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How long did it take to get to your neck of the woods?
By gchristopher
#184843
Okay, I was kinda inspired by the post describing circuitous travel to Canada.

The package is headed to Fairbanks, Alaska, and the UPS status after handing off to USPS is "Your UPS SurePost® package was transferred to the wrong post office. It is being corrected."

Ordered 9/3/2015

Here's the UPS itinerary:

UPS Travel Log:
Boulder, CO, United States 09/04/2015
Commerce City, CO, United States 09/04/2015
Ogden, UT, United States 09/08/2015
Boise, ID, United States 09/09/2015
Hermiston, OR, United States 09/09/2015
Redmond, WA, United States 09/10/2015
Fife, WA, United States 09/10/2015
Pacific, WA, United States 09/10/2015 Received by the local post office

Haha, "local" post office, only a couple thousand miles from the destination.

Interesting how USPS and UPS differ by about five days on when the package was handed off.

September 15, 2015 , 4:00 am, Arrived at Post Office, FEDERAL WAY, WA 98023
September 15, 2015 , 6:58 am, Sorting Complete, FAIRBANKS, AK 99709
September 15, 2015 , 7:08 am, Out for Delivery, FAIRBANKS, AK 99709
(Oh noes! We accidentally delivered it... back to Washington state)
September 16, 2015 , 4:38 pm, Arrived at USPS Facility, FEDERAL WAY, WA 98023
September 17, 2015 , 5:12 am, Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility, FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003
September 17, 2015, 2:01 pm, Departed USPS Facility, FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003

Your item departed our USPS facility in FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003 on September 17, 2015 at 2:01 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

USPS apparently had a hard time with routing and sent it back to Washington. So close! They had it within a couple miles of the right destination! Clearly sending it 2,000 miles away for re-sorting was the answer.

If we pretend it went on surface routes, the package has gone 5,734 miles so far, including one round trip to Alaska and back! Only another 2,000 miles to go!

If it shows up tomorrow the 21st, that's an 18 day shipping time and about 7,800 miles travelled. 1 day to get it shipped. (Go Sparkfun! By far the fastest link in the chain!) 6 days to get it from Sparkfun to where UPS claims to hand it off. Another 5 days before USPS admits accepting it, and at least 6 days for USPS to deliver.

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On a practical note, I'm incredibly grateful that Sparkfun offers USPS shipping, and usually choose that with great results. I picked the funky UPS/USPS option this time because it didn't have to be fast.