Murphy's Law

Usps does not update the tracking info in real time.

I had a shipment arive a month after it was shipped. I filed a lost package form thingy, a year after it arrived they were "still looking" for it.

What I found out from postal workers who were trying to help me is that the package is scanned when you drop it off. Then from there the "scans" are virtual. Meaning it should be on truck A headed to Texas, so usps shows that it is on the truck. It might be sitting on a dock, it might be in another truck etc. Then some time later it might get scanned again updating the system with real data. It goes on this way till it is delivered and finally scanned.

Recently I had a package shipped to me and a few days later the sender notified me it was still at their PO, or city or the like. It should have taken another 2 to 3 days from then to get here but it showed up the very next day.