Amazon delivery madness
Discussion
I ordered an item from Amazon during a misprice which saw the item drop to 1/7th of its normal price. After being delayed for a while, I got confirmation of its dispatch along with a tracking number.
Item was to be delivered by UPS:
05/12 @ 20:30 dispatched from Milano, Italy
05/12 @ 21:20 arrived at Bergamo, Italy
05/12 @ 22:48 left Bergamo
06/12 @ 00:09 arrived at Koeln, Germany
06/12 @ 02:48 left Koeln
06/12 @ 03:24 arrived Castle Donnington
06/12 @ 05:35 left Donnington
06/12 @ 05:53 arrived at Northampton for delivery
06/12 @ 15:14 item delivered
And the item that travelled through the night to 3 different countries?
A box of 12 Papermate pens that cost me the grand total of £1.
Hope I don't have to return them.
Item was to be delivered by UPS:
05/12 @ 20:30 dispatched from Milano, Italy
05/12 @ 21:20 arrived at Bergamo, Italy
05/12 @ 22:48 left Bergamo
06/12 @ 00:09 arrived at Koeln, Germany
06/12 @ 02:48 left Koeln
06/12 @ 03:24 arrived Castle Donnington
06/12 @ 05:35 left Donnington
06/12 @ 05:53 arrived at Northampton for delivery
06/12 @ 15:14 item delivered
And the item that travelled through the night to 3 different countries?
A box of 12 Papermate pens that cost me the grand total of £1.
Hope I don't have to return them.
When the iPhone 6 first came out I ordered a couple for The Vikingettes.
The tracking went something like this:
Despatch from facility to Shanghai Airport
Shanghai to Osaka Airport, Japan
Osaka to Incheon, Korea
Incheon to one of the 'stans (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan who knows)
'stan to Dubai, UAE
Dubai to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to East Midlands Airport
EMA to STN
By road from STN facility to UPS Dartford
Parcel then stolen by UPS courier!
The tracking went something like this:
Despatch from facility to Shanghai Airport
Shanghai to Osaka Airport, Japan
Osaka to Incheon, Korea
Incheon to one of the 'stans (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan who knows)
'stan to Dubai, UAE
Dubai to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to East Midlands Airport
EMA to STN
By road from STN facility to UPS Dartford
Parcel then stolen by UPS courier!
gr1340 said:
I ordered an item from Amazon during a misprice which saw the item drop to 1/7th of its normal price. After being delayed for a while, I got confirmation of its dispatch along with a tracking number.
Item was to be delivered by UPS:
05/12 @ 20:30 dispatched from Milano, Italy
05/12 @ 21:20 arrived at Bergamo, Italy
05/12 @ 22:48 left Bergamo
06/12 @ 00:09 arrived at Koeln, Germany
06/12 @ 02:48 left Koeln
06/12 @ 03:24 arrived Castle Donnington
06/12 @ 05:35 left Donnington
06/12 @ 05:53 arrived at Northampton for delivery
06/12 @ 15:14 item delivered
And the item that travelled through the night to 3 different countries?
A box of 12 Papermate pens that cost me the grand total of £1.
Hope I don't have to return them.
Cologne is the Europe hub for UPS - everything that goes from one country in Europe to another will go through there. It must be more efficient that way. Item was to be delivered by UPS:
05/12 @ 20:30 dispatched from Milano, Italy
05/12 @ 21:20 arrived at Bergamo, Italy
05/12 @ 22:48 left Bergamo
06/12 @ 00:09 arrived at Koeln, Germany
06/12 @ 02:48 left Koeln
06/12 @ 03:24 arrived Castle Donnington
06/12 @ 05:35 left Donnington
06/12 @ 05:53 arrived at Northampton for delivery
06/12 @ 15:14 item delivered
And the item that travelled through the night to 3 different countries?
A box of 12 Papermate pens that cost me the grand total of £1.
Hope I don't have to return them.
eltax91 said:
Small enough to fit it in with the other millions of pre xmas stuff taking the same exact route. Surely?
I guess that's the thing. On its own it seems like a very expensive way to run a business but with so many other items on the same route it doesn't make any difference. I expect the OP is flabagasted at the way modern logistics works. I know I am. I've recently written software to interface with one of the delivery companies. They collect parcels from locations across the UK, consolidate them in a central location, then send them to the intended destination, often only a few miles from where they started. If you look at a single parcel, it would make sense to just drop it off at its destination while the van that collected it is passing the area. But somehow it doesn't work that way when dealing with vast numbers of collections and deliveries each day.
vikingaero said:
When the iPhone 6 first came out I ordered a couple for The Vikingettes.
The tracking went something like this:
Despatch from facility to Shanghai Airport
Shanghai to Osaka Airport, Japan
Osaka to Incheon, Korea
Incheon to one of the 'stans (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan who knows)
'stan to Dubai, UAE
Dubai to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to East Midlands Airport
EMA to STN
By road from STN facility to UPS Dartford
Parcel then stolen by UPS courier!
That made me chuckle far more than it should The tracking went something like this:
Despatch from facility to Shanghai Airport
Shanghai to Osaka Airport, Japan
Osaka to Incheon, Korea
Incheon to one of the 'stans (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan who knows)
'stan to Dubai, UAE
Dubai to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to East Midlands Airport
EMA to STN
By road from STN facility to UPS Dartford
Parcel then stolen by UPS courier!
Amazing logistics to get an item half way round the world and to track its progress along the way only to fall at the last hurdle due to some light fingered scrote - a chain is only as strong as the weakest link 
SpudLink said:
I expect the OP is flabagasted at the way modern logistics works. I know I am. I've recently written software to interface with one of the delivery companies. They collect parcels from locations across the UK, consolidate them in a central location, then send them to the intended destination, often only a few miles from where they started. If you look at a single parcel, it would make sense to just drop it off at its destination while the van that collected it is passing the area. But somehow it doesn't work that way when dealing with vast numbers of collections and deliveries each day.
I think its called spoke and hub distribution, supposedly Fedex pioneered it in the states, so while it may seem odd, its the most efficient method for moving large volumes of stuff.My example of stupidity in shipping was to order a back up hard drive for 99c$, but then spot a 20 c$ off offer if you spend 100c$, so I throw the cheapest filler item into the basket, a pen for just over a buck,this gets me over the 100c$, the retailer then sends me the 2 items as separate parcels...
Edited by wibble cb on Wednesday 7th December 06:18
I started a similar crazy delivery route thread a while back. I ordered an Apple Watch and it went to lots of places en route to me! 
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
As a consumer you should be grateful at this time of year at all the amazing work done by the logistics companies. Parcel volumes this year are through the roof and way over initial estimates. Processing and distribution centres are full and the staff are working 24/7 to keep on top of it.
Parcel tracking is also a bit of a black art as the parcel can actually be handled by multiple carriers and making sure the tracking events get passed around correctly is almost a full time job in itself.
Parcel tracking is also a bit of a black art as the parcel can actually be handled by multiple carriers and making sure the tracking events get passed around correctly is almost a full time job in itself.
gr1340 said:
I ordered an item from Amazon during a misprice which saw the item drop to 1/7th of its normal price. After being delayed for a while, I got confirmation of its dispatch along with a tracking number.
Item was to be delivered by UPS:
05/12 @ 20:30 dispatched from Milano, Italy
05/12 @ 21:20 arrived at Bergamo, Italy
05/12 @ 22:48 left Bergamo
06/12 @ 00:09 arrived at Koeln, Germany
06/12 @ 02:48 left Koeln
06/12 @ 03:24 arrived Castle Donnington
06/12 @ 05:35 left Donnington
06/12 @ 05:53 arrived at Northampton for delivery
06/12 @ 15:14 item delivered
And the item that travelled through the night to 3 different countries?
A box of 12 Papermate pens that cost me the grand total of £1.
Hope I don't have to return them.
I had the opposite, decided to climb Snowdon early this year. Due to climb on a Saturday, so I order via Amazon prime four sets of crampons on the Monday that week. (airline won't let me take them on board) they didn't arrive till the following week after we had left... they were only coming from Northampton!Item was to be delivered by UPS:
05/12 @ 20:30 dispatched from Milano, Italy
05/12 @ 21:20 arrived at Bergamo, Italy
05/12 @ 22:48 left Bergamo
06/12 @ 00:09 arrived at Koeln, Germany
06/12 @ 02:48 left Koeln
06/12 @ 03:24 arrived Castle Donnington
06/12 @ 05:35 left Donnington
06/12 @ 05:53 arrived at Northampton for delivery
06/12 @ 15:14 item delivered
And the item that travelled through the night to 3 different countries?
A box of 12 Papermate pens that cost me the grand total of £1.
Hope I don't have to return them.
HappyMidget said:
As a consumer you should be grateful at this time of year at all the amazing work done by the logistics companies. Parcel volumes this year are through the roof and way over initial estimates. Processing and distribution centres are full and the staff are working 24/7 to keep on top of it.
Parcel tracking is also a bit of a black art as the parcel can actually be handled by multiple carriers and making sure the tracking events get passed around correctly is almost a full time job in itself.
The UPS tracking system takes up a vast amount of the 21.5 petabytes of storage the company uses. Parcel tracking is also a bit of a black art as the parcel can actually be handled by multiple carriers and making sure the tracking events get passed around correctly is almost a full time job in itself.
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