The USPS mail system can sometimes feel like a fickle creature, with plenty of stories of packages ending up in bizarre places. And while Alaska isn’t exactly bizarre, it most certainly is a ways off from Wisconsin, where a customer had paid extra for it to arrive faster. Reddit user WhyDidIClickOnThat shares their predicament on r/mildlyinfuriating, explaining that the extra $14 in shipping costs resulted in USPS sending the package on a scenic route to Anchorage, Alaska.
“I don’t live in Alaska or anywhere near it. USPS says Priority Mail is 2 to 3 days anywhere in the continental USA,” WhyDidIClickOnThat complains. In the uploaded screenshot of their post, OP’s package apparently sat in California for several days before it suddenly went straight to Alaska instead of Wisconsin.
“Well, it’s priority, just not high priority,” remarked a commenter, to which WhyDidIClickOnThat claims their partner even asked whether they requested “High Priority.” OP was in disbelief that this could have been a simple misroute, considering the package sat in Bakersfield for two days.
Redditors Share Their Horror Stories with Mail
WhyDidIClickOnThat’s Priority Mail experience with USPS, while frustrating, is certainly not uncommon. “Don’t feel bad.. a couple years ago I ordered a set of tires online. Three tires arrived as expected. But the 4th never arrived,” wrote a user. They explained how the fourth tire had gone on quite the journey.
“It had been shipped from Arizona to Texas, back to Arizona, then to New England. Then, across the Bay of Fundy to Nova Scotia. Back to Boston, back to Texas, and then finally to me in California,” the Redditor wrote. While not as wild, other commenters chimed in with their own stories, recalling how postal services also sent their packages to random locations.
That said, WhyDidIClickOnThat said they’d consider requesting a refund for paying for Priority Mail. USPS’s upgraded shipping service is promised to be expedited but not guaranteed for delivery. In other words, OP might have spent extra on just having their package go on an unplanned vacation, with little grounds for a proper refund.
