FedEx New Math
Apparently, FedEx is using some sort of new math where the word “second” is equivalent to three.
Here’s what Apple’s email said when our order was shipped:
Order Date: MAY 31, 2007 *Shipment Information* Shipment Date: JUN 01, 2007 Delivers by: JUN 05, 2007
If you look at the FedEx tracking image you can see that the package was received on the first (day zero), and was in Fairbanks on the fourth (day number one because Saturday and Sunday don’t count). Then it sat around on the day it was supposed to be delivered (the second day), and it’s out for delivery today.
If you still have the box, look at the label and it should say something to the effect of “deliver Wed 6/6″. I
looked at the tracking info for this shipment. Even though the shipper processed this on 6/1, for some reason
their system gave the package a commitment of 6/6. Most likely here’s what happened. This shipper ships hundreds
if not thousands of packages per day. At some point during the day, they have to assume that anything shipped after
that time will not go out until the next day (just not enough time to process the shipment and give it to FedEx).
If, however, some of those later shipments do make it to FedEx, they are then moved that night. There’s not enough
time to change the label so the label still says deliver Wednesday. When the package arrives at the destination
location, the employees see the label that says deliver Wednesday. If they can deliver earlier a lot of times they
will but not always. In this case, for whatever reason, they couldn’t deliver Tuesday and as the package says
deliver Wednesday, that is what they did. So it wasn’t FedEx math, it was the shipper that caused the situation.
Hope that helps clear things up.
Comment by fedexguy — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 @ 5:02:19 -0800
fedexguy,
You’re right. The FedEx label says it was to be delivered on Wednesday, June 6th. It’s odd that Apple would have made that mistake, since their email to us when it was shipped claimed it would be delivered by June 5th. And when you look at the FedEx shipping information, it looks like it easily could (should?) have been delivered on June 5th.
Thanks for the information.
Comment by cswingle — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 @ 16:13:56 -0800
You’re welcome. Just to clarify, it’s not that Apple made a mistake, per se. The whole thing is pretty much automated so somewhere there was one computer system not updated with the correct delivery date. It could have been delivered 6/5 as it was in AK but sometimes if the courier is very busy, they don’t have enough time to deliver items that are not due that day. As the label said deliver 6/6 the courier knew that they could focus on deliveries that were due 6/5.
Comment by fedexguy — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 @ 12:30:06 -0800