Fruitlessly, however.
Sooooo, Wed. afternoon, I ordered my new computer parts from Newegg, and now I’m waiting for the UPS man to arrive. However, since they’re shipping 3-day delivery from La Puente, CA, I won’t see them until Monday. I’d been thrown off by the holiday, and was thinking it was Tuesday when I was finishing the order, so I paid extra for rush processing. They got it out that night… or so they say. However, when I click on the tracking link, this is what I see:
racking number xxxxxxxxxx7801
Ship date 11/14/2007
Estimated delivery 11/19/2007Destination HOUSTON, TX, US
Service type GROUND
Weight 14.00 LBS
Status In Transit
Date/Time Activity Location Details
11/14/2007 ORIGIN SCAN[I] BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
11/14/2007 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED[M]
But that turns out to be only the first tracking number. They say in a second email that they shipped it in four separate packages, and give four tracking numbers. This is the other three I see when clicking on those links:
Tracking number xxxxxxxxx6504
Ship date 11/14/2007
Estimated delivery 11/16/2007Destination HOUSTON, TX, US
Service type GROUND
Weight 1.00 LBS
Status In Transit
Date/Time Activity Location Details
11/16/2007 OUT FOR DELIVERY[I] BAYTOWN, TX, US
11/16/2007 ARRIVAL SCAN[I] BAYTOWN, TX, US
11/15/2007 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] HOUSTON, TX, US
11/15/2007 LOCATION SCAN[I] HOUSTON, TX, US
11/15/2007 UNLOAD SCAN[I] HOUSTON, TX, US
11/15/2007 ARRIVAL SCAN[I] HOUSTON, TX, US
11/15/2007 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] MEMPHIS, TN, US
11/14/2007 ORIGIN SCAN[I] MEMPHIS, TN, US
11/14/2007 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED[M]
.
Tracking number xxxxxxxxxxxx7186
Ship date 11/14/2007
Estimated delivery 11/19/2007Destination HOUSTON, TX, US
Service type GROUND
Weight 29.80 LBS
Status In Transit
Date/Time Activity Location Details
11/15/2007 IN TRANSIT TO[I] HOUSTON, TX, US
11/15/2007 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
11/14/2007 ORIGIN SCAN[I] BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
11/14/2007 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED[M]
.
Tracking number xxxxxxxxxxxx7024
Ship date 11/14/2007
Estimated delivery 11/19/2007Destination HOUSTON, TX, US
Service type GROUND
Weight 17.00 LBS
Status In Transit
Date/Time Activity Location Details
11/15/2007 IN TRANSIT TO[I] HOUSTON, TX, US
11/15/2007 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
11/14/2007 ORIGIN SCAN[I] BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
11/14/2007 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED[M]
So it looks like my computer is scattered out all over the country and will be arriving today and Monday, although I have to wonder about that first one that I got the repeat email on. The part I don’t get is Memphis. Memphis? Ship to Memphis and then turn it around for Houston? Dallas I could understand, based on the road net and central location, but Memphis? It’s hard to believe, but I guess it’s cheaper to make it the one big hub for everything going cross country, even if you have backtrack 600 miles.
The other thing is that the links embedded in those emails take me to Newegg’s site, not UPS. So what will I find if I go to UPS? I won’t waste your time reposting it: I get exactly the same info, with clock times and an additional notation that they’re all “In Transit — On Time.” But then another oddity crops up. The four packages have “Billing information received” times of 5:57, 5:58, 6:00, and 7:56. For some reason, there was a two hour delay in readying the last box. Maybe because it’s the heaviest, at a whopping 30 lbs.?
WTF? 30 lbs.? I thought, “That’s a lot of packing material!” Then I looked at the purchase list again and realized why. I’d forgotten the one article that made me decide to skimp on some of the other stuff. This is all four boxes, combined
CPU INTEL|PDC E2180 2.0G 775 1M R $89.99
PSU APEVIA(ASP)|ATX-CW500WP4 RT $39.99
MEM 1Gx2|OCZ DII800 OCZ2P800R22GK R $74.99
MB GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 P35 775 RTL $177.99
CASE APEVIA(ASP)|CASEX-CRUISER-BK R $64.99
HD 500G|WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD5000AAKS $104.99
VGA GIGA GV-NX85T512HP 8500GT $84.99
CART CANON | CLI-8C 0621B002 C RT $10.99
INK TANK|CANON CLI 8BK 0620B002 BLK $10.99
CART CANON | CLI-8M 0622B002 M RT $10.99
PRT CANON|ALL IN 1 MP610 R $174.99
Needless to say, the 30 pounder is that last item. I have had it up to my ears with these cheap lightweight HP printers that break if you look at them funny, and cost an arm and a leg to replace the printer cartridges. I want a printer that will last a minimum of three years without having to baby the feed mechanism, not three months. My first choice of printer was too big to fit in the space available, so I stepped down to this one, which also had solid reviews. My first choice on HD’s (Seagate Barracuda) rmay have had a bad batch recently, as there were several failure reports in a row from last week; worse, just about everything was optimized for use in server raid arrays (i.e.: always-on use). The point of maximum stress on drives is normally spin-up, and that’s where you get failures. I’m not sure this drive isn’t a bit of the same, insofar as design, so while that’s a great price, I’m a bit nervous.
Finally, I know there’s no CD/DVD burner; I’m going to pick that up at Fry’s when I buy the new keyboard, mouse, and cables.
Now for the important question…. what do I name it? I’m typing this on Misaki, Stratos-4 is to my left. The mobile is still on the default from the vendor name…
Mikuru?
Haruhi?
Nayuta?
Kaname?
I kind of favor that last one…
EDIT: Ah, I didn’t scroll down far enough in the first email. All four packages were listed on it. The breakdown is strange:
Package 4 is really odd. It’s two of the replacement ink cartridges. Nothing else.
Package 3 is the printer. Not too surprised to see it solo.
Package 2 is the case. Not too surprised to see it solo either.
Package 1 is everything else, including the other two ink cartridges. Weird– I can only assume they couldn’t fit in a standard box with everything else.
Also, all four tracking numbers were issued at 7:29. Not 7:56.
When you have a huge number of source/destinations to work with, a hub-and-spoke system turns out to be more efficient than a web of interconnectivity. And for fast shipment that’s what UPS uses. They have a huge sorting center in Memphis, at the airport there. The Memphis airport is big and modern but doesn’t get a lot of traffic late at night — or wouldn’t, except that UPS uses it all night. Round about midnight, planes arrive from all over the country and land. Red label (overnight delivery) packages are sorted immediately and reloaded onto the jets, all of which leave a couple of hourse later.
Second day (blue label) shipments spend a day in Memphis and are sorted by the day shift, and go back out the next night. And that’s also what they do for third day delivery, more or less.
It’s just easier and more efficient to use a hub-and-spoke approach. Otherwise LA would have to send jets directly to 30 cities — and so would all those other cities. Wouldn’t make sense.
I figured it had to be something like that, but what I don’t get is that this is supposed to be “UPS Ground.” So ground means air?
Still it makes sense that they might divert the smaller packages. Sure enough, the 1.0 lb package (6504) just made it in.
The only thing they promise for sure is the delivery date. In some cases ground really does mean ground. My new computer came from LA to Portland, by direct truck shipment straight up I-5 — but that route is a heavy one for UPS, so it makes sense for them to run it, especially since there’s an excellent highway for them to use that runs straight through. For LA-to-Houston, I suspect there isn’t any equivalent regular fast truck route, and they decided to handle it by using air and sending it through their Memphis sorting center.
(Sure, I-10 runs from LA to Houston, but that’s half again as far as from LA to Portland and there’s a lot less population along the way.)
Are you sure 6504 was diverted? It looks like it was picked up right from a warehouse in Memphis. Is that where Newegg has an East Coast distribution center?
Let me know what you think about that processor once you have it up an running. I just finished a fresh build around an E6850, but I’m not one to do all the crazy over-clocking you see mentioned in all the Newegg comments.
Not that it helps you now, but have you ever shopped Directron? Big warehouse on Harwin @ BW-8 West, and we natives can pick up from there to save shipping costs. I bought a processor from them recently and was pretty pleased with the whole experience. They seem to have good prices and selection, although I don’t shop computer parts enough to really know.
Will: I don’t think it was diverted as such, I think, that like Steven says, that’s the standard path. It just looks like a diversion. Since this was supposed to be UPS ground, I looked first at the interstate road net, which is not replete with good LA-to-Memphis connections. Not to mention, that would be 1200 miles round-trip out of the way.
Griffin: Never heard of them. I pretty much gave up on local boutiques and local off-name “warehouse superstores.” Too many of them were run by people who spoke little or no English, and either had too little or too much(!) technical knowledge. After getting burned with wrong/bad parts too many times, I said to hell with it. (The last place I went to, the guy walks out with my order and handed me two sticks of memory barehanded. The place was carpeted, and the memory turned out to be the wrong kind, too.) To make it worse, I live on the east side of town, too far away. Just to go to Fry’s this morning for the last few parts was nearly a 45-minute drive.
I’ve always had the most profound respect for the sheer logistical capabilities of orgs like FedEX, UPS, and the U.S. military. Or heck, despite its limitations, the ho-hum postal service. For all the military themed anime out there, it’d be nice to see one try to deal with these sorts of issues, as opposed to cool but hopelessly unrealistic giant robots. How that could be made interesting?–I have absolutely no idea.
It’s in. I set up the printer on one of the other computers, because it’s an immediate need. The rest will be assembled this weekend. I’m leaning towards “Kaname” for a name. However, this prompted Dr. Heinous to ask, “why, because she kicks you and hits you on the head with a paper fan?”
I was thinking more along the lines of, “Because she’s cute, gutsy, smart, and doesn’t take $#!@ from anyone.” Now he’s got me worried. Bad omen to name your computer after a somewhat abusive woman…
Oh wait. I forgot, I picked out the name months ago!
Actually, I used to buy a lot of stuff from Directron. They weren’t far from where I lived at the time. It’s been a long time, but they were competitive and convenient.