Silk Road forums

Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: DeadRa7 on April 18, 2013, 10:32 pm

Title: The fuck is going on with USPS tracking?
Post by: DeadRa7 on April 18, 2013, 10:32 pm
Please excuse me if this topic already exists, or is being discussed elsewhere. 

For over a year now, I have been importing MDMA to the US from Germany and have used many different vendors for amounts ranging from 10g to over a 100g at a time.  Probably upwards to about 20 packs I have received in this time period now, and all of them were sent through the german post to usps utilizing both track and trace and non tracked orders.  However, I usually enjoy the comfort of having the order tracked so that I can check it's status at my leisure. 

It used to be that the pack would tell me when it's left germany (1-3 days to show up), gone through customs (ISC New York) (2-4 days), to my regional post office (3-4 days), to my local post office (same day) and then finally when it's been delivered.   I used various drops, so this information was very handy for obvious reasons. 

As of the last few months though, it has gradually got more basic-now it doesn't show me when it's going through customs, when it's at my regional sorting center nor at my local post office.  Just straight from germany, then "delivered" sometime later that day. 

My question to the SR community is this-Has anybody else noticed this pattern this year?  Is this happening from other countries as well, or just a German thing.  Is it something that is here to stay? 

There are a lot of possible explanations to this, but I do not feel the need to have to sign for a package if the tracking isn't going to fucking work like it should, or used to.   Since controlled deliveries usually occur after a individual has signed, I feel as though if I started getting packs sent without tracking, and I do have to accept the package with a signature, I can simply refuse-burn that drop and move on rather than be arrested and all that nonsense. 

I look forward to reading people's input on this, I am really at a loss here as to why tracking has gone to shit these past few months.
Title: Re: The fuck is going on with USPS tracking?
Post by: RoxiPal on April 19, 2013, 12:22 am
Just talking in general terms, I too have noticed that most everything international has been slower and there has been less updating of foreign tracking numbers.  So I do indeed echo the thoughts in your post.
Title: Re: The fuck is going on with USPS tracking?
Post by: sofish89 on April 19, 2013, 04:37 am
The one order i ever placed overseas with tracking was from South Africa. It stayed in South Africa for quite awhile, before being updated that it was at my local post office and about to be delivered the next day. Weird becasue when I ordered a legit package with tracking from the UK, it told me it was in ISC customs NY.
It seems what Roxipal said that everything international is falling behind. or maybe its the USPS and their budget cuts
Title: Re: The fuck is going on with USPS tracking?
Post by: DeadRa7 on April 19, 2013, 07:20 am
or maybe its the USPS and their budget cuts

Thats what I was thinking, but it doesn't make sense that they already have the infrastructure set up to handle scans at every destination, I really can't figure out how the two would correlate since it doesn't cost physical cash to scan a package and update it on a database....right?
Title: Re: The fuck is going on with USPS tracking?
Post by: Iconoclastic on April 19, 2013, 09:26 am
It actually does cost to scan a package.  Maybe not physical cash, but time.  And really, what's the difference?

Each scan has to be done by hand.  Someone who scans packages will likely process around half the number of packages as someone who doesn't.  Or, I know that some shipping companies actually hire an outside company to be in charge of scanning all of the packages.  One of these outside employees will stand next to the belt right before the packages make it to the sorters and scan every individual item.  Maybe it doesn't double the workload.  But it definitely adds, say, 10% to be conservative.  Increasing productivity by 1% in an organization the size of the USPS is enough reason to implement change.  If they could just cut out all the scanning other than at pick up and drop off, that's going to save a hell of a lot of time and money.