Can't Get There From Here
I've ranted before about the poor service Hawaii gets from the two major parcel delivery companies. Either they get things here faster than the two-day service (so they take boxes off the truck and hold them in their warehouse until later) or they do what FederalExcrement did last week.
Before we get to that, let me give you a time line of events. At a little before 11:30 am HST, on Tuesday, June 29th, I ordered some software from Amazon. I paid additional for second-day air shipping in the hope of getting the package by Friday, July 2nd. According to the Amazon processing screen, with 2nd-day air the package was in fact scheduled to be delivered on Friday.
On Wednesday, June 30th, the package was picked up by the shipper at about 3:30pm Mountain Time Zone, in Texas. From there it went to Memphis, Tennessee. For those of you without a GPS plugged into your brain, the package went from West to East. I guess the shipper uses their hubs even if it means it's farther away and even if it means they won't deliver in two days. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The package arrived in Memphis on Thursday, July 1 at about 2:20 pm (Central Time Zone). It was held there all day and into Friday and then into Saturday. I don't know why it was held in Memphis when if it had been put on a plane to the west coast and then on to Hawaii it could have been here on Friday. But it wasn't. Instead, it stayed in Memphis until late Saturday when it was finally put on a plane heading West. I don't know how many stops it made on its way here but it finally arrived in Honolulu Sunday evening, July 4th. Since they don't deliver on weekends or holidays, it stayed in the warehouse until Tuesday, July 6th, SEVEN DAYS after I ordered the software. Sigh.
And people complain about slow government service. Well, if it positively has to be there by a certain date, don't use these guys. Use the U.S. Postal Service instead. At least they deliver on Saturdays.