Did UPS intentionally delay my package?
I just ordered a new external hard drive from an online store. My order shipped out with a UPS tracking number. When I received the email with the tracking number I went straight to UPS.com to see what the expected delivery date was. The item shipped on Thursday and was expected to arrive Monday. This was what I was expecting as a decent shipping time. Well, Friday afternoon I decided to check it again, and to my surprise, it was already at my UPS sorting center (DORAVILLE, GA) here in Atlanta, GA. I was thinking great, if it is there Friday, I will be out for delivery on Saturday, a few days earlier then expected.
Well, Saturday came, and no package so I decided to check the tracking again. What is this, it was sent to another sorting facility (ATLANTA, GA). This surprised me because most of my packages are delivered out of the Doraville sorting center which is closer to my house then the Atlanta one. I thought this was strange, but I was not to worried, I figured it would be delivered out of the Atlanta facility, no big deal.
I know UPS doesn’t deliver on Sundays, so I was like “oh well, it will be here Monday as schedules.” Well, I checked the tracking on Sunday when I was bored, and “WHAT THE F**K???” the package was shipped back to the sorting facility it had already been to (DORAVILLE, GA).
Was UPS delaying my shipment because I didn’t pay extra for the 2 day shipping? It took exactly 24 hours for my package to go from Illinois to Doraville, GA, but it took 4 days for my package to make it from Doraville, GA to my house in Atlanta, GA which is only 10 miles away? That is really strange!
I am guessing UPS is just to quick for themselves, so they intentionally delay packages that arrive early, to convinse people to purchase the quicker shipping next time they use UPS.
Has anyone ever had this happen?




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Absolutely… I despise UPS, but in most situations I have no choice but to deal with them.
It actually just happened with my 4GB memory upgrade for my Mac. It took 4 days for it to go from Edison, NJ (shipping center) to Laurel, MD (15 miles PAST my house, and another shipping center). Then, it was held on Saturday for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Finally arrived at my house at 5:15 pm the following Monday.
What kind of crap is that, UPS?
Its good to know I am not the only one who finds this kind of annoying.
oh look there is Lorain OHIO like 5 mins were i live from where i liver (near were it says cleveland) ya lol i just had to say that
I've never seen it go from two different sorting facilities before, but I totally think they delay shipments on purpose. I hate UPS, but sometimes you have no choice. At least Fed-Ex is consistent.
One exception I have found with UPS is that if you happen to have a PO box at The UPS Store (formally Mailboxes Etc.), stuff mysteriously appears faster than if you get it delivered to your Dunwoody apartment 1.5 miles away…
I too have had that happen.
I think you nailed it, they dont want to to give you better service than you pay for…..I had tyhe exact same thing happen when i ordered some stuff from OWC this past spring. It's three days ground from them to ATL (I'm here in Lawrenceville) and they held it for a day at Doraville even thoough they could have put on a trunk in two…
BTW, i see C. Warren and you on Engadget quite a bit
I have found that UPS does not deliver on Saturdays either. A lot of my Amazon pre-orders have been handed off from UPS to the USPS to make sure that I get them on the day promised because of UPS delivery restrictions.
From my understanding, UPS does not deliver to residential addresses on Saturdays with ground shipping. You have to pay for a more expensive option to get it on Saturdays.
Sorry dude. UPS doesn't deliver on Saturdays or Sundays, hence why the package appeared to be held back.
YES. I was wondering about this in the past, but now i'm pretty sure they delay on purpose. The tracking says that my package spent 4 days (including Sunday) in Indiana. Funny thing is, there's only two states separating my destination and their warehouse.
my packages have been sitting in Iowa for more than 48 hours, but I'm sure I'll recieve them tomorrow around 5pm, which is exactly the 3 days shipping that I paid for.
YES! Only mine went from Houston, TX to Dallas, TX to Hapeville to Houston, TX (!?!) to Hapeville to Doraville. My two-day package took 7! And when it arrived, the package had been opened and the contents (a piece of electronic equipment) stolen, and the package re-sealed!
Today, I'm waiting for a package I paid extra for overnight delivery, and just got a message that it was delayed due to a storm. That means it sat at Hapeville for 2 hours after arrival, and is now languishing in Doraville. No telling when I'll see it.
Well when i ordered my xbox 360 and UPS had it shipped 2 me it came faster than the delivery time said!
this is happening to me as we speak. The package arrived in Taylor, PA which is about 40 mins from here. I checked it this morning and it went to Horsham PA which is about 3 hours from me!! When i checked this afternoon, it was in Pittston which is about an hour from me! I dont get it!
I worked at UPS and this happens because your package may end up in the wrong truck because they have to check each individual box and make sure its got the right zip code…..sometimes these get overlooked and get shipped to the wrong facility….they called them something but it's been years since I worked there.
UPS suck…that’s it in short
No, they misshipped it. I am a former UPS employee, I loaded the truckes and misscans are what they are called.
They are common, but are shammed apon. Let me explain how the process works.
Each truck heading to a destination gets a loader, each loader is expected to pick up, scan and load atleast 10 packages a minute (at this rate you’re likely to get fired). Packages going to areas all carry codes that are around the same so lets so your county has codes verying from 987600-997978 and some randoms like 67900,79822-79830. The person loading the truck has a scanner, must pick the packages up look at the code, scan them (unless they are not for his truck, then they are put aside), sometimes scanning and loading this quick (remember the workers have to make a wall out of the packages also, not so easy with random shaped packages)they get a package with the wrong code and don’t catch it, this means your package goes to the wrong location.
UPS doesn’t want to delay your package, costs them time and ratings.
Ill explain the whole package trip for thoose who care.
Truck with package arrives at UPS factory, is unloaded at 30 packages per minute, put on a conver belt and send up the line to pickers/sorters who pick out the packages to send to the trucks in their code range (they must remember all the codes for each truck in there area, usually 10 trucks per area). Each sorter picks his packages out and lets the rest pass, they go down and pass more sorters, at the end there is usually just one or 2 trucks usually to a major california hub (lots of packages), these don’t need a sorter because all the others should have already been sorted.
The sorters get massive amounts of packages and sometimes packages push down there belt to the wrong truck and if not caught by the loader will be sent to the wrong location.
When I was a new loader I got about 2 misscans (3 and you can be fired). Weathers loaders rarely get them.
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