PlanetCatfish.com

I recently ordered a 5 liter jug of Tropica Fertilizer from BigAls. It was supposed to arrive today. I just got this information from UPS; If you click on the above to enlarge it you will see this as the most recent entry under Shipment Progress:

Secaucus, NJ, United States 11/29/2016 11:16 P.M. We've incorrectly sorted the package at our facility. This may cause at least one business day delay.

At least they were honest. But I would hate to think that is was a box of fish instead of fertilizer. The worst part is that Seacaucus NJ is about 45 miles (72 km) from me and, between last midnight and about 7 am this morning, a 50 minute drive. I had intended to use this in my 150 gal today. Oh well.......

At least you'll still get it.

I had a similar experience about two weeks ago. I ordered a dozen clay caves from Plecocaves.com.

The caves were shipped to me via FedEx; they were scheduled to arrive Friday, but at the last minute were rescheduled to arrive the following Tuesday.

But unlike your package, mine had no explanation for why... until I saw the tracking info: The package first went from Indiana to Southern Nevada. So far, so good. That was 24 hours before the scheduled Friday delivery; from there, it was only a 7-8 hour drive to my house in central California. The caves should have arrived here by end-of-business-day Friday with no trouble.

But then, without explanation or apparent reason, my package was mysteriously redirected to Wisconsin (most likely by accidental sorting, as what happened to your box). After arriving in Wisconsin, it came back through Utah and finally to my house, four days later.

At least all the caves arrived safely. They are now sitting in my tanks, making my plecos feel comfortable.

Cheers, and good luck, Eric

By the way, TTA, you mentioned how cataclysmic it might have been if your package had contained live fish.

Because of exactly that concern, at one LFS in my area (one which in the past has special-ordered fish for me), the owner refuses to order new fish from wholesalers at any time in between Thanksgiving and New Years day! He doesn't want to get any fish shipments to get "lost in the mail" at a time when everyone is sending their holiday presents to friends, or shopping for so much stuff online, which then needs shipped for delivery.

So although it may sound like a bad idea for a fish store to run low on fish during the holidays, their stock gets pretty thin by January 1st. Then they restock after the holiday mailing madness is over.

Cheers, Eric

I have a similar rule. Normally, I stop shipping right before Turkey Day. This year I made an exception as I needed to make space. But I limited my shipping to within a few hours drive. I sent out my last boxes of the year two days ago, they both arrived earlier than promised and in good shape. From now until about mid Jan I am only open for pick ups.