UPS and FedEx display some odd notices on occasion via their tracking system. Things such as “missed the train” or “we didn’t unload the trailer because too many of you people placed orders on Black Friday & Cyber Monday and we’re swamped, so you’ll get it a day late” (paraphrasing of course).
That said, today I logged in and saw: “A hazardous material irregularity has occurred with the shipment. UPS will contact the shipper with further information. / Returned to shipper. ”
Say what?!
Once upon a time, when I still had hair, I worked in a warehouse where we sold photography related chemicals (yes kids, we once used this thing called film, and we had to wait *at least* an hour to see what our pictures looked like, and often days…gasp!), which were “HAZMAT” (and quite smelly too). I recall these packages requiring extra paperwork for UPS, and they did get returned if something was missing on the form. But that should not be the case here.
You see, I’m almost certain that this package contains bakeware. I don’t know about you, but if bakeware is/contains “hazardous material”, I’m not sure that’s something anyone would want to use.
Or maybe someone spilled some HAZMAT all over the box in transit? Again, not something desired.
So now we wait to see if/when it shows up, if there’s any explanation of what the deal was. Oh, the joys of shipping.
UPDATE: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at 12:40 P.M.
This just in…another instance of the “you’ll get it a day late” UPS delivery exception:
“Due to local operation disruption, packages not unloaded from trailer, expect a one day business delay.”
I can’t say that this is surprising. A package someone overnighted me via UPS, which was supposed to be delivered by 10:30 A.M., still hasn’t showed up at 12:40 P.M.
Honestly, I would have been amazed if it did show up by 10:30 A.M. due to the volume of holiday packages. I can only imagine what that might be like, and I’d much rather have it delivered via UPS than the USPS.
On the FedEx front, a package actually showed up an hour ago A DAY EARLY. However, I have a feeling I may be getting a FedEx notice pushing one of the deliveries back a day or two.
Isn’t cyber shopping FUN?!
One of my hats at 81st street was Hazmat Auditor. I can tell you that the rejection could have been something as simple as a re-used box. Could have even a box that had CO2 from Sodaclub, NO2 for whipping cream, butane for torches, who knows?
Rob, I’m going to guess a reused box. I’m amazed at the ones that do show up with old labels clearly visible. I know that “back in the day”, if a label wasn’t removed, or wasn’t completely marked out, it was coming back. But that doesn’t sound as humorous, does it? Ha!
I ordered some button Battery’s Sony CR2032 Lithium Coin Cell 3V 20 Pcs and received this notice
A hazardous materials irregularity occurred with this package. We’ll contact the sender with additional information. / The package will be returned to the sender.
I then got another tracking number and again this same message appeared. my guess is that either the battery’s leaked or they can not be shipped by air. Either way I guess they will not be shipped to me.