Seriously, what's up with these guys. I order a package, and I get a tracking number, and watch the progress online. Every package (that hasn't been shipped UPS) for the past two years has been the same: In and out of every facility within six to 12 hours of being scanned for arrival, except for that one FedEx Smartpost. Every time one hits that "Smartpost" facility, it sits there for three to five days, based on the delivery "estimate" given by the shipper. An "estimate" is different from a "deadline". An "estimate" is a projected date based on distance from shipment to delivery, traffic density, and method of travel. An "estimate" allows for flexibility, which means that if conditions are prime, a delivery can beat the estimate. It's not a "deadline" to be procrastinated until!

I understand that hundreds to a thousand packages must go through that facility in a day, but surely that must mean there are machines at work to aid in speedy processing? For one package to sit in a queue for three days is just ridiculous.

I'd call the facility directly and ask the foreman what's up, but then I'm afraid he or she would "mark" my package for "special circumstances" or something. "Oh, my! It certainly looks like an expensive computer component, but you know what else does? TERRORISM! We must detonate it right away! What's that? It was harmless? Aww, too bad."

Smart post uses USPS on either end. Or was that the other way around, they use USPS in the middle and just pick up and deliver the boxes?

Anyway, neither would explain that sitting around. FWIW I've found FedEx to be significantly more likely to delay a package than UPS. UPS seems to be more conservative with the shipping estimates and if they revise a shipment it's almost always to get it here more quickly. I think I've only had them delay a shipment once, and that was due to epic snow.

I just got off the phone with someone at the facility in question (Charlotte, NC). She says that on an average business day, anywhere between 40K and 100K packages are processed. USPS picks up from and delivers to their facility, which is something I already knew. Packages are processed as they are scanned in, not by shipping priority class, which is something that doesn't make sense to me. Especially since the next thing she told me was that it usually takes 24 hours to push a package through. If a package is scanned for arrival on one day, why is it scanned for departure three days later?

My office actually used to deal directly with FedEx and more specifically the Smartpost part of it. Unless they do it differently elsewhere they basically paid my company to sort the packages and then deliver them to post offices where USPS takes over from there. The thing is, the post office are shifty little bastards. Sometimes they would wait days to actually scan in packages our drivers dropped off and then when customers would call our office to check tracking, the post office would claim they never got the package even though they obviously hadn't checked it yet. It was a massive headache really.

That's what I'm saying! Someone's treating the "estimate" like a "deadline". An "estimate" is meant to be beaten, whether or not ideal conditions exist, and even a "deadline" shouldn't be treated like an "amount of time we can slack off before we have to cram". I'll bet it's a union thing...

{EDIT}
Well, whaddya know? Within hours of my "customer satisfaction inquiry", I received a tracking update notifying me that my package has been scanned for departure. Now it's up to those shiftless geezers at the USPS. Jerks are so lazy, I've been in an "ongoing dialogue" with the carrier whose route my address is on involving the placement of my mailbox. Apparently it's too high (by about two inches) for her to effectively make a u-turn and line up her car window with my box. I moved it three times over the course of a week and then said "Screw it, you'll have to get out of your car, rain or sleet or gloom of night" or whatever the hell the oath says. It's not enough that I have to travel five miles of unpaved road every day to get to my box because technically "rural area" carriers don't have to travel unpaved roads. Now I have to keep realigning the damn thing so she can deliver "take-out window" style.