FedEx Smartpost... WTF. Update: USPS outdid them!

[TurtleCrusher]

I essentially live in Troutdale OR. You have got to be kidding.

8/29/2017 - Tuesday
3:00 pm Arrived at FedEx location FEDEX SMARTPOST KENT, WA
10:25 am Departed FedEx location TROUTDALE, OR
12:51 am Arrived at FedEx location TROUTDALE, OR

8/28/2017 - Monday
8:25 pm In transit TROUTDALE, OR
8:24 am In transit TROUTDALE, OR

8/27/2017 - Sunday
8:24 pm In transit TROUTDALE, OR
2:35 am In transit CLE ELUM, WA

8/26/2017 - Saturday
3:17 pm In transit COLUMBUS, MT
3:12 am In transit BEACH, ND

8/25/2017 - Friday
4:12 pm In transit MENOMONIE, WI
5:12 am Departed FedEx location GROVE CITY, OH

8/24/2017 - Thursday
8:30 pm Arrived at FedEx location GROVE CITY, OH
4:34 pm Picked up GROVE CITY, OH

8/23/2017 - Wednesday
3:31 pm Shipment information sent to FedEx

 

[tynopik]

if it arrives too soon, they'll undermine sales of their more premium services

better to ship it around for a few extra days first

 

[TurtleCrusher]

if it arrives too soon, they'll undermine sales of their more premium services

better to ship it around for a few extra days first

Those assholes let it sit in Troutdale just to tease me, only to send it up to Kent. Ridiculous.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Welcome to SmartPost. It's cheap because nothing happens until it can be done with a completely full truck. It's not cost efficient to send your package to a place 10 miles down the road until several days pass and they have a full load for that depot. So it sits around and gets shuttled around to where the trucks are headed, not to where it has to go. Either learn to accept it or pay for faster delivery.

 

[Ricochet]

Well, Cle Elum is where this happened. So understandably the Fedex driver did an about-face and headed for Troutdale for awhile.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Well, Cle Elum is where this happened. So understandably the Fedex driver did an about-face and headed for Troutdale for awhile.

...and spent the next two days with the trailer attached to his truck telling everyone what had happened. I get it now.

 

[rh71]

This is why I mostly buy Amazon Prime. 2 days for the most part and I don't care about the route as long as it gets here in the time frame.

What'd you buy?

 

[TurtleCrusher]

This is why I mostly buy Amazon Prime. 2 days for the most part and I don't care about the route as long as it gets here in the time frame.

What'd you buy?

A Thinkpad X131e on eBay. Core i3-3227u (Ivy Bridge) 2c4t 1.9Ghz, Intel HD 4000, 4GB, 320GB HDD, 11.6" 1366x768, Windows 10 Pro. These guys are only going for $95 and I wanted an ultraportable that's also not anything Bay-Trail or Celeron. These EDU edition thinkpads are super durable and apparently are great to type on. I had a Thinkpad T61p many years ago that cost almost what half of my car did, and loved that machine.

I'll be upgrading the ram to 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3L 1600mhz and a 120GB Crucial SSD. I'll be putting a 64GB UHS SDHC for additional storage.

Sample pic

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Oh, cool. I have an x131 too. Base model, with an AMD E-something.

The trackpad is crap. Otherwise they're nice.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Oh, cool. I have an x131 too. Base model, with an AMD E-something.

The trackpad is crap. Otherwise they're nice.

Nice and noted. What do you think of the keyboard? Build quality? I've only been able to read paid reviewers since it seems most of these went to schools.

Edit: just realized it has a fan. Is it loud?

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Welcome to SmartPost. It's cheap because nothing happens until it can be done with a completely full truck. It's not cost efficient to send your package to a place 10 miles down the road until several days pass and they have a full load for that depot. So it sits around and gets shuttled around to where the trucks are headed, not to where it has to go. Either learn to accept it or pay for faster delivery.

eBay sellers are resistant to faster shipping even when you offer the difference, so I've not found good luck with it. A week ago I got a FedEx Smartpost in 4 days from Maine.

 

[Elixer]

I essentially live in Troutdale OR. You have got to be kidding.

Heh, yeah, I have had packages come within 150 miles of me, then go backwards to where it came, then make a few more detours, and finally back to my neck of the woods.
Odd stuff going on.
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/usps-tracking.2504254/#post-38882857

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Heh, yeah, I have had packages come within 150 miles of me, then go backwards to where it came, then make a few more detours, and finally back to my neck of the woods.
Odd stuff going on.
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/usps-tracking.2504254/#post-38882857

That is absurd. I guess they absolutely had empty planes flying around, or zero trucks going in the right direction. That should be routed through Chicago via rail, even if it was air.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Nice and noted. What do you think of the keyboard? Build quality? I've only been able to read paid reviewers since it seems most of these went to schools.

Edit: just realized it has a fan. Is it loud?

The keyboard is fine - I don't have any complaints there, although it's certainly not the best laptop keyboard I've ever used. (Well, except, if you use it in a dusty environment like a workshop, you might get some key sticking. But that's not the laptop's fault, now, is it?)

Haven't noticed any noise from it. The fan is temperature controlled, like any laptop.

Build quality is excellent. Lenovo, you know? Durability-wise, It's got the standard barrel-style power connector instead of the breakaway connectors that I prefer, and there's no gap between the keyboard and screen, so closing it with a pencil inside will smash the screen. That and dropping basically covers the usual laptop failure cases. Impact-wise, it's basically a big plastic case with lots of empty space inside, plus some rubber shock absorbers. I'd still prefer not to drop it anyway - if you have a mechanical HDD, it's still going to be jarred by falls, cause head crashes, etc. But a fall that ruins your HDD is unlikely to damage the case, so, hey, SSD time.

 

[ultimatebob]

A Thinkpad X131e on eBay. Core i3-3227u (Ivy Bridge) 2c4t 1.9Ghz, Intel HD 4000, 4GB, 320GB HDD, 11.6" 1366x768, Windows 10 Pro. These guys are only going for $95 and I wanted an ultraportable that's also not anything Bay-Trail or Celeron. These EDU edition thinkpads are super durable and apparently are great to type on. I had a Thinkpad T61p many years ago that cost almost what half of my car did, and loved that machine.

I'll be upgrading the ram to 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3L 1600mhz and a 120GB Crucial SSD. I'll be putting a 64GB UHS SDHC for additional storage.

Yeah, I had a Thinkpad T61p as well. It was an amazingly durable machine, until my cat spilled a glass of water right into the CPU exhaust fan and fried the system board. Dammit.

 

[Thebobo]

Well, Cle Elum is where this happened. So understandably the Fedex driver did an about-face and headed for Troutdale for awhile.

Maybe to fish for trout?

 

[zinfamous]

I think they were unable to answer the 3 questions when they arrived in Cle Elum

 

[BarkingGhostar]

The item was sidetracked so the Gubbermint could install a listening device.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

When you think Fedex was bad, USPS picked their game up. I came home early today to make sure I'd be there for my package, left a note in the mailbox saying to knock or leave it at the front door. I got two packages from USPS, they knocked on the door, left the other package and ran. They had preemptively left a redeliver card in my mailbox and sped off with my Fedex smartpost package.

I am fucking pissed.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Have you powered it off and back on?

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Have you powered it off and back on?

I was able to pick it up the next day. I'm messaging every seller before shipment about shipping options. NEVER doing smartpost again.