 2 days late...

[Shian]

Odd.. it should have been directly tagged to DFW. You have a mail hub right there where you are at. Perhaps someone was just not paying attention

[Fratricide]

Dang.. that sucks... did you pay for the priority mail.. cuz if you did.. some on deserves to get their $$ back...

[Shian]

You won't be able to get $$ back unless it's express. Be glad you're not on my side of the pont and have to wait 1-2 months for a DVD.

[RuneDragoon]

ugh, I know this feeling. What you are experiencing was like my student loans. At the government office for the loans, its pure inefficiency, as you could expect from government clerks. They waited two months (As the cherry on top) to tell me to fill out a form, and it took me two weeks to get that sorted out even further.

[Tcei]

Good news is I did get my money back on the expidited shipping, but I think that's because they had some issue in their warehouse or something and it sat in processing for 3 days.. *rolls eyes* Ah well, by monday I shoud have my neclace ...provided they dont ship it to Alaska next.

[Carenath]

I've had that problem myself, I ordered something, and it arrives into Dublin, but then gets shipped down to Cork... I live on the road between the two bloody cities, so instead of me getting it on Friday like I was ment too, I didnt get it till Wednesday, since Monday was a Bank Holiday then, and all work just stops on those days <..<

[velveeta]

speaking as a seller, i can tell you, its all in teh post office's hands. i provide delivery confirmation to my customers, and we both watch as something sent from michigan (US) to, say, kentucky (US) has to go to georgia or florida first. its even worse when i send something to someone else in michigan.....the poor package literally goes all over the country only to come back to an address less than 50 miles away......
when i worked on a dock, i often saw times when i could have delivered a package on my way home from work for gas money, but the packages had to go out of state first, due to the carrier. usta make me crazy, i will admit.

i guess there is some big cost saving meaning to it, but it confused the heck outta me.....

[Tcei]

*nods* As of yesterday sometime it has been processed and shipped out from Austin(only 60ish mi away), It'd be nice if it arived today, but being that today's a holiday I bet they wont deliver till tomorrow and it'll sit in the post office here in town until then *sigh* Why does it have to friggen even move out of state like that Vel?

[Fratricide]

Most of the reason crap like that happens is because... the postal service has a Tree like structure (for those knowledgeable in networking methods). This structure with the postal service has several main Hubs each with their sub branches that also branch out to their respective post offices in particular...

So.. if you shipped a package from business A.. to Residence B... it would have to go to Post office C... and if the residence didn't supply the Residence directly.. then to at least Sub-Hub D before going to Post office E to be finally delivered to Residence B...

If ya Shipped something from Business A in California.. to Residence B in Texas.. as is this incident.. it would not only stop at the originating post office.. but hit the Sub- hub and at least 2 main hubs for vehicle transfer and further shipment.. before hitting the sub-hub in the Texas area to be delivered to the local postal office...

Sometimes the trip to the Sub-hub from the originating post office is 200 miles in the wrong direction from the final delivery Post office.. The problem therein lies in that.. when they developed where the hubs are at.. they didn't necessarily pick the "best" spot.. but more like the "convenient" one and usually the one that the land cost the least amount at the time. Hopefully that explains the general woes of shippin stuff..

[C`gan]

Chances are likely your package (particularly if it was an envelope size) was put into a "mixed states" shipment. Those all get bundled up at the local ADC (not necessarily in the same state that the shipment starts from) and sent off to 07099 for sorting (the total main hub for everything the USPS does). At 07099, everything gets sorted to go back to all the ADCs and back out the door they go. At the ADC level again, they get sorted to their particular 3 digit hubs or SCF hubs or SCHEME hubs. Once at those, they get broken down into their individual 5 digit centers (local post offices). At the 5 digit centers, everything gets split out by PO Box, carrier route, rural route, highway route, and box route. Then the mailperson for each of THOSE routes sorts what they get into the actual delivery route that they take.

The only way it goes direct from point A to point B is if you happen to be at a DDU post office. A DDU means they are big enough to be able to sort out what goes directly from the shipper back to a delivery point they handle out of their office. It also means you're probably within driving distance of being able to have the company drop it off to you directly or picking it up in their office yourself, since you're both at the exact same ZIP code.