Another Box Gone Astray


Another Internet purchase has gone astray. I love to shope on the Internet but it comes with certain inherent issues; mainly shipping address. I live in a rural area and have a postal box up by the highway. And a street address. If a package is being shipped by United States Postal Service they will deliver only to the box. And if UPS only to the street address. Fedex in the area is so screwed up I don't even want to hazard a guess.

But everything only gets more complicated from that point. Because my street address is technically one zip code and my box address another. I live in the unincorporated area of Black Lake which technically does not have a zip code. UPS and Fedex are not suppose to use zip codes for delivery, but they do and if I have my box address on a package then UPS gets it on the wrong side of the mountain and Fedex puts it in the wrong distribution center.

If I put the street address on something which is being shipped by US mail it winds up in general delivery at the Angel Fire Post Office. I don't go there often. And sometimes not until the package has been returned to sender.

I only want to know on the shopping cart page what shipper they are using. Hey, I've tried keeping track of this stuff in a note book but they change shippers on me all the time. Blick Art Supplies ships direct from the manufacturer at times and by their method. And I just got the following message from Swanson Vitamins and Health Products when I mentioned they hd shipped a package UPS to my USPS box:

We have forwarded your comments, concerns and requests to the proper department. Please know however though that it is our shipping department that decides how your orders ship, therefore the best way. This is not decided until the order reaches the shipping department, which is after the order has been placed of course. Please also know that how your order is shipped, is stated on the shipping confirmations sent to you when your order leaves us.

Yes, I got the shipping confirmation and immediately contacted them. They can change the address with UPS. I cannot. I have tried. For a while I felt alone in the world on this issue but now with the USPS closing some of its post offices and shipping centers (anyone know why they cannot compete with UPS and Fedex?) more and more Internet shoppers are going to be encountering this issue.

I have asked my US representatives to just assign my community a zip code. No need for a post office. Just a zip code so that UPS and Fedex knows we are not Angel Fire or Ocate but Black Lake. Seems like such a small thing. Just five numbers.

Comments

  1. IntelliblogAugust 17, 2009 at 2:38 PM

    Hi Jacqui, I can sympathise fully as I have recently lost a package full of books that was sent to me from Greece via the post. And this was sent to my work address, which is right in the middle of the city and which has a post code!
    The item was registered and they can trace it right up to the customs and then the main package store in Melbourne, after which it disappears.
    I was offered compensation of $100, which is only 20% of the value of the package...
    The whole thing stinks.
    In your case, what prevents them from giving your community a zip code? Sounds likes plain old bureaucratic laziness to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Blog of BeeAugust 25, 2009 at 9:16 AM

    How very infuriating. We don't have zip codes and some peoples' addresses are light pole numbers!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I write for me but I care what my readers think. Please be polite and no scamming.

Popular posts from this blog

Swimming

Image
For much of my college career my fitness workout was swimming on the B squad of the swim team. I remember it as the days before heated pools and women coaches. I also remember being so exhausted and cold I could only lean against the shower wall and throw up. Not exactly warm fuzzy images but I was in awesome shape. Needless to say it did not leave me with a overpowering desire to swim laps. Point of fact for years my swimming became really informal: Swimming to shore after the canoe tipped over, challenging my sister once a summer to across the lake and back, seeing how long I could back float without moving a muscle, and a scuba course. I also played around with other ways of staying fit: aerobics, bicycling, jogging, skiing and dance classes. All of which seem to be bad for the knees, back or feet. After my ski accident my physical therapist steered me back to the pool. Damn if I was going to swim laps! However, aqua fit was just getting rather seriously taken so I took it. It r
Read more

The Pruning the Crown of Thorns

Image
Crown of Thorns Before I am a lover of Euphorbias . They are from the deserts of Southern Africa and Madagascar. They have evolved physical characteristics and forms similar to cacti of North and South America and are often incorrectly referred to as cacti. My big Crown of Thorns was one of my first of a growing collection of these succulents from the spurge family of Euphorbiaceae. I picked it up as a 6 inch plant in a New Iberia nursery when my sister and I were touring the northern gulf coast. I believe that was 15 years ago. I made an attempt at limiting its height a few years back to allow it to devote more energy to the new branches and make it a denser plant. That failed. And the height of the plant continued to challenge the window space and soon the long branches were leaning over and leaning against the window. I googled and found the proper way to prune this treasured plant. Still it was very difficult to cut off the four longer branches. Even with a plan. The f
Read more

Eagle Nest Dam

Image
Tour of Eagle Nest Dam Eagle Nest Dam is the largest privately built dam in the United States. It was begun by the Springer family in 1917 and completed in 1920. It and the reservoir beyond it one was privately owned by the CS Ranch which recently sold it to the state of New Mexico. Eagle Nest Lake is now a state park, but the dam and the waters in the lake are another matter all together. Water is well regulated in New Mexico especially during a drought. The lake is now at 25% of its normal capacity, and the water in the lake are water right lease holds of Raton, Cimarron, and historic ranches in the area like the UU Bar and the CS Ranch. Game and Fish department also get involved because the Cimarron River is an active fishery of the state. Our guide was a state engineer and the Gateway Museum secured permission of the land owners below the dam for us to gain access to the area. Some 100 locals and tourists attended this rare event. I have lived here almost twenty years and th
Read more