It being the 21st century and all, we did not foresee any major problems with sending and receiving mail while we are living in Germany. Oh how naïve of us!
I think the most frustrating part about the whole system is the inconsistency. At least if we knew it would take two weeks to send and receive a piece of mail or package well then we'd know how long it will take. So far though, we've seen it's quite the opposite. For example, the fastest we've ever received something was in four days. FOUR days from Birmingham, AL to our little mailbox on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. Now that's pretty dang quick! The slowest something has taken (so far, since I know a post card we sent in early March has still yet to reach its recipient) has been four months. FOUR months from Georgetown, TX to our little mailbox on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. Now that's pretty dang silly!
After the one and half month time period a tracking request was put out on the package. After a week or two of searching, the final response was that the package reached the military facility, but after that was considered MIA. And most likely WIA, since the reason for it not being delivered was that "the label is probably damaged or destroyed". Low and behold last week we received our MIA/WIA package:
I think the most frustrating part about the whole system is the inconsistency. At least if we knew it would take two weeks to send and receive a piece of mail or package well then we'd know how long it will take. So far though, we've seen it's quite the opposite. For example, the fastest we've ever received something was in four days. FOUR days from Birmingham, AL to our little mailbox on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. Now that's pretty dang quick! The slowest something has taken (so far, since I know a post card we sent in early March has still yet to reach its recipient) has been four months. FOUR months from Georgetown, TX to our little mailbox on Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany. Now that's pretty dang silly!
After the one and half month time period a tracking request was put out on the package. After a week or two of searching, the final response was that the package reached the military facility, but after that was considered MIA. And most likely WIA, since the reason for it not being delivered was that "the label is probably damaged or destroyed". Low and behold last week we received our MIA/WIA package:
From first glance it looks pretty well in tact...and wait, what is that?
It's legible writing! Turns out our little package wasn't so much WIA as it was maybe SIA (Soaked in Action). The box and paper contents appeared to have gotten wet, probably months ago. Who knows where this little guy was waiting ever-so-patiently for us, but I'm just glad we finally got him!
Side note: this story doesn't even come close to the time it took 11 months (almost a year!) for a package I sent from Illinois to reach my mom in Texas. I wonder if when these packages go missing they're really just at some big party with all of the missing other socks of the world....?
On the whole, we can't complain too much since we have yet to actually lose (at least to our knowledge) a package or piece of mail completely. Drastic examples aside, we've found that it can take about one to two weeks for mail to reach its final destination. Not so bad in the long run!
No comments:
Post a Comment