In Transit, Delayed

[loobster]

I mailed a Kit the end of the day on 1/02/2018 at a Postal Substation. It was a Kit I bought late April 2016 (well over a year before).

Have been using the Tracking Number, and am getting worried.

On Jan. 9, it had a paragraph on upper left saying
"The package is delayed and will not be delivered by the expected delivery date. An updated delivery date will be provided when available. The item is currently in transit to the destination as of January 9, 2018 at 12:12 pm. It is on its way to HOUSTON, TX 7708.

-- -- -- upper right, under Status
In-Transit, Delayed
January 9, 2018 at 12:12 pm, IN TRANSIT TO DESTINATION
On its way to HOUSTON, TX 7708

----Tracking History showed
January 9 with basically same message about This package is delayed -- BUT
January 8th showed - Arrived at USPS Facility / HOUSTON, TX 77008

On Jan. 10, date in paragraph and Status changed to Jan. 10 rest there stayed the same.
and was enty under Tracking history for January 9 and January 10 (with Jan. 10 now basically matching the Status, January 9, 2018, 12:12 pm now just saying "In Transit to Destination / On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008"

On Jan. 11, date changed to Jan. 11, and under Tracking History January 11 got an entry, Jan. 10 changed similarly to Jan. 9 above.

Now -- after 6 pm CST, it still says exact same thing as on January 11 - has not even upgraded info to say anything about January 12.

Could the fact Kit was bought in April 2016 mean the postage prepaid is now no longer enough? If so, could that cause this sort of reporting, or any ideas what could cause it?

[chr]

loobster, I don't know what causes the delay in your case but I'm experiencing something strange about the mail delivery also. I had a tracked package that entered North Houston Center on 9th and left on 10th. On 11th it was marked as received with a message I never had before. (Before it usually was 'Available for pickup' or in one case 'Delivered to Agent', both immediately followed by a 'kit received' mail from FTDNA.)

This time I got the following, with no 'kit received mail' (or status change) yet - maybe there are changes in the delivery process right now:

Thu, 2018-01-11, 01:43 pm / Delivered, Left with Individual / HOUSTON, TX 77008
Your item was delivered to an individual at the address at 1:43 pm on January 11, 2018 in HOUSTON, TX 77008.
Thu, 2018-01-11, 12:54 pm / Arrived at Unit / HOUSTON, TX 77008
Thu, 2018-01-11, 12:21 pm / In Transit to Destination / On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
Wed, 2018-01-10, 02:21 am / Departed USPS Regional Facility / NORTH HOUSTON TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Tue, 2018-01-09, 09:51 am / Arrived at USPS Regional Facility / NORTH HOUSTON TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Mon, 2018-01-08, 12:44 pm / In Transit to Destination / On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
Sun, 2018-01-07, 12:44 pm / In Transit to Destination / On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
Sat, 2018-01-06, 03:44 pm / Departed USPS Regional Facility / JAMAICA NY INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Sat, 2018-01-06, 03:44 pm / Arrived at USPS Regional Facility / JAMAICA NY INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Fri, 2018-01-05, 05:57 pm / Processed Through Facility / ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
Wed, 2018-01-03, 01:01 am / Processed Through Facility / FRANKFURT/FLUGHAFEN, GERMANY
Tue, 2018-01-02, 11:56 am / Acceptance / GERMANY

I think this journey is quite fast, as the New York airport has been troubled with snow and ice around that time my parcel came through.

loobster, hope your kit will arrive soon.

Christian

[DBrooks]

No worries, just a little slow.

I live 4 hours away and it still sits in the Houston mail facility for nearly a week almost every time. FTDNA either picks up their bags or it is delivered direct. The delay is just that it is sitting in the post office.

Here is a tracking from a recent order coming from Northern California: (again, this same thing happens from locally, as well). The delay message is bit deceiving, but nothing to worry about. It will likely be delivered on Monday.

January 8, 2018, 2:01 pm Delivered HOUSTON, TX 77008
Your item was delivered at 2:01 pm on January 8, 2018 in HOUSTON, TX 77008.
January 7, 2018, 2:40 pm Business Closed HOUSTON, TX 77008
January 6, 2018, 4:59 pm Business Closed HOUSTON, TX 77008
January 6, 2018, 2:57 pm Arrived at Unit HOUSTON, TX 77008
January 3, 2018, 12:29 pm In Transit to Destination On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
January 2, 2018, 12:29 pm In Transit to Destination On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
January 1, 2018, 12:29 pm In Transit to Destination On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
December 31, 2017, 11:29 am Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility NORTH HOUSTON TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER
December 30, 2017, 12:10 pm In Transit to Destination On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
December 29, 2017, 12:10 pm In Transit to Destination On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008
December 28, 2017, 5:10 pm Departed Post Office COTTONWOOD, CA 96022
December 28, 2017, 8:45 am USPS picked up item COTTONWOOD, CA 96022

[Jim Barrett]

It will likely be delivered on Monday.

Sorry, Monday is a holiday for the USPS.

[DBrooks]

Sorry, Monday is a holiday for the USPS.

Indeed! We are that far into the new year, already?!

[loobster]

When I first checked today, no change at FTDNA.
Then, later today, FTDNA announced it was received today. As folks have mentioned, today is a Federal Holiday, no mail delivery - so heaven only knows when/what reality was.

- just checked USPS Tracking - It STILL says "This package is delayed ..." and has last message under Tracking History as:
January 11, 2018, 12:12 pm / In Transit to Destination / On its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008 /
The package is delayed and will not be delivered by the expected delivery date. An updated delivery date will be provided when available. The item is currently in transit to the destination as of January 11, 2018 at 12:12 pm. It is on its way to HOUSTON, TX 77008.

In this case, watching on USPS Tracking was more nerve-racking than not having access to the Tracking number. Never expected that!

But FTDNA has it, and moreover FTDNA noticed the change in name and change in Sex, and those are now correct, so so far so good!

[Jim Barrett]

In this case, watching on USPS Tracking was more nerve-racking than not having access to the Tracking number. Never expected that!

You obviously haven't had much dealing with USPS tracking!

[chr]

reading that kits arrive at FTDNA, even with weird USPS tracking messages, gives me hope that my two kits (I put both in a single FTDNA envelope to save postage) will eventually be received by FTDNA and get batched ...

It has been a week ago that my mailing was marked as 'Delivered, Left with Individual' in the USPS tracking history, and I expected it to be received by FTDNA the latest on the usual next tuesday and get batched the following thursday; but no sign by FTDNA that they have received it so far.

Just wrote a support ticket and asked if they can confirm that it has arrived.

[The_Contemplator]

FTDNA's mail is handled differently from what you expect. When tracking indicates that mail has been delivered to FTDNA, it just means the it has been placed in the mail bag in the local post office. That mail bag gets delivered once a week to FTDNA. After that they can mark your kit as received by the lab in the order history.

Batching takes place on Mondays and Wednesdays. So after being received, you still have to wait for one of those days for your test to actually get batched (to start the process of testing the sample). It is worth remembering that there could still be a lot of kits being sent to FTDNA due to the holiday sale, so they could have some sort of backlog. The bad weather as of late could also affect things. I think you should check back on Monday (afternoon) to see if it has arrived then.

[chr]

My kits were fortunately marked as received today. So it took 8 days from USPS tracking 'delivered' time to 'received' by FTDNA, which is just a bit more than I expected from previous experiences and from what I knew from the forum and the FAQ.

What concerns the 'big bag' theory ... there may be a reason that the FAQ have changed and don't mention it any more. Maybe it just doesn't work like that any more?

For reference:

Last year FAQ:
Q: The postal service says my completed kit has been delivered to FTDNA. Why haven't you marked my kit as received yet?

A: Typically, Family Tree DNA checks received kits into our system within 1-2 business days after delivery to our office.

Kits with USPS tracking usually get a status of “delivered” before they are actually delivered to our office. This is due to custom processing by our local post office to more efficiently handle the high volume of kits that we receive. Essentially, our local post office collects received kits in large mail bags and delivers these bags to our office once they are full. Kits with tracking are scanned by the post office and marked as “delivered” when placed into one of these mail bags. No further tracking is done after this. Remember, a mail bag that contains a tracked kit may actually take several days to be delivered to our office.

Current FAQ:
Q: DHL says my completed kit has been delivered to FTDNA. Why haven't you marked my kit as received yet?

A: Typically, Family Tree DNA checks received kits into our system within 1–2 business days after delivery to our office.