Longest world tours or tour of the country
What’s the longest time a package took to return to you for whatever reason? I recently received back a package that I sent out in October 2021. Granted it was sent to an international buyer. It seems the buyer never claimed it. I checked my records and it seems there has been zero communication from the buyer.
12 comments
postcardcountry
·3 years agoIt's not the longest time, nor the strangest route, but this occurred recently and is worth a chuckle....
Order comes in, located in the same state I am. Didn't recognize the name of the town so I googled it, found it on the map. Package gets mailed. In seller hub I periodically review what has been delivered and what has not. See the package has not been delivered. Check the tracking ....infamous "in-transit" which sometimes means loaded in a trailer that has left the loading dock for the parking lot....
Contact buyer and tell her what is going on. She is patient. Two weeks later, package is again received in the sorting center it supposedly already had been through. Back to "in-transit" . Contact buyer again. She laughs, her regional distribution center is getting a national reputation for extremely slow processing.
Week three it suddenly shows up as delivered! Contact buyer. Yes, package has been received. I apologize and say "if I had known it would take this long, I would have taken the 3 hour drive and delivered it myself." She said she was planning to order Christmas presents in July, they might get there on time.
showmecurrency4u
·3 years agoi have two overseas packages but cant remember the time frame but both were mailed about 15 years at the buyers risk from eminence., missouri. the first was going to japan. went to jfk . i guess the bucket next to japan was jamaica, so on to jamaica. went to about 10 placesn then panama, all over the pacific, went through 2 usa stations , including guam and arrived in japan almost two years later. the buyer emailed me a copy of both sides of the large size letter. the second package was mailed to afghanistan to a person that was from bahrain that was working for the u.s. government on a military base. i received back with about 25-30 staples all around the over sized envelope about 2 1/2 years later. i opened and on the inside wase the letter with all of his home mailing address in bahrain. i repackaged an sent it to bahrain. when it finally arived it had been almost three years.
sin-n-dex
·3 years agoAbout 5 years ago I sent a package to Germany. The guy went to get it, but then found out he had to pay customs so he didn't want to do that. They accidentally marked it delivered. Then 10 days it was headed back to me. Buyer put in an INR and claimed that customs made a mistake in returning the package. I had the INR closed in my favour because it was marked delivered. Told him if he didn't pay his customs to get it, he can wait until I get it back for a refund.
Eight months later the package is in my mailbox. I did refund his order and told him "I told you, you'd get a refund when I get it back, it just came back." Marked unclaimed at customs, of course.
C.
a-lotta-stuff
·3 years agoSold a brand new in the box glass coffee carafe to somebody in Spain just before covit, so early 2019? Don't remember the tracking info but on 8/12/2022 - I remember the day because it's my birthday - I came home to an 'almost round' box sitting at my front door. Both the mailing and inner box must have gotten soaking wet and had molded themself to the carafe. Package looked like a bowling ball, carafe was undamaged. Never heard anything from buyer.
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years agoThis was back in the good ol' days of payment by check or money order. The buyer bought a holiday Barbie. I sent it a few days after Christmas. He did not get the box. About a month later, he emailed again . I told him that I would file an insurance claim to please be patient. I had sent it priority mail . This was in the good old days where priority mail was $3.20 for 2 lbs. anywhere in the USA. Anyway , I filled out the paperwork and I had to mail it to the buyer so that he can complete a portion. He sent it back. This took about 2 more weeks. This is some sometime in early Feb. So get the form back from the buyer, I go to the post to turn it in so that I can get the insurance. As I talk to the clerk, she remembered that there was a package in the back for me. It turned out to be the doll. The shipping label was on one of those white decal sheets that you buy. in a store. It had come off. There was no address. Thankfully the return address was on the box. Anyway, the box was still sealed so the clerk was nice and told me to just write the name and address on the box and she would send it and I would not have to pay again to ship. When I got home, I emailed the buyer and told him that the box had been returned to me. So it took the post office nearly 7 weeks to return a box.
That was the last time that I used those little decal sheets.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoThis was back in the good ol' days of payment by check or money order. The buyer bought a holiday Barbie. I sent it a few days after Christmas. He did not get the box. About a month later, he emailed again . I told him that I would file an insurance claim to please be patient. I had sent it priority mail . This was in the good old days where priority mail was $3.20 for 2 lbs. anywhere in the USA. Anyway , I filled out the paperwork and I had to mail it to the buyer so that he can complete a portion. He sent it back. This took about 2 more weeks. This is some sometime in early Feb. So get the form back from the buyer, I go to the post to turn it in so that I can get the insurance. As I talk to the clerk, she remembered that there was a package in the back for me. It turned out to be the doll. The shipping label was on one of those white decal sheets that you buy. in a store. It had come off. There was no address. Thankfully the return address was on the box. Anyway, the box was still sealed so the clerk was nice and told me to just write the name and address on the box and she would send it and I would not have to pay again to ship. When I got home, I emailed the buyer and told him that the box had been returned to me. So it took the post office nearly 7 weeks to return a box.
That was the last time that I used those little decal sheets.
Wow what a memory I can't even remember back to the days of checks and money orders. 😄
frommichel
·3 years agoI sold a rare gemstone that took about 8 months to return to me! I am in the USA and so was the buyer. Package finally arrived mangled but with intact contents.
ckimodog
·3 years ago@iamalwaysright
I used to help my brother in law sell his merchandise. I sold a brand new HP printer for him. The person that bought it lived 7 miles away in the next city. Due to the pandemic, the buyer couldn't do local pick up. I shipped it off and it wound up going to Des Moines, Iowa (I'm in KC) and sat there for over 3 weeks in their postal warehouse. It finally made it's way to it's destination a week later with some help from USPS. During the pandemic lots of my orders were making little side trips thru America. Thankfully my customers were understanding and patient about it.
toomuchstuffagain35
·3 years agoDid you get any of that really nasty weather the past few days?
My daughter is in Iowa right now and what a week she chose to visit.
mike_jayroe
·3 years agoI used to work for a defense contractor. I shipped five boxes from Towson, Md. to Chicago Illinois via UPS..
All five got to Chicago, then went to Los Angeles, Ca. Back to Chicago, back to L.A. Then sent another five boxes to Chicago which the customer got within a few days. First five, I told UPS to sent them back to Towson.
They got there with no idea why UPS screwed up so bad.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoI have not had many returns and none took a scenic route but I did accidently place an order through Amazon for a bedspread that my grandson wanted for Christmas that was difficult to locate. The order was placed in early October and did not arrive until late March. Never caught the fact that the item shipped out of China and it literally must have come over on the "slow boat from China" route. Finally arrived but Amazon also fully refunded me for the purchase and late delivery.
meekamaye
·3 years agoWe ordered from Repair Clinic. com. It was a dryer heating element. They sent it DHL from Ohio. It went from Cleveland to Chicago to St Paul to Minneapolis, to Fargo ND to Watertown SD (I live 50 miles from there) to Sioux Falls SD to Worthington MN back to Sioux Falls back to Watertown back to Fargo back to Minneapolis where DHL turned it over to the post office because my town wasn't on any of their routes and the USPS had it at my house two days later! LOL I could have driven to Watertown SD and picked it up twice! LOL