<p>So we all know about the legion lines…today they were 1 1/2 hours long when D went to check her box.</p>
<p>she ordered a book for class from Amazon. The tracking shows that it was delivered to the Post Office at 10am yesterday. She went yesterday to check her box for a deliver slip…it ws not there. She went twice today and there is still no pick up slip in her box! The PO is closed all weekend.</p>
<p>She needs the book to read over the weekend for class on Monday. I sent her to the library to see if they have a copy of the book that she could check out for the weekend until she gets her book. Any suggestions on what she should do the library does not have the book?</p>
<p>Honestly this is getting frustrating. I am almost ready to go to UPS and buy her a box there. It should not take 2 days … much less 4 or 5, if it gets into her box on Monday, to get a notice about a package.</p>
<p>One suggestion is to see if she can borrow someone’s book. I think if the student goes into the e-learning area of mybama, it will list who is online from their class (if the class is listed in e-learning). My D was going to use that method to ask a question yesterday but only one person was online and they were idle.</p>
<p>She will most likely find the slip in her box tomorrow. D will probably get one also since we now know her package has finally arrived in Tuscaloosa! But they won’t be able to pick it up until Monday.</p>
<p>My DD just got a her PO box at the UPS store today after hearing everyone complaining. So happy she did, although she did place an Amazon book order earlier and is using a friend’s PO box at the Ferg… She might be waiting a while. :(</p>
<p>I just sent D a flat rate box today, so I’m hoping the long lines die down by next week. I had a textbook sent to her that arrived last Thursday (before general move-in) and she had no problem picking it up on Friday. I’m really hoping this is a temporary thing that just happens for a week or so when thousands of kids descend on Tuscaloosa for the school year.</p>
<p>I ordered a “birthday in a box” from a cookie company for my son’s birthday today and shipped it to the post office. Big mistake. Even though it was delivered yesterday at 10:00 a.m., there was no slip in his box today and when I told him to go back to ask at the counter, the post office was already closed (or closed before they got to him.) It isn’t the end of the world, but this is the first time he is celebrating his birthday alone and the little cake/cookies/candy would have been a way for him to celebrate with his roommates or people on his floor. I figured by this time the post office would have gotten back to normal but I was wrong. I should have sent it to Paty!</p>
<p>kjcphmom~same here, D birthday is today and her homemade cookies are sitting in the post office. We did not have this issue at all last year! Her birthday was the first day of class (Wednesday) and she easily got the package I mailed two days before!</p>
<p>kjcphmom, I had a package arrive at Paty Friday and the guys working there told me that I’d have to wait until Monday because they didn’t have time to sort through the packages, yet they are closed for an hour to do exactly that. Even when they found the list of UPS packages that arrived that day, my name wasn’t on the list. Finally, i was allowed to go look for my package and found it in less than 30 seconds. The moral of this story is that shipping to Paty isn’t always better.</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that the post office wait times are going down to what is normal for the beginning of the semester.</p>
<p>Just had our first shipping hassle. Before moving in, we ordered new sneakers to be shipped UPS to Paty by JC Penney. UPS transferred it to USPS for delivery, and USPS returned it to Penney as undeliverable. They don’t attempt reshipment, and naturally the item is no longer in stock. After I explained the delivery situation at UA, Penney was good enough to allow a more expensive substitute at the same price, to be shipped express, which they say will stay with UPS. Impressed with Penney. Not impressed with USPS or UA in this case.</p>
<p>For SEA_Tide or anyone else in the know . . . When the post office closes in May, what is going to happen? Will US Mail be delivered to the University, which will then distribute it? Will USPS no longer be an option? Will US Mail and the Paty package center be consolidated? When I went to college every student got a mail box, so having to contract one’s own box with the USPS was new and different for me. I hope there’s a plan in place that will work better than what’s there now.</p>
<p>if your child has a friend who lives off campus, you might want to ship to them for the time being.</p>
<p>i have ordered a couple things and had them sent to one of my daughter’s friends houses. that has worked perfectly and in a timely manner. shouldn’t have to do that, but it is a workaround that does work.</p>
<p>So daughter goes to the PO hoping she could be one of the first in line when it opens at 8:30, gets there at 8:15 and there are already 10 people in line! She has classes 9-5 today with an hour break at lunch. Looks like her birthday package is going to sit there for another day :(</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this new trend that retailers are using of shipping UPS to the Post Office (w/o telling you) and then having USPS do the final delivery is causing problems because a number of kids don’t have PO Boxes. </p>
<p>This issue can be very annoying when Delivery will be shown to be XX/YY, so you expect it on that day, but it gets delivered to the local PO on that day and not you (and tracking will show it as “Delivered”!!. That can cause another day or two delay for delivery. </p>
<p>UA has NO CONTROL over the USPS which runs the PO on campus. UA can’t order the USPS to keep pkgs delivered for students who don’t have PO Boxes. The USPS doesn’t know if the receiver is a past student or what. All the USPS knows is that it has a pkg with no PO Box for it to go to. </p>
<p>This is a situation where a new trend (UPS/FedEx to the USPS) has been implemented and the rest of us have to “catch up”…by getting PO Boxes or having a local friend’s address to have things delivered to. Maybe that’s why Bama is going to do something different in the future?</p>
<p>I agree Mom, regarding those having things shipped by other companies.</p>
<p>In our case, daughter has a po box (since last year) and I mailed this package USPS Priority! The problem is that they are really behind getting the pick up slips into the boxes (her packaged arrived Friday am and this morning there still wasn’t a slip) and the lines are too long for her to wait to ask about the package.</p>
<p>If I had known it was going to be this bad this year (it wasn’t last year!) I could have saved the money and sent it with Hubby who is going to T-town tomorrow for a seminar! LOL!</p>
<p>If you know a package has been delivered (i.e., you’ve gotten an online delivery confirmation from USPS), can you just go ask for the package at the desk even if they haven’t put a slip in your box yet?</p>
<p>Beth’s Mom~ That is what my daughter was going to do this morning, but she has a 9:00 class and with 10 people in line before it was even open, she didn’t think she would get through to ask before she would need to leave to get to class on time.</p>