Looks like USPS delivered my light to someone else...

[Stress_Test]

At least it was just a $20 Ultrafire off of Amazon!!

I bought it mainly because I wanted a low-cost P60 drop-in that would let me use more of my SolarForce lights. Ultrafire happens to sell a P60 host that looks loosely like a S.F. L2P, so I ordered it. (comes with an XP-L P60)

Got the tracking update saying it had been delivered to my mailbox, but open the mailbox and..... EMPTY.

I live in apartments that have the mailboxes all clustered together in a group, so it's likely the postman stuck it in the wrong box.

In recent years I have routinely received mail and packages that were addressed to another apartment, so it looks like this time my mail went to another resident. I've waited a couple days hoping if someone got it that they would be a decent person and drop it at my door, but no luck so far.

I think I'll get on the USPS website tomorrow and do a missing package report or complaint or whatever they have. Though I have about a 5% confidence level that it will do any good!

I'm just glad it was only a $20 light and this didn't happen to the nice Acebeam light I bought a couple weeks back!!

 

[M@elstrom]

Misdelivery (or theft in transit) is my biggest concern every time I purchase a light online, someone, somewhere in the world is enjoying my missing A2 Aviator 😒

 

[DRW]

Contact the PO, they know where they left it. They will try to collect it.

Find missing mail at USPS.com

 

[Stress_Test]

Misdelivery (or theft in transit) is my biggest concern every time I purchase a light online, someone, somewhere in the world is enjoying my missing A2 Aviator 😒

OOF!! An A2 Aviator, ouch. I sure can't complain about losing a cheap light.

And DRW, I'll try the USPS site and see what happens. Maybe if they get enough complaints the postal carrier will start paying more attention to whether the address is an "8" or a "6"

 

[Monocrom]

Misdelivery (or theft in transit) is my biggest concern every time I purchase a light online, someone, somewhere in the world is enjoying my missing A2 Aviator 😒

Oh! In all reality, they probably think it's a $20 light at best.

 

[M@elstrom]

Indeed... unless they Googled it (then resold it) 🤔

 

[DRW]

Maybe if they get enough complaints the postal carrier will start paying more attention to whether the address is an "8" or a "6"

Complaints is different, letter to the Postmaster is best

I mail thousands of parcels a year from my cottage industry shop.

 

[aginthelaw]

I was robbed of an hds, surefire, and SAK, but at least I got my money back on the lights

 

[thermal guy]

I had a mailman deliver my HDS to the wrong house must be 14-15 years ago. Bought it off somebody on here.when I got hold of the post office he said I just dropped it off to you He said I remember that package. He then accused me of lying to him. I gave him my address and he showed up 20 months later and first thing out of his mouth was poop! This is NOT where I drop the package off. He checked the whole street but no luck he apologized and I had to file a claim. Fast forward 6-8 years later my elderly neighbor 15-20 houses away shows up with a package he had forgotten all about and guess what it was😂

 

[Stress_Test]

Hah! Well it did finally show up after all! This morning I decided I'd check the mailbox one more time before filing a report on the USPS site.

Lo and behold, the package was there. I don't know if it was just delayed, or if whoever received it just dropped it back in the mail and it took until now for it to get back to me.

I did discover something about the USPS tracking# feature. It said that even if it shows "delivered" it might be another 24 hours before it actually shows up in your mailbox!! I thought "WTH, that kind of defeats the purpose of tracking, doesn't it, if they make the status 'delivered' when it hasn't made it to the mailbox yet??"

Oh well, alls well that ends well. As for the light itself, the host body seems pretty decent, though not quite on par with the quality of the old SolarForce P60 hosts.

As for the drop-in... well if you're wondering, you can skip that one. It's a 5-mode, and the low modes have PWM! Doh! My old 3-mode SolarForce drop-in didn't have PWM so it never occurred to me that this new one would.

It goes High-Medium-Low-Strobe-SOS. No memory, starts on high. But it takes a long time being off, like ~10 seconds, to revert back to High rather than change modes next time you turn it on.

Eh, it's not for EDC anyway so it doesn't matter much; it's just for LEGO playing with my SolarForce stuff. Might post a review in the "Budget Lights" forum.

 

[pnwoutdoors]

Hah! Well it did finally show up after all!

I did discover something about the USPS tracking# feature. It said that even if it shows "delivered" it might be another 24 hours before it actually shows up in your mailbox!! I thought "WTH, that kind of defeats the purpose of tracking, doesn't it, if they make the status 'delivered' when it hasn't made it to the mailbox yet??"

That is lunacy. Should be pretty simple: A is A, status is what it is, it's not something else or something later. The damned thing is either delivered or not. And one would think that the tracking systems (with barcodes, scanners and whatnot) would be capable of at least that minimum requirement. Anything else is lying and deception, rendering the "tracking" service useless.

My own local USPS hires thieves; not all of them, but many. I've had numerous packages fail to get delivered, or show "delivered" but never seen again. Federal crimes, each such act. Yet they do nothing about it, when notified. I've been tempted to mount a couple of trail cams in the immediate area, to track what's going on when the staffers come to do whatever it is they do.

I know, I know: Don't like my driving? Dial 1-800-Waaaaaa.

 

[aznsx]

I could be wrong, but I believe FedEx and UPS both use systems whereby the handheld scanners used at point of delivery interface with a truck-based RF unit, and data is transmitted back to the 'system' at the end of a stop. This results in the status in the 'system' being updated in near-real-time.

Does anyone know if USPS uses a similar system (RF transmission from the truck)?

EDIT: My question has no direct relationship to the problem documented in the OP. It is a specific, 'standalone' question relative only to the technology employed.

 

[scalpel_ninja]

I could be wrong, but I believe FedEx and UPS both use systems whereby the handheld scanners used at point of delivery interface with a truck-based RF unit, and data is transmitted back to the 'system' at the end of a stop. This results in the status in the 'system' being updated in near-real-time.

Does anyone know if USPS uses a similar system (RF transmission from the truck)?

From what I've observed, it depends on the person picking up and delivering the mail.

At my office, the young lady scans the barcode whenever the package passes through her hands. The system updates within 30 minutes.

At my home, the gentleman does not always scan when handling packages, so the tracking does not update until it reaches the PO at the end of the day.

Frequency of scans between POs and hubs also seems to depend on the type of shopping. More often for Priority, less for first class.

That is lunacy. Should be pretty simple: A is A, status is what it is, it's not something else or something later. The damned thing is either delivered or not. And one would think that the tracking systems (with barcodes, scanners and whatnot) would be capable of at least that minimum requirement. Anything else is lying and deception, rendering the "tracking" service useless.

My own local USPS hires thieves; not all of them, but many. I've had numerous packages fail to get delivered, or show "delivered" but never seen again. Federal crimes, each such act. Yet they do nothing about it, when notified. I've been tempted to mount a couple of trail cams in the immediate area, to track what's going on when the staffers come to do whatever it is they do.

I know, I know: Don't like my driving? Dial 1-800-Waaaaaa.

I've had a $300 light sent to my office for the purpose of not letting it sit unattended. The usual mail carrier does not deliver packages over the weekends because the entire industrial office area is closed. Lo and behold on Saturday that package gets marked "out for delivery" and then "delivered." Nearly gave me a heart attack and made me drive 30 minutes to the office to see if the package was just sitting there and exposed. It wasn't. Later I found out it was a new person who handled that batch. They were supposed to mark the entire route as "to be delivered next business day," but clicked the wrong button.

 

[aznsx]

The system updates within 30 minutes.

I won't even get into the human processes or procedural inconsistencies involved, or the overall quality of the personnel, as that would be a rathole I don't want to go down.

I'm only interested in the system(s) employed. I should have perhaps made that more clear.

If the 'system' is being updated within ~30 minutes, that would seem to imply that they do use a truck-based RF transmission system for getting the scan info to the system as the other carriers I mentioned do; otherwise, that would imply that they drive far faster than they work

 

[bykfixer]

I've had neighbors bring me stuff Fed Ex, UPS, DHL and Amazon delivered to them. So they all screw up sometimes.

 

[Bogie]

Post office just delivered a KL4 & Z68 to the wrong address about 30 miles away. Filed missing mail claim. I even drove to the address (same as mine but different town) and left a note and my business card. Asking for contact or just return to postman.

I have no hope of seeing this package. 🫤

 

[thermal guy]

Post office just delivered a KL4 & Z68 to the wrong address about 30 miles away. Filed missing mail claim. I even drove to the address (same as mine but different town) and left a note and my business card. Asking for contact or just return to postman.

I have no hope of seeing this package. 🫤

Ouch! Them are hot items.

 

[aznsx]

Post office just delivered a KL4 & Z68 to the wrong address about 30 miles away. Filed missing mail claim. I even drove to the address (same as mine but different town) and left a note and my business card. Asking for contact or just return to postman.

I have no hope of seeing this package. 🫤

Sorry to hear of yet another delivery misadventure. At the rate I'm hearing about such these days, I expect this could soon become one of those 'marathon threads' (but I hope not). Hopefully the items will reach you....eventually.

Can I buy a vowel please? I guess I'm 'new' to flashlights, and my secret decoder ring clearly needs a firmware update. I have no idea what those items are. I need more search terms for my g-search. TIA.

 

[Bogie]

Sorry to hear of yet another delivery misadventure. At the rate I'm hearing about such these days, I expect this could soon become one of those 'marathon threads' (but I hope not). Hopefully the items will reach you....eventually.

Can I buy a vowel please? I guess I'm 'new' to flashlights, and my secret decoder ring clearly needs a firmware update. I have no idea what those items are. I need more search terms for my g-search. TIA.

Old Surefire Scout (weapon light) head and tailcap