Just having a tracking number doesn’t mean the item was actually picked up by UPS/USPS. I shop by mail a lot, and I’ve discovered that for a company that does a lot of shipping, they can actually put the postage info on the package and get the tracking number before it’s actually picked up by the shipping company. If you check the actual tracking history, you may find out that even though you have a tracking number, it’s still waiting to be picked up from the seller.
Several times, this has happened to me…and each time the SHIPPER sent a duplicate shipment. One time, the original showed up months later…and I returned it to them. The other times, the first shipment never got to me.
@paul2752 if you put this on a credit card, you can also dispute the charge as an item not received.
@thumper1 I’ve found Amazon to be amazing when things get lost - due to no fault of their own.
We’re doing most of our Christmas shopping online. Amazon recently sent a message that an item had been lost and they were refunding the charge. I hadn’t even noticed it missing. Since the whole family buys via the same Prime account everyone figured it someone else’s purchase. I don’t think it is the shippers responsibility, but most larger retailers will send another or give a refund. Probably not worth their time and effort to argue with either the purchaser or the shipper.
I received an email from UPS yesterday that my package would be delayed by 3-4 days then it showed up on my doorstep that afternoon. I am a little concerned because I am sending out gifts and cards a little later this year and hope they get to their destinations in time.
So @paul2752, any progress?
Do inquire. A friend of mine had this happen. It eventually turned out that the mail truck her shipment was in burst int flame and everything in it burned to a crisp. USPS did not have a list of the packages on that particular truck and waited until customers complained to figure out what was on it!
I ordered things from Amazon Saturday evening and they were at my house on Monday. I’m not sure how they managed that. I think UPS delivered them, but am not going to check the labels now.
So I emailed USPS on Saturday, and they called me at that evening(surprise) and told me that it is still stuck in Birmingham. They said they would look into this and contaact me back in a few days, so I am going to call them tomorrow again after my last final exam.
Call the company you purchased from ASAP. They should issue a replacement at this point.
Fedex lost a phone we ordered in their Memphis hub, so far after 6 weeks & 15hrs on the phone with AT&T and Fedex, and we were finally notified that a replacement was on the way.
Don’t expect a speedy response.
In my experience, Fedex is the worst when it comes to lost or misdirected packages. For some reason, someone on their end entered “Seattle, Washington” as “Seattle Washington DC” and the package was sitting in DC for ages… nope. They could not send it to us because D.C was entered into their computer system even though it was not written on the label… it took several tries to get a person that could fix this mess.
Sadly the tracking number of the lost package shows ‘In transit’ after 6 weeks. Apparently fedex does not have a missing or lost status , just the last scan.
Nope. They don’t. The box of cat litter that was destroyed in transit was never marked as destroyed. Only when Chewy contacted FedEx they fessed up. The broken toilet was similarly “out for delivery” without a specific delivery date. Only when Lowes called the local facility and talked to someone there we learned about the fate of our Toto. 
It seems like FedEx pilots and long haul truck drivers do a good job delivering goods between points A and B quickly, but then the local handling goons take over…
Our office orders supplies online with a particular company. Their warehouse is nearby and our orders are usually received the next day via UPS. Once, a case of copy paper never arrived. I tracked it with UPS and got the “in transit” status. I finally called the office supply company and told her that UPS had not been helpful. She adamantly told me to call the office supply company instead of UPS any time there is a problem. She promptly shipped another case of paper which arrived the next day. Apparently the seller has some kind of contract with the delivery company they use. Our UPS delivery guy said the original box was probably damaged in transit and set aside.
Too late to edit, but I meant “emphatically” instead of “adamantly.” She said to let them (office supply co) deal with the delivery co.
I mailed my daughter an 8x11 envelope on Sunday, Origin and destination Midwest cities. She didn’t receive it until Thursday and I sent it priority mail. Heck I probably could’ve sent it regular mail and she would’ve received it the same day. Smh
Mailed 4 packages two day priority on Dec. 9. One received 12/12, one 12/13 and two still MIA. Sigh. I don’t know why I haven’t learned that the $ spent on priority is just wasted. USPS, I would be much less irritated if you just were upfront and said two day just won’t happen…
I have generally been very happy with USPS priority mail. For a year, D lived in a place where her packages were stolen and the USPS honestly didn’t seem to care. I stopped shopping her things after she had 2 or 3 boxes stolen that year. That year was the worst experience I’ve ever had with USPS.
Also once I baked cookies and mailed them to my brother priority mail. He said they arrived very late and stale and he threw them out! I never mailed home baked items again.
Other than that out of the 100s of boxes I’ve sent USPS priority, all have duly been received promptly and intact.
I had two kids living in Florida and would send 2-day packages. One (living in Orlando but in the vast Disney complex) would get hers on the second day. The other, living in Melbourne which isn’t a backwater, NEVER got hers until the third or fourth day, and when she was living in the school’s mailroom nightmare, often not until a week later but that really was the school’s issue. I started sending things to her boyfriend’s apartment and then we were back to the 3-4 days.
Update: I m getting a new shipment!