MP order

[Petrol & Powder]

Instantaneous and continuous delivery tracking is a product of the internet age. While it can be a convenient service, the additional information creates other problems.

Some of us remember filing out a printed order form, placing it in an envelope along with a check or money order and mailing that envelope. Typically, the envelope would be addressed by hand and a stamp affixed prior to mailing.

You then waited for your item(s) to arrive. You did not know when the payment arrived, you did not know when your order shipped, and you didn’t know where your order was as it traveled to you.

The enormous amount of computing power and instantaneous data delivery provided by the internet age has created some incredible products, including package tracking.

Bar codes on packages identify the package and its destination. Every place where that bar code is read can establish the package’s location at a particular time. That information coupled with some customer access to that information allows the customer to instantly learn where his/her package was at several points in its journey. But that knowledge also spoils us tremendously.

The saying that ignorance is bliss has a lot of truth to it. 35 years ago, you were happy when your goods arrived and the unknown status of your order during its travels was simply the norm.

 

[popper]

Wife's summer job during school was 'letter opener' at Bellas Hess mail order. Lots of coins and stamps taped to the letter. Would pass it on to the receiving/account desk, then order desk, then shipping. Almost all went by USPS. We are spoiled.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I never understood the guys buying a brand new rifle, having the sporting goods store mounting the scope and "bore sighting" it for them the week before the opener. They show up in the Northwoods having never fired their rifle. I suppose it didn't matter for those who spent their time drinking and playing poker all night and sleeping most of the day.

Ooh workjng in gun shops for thirty years I can tell you the stupidty is rampant...

I had a guy come in week before season for new rifle. Bought a Browning Auto 30/06 and 30/30 shells.
I herd one of my guys tell him that was not proper
Ammo for that gun. I was standing beside the girl at the register tell him same thing... He came in opening morning... was in lot before we opened.

30/30 stuck in gun. Walked in store with it loaded...

I got it cleared. Sold him
Proper ammo.

He came back before we closed wanting to sell the rifle cause it didnt shoot. He missed three times. I asked him if it shot correctly when he sited it at the range? He said YOU PEOPLE BORE SITED IT HERE!!!

YES THEY WALK AMOUNG US AND CARRY GUNS....

 

[RicinYakima]

Ooh workjng in gun shops for thirty years I can tell you the stupidty is rampant...

I had a guy come in week before season for new rifle. Bought a Browning Auto 30/06 and 30/30 shells.
I herd one of my guys tell him that was not proper
Ammo for that gun. I was standing beside the girl at the register tell him same thing... He came in opening morning... was in lot before we opened.

30/30 stuck in gun. Walked in store with it loaded...

I got it cleared. Sold him
Proper ammo.

He came back before we closed wanting to sell the rifle cause it didnt shoot. He missed three times. I asked him if it shot correctly when he sited it at the range? He said YOU PEOPLE BORE SITED IT HERE!!!

YES THEY WALK AMOUNG US AND CARRY GUNS....

There is a reason for birth control, fentanyl and alcohol. Problem is, it is not keeping the population of idiots down.

 

[Michael]

My LGS story, guy came in and purchased a French 7.65mm MAS one day when I was not working. Lucky me was on when he came back claiming it was defective as the rounds would chamber. He still had the magazine loaded, with 32ACPs. Of coarse he tried to tell me all 32s shot the same ammo, bad for him, we had copy of Cartridges of the World in stock, never seen him again.

Speaking of which... 30 Super Carry, 7.65mm MAS reinvented?

 

[fiver]

it's a basic re-hash of something from around the turn of the 19th. into the 20th. century.
only with more pressure.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

There is a reason for birth control, fentanyl and alcohol. Problem is, it is not keeping the population of idiots down.

There is an inexhaustible supply of idiots, but I still think one should never interfere with Darwin.

 

[Glaciers]

Was it P. T. that said there’s one born every minute and two converted.

 

[Glaciers]

Then it was General Norman Schwarzkopf that said “you can’t fix stupid”

 

[RBHarter]

48% of the people you meet will be of below average intelligence....

A very smart dog has an IQ of about 65 . You have to be smarter than a dog to teach it which is often easier to do if you can convince the dog it was their idea .
It takes an IQ above 35 to feed , dress , and consistently not soil ones self .

Throughout my lifetime I've meet a number of people who couldn't house break a dog a few that I questioned their being fully house broken .

The longer I'm on this security gig the more I question the the averages. It's almost like there's a gap that skips over the average from about 75 to 110 and a huge mass in the low 60s that off sets all of the 125-140s ..,... I saw someplace in the US we had fallen from 91 with testing limits of the late 40s and early 50s to 85 in 2010 as a national average .

I don't think that as a whole we are dummer in the last 30 years but we lack again as a whole lack problem solving and imagination where it relates to creativity.

 

[obssd1958]

The movie "Idiocracy" is going to end up a documentary...

 

[Jeff H]

I had to double-check to see if this was a recent thread or if someone revived it from a few years ago.

Most recently, my experience with UPS, USPS and FedEx has been that their tracking has been worthless - an affectation of "real-time," being days and many, many miles behind. Once delivered, tracking for the item is populated to show several cities and days that the item went through while you spend days watching it supposedly sit in some distribution center.

I do remember when everything was "allow six to eight weeks for delivery" and NO tracking, but with the technology forced upon us, along with a sense of no obligation or responsibility to use it effectively, in addition to exorbitant shipping costs, it can be irksome.

In the spring of 2020 (everyone remembers that debacle), I ordered two knives from Finland and had them in three days - DHL. I took pity on a fella a couple hours from me,in the same state, and sold him one of mine because he couldn't get one. From my house to his - thirty days.

Now that all the carriers have worked deals with each other to tag-team/relay packages, tracking is a complete joke. I'm just hoping that here will be some reflection of the imagined efficiency in these partnerships as relates to the technology in tracking. I never asked for it - they offered it, and for free, so yes, I expect it and expect it to work, especially after shipping two long-arms through USPS recently and walking out of the PO having felt violated.

It's hit or miss these days at best. I've cut way back on buying or selling anything which involves shipping in the past several years and wonder how many others have and what the net effect on the economy this could eventually have.

Technology is a wonderful thing. That we (collectively) under-utilize and misutilize it is characteristic of the failures which cause misgivings and distrust.

 

[Winelover]

FedEx delivers Sundays up here now, or at least they did for a while. I'm talking July of this year not the Christmas rush. I wonder if that's a regional thing?

FedEx delivers on Saturday, here. UPS doesn't. Nobody delivers on Sunday.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

In the overall scheme of things, slow shipping is a First World Problem.

 

[358156 hp]

FedEx delivers on Saturday, here. UPS doesn't. Nobody delivers on Sunday.

USPS delivers in our area on Sunday. Special runs for Amazon only.

 

[Jeff H]

In the overall scheme of things, slow shipping is a First World Problem.

Not like it's a privilege - we're paying for it.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Not like it's a privilege - we're paying for it.

We've always paid for it.

Retail shipping for individual customers is not a new concept, Sears & Robuck may be one of the most famous examples of long-distance shopping and direct shipping. What's new is the ability to instantaneously make the purchase followed by tracking of the delivery with its expectation of speed.

Being able to ship a package from Europe to a specific individual address in the U.S.A. over the course of a few days for an insanely low cost is a function of an enormous package delivery system. Those systems are profitable despite the relatively low cost of that shipping due to the incredible volume they handle.

 

[Jeff H]

We've always paid for it.
.....

Of course we have and yes, it's a first-world problem, but we have a right to greater expectations in the first-world, otherwise, we'd accept whatever level of quality, quantity or speed the supplier feels like giving for whatever exorbitant sum the supplier feels like charging - just like in the third-world.

That it's "first-world problem" is obvious and may be a benign musing, but it seems to reduce higher expectations to mere complaining about something we should be grateful to have at whatever cost. We're not the first-world for having set low expectations.

 

[Winelover]

USPS delivers in our area on Sunday. Special runs for Amazon only.

Since they opened a distribution facility in our area, USPS hardly gets any of Amazon shipping. Amazon uses contract drivers, from that facility, we will get an occasional Sunday delivery.