Express boxes timeline 0

[Vess1]

   Hi, are express boxes opened and entered the same day or is there a delay on those too?   Last I looked the turn around was 6 days on express.   Is that from the day you get the box on those until the day it ships out?  Or just 6 days once it's entered in system whenever that may be?    

[LISA B]

Hello Vess11,

Thank you.  When you sent the Express, did you write EX in big bold letters on all sides of the box?  The turnaround time is when the order is delivered to the building.

Thanks,

Lisa

[Vess1]

On 1/29/2022 at 10:19 AM, LISA B said:

Hello Vess11,

Thank you.  When you sent the Express, did you write EX in big bold letters on all sides of the box?  The turnaround time is when the order is delivered to the building.

Thanks,

Lisa

 Yes, I wrote EX in bold letters on the sides.   That answers my question though.  Thanks.

[Vess1]

On 1/29/2022 at 10:19 AM, LISA B said:

Hello Vess11,

Thank you.  When you sent the Express, did you write EX in big bold letters on all sides of the box?  The turnaround time is when the order is delivered to the building.

Thanks,

Lisa

      The more I thought about this, I was wondering if you could elaborate further into what this means?    Does it mean once the box is dropped off by post office at your in-house USPS facility or is the "order delivered to the building" once receiving has opened the box and delivered it to the next station/room?    I noticed that my express box has been there a few days and it isn't entered into the system. Wondering if the express pile is actually just another, smaller mountain of boxes to get through that could still take a while.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Vess1

[Nineoneo]

On 2/1/2022 at 6:49 PM, Vess1 said:

      The more I thought about this, I was wondering if you could elaborate further into what this means?    Does it mean once the box is dropped off by post office at your in-house USPS facility or is the "order delivered to the building" once receiving has opened the box and delivered it to the next station/room?    I noticed that my express box has been there a few days and it isn't entered into the system. Wondering if the express pile is actually just another, smaller mountain of boxes to get through that could still take a while.

The estimated turnaround times are from when it’s delivered to the facility not the day it gets opened.  
 

How accurate the turnaround times I can’t say.

[Vess1]

On 2/1/2022 at 6:58 PM, Nineoneo said:

The estimated turnaround times are from when it’s delivered to the facility not the day it gets opened.  
 

How accurate the turnaround times I can’t say.

 

    Well, express is supposed to be 6 days turn around time.  Can tell you it's been there for 4 business days now and is not entered into the system yet.  It's a very small order.

[Revenant]

On 2/2/2022 at 4:11 PM, Vess1 said:

Well, express is supposed to be 6 days turn around time.  Can tell you it's been there for 4 business days now and is not entered into the system yet.  It's a very small order.

As they are quick to point out, these are estimates - and sometimes they're quite bad estimates. I had a World modern sub that I sent in with a ~44 day estimate and it took about 85 days (by my count anyways...).

While they have gone on the record several times saying that this turnaround is estimated based on when the box is delivered to the facility by USPS, this forum is full in threads where they quote a number of days as how long something has been there that is closer to / apparently based on when the box was opened and entered in, not when it was marked as delivered by USPS or their tracker said it was in the building. I've also gotten similar treatments from their replies to emails IIRC. This apparent inconsistency has been pointed out several times and I haven't seen a very clear response on it so far. So...  

If you don't mind me asking, what has you in such a rush? Is one of the coins a valentine's present or a birthday present, or something? At least, for the moment, there's no awards deadline hanging over us like the sword of Damocles.  

It stinks, but I do think they're trying their best, and I think the only way to deal with it right now is just to try to build-in at least a 2x factor on their advertised turnaround as a buffer for if you have any make-or-break or critical deadline.

 

[Vess1]

On 2/3/2022 at 11:08 AM, Revenant said:

 

If you don't mind me asking, what has you in such a rush? Is one of the coins a valentine's present or a birthday present, or something? At least, for the moment, there's no awards deadline hanging over us like the sword of Damocles.  

It stinks, but I do think they're trying their best, and I think the only way to deal with it right now is just to try to build-in at least a 2x factor on their advertised turnaround as a buffer for if you have any make-or-break or critical deadline.

 

 

    I wouldn't say I'm in "a rush" but if there's a minimal amount you want graded, you can opt for what's proclaimed to be express service and supposedly know in a week or wait 4 months.   I'd rather not wait 3 to 4 months for this particular order.  There isn't much in between.

    It's more so the fact that you pay for an advertised service in an advertised time frame and that's kind of what you're expecting.   If that's not what you're getting then you're overpaying for a service that's not as advertised.   It borders on false advertising and seems to be a convenient "out" for however long it takes.    Maybe I would have selected a service that cost half as much had I known to expect to be waiting anyway, even for express.     This type of stuff doesn't get a pass anywhere else in life but since it's for a hobby, it's your contention that they should be given a pass no matter how long it takes?     The service is expensive.   People should have a right to know the actual facts about what they're paying for.  At the least, actual wait times should be updated to reflect the mail back log.     Somehow you can get traffic reports on the hour every hour with updated travel times to multiple locations in every city that you don't pay for.   It seems like time frames "are a thing" to most in society.       It kind of works like this for me.   The more I pay, the more I worry about it.  The less I pay, the less I'd worry about it because expectations would be less.     If you haven't noticed, the prices keep increasing.   Should expectations be decreasing? 

[Revenant]

On 2/5/2022 at 9:19 AM, Vess1 said:

It's more so the fact that you pay for an advertised service in an advertised time frame and that's kind of what you're expecting.   If that's not what you're getting then you're overpaying for a service that's not as advertised.   It borders on false advertising and seems to be a convenient "out" for however long it takes.    Maybe I would have selected a service that cost half as much had I known to expect to be waiting anyway, even for express.

Well, if you know in 2 weeks, or even 3, that's still a heck of a lot better than 4 months (or 6, or 8...). And when you factor in waiting for it to reach them it's really more like knowing in 2 weeks from when you mailed it off vs 3. So you're paying to know faster, and you're going to know a lot faster. So, I'd say you're still getting what you're paying for - you're still moving to the front of the line and finding out months sooner.

Trust me, I wasn't happy about this when it was me either, and there's plenty to complain about, but not sending things in and waiting for this to pass isn't going to help if you want something graded before 2023 or 2024. And I've known too many people that worked in Customer Service roles to not be as nice as I can bring myself to be to those folks.  

The "what's the rush" thing was more just joking about the fact that I don't think I'd ever be able to convince myself to pay that much more for a service that, as you say, already isn't cheap, to get something faster, unless I had a strong, compelling need for that thing to be graded. I'm just too cheap for that.