I want to post a heads-up and remind users of a few things regarding shipping and post services going on now as well as upcoming. Like the majority of this sub, I'm posting from the perspective of North America, but nearly everywhere on the globe is going to be affected to some degree.

I apologize in advance if I come off as having some massive affection for my own insight or full of bravado; this post comes from a shitload of recent discussions I've had with both other forum users (I don't post here on reddit often) as well as vendors. Additionally, I get on average 20-50 packages delivered to my home or office per week and have to follow three USPS dashboards. I'm starting to see more and more preventable confusion on the forums, so you'll see this post in a few places. Moderators, I apologize in advance if I am overstepping any boundaries and feel free to remove. Keep in mind that DNM packs just look like regular mail and don't have anything special about them - besides the content - so they will move through the system in exactly the same way as ebay orders, bills, birthday cards, and anything else sent via post.

First: as most of you probably know, the USPS is undergoing a major upgrade to their tracking system with both hardware and software, greatly affecting the entire system. They are also closing hubs and re-routing what used to be your normal path from LA to NYC. in both directions. I'm going to focus on how this affects tracking, largely the automated systems. It's had two complete >24hr downtimes recently and will likely have at least one or two more as they progress. It has, and will continue to have, issues: mostly it has been delays with updates; packs not showing movement between label creation/acceptance and delivery; and many not showing at all despite moving normally.

For those of you who rely on their automated My.USPS or similar dashboards to see if a pack is on its way or where it is: you really can not count on it at all right now and for the time being. This goes double for foreign origin prefixes, even if you know the tracking number. (e.g. RR9004-xxx-xxxx-xxxx) Keep this in mind before running to every forum you can find and claiming a vendor is starting a scam because your dash is empty three days after a vendor marks shipped. It might not even be late, let alone not coming. Writing to vendors before the pack is in fact late just because you don't see a number or movement will cause a backlog in their inboxes of requests for checking on tracking, delaying both replies and them getting orders packed and out. Additionally, if it's shown as "Acceptance" - it's out of the vendor's hands. Give those time, stay in touch with the vendor after giving it an extra day or so to arrive. This is a major system upgrade that will be rolling out for time to come, and despite no PSA from the postal agency about the issues, they are known, and known they won't be resolved quickly.

However, it does tend to scan and alert label creation or acceptance as well as delivery, so checking after 24-36 hours of claim of shipment and finding absolutely nothing being there is less common, but it happens. A rule of thumb right now is:

I don't mean to say that there might not really be a problem with your pack. I fully realize this issue leads to a higher risk of scam vendors taking advantage of this fact. I made a DNM order Wednesday, marked shipped later that evening; I do not believe it is shipped and a healthy doubt that it ever will.(*) I'm just saying that with everything going on it's worth your time to look for recent buyer feedback for those who update 'FE will update" to see if there are any new, legit "day 9 and nothing" type complaints; look for announcements on the vendor homepage; and exercise a bit of discretion and critical thinking before either assuming you're being scammmed, facing problems with LE, or writing to ask the vendor to "just this one time" check tracking before their stated late policy based on a blank USPS dash. I can think of easily four or five schemes someone can use to scam a grand or so just exploiting the fact that address-associated tracking doesn't always work right now.

(*)(Note: I wrote this post via draft over the weekend and it in fact did arrive this Saturday: It's the pack I mentioned just above. Vendor marked shipped Wed, messaged me to say he missed the cutoff but promised it would be out and to me Sat. It showed, actually a really impressive order. Tested +, above weight, plus bonus and good stealth where I had to dig through and get pissed for a second, thinking I got goofed on before I found it)

I am leaving this as it is, because it was a coin flip and I was lucky. It was just as likely that it wasn't shipped as it was... the point is that with tracking messed up, there isn't a way to know. It was an escrow on 250mg Alp powder @ $15 intro price from a new vendor. I ran across it just after it was posted on AB forum and had enough btc to cover. Worst case scenario would have been dispute to get my $15 back and leave a shit review. Hell, I'd probably leave it to finalize just to write the shit review had it been a problem... Point being: it's im mind that scammers will take advantage of the fact tracking doesn't work and easily convince you something is on the way, especially exit scammers, with FE or autofinalize with 1st class only sample or low price packs that people just won't bother fighting to get 10 bucks back. Even fooling 50 people for 10 bucks isn't bad for an hour or two work. When we want things to be true, we are WAY more inclined to believe that version of the story, or the excuses or reasons. So this was all in all a reminder to think things way through from both angles, and take extra time before deciding what's really going on.

More importantly to keep in mind: The Holidays Are Upon Us. I've already gotten Xmas and New Year cards from elderly relatives. It's time for Aunt Gertie to knit you a scarf and Cousin Ronnie to autograph his latest spray paint outer space masterpiece and mail them off, and you to trudge to the Hallmark to pick up a 10 50 100-pack of thank you notes to send your Dad's great aunt Loretta besides: "Thank you so much for the cross-stitch of Jesus driving the Millenium Falcon. Yes, the force is with him. I'll treasure it forever. Love to you and Uncle (oh, shit, what's his name? Is he dead yet? Better play it safe) I'm so fortunate to be a member of this close, loving family. Happy Holidays, Your Loving Nephew (Sign name with the little kid version of your name ending in 'y' even though you're 28)... and add more mail to the system.

So it's time to turn to the markets for something to help with the creativity to write the notes... get through family gatherings... survive the holidays themselves. Parties or hiding in your loft alone staring at the ceiling - 'tis the season sales pick up and vendors to take breaks. You know what you want, which market and sellers to look for; you log in...

...and find low stock. Vendors take holidays, buyers stock up to survive them. Add that to the fact that USPS and CanadaPost are already feeling it, and it's time to start doubling or tripling the length of time it takes for your order to arrive, especially if it's crossing a border.

Don't rely on expedited either. I ordered a package via Canada Post Express to USA (nonDNM) last Monday, as in the 7th, right when I got to my office around 8am. Our supplier up north got it out that day with tracking number. The USPS treats these as express, not priority, so morning route ASAP delivery. Without being specific, origin is a major city due north of destination, an even larger one that is a single hop from an import hub. It normally is 3 of the average 3-7 days. It arrived on the 18th. I also sent an overnight express on Tuesday 9:05am... arrived Thursday with regular mail. And the carrier ignored the waiver... which has defaulted to "NOT needed." Temporary workers at hubs and every level throw boxes to Poughkepsie meant for Santa Barbara, don't know 138th ave from 138th street (in my city; it means another city.)

In all seriousness: this is the time to start thinking way ahead, no matter what your role and what you're looking for. There are issues, slowdowns, gaps, and monkey wrenches at every step from market login to delivery.

Frequent buyers? Look around for a couple back-up vendors now, especially if you have medical dependence. Order way before you think you need to. Cheap out on gifts and order extra if you have to; your mum and dad would rather see you empty-handed than dopesick, crashing, or not at all.

Have a party to attend and just want a bit of something to make a night of it? Buying some fun edibles for gifts? Order way way in advance. If you don't trust yourself with extra supply, then find someone you trust to hold or gift early.

If you're loyal to a vendor because they've been good to you, repay that loyalty by trying to be patient and let them a bit of extra time to do their job. I'm not nor have ever been a vendor, but I like to get to know mine a bit. They are very much human with the same human lives and schedule issues as anyone else.


Vendors: a few tips for you as well, if you want to prevent possibly cut down on a slew of requests to "just please check this one time because it's not showing up": Up the communication a notch or three. Update your homepage often and let people know what's up. One 5/5 vendor in particular I noticed started doing daily updates on a list of ALL current/pending orders and each of the statuses without giving away username or tracable info. It was impressive and probably took about 15 minutes to create and maybe 3 minutes a day to update. He also kept a weekly update about stock, and notes when the possibility exists he will be out of stock before his supplier comes through. If I used that product, I'd be all over that sort of reliability.

If you marked it shipped evening before, then get to your drop off to find you missed that box's call - someone is going to write you when the postman brings nothing but bills on day 4. It takes some of your time, yes, but it takes less time than decrypting, reading, and answering a backlog of questions a quick note could prevent. Please: just write a quick copypaste, send your customers. Or at a minimum, leave a note. Buyers really should check pages for updates, but they'll look at messages way more often. Just own it and say when it's going. I own not-my-fault mistakes for a living to keep my clients. They don't care why or how it's not my fault; they just want to know they are "right." Once they see it's cool they expected "shipped" to mean "in the mail" but you apologized that it isn't, they will rush to defend you. The flip side is your reputations crash really quickly on poor communication and late shipping. Bonus: if they write anyway without checking; it shortens the effort it takes to replying to copypaste "read my announement page." Yes, these take extra time, but I can absolutely assure you this is a prevention worth multiples than the cure. A few nasty feedbacks from a bad week can set you back for months. It's not fair, no - venors are just as human as buyers but you're automatically held to a higher standard or lose to the competition who might have worse product or worse prices because people really, really like that nice sweet sense of being given a shit about. But that's just another part of the game.

And I know: Most of you who will see this letter are amazing at knowing this, BTW. It's probably not going to reach the ones who need the reminder.

At the end of the day we still have to respect each other equally regardless of what our role is on DNM if we want the wheels to keep turning and in a forward direction. Using our heads before our mouths goes a long way, and keeping this info in mind through the new year will keep a lot of people a lot less unhappy. Myopically dedicating ourselves to wanting things the way we want them doesn't get anyone far in reality.

So stay safe, and stay sane. Be smart, and play nice.


Comments


[4 Points] flying_kitten99:

Thx for the interesting informative post. Was wondering, with talk of LE planning an international crackdown on dnms earlier this month, (operation "Hyperion" i think it was called?), and also a lot of attention in the news about solving the opiate crisis at least here north of the border where I'm from, do you think now is a particularly risky time to order? Or is it all just same old FUD?


[4 Points] ScoopDat:

"I get on average 20-50 packages delivered to my home or office per week and have to follow three USPS dashboards."

Nice try NASA, a new red flag system you setup that you're now subliminally trying encourage users to do and think they should feel safe =P

Love these posts tbh, so clean and easy to read by a normal person with humility, politeness, and care.


[0 Points] areyuhigh:

I had a customer give me a 1 star rating on dream for no reason