Ever have a package of train items get lost on its way to you?

With "Property of Lionel Trains" boldly printed on the cardboard shipping box, you're probably lucky it made it through to you after a second time.

Some of the stuff I order comes with the online seller's name plastered all over it, either printed on the cardboard or else embossed on all the tape securing it, or both.  I really wish they'd stop that, gives potential thieves a lot better idea of what might be in the package(s).

We had a PRB 4-6-4 supposedly delivered to our front door by the USPS.  I saw the postman walk across our lawn and went out our front door - no box, only mail in envelopes.  The USPS computer showed it was delivered a few minutes later which is about the time it takes from our home to the delivery person's truck.  Talking to the postal officials was fruitless, they stood by the data put into the computer.  John in Lansing, ILL

Had an item sent from a dealer - item got ‘stuck in limbo’ at a local USPS distribution facility. Received the item a week late and the package had been opened and resealed - you could tell because the original paper tape was sealed over with clear shipping tape. 

I recently had an AMEX card intercepted. I have Informed Mail so I see what mail and packages are going to be delivered. The day the card was to be delivered someone went on a shopping spree. Got a call from Amex about the charges, canceled the card and had a reissue sent to my office. I also told them to rethink the conspcuity of the envelope which blatantly advertises a new card. In the meantime called postal inspectors and made a complaint. Also filed a police report. 

Can’t  trust anyone even the USPS anymore 

Carl, I'd say you were lucky to get your goods replaced - all 8 lbs of them! Some of the stories about postal shipments going AWOL are frightening. There are a couple of black holes in the USPS universe; I won't name them but fortunately in my case two parcels eventually emerged from one after going to the opposite end of the country first. But, as you say, maximum kudos to the new management of NLTW for sorting this out and quickly.

I had a big box that went missing (USPS) and I ended up knocking on doors in the neighborhood.  Down & across the street I found a neighbor who very begrudgingly brought it to their door....

Seems that about 1/2 the stuff  from Amazon ends up on the porch across the driveway.....

Actually reading the address on the label seems to be too much work and take too much time.

mwb posted:

I had a big box that went missing (USPS) and I ended up knocking on doors in the neighborhood.  Down & across the street I found a neighbor who very begrudgingly brought it to their door....

Seems that about 1/2 the stuff  from Amazon ends up on the porch across the driveway.....

Actually reading the address on the label seems to be too much work and take too much time.

I had to call Amazon and tell them that my house was the one across from my neighbor where they always left my packages. They could not look at Google Maps nor Zillow to see exactly which house was mine. They have their own software!  We live in horse country and have big lots and long driveways. I had to explain that the "road" across from my neighbor was my driveway.  They finally figured it out, and now they never leave it at the wrong place. 

It's not that they are too lazy, they have to use their scanner and mapping software even if the house number is four stories tall across the front of your house!

George

rattler21 posted:

We had a PRB 4-6-4 supposedly delivered to our front door by the USPS.  I saw the postman walk across our lawn and went out our front door - no box, only mail in envelopes.  The USPS computer showed it was delivered a few minutes later which is about the time it takes from our home to the delivery person's truck.  Talking to the postal officials was fruitless, they stood by the data put into the computer.  John in Lansing, ILL

That's why I have video cameras. That postman would be in Federal prison right now.

George

I've had a delivery truck get lost. I was expecting a pallet load of trains
to be delivered by a trucking company. The pallet was turned over to a local
company for final delivery who called for directions. The driver decided to
follow his GPS instead of the directions he was given. After about an hour
of waiting I went looking for him and found him stuck on a washed out road
that was not in the directions he was given. It took about three hours with
two tractors, mine and a neighbors, to repair the washed out road and tow him
out. The delivery was finally made about four hours late. The driver was
given directions and told not to follow his GPS in this area. Just because a
road is on the GPS it doesn't mean that the road is passable.

Never had a problem, knock on wood.  Even shipped an engine "ahead" when we were moving 1300 miles away.  When we got to the new house, my engine was sitting on the front porch under some wind-blown leaves, a great house-warming present !

As the days passed without receiving my package, I did not lose hope that it would arrive--sometimes packages just don't get scanned, but get delivered.

In December, I sold an item on eBay and shipped it Priority Mail;  handed it to my carrier who scanned it on the spot.  That was the last scan for that item for the next 8 days, at which point I refunded the buyer his funds.  But I told him the item still might show up, and it did 4 days later when it was delivered to him--and he immediately PP'd the $$ to me.

My optimism/hope really, in both instances was my experience 5 or so years ago when my sister sent me a Harley-Davidson coffee table book for Christmas via USPS Priority Mail in mid-December, and it didn't arrive until the following May!

I didn't have a package go missing but I did have an instance when my order was sent to someone else and their order was sent to me.  The good news was that the shipper had included addresses inside the package along with the invoice.  I called the shipper and they told me they had just received a call from the other guy about my order.  We were told to send both packages back to the shipper and he would make sure everything was sorted out on his end and he would send the right packages to the right people.  We did, he did, and everything turned out just fine.

I had a transformer that was being returned to me after repair by MRC. The shipper attempted on multiple attempts to deliver it to the wrong address in my neighborhood along with a case of wine (my house # 13310, the wrong one 13130). Ultimately my transformer was sent to an unclaimed freight warehouse in Atlanta for auction. MRC contacted the shipper and they returned the transformer to them. Total process only took about 3 months.

End of the tale, I paid freight to:

Ship my transformer to MRC, from MRC back to me, from Atlanta back to MRC, and finally MRC back to me again. The lesson, this shipper handles freight FOB Destination. Meaning; even though it was MY tran$former, my repair$$, and lot$$$ of freight, according to the shipper it TECHNICALLY didn't belong to me until they delivered it. 

Pay attention to shipping terms and conditions. It's never a problem, until there is a problem.

I've had  few instances of misdirected / misdelivered and porch pirated train packages. Once, Fed Ex delivered a package across the street to a neighbor, another time USPS reported  package had been delivered but it wasn't until a week later it finally turned up on my doorstep opened but fortunately with nothing missing.

Btw, it might not always be due to delivery compant error. Sometimes it's due to faulty gps data. As recently as 18 months ago, while all the other addresses on our street would be coorectly identified any gps device, whenever my street address was typed into a gps, the "you've arrived at your destination" would always be a location at the other end our street in the middle of a small cemetary. It made no difference which type gps device OR manufactrer brand was used, the result was always that same location, then for whatever reason and without any explanation about 18 months ago all gps devices showed our location where it actually was. Btw, it was a standing joke with both delivery drivers and people visiting me who used a gps that my house must have been a "dead" spot. Go figure.  lol

My MTH Premier Santa Fe Texas had an interesting journey to me. I purchased it on eBay for a good price MIB. Seller had a 100% feedback rating. It gets shipped and I get a USPS tracking number for 3 day priority shipping. The item gets to the main USPS distribution center in Baltimore and sits for 4 days. Contact the seller. He has no idea what happened. We both contact USPS. They put in a search. All of a sudden the package starts moving. Two days later (day 7 of shipping) it arrives at the USPS Chicago distribution center. Then the next day it goes to a local post office. The problem is it goes to the post office one zip code over from mine and gets stuck there. It sits in that post office for 2 days (now we're on day 10 of 3 day shipping). My post office can't seem to go get it when I call them. On day 11 I call the post office the MTH Texas was mistakenly sent to. They have it. I drive over and pick it up from them. Thing is I can't figure out how USPS screwed up so badly. The box was in perfect condition with nary a ding or crease, never opened, and the shipping label was clear as day with no smudges or anything. Should have been easy to deliver it. But it took 11 days to get it, when it should have taken 3.  

Lou1985 posted:

 Thing is I can't figure out how USPS screwed up so badly.

Never underestimate the power of government operated agencies...

What is the hole in the side of the box?

It's fun to use the tracking number to watch something come all the way across the country, then take a right turn and go somewhere else, then come back, then go somewhere else, then finally get here.

Fun if you are a masochist. Every place it stops is another opportunity for it to get dropped, thrown, smashed and bashed.

With heavy items like a locomotive, my experience is that USPS is the absolute worst at arriving un-mangled.

I actually live on Mockingbird COURT..NOT Mockingbird LANE..so the weirdo Munsters who live down at the corner,  sometimes get our mail and things from Mr. Muffin!

My house is on Clinton STREET. Clinton COURT is on the other end of town.

Guess which one comes up first alphabetically on the GPS system? Guess where almost everyone who uses GPS tries to deliver my packages?

rattler21 posted:

We had a PRB 4-6-4 supposedly delivered to our front door by the USPS.  I saw the postman walk across our lawn and went out our front door - no box, only mail in envelopes.  The USPS computer showed it was delivered a few minutes later which is about the time it takes from our home to the delivery person's truck.  Talking to the postal officials was fruitless, they stood by the data put into the computer.  John in Lansing, ILL

Had the same problem with a 3rd Rail PRR P5 that I bought on ebay from a Cali dealer. Got an email saying the box was delivered. When I checked, nothing. No box or camera image, but the mail was in the mailbox. I filed a case with the Postal Inspector Genernal Office, but never got any positive response. To really add insult to injury, I see an ad on ebay  about 2 weeks later for a similiar engine using the original ads listing and the sellers location is a town about 40 miles away. When I reported this, I was told that since I didn't have posession, I couldn't indentify it as mine, in other words "forgetaboutit". From now on anything of value that I receive via USPS is with signature required.

H1000 posted:

Lou1985 posted:

 Thing is I can't figure out how USPS screwed up so badly.

Never underestimate the power of government operated agencies...

I work for a government agency. But most of us in the agency, myself included, have master's degrees. We don't screw up nearly as often 😉.

Any gps is as reliable as the mapping data it processes and since the data is coded by people and as people can be fallible that coding can likewise be fallible making the gps in some instances provide incorrect information.

Nope.

I have never had a package become lost and not get to me.

We do most of our non-food shopping/buying online and over time have received thousands of packages using any of the three shippers: USPS, UPS and FedEx. Almost always shipping has been fast and reliable with only rare cases of damaged packaging. I have on several occasions watched tracking as a bobble caused a package to go to the wrong distribution center and then have to back-track or side-track to get to me but that is extremely rare, a handful of times perhaps.

eddie g posted:

What is the hole in the side of the box?

There is a corresponding one on the opposite side; the two are used as finger holds to lift/carry the package.  The top has slits on opposing side flaps so that the top can be closed by interlocking the two sides/flaps.  To me, this box seems to be one for internal uses rather than shipping.  But it did fine as a shipping box; very sturdy.

i only have trouble when a package is from one carrier to anther  say fed ex goes so far the lets usps take over .I just had a package sent that way ..

It was super fast with Fedex so close to the final destination  to my home  (3 days  I would of had it) then the package was handed to usps  When they  got it  usps shipped it  to  Texas..

Then they took 5 days to get it here..  so what would of been 3 day delivery ,turned into a 8 day  delivery.. But the Bad part is they damaged the metal display I ordered .. the seller credit me 1/2 of what I paid and I fixed it  but  makes you wonder what else is going to be the norm  for these guys to ship our items...

 

When we first moved her I ordered a new Alco road switcher from Atlas. Not ever ordering anything from the mainland I just assumed it would take about a week. Wrong. I tracked it for a time but then tracking stopped. Notified the seller and he was very nice about it and offered my money back. I told him I would wait a while longer. Two months passed and I said we better work out a deal. What I didn't know my little Alco traveled across the mainland by truck to Richmond California. There it's sorted and put on a ship. If the ship is empty they wait tell its full before they set sail. Then it sails to Honolulu and sorted again. Then it's adventure is on a barge to Maui. Again it's sorted and sent to my Post Office in Lahaina. The next day it arrived after two months and four days. I called him as soon as it got here. Both of us were happy. Now everything goes priority mail and I have it in three days.

By the way we have the most wonderful postwoman here. If it's raining and it looks like trains she will always knock on the door to see if we are home. If not she takes the packages and puts them in the kitchen. We always give her a nice Christmas gift. Don

Missing packages, for sure! It's why I no longer ship via UPS and why I don't purchase Lionel from anyone on eBay with less than a few thousand completed auctions and 100% rating. I never buy anything from overseas or Canadian shippers, either. Sorry, Canada--I just don't trust your postal and customs system.

 

If any of you folks know, or can imagine what Southern California's wine country looks like you can guess what a delivery driver is confronted with!  I had my (then new) K- line 28th Anniversary set shipped to my ranch and the notations on the package from the succession of Fed-Ex drivers was priceless....my nearest neighbor (4 miles away) finally brought it to me saying..."This must be yours"...

John

 

Had four, 4 car boxes (16 total) of Atlas cars sent to me went to an incorrect address but the honest homeowner contacted the shipper and fixed the mistake.  I got them a week late.

Another time, my bad, I ordered two cartons from Sunset but had forgotten to change my address with Sunset from my last location.  The new homeowner contacted me and I picked up the packages.

No one bad shipper, problems equally shared,  essentially all is good.

I had a MTH GP9 disappear from a USPS distribution center in NJ. The tracking ends there, but 3 months later, it is considered a loss. The shipper insured it, luckily, and my money was refunded. 

I would much rather have had the engine instead of my money back.

Stolen right from the Post Office....

Tom