Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
FedEx Fail
- Thread starter pwilson
- Start date
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 2,850
- 15,649
- Disclosures
- I never actually learned to play very well
Unless something has changed, FedEx's main US hub has always been in (I think) Tennessee. You can ship an overnight FedEx package to your neighbor across the street and regardless of where you ship from, the chances are good it will be routed through someplace like Kentucky or Tennessee.
Shipping logistics!
Shipping logistics!
Last edited:
Good question:
- This went ground - roads, not air
- It started off going from Seattle to Portland, OR, then went silent for six days before resurfacing today - one day after it was scheduled for delivery - in Independence, KY 1000 miles from its destination
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 2,850
- 15,649
- Disclosures
- I never actually learned to play very well
Shipping something Ground is still not a guarantee of some kind of straight-ish line from the origin to destination. Look into intermodal trains moving ground shipments.
But maybe something did go wrong.
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
- 2,850
- 15,649
- Disclosures
- I never actually learned to play very well
I’m cutting a lot of slack for stuff like this. If you’re understaffed or a lot of your employees are new or abruptly quitting, mistakes will happen.
Here’s a couple very trivial examples. The local Whole Foods can’t keep their take-out fresh-baked pizza kiosk staffed. Several times I’ve gone in on a Saturday evening to buy some fresh slices but the oven is shut down and there’s nobody working that station. I talked to the store manager. People are not showing up for their shifts or they abruptly quit or there’s some other excuse. The local Starbucks has been closed on weekend days several times because nobody shows up or they quit and the store can’t open.
Here’s a couple very trivial examples. The local Whole Foods can’t keep their take-out fresh-baked pizza kiosk staffed. Several times I’ve gone in on a Saturday evening to buy some fresh slices but the oven is shut down and there’s nobody working that station. I talked to the store manager. People are not showing up for their shifts or they abruptly quit or there’s some other excuse. The local Starbucks has been closed on weekend days several times because nobody shows up or they quit and the store can’t open.
To be clear - this is 100% a first world problem. Just seemed funny to me that FedEx overshot by 1000 miles after going dark for almost a week. But I'm not missing any meals.
As someone who works in supply chain - these are weird times and we likely won’t see a return to “normal” until at least fall 2022.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
The fact is, it is MUCH cheaper and more efficient for them to ship to a regional center, then bundle for local deliveries. You want ONE package to go direct? Drive it yourself, or buy an airline seat. Fed Ex ships 3.4 million packages per day. I am betting they have this worked out better than OP.
I’ve been waiting on a bass from North Carolina, last scan in Independence, KY last week! They have changed the dates 3 times on me now it’s just “Pending delivery”
Expecting a bass from the East coast (I live in Washington state) it’s gone from Saturday delivery to Tuesday, to Today Wednesday. Now it’s Pending Delivery! They sound just Tell me sometime in September from the start!!!!
I drilled into this with a friend of a friend who works at FedEx. This is what she told me:
- Ground packages are supposed to go shortest/most direct route (point to point), they are not routed through a single point as the faster shipping methods are
- Right now ground shipping is the red-headed step child of shipping, and get whatever attention is left over after the other more lucrative shipping methods are handled
- There are no guarantees of delivery date for ground shipping
- Generally packages might miss a scan, but they are rarely completely lost. Worst case scenario if an orphaned package is found (ie the label came off) FedEx will open it and enter it in a searchable lost and found database
- Her guess was my scenario was someone didn't unload and scan my package, and so it continued on in the wrong direction until someone unloaded it and scanned it.
I get it but it’s frustrating. This is the second time that they under delivered. I had a 4500 Olinto bass “out for delivery” on a Friday I sat home all day until 7pm when the date was switched until Monday. I called all pissed off and their answer was the delivery guy reached his “quota” on packages delivered that day. Like why load the truck with more than someone can deliver?
reminds me of Lloyd Bridges in the airport movie... No... They'd be expecting that.
(and of course, ... looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue!"
(and of course, ... looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue!"
I count myself lucky that none of my shipping issues this summer have involved anything as expensive and delicate as a bass, but I noticed a massive uptick in lost/unscanned/incorrectly routed/wrong info entered online stuff specifically this June-August. Thus far only one package was completely lost.
