Sunday, December 13, 2009

Mail

I mailed a very precious gift to my friend in NC on November 25. I paid for the 8-10 business day method. Two days later, it had made it to Montreal. A day after that, it "left Canada". (I believe that's a euphemism for being passed to customs, because it took another three days to arrive in the USA.) As of December 1, the package has been sitting in New Jersey. From USPS's "Track and Confirm":
Your item arrived in the United States in FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099 at 2:48 PM on December 1, 2009. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.
It's now December 13th. Does anyone have any clue what happens in "FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099"? Please tell me that that isn't the place where packages go to disappear!!! Yes, I put insurance on the package, but nothing can truly replace it. :( I'm getting rather worried...

12 comments:

jess said...

FOREIGN CENTER is central handling for the usps (at least on the east coast, not sure if there's a second one on the west coast). International packages leaving or entering the country go through it... I'm surprised it's still there though. Can you call them? Also, I will say that USPS is VERY BAD about scanning tags that update the tracking, so it may have left but not been scanned, so it hasn't been updated...

noricum said...

I have noticed that it takes several days for updates to show up (I find it very ironic that they tell you to check back later in the day, when, somehow, it takes the information several days to show up), *but* I've been in e-mail contact with my friend, and every few days she's e-mailed me to confirm that it still hasn't arrived. (I let her know it's coming, because I wanted to make sure I could send it to her office... I want it delivered to a location where it won't be sitting on a front step. She doesn't know what it is yet, though.)

I tried calling today, but the offices are closed on Sunday. I'll try to try again tomorrow. (I'm bad at remembering to call.)

Deneen said...

I second what Jess said. First off, it's holiday time here and the postal workers get OT and things tend to take longer.

I have mailed stuff from NJ to NJ and it's ended up in Baltimore, MD and then back to NJ-go figure. The tracking is updated periodically also. It's insured, so it'll be okay.

sara said...

:-(

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine mailed me a parcel from Canada on 3 December and it's stuck in exactly the same place.

I rang their "Track and Confirm" customer service department to be read exactly what I could see on the screen myself.

There was a major snow storm in the northeastern part of the US recently, so I'm hoping that has something to do with the delay.

noricum said...

Well, mine did eventually show up, so there's hope for yours! ;)

Unknown said...

Digging up an old post, because I am especially peeved at USPS' FOREIGN CENTER JERSEY CITY NJ 099

The 'tards there at Jersey are the worse of all USPS' ICPs (they're usually really fast, ICP SF is best, Jersey is the frikkin worse), parcels can sit there for over a week, and when finally dispatched it takes only 2 or 3 days round the world.

I mean, WTF are they doing there in Jersey?

One recent example;

Detailed Results:

Bullet Delivered Abroad, January 30, 2010, 4:04 pm, JAPAN
Bullet Out of Foreign Customs, January 29, 2010, 2:48 pm, JAPAN
Bullet Into Foreign Customs, January 29, 2010, 2:24 pm, JAPAN
Bullet Arrived Abroad, January 29, 2010, 11:44 am, JAPAN
Bullet International Dispatch, January 26, 2010, 6:08 pm, FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099
Bullet Arrival
Bullet Acceptance, January 19, 2010, 2:09 pm, SCHNECKSVILLE, PA 18078

From the 19th to the 26th, my parcel was doodling between Schnecksville and Jersey. 7 bleedin days! I've had First-class mail arrive in under a week.

And once, Jersey sent my parcel to ROMANIA, and luckily they were kind enough to route it over to my. I mean, WTF! This is Priority Mail ffs.

Every time a parcel is late, and I check, it is ALWAYS Jersey. ALWAYS. Someone should be fired there.

/rant

noricum said...

Yeesh!

Chappy said...

noricum, read your post and thought I'd add an update 2 years on to let you know that nothings changed at FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099, I'm in Australia and had an item posted to me on the 19.6.12 it's now the 4.7.12, that's 15 days and the last update I had was on the 2.7.12 saying it was in FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099, the thing is it was only posted from NY which by google maps is 6 miles from NJ, to get there it went via Bethpage, ICS New York, Canada, Bethpage, Kearny, before it even got to FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099, USPS has got to be the most useless bunch of arseholes known to mankind, here's the tracking.

Processed Through Sort Facility
July 02, 2012, 6:16 am
FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099


Arrived at Sort Facility
July 02, 2012, 6:14 am
FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ 099


Depart USPS Sort Facility
June 25, 2012
KEARNY, NJ 07032


Processed through USPS Sort Facility
June 24, 2012, 6:03 am
KEARNY, NJ 07032


Processed through USPS Sort Facility
June 23, 2012, 6:59 pm
BETHPAGE, NY 11714


Customs Clearance
June 21, 2012, 12:25 pm
CANADA


Processed Through Sort Facility
June 21, 2012, 12:25 pm
CANADA


Processed Through Sort Facility
June 20, 2012, 3:16 pm
ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)


Arrived at Sort Facility
June 20, 2012, 3:15 pm
ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)

Depart USPS Sort Facility
June 20, 2012
BETHPAGE, NY 11714

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
June 19, 2012, 9:56 pm
BETHPAGE, NY 11714

Dispatched to Sort Facility
June 19, 2012, 5:45 pm
NEW YORK, NY 10016

Acceptance
June 19, 2012, 5:01 pm
NEW YORK, NY 10016

Electronic Shipping Info Received
June 19, 2012

noricum said...

WTF?!? That makes *no* sense!!!

Chappy said...

noricum Yeah you're right WTF!!!!! and it took 7 friggin days to get from KEARNY, NJ to FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ and I'm guessing that's the best part of 6 miles???? tracking's still telling me it's at FOREIGN CENTERJERSEY CITY NJ, I'd hate to be hangin by the balls if I had to wait for USPS to get me down.

Anonymous said...

Guess what... nothing's changed. My parcel was received by USJECA on 14 JUL and it's now 1 AUG... and... still... no... movement...