Shipping Frustration

On Friday I got e-mail from Abbey Saddlery that they're sorry, one of the items I'd ordered does not actually exist in that size, should they substitute this size instead?  I replied yes, but not until late for the UK, so I assumed it wouldn't go out until Monday, which was correct; and that Royal Mail would take a very long time for delivery, because the Royal Mail does not have a good reputation (including actual experiences of members of a miniature gaming forum Robin belongs to).

However, the package was actually sent DHL, and on Monday it left Manchester, went through the East Midlands, got Cincinnati, Ohio customs clearance, and in the early hours of Tuesday morning, arrived in Cincinnati. Then it went to DHL's O'Hare-ish facility in Franklin Park, and to our house a little before noon.

Unfortunately, nobody was home to sign for it.

Signed the slip to let DHL leave it, and left it on the door yesterday, just to be safe, in case Robin missed hearing the door or ran out to do an errand.

Meanwhile, my package from The Ring Lord, from Concord, Ontario was wending its way through the UPS system, via Buffalo, NY. UPS tracking said it cleared customs and left Buffalo Monday night, and on Tuesday went through facilities in Ohio, Indiana, and got to Chicago, for delivery Wednesday.

Not so much.  No packages when we got home from work. Nothing when we left for or returned from our music lessons.  At 7-7:30 I checked tracking for the Nth time.

DHL was saying delayed by severe weather, aborted at 5:15 pm. What the what?!?  We were having absolutely no such thing. Called, talked to drone, then supervisor. Eventually the supervisor explained that delivery trucks were delayed yesterday due to late-arrivals from farther east, he would note that I'm cranky, and try to push the route around for early delivery today. I'm guessing the delivery driver decided to knock off at 5:15 and didn't realize or ignored the fact that the delivery address is residential.

Last night I also noted that my UPS package was bouncing around IL and IN facilities, and although claimed to be on time for delivery by the end of the day, was not actually showing as Out For Delivery.  The UPS explanation was not clear, but seenpmed to boil down to left on a larger truck and back in Indiana, probably would be delivered today, call if it wasn't.

Overnight it was updated to Ghu-knows where, last point shown in Indiana (probably just over the IL/IN line at a lot where triple trailers are broken down to come into IL, and built up for the reverse trip), delayed due to adverse weather.

Call UPS. Domestic service drone read me the tracking page, and eventually transferred me to International service when that didn't satisfy me. International drone was only marginally less useless. Supervisor finally managed to tell me that my package really is delayed by actual adverse weather, because it never left Buffalo, NY.  The so-called tracking is what should have happened, based on normal container/trailer movements. 

I expressed my displeasure that the tracking had, in the past three days, never been updated/corrected to reflect that. I could forgive a few hours of anticipated movement, but not several days in error, since they obviously know where it actually is and could do so.  And I said that my reaction was not "confusion" about what tracking was showing, it is flat-out false/deceptive information.

So, I should get the Abbey Saddlery order today (currently showing as "with delivery courier"), and Ghu knows when I'll see my Ringlord package, since NY has clearly pissed off the snow gods.  And UPS tracking is only good if nothing goes wrong, and is apparently not updated if something does.