Shipping Super Slow right now?

[IsaacT]

Hello,

So I want to know if anyone else is experiencing ridiculous shipping times from North Eastern States right now?

I bought some batteries on the 29th, the shipping info was printed out the next day, and then until just tonight it was "Acceptance". Now tonight it says it was processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility. How long can shipping 4 batteries POSSIBLY take? I am dying here! I have my brand new 445 laser I built and my batteries are crap. It says expected delivery is tomorrow, but I don't see how it can go from "processed at origin sort facility" in Brooklyn, New York to "Out for Delivery" in Austin, TX.

Ugh.

-Isaac

 

[Laser Smith]

Two words. Hurricane Sandy
I've been waiting almost a month and 2 weeks for my heatsink and focus adapter from Eud from the Big Boy GB. My temporary fix is a C6 heatsink wrapped in aluminum foil

 

[IsaacT]

Farkin Weather! I live in Texas!!!! I don't wanna be inconvenienced by some stupid hurricane up north.... [/whine]

But seriously...the weather could not have picked a worse time in my schedule to wreck sh*t up. *sigh*

Time to spam "User CP" since my crapfires are charging again.
Isaac

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Have you been on another planet, or by chance did you happen to mimic this smiley :banghead: a bit too enthusiastically?

Every single news service in the US has been covering Hurricane Sandy almost non stop. A hurricane that just happened to have hit the same area from where you're complaining about slow shipping?

Here's a hint in case it still hasn't sunk in:

That's the area right outside the local post office. It's actually one of the less affected areas.

 

[IsaacT]

Sorry :/ I kind of don't watch the news. Call me what you like, but it doesn't much interest me. And YES, I know I should watch it because something on the news might affect me or cause me to do something but for the life of me sitting down and watching the news NEVER occurs to me. I think I had heard something about a hurricane sandy, but I had no idea where it was hitting or how bad it was.

I don't want to sound like I don't care about people or the world, its just the news is not a part of my day, so I didn't think about it.

Sorry :/
Isaac

 

[Laser Smith]

^^ Yeah you're just worried about your batteries :na:
I'm surprised you didn't at least hear through the grape vine or something, storm hasn't hardly even hit here in WI but everyone I know is aware of it. There's even a thread about it here

 

[IsaacT]

Is it the Frankenstorm? I thought that was just a tropical storm with a bad bite, didn't know it was a hurricane. I DID hear about that one briefly....long enough to think the name was dumb lol.

 

[Meatball]

Those photos just look like another Fall day in Nebraska..

Stuff like limbs falling off trees and power poles getting bent out of heck just means it was windy last night.

Our mailmen our hardy citizens.

Seriously though, bad stuff like this happens every year for about a month straight, and no one will make a national report on it. I guess its because there haven't been any high tempers or impatience over it.

But if it happens in NY, its so much larger of a scale. I would be surprised if the city has all the tree removal equipment needed to clean it up quickly - if they were prepared or not.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

It's been over a week since the hurricane hit. Over 5000 people in my town are still without power, and power will not be restored until tomorrow. (Town is about 45,000 people.)

I'm guessing in your town people don't lose power for a week straight every fall. If they do, I'm sorry to hear that.

Bear in mind also that fallen trees, and poles like that are literally all over the place. I just took pictures of the post office because I was trying to send out a package. To get the package out, I visited five post offices. Four were closed.

In NY/NJ the scale is certainly greater. Population of Nebraska, the whole state, is 1.8-1.9 million. That's less than a quarter of just the number of people who lost power during Sandy.

Some of the utility companies definitely were not prepared for the scale of this hurricane.

 

[ARG]

Oh c'mon. That's a damn good shipping time considering Sandy. You don't have anything to complain about until you live outside the US. Even within our own country it takes a couple of weeks.

 

[Meatball]

It's been over a week since the hurricane hit. Over 5000 people in my town are still without power, and power will not be restored until tomorrow. (Town is about 45,000 people.)

I'm guessing in your town people don't lose power for a week straight every fall. If they do, I'm sorry to hear that.

Bear in mind also that fallen trees, and poles like that are literally all over the place. I just took pictures of the post office because I was trying to send out a package. To get the package out, I visited five post offices. Four were closed.

In NY/NJ the scale is certainly greater. Population of Nebraska, the whole state, is 1.8-1.9 million. That's less than a quarter of just the number of people who lost power during Sandy.

Some of the utility companies definitely were not prepared for the scale of this hurricane.

Ah yes I see. I would just say, that to the individual, they would experience the same things all the time in other places. Its not like Nebraska's infrastructure is poor, its that the winds from an ordinary storm cell, or the freezing rain, or blizzarding winters cause the same thing to people here lots. Sure, it doesn't affect nearly as many people at one single time, but any given individual is expected to experience loss of power for atypical periods of time, and shingles being ripped off their roof more frequently than I suspect happens in NYC as an example.

Maybe I'm just used to it at this point. Its not really a big deal anymore. 3 months ago I lost half of a secondary on my transformer and experienced 33VAC on my outlets for a day. Just another tornadic supercell storm rolling through.

:tinfoil:

You probably don't want to hear my stories about the ice storms and their inevitable damages to power lines or city infrastructure.

I think the newer developments have moved to underground power lines.

Not trying to compete for storm damages or anything... I just hear about tempers rising and the horrid impatience people are exhibiting towards the city utility workers after this hurricane, and all I can think is sheesh. You'd think people knew what to expect and would let things take some time to get moving again.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

You're expecting people from New York and New Jersey to be patient? :crackup: :tinfoil:

Clearly you've never visited. I remember a short experiment being done to see how patient people are... a car would sit at a traffic light, after the light turned green. The experiment was to see how long the car behind would take to start to honk, or drive around. In new york, the honking started in some cases even before the light turned green.

Sadly people here were not prepared at all.

What happened, the severity, and scale, both, are completely unprecedented. No other hurricane, or any natural event for that matter, has come close to being as damaging.

I'm sad to say I was not prepared for it either. I had enough water, food, lights, to easily last me 3-4 days, but not over a week... and I'm guessing I was actually one of the more prepared people out there.

I talked to some people who lived here since the fifties, and even they have never seen anything like the aftermath of Sandy.

If there is a positive to all this, I think it's that it is a very clear wake up call for better preparedness. I'm picking up a whole load of batteries, and cleaning out a closet to stock with some supplies for the next time... I think more people, like you would be ready for it next time.

As for tempers, rather than patience, I think the people pissed off have a right to be.

Regardless of anything you might read from the news, certain areas and neighborhoods are considered low priority. These areas also tend to have the least reliable infrastructure to begin with.

That's no excuse for practically attacking workers who really have little choice in where they are sent to do repairs. Counterproductive if anything.

I'm hoping my brother gets power back tonight, or tomorrow. We have another storm coming in, although nothing out of the ordinary. On top of everything though... just more misery for people to deal with.

 

[Meatball]

Huh. I lived in Boston for a summer and remember everyone being really friendly and chill... though always in a hurry to go somewhere else. Lol

Whoever they are, yeah. I guess I expect them to be patient. No one get the right to be less patient than they should be, just because they ordinarily aren't in the first place.

That's great you had something prepared! If someone is pissed because they weren't prepared, and the power is taking "too long" to be repaired, I say wait. Everyone else without power considers themselves the next highest priority for repairs anyways. The power company has got to start somewhere.

Think of all the overtime those utility guys are probably getting paid to stay away from family and just work site after site until the job is done. I suspect some of these "high priority" areas are also just a consequence of the circuit design. Power transfer systems is no walk in the park in a space as tight as NYC.

Besides, you guys have deep infrastructure and a large workforce working on it. Things will get back to normal soon. Kind of nice to leave the routine for awhile isn't it?

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Heh, for me it's been great

Instead of being at the office, I'm at home. A portion of my clients is without power, so workload is also a lot lower.

Just cooked myself some lamb, and made a salad for lunch... that beats my regular lunch routine by miles

I wasn't prepared enough for this one... for the next one, definitely will be more ready.

I do agree with you that people have no right to be angry if they weren't ready. At the same time though, I have a hard time not being empathetic to those who lost their homes, or suffered thousands upon thousands in damage.

Part of the frustration people feel is also due to bureaucratic incompetence.

For example I can tell you my brother is extremely pissed off right now with JCPL corporate.

A work crew from out of state finally started working on repairs. Replacement of a small generator (I guess generator? - large closet sized metal box.) and a pole.

The tree that damage both was cut down and removed thursday. The work crew has been in NJ since friday.

Only today they were finally assigned that specific job. He should have power back end of day tomorrow at latest.

At the same time, some companies have been doing a phenomenal job. PSEG, which serves my area, setup a number of stations to give out water, ice, and some other stuff. All are well stocked. There are updates twice daily on progress.

I expect for 90% things will be back to normal soon. For the other 10% though, it's going to be rough.