Anyone having UPS delivery problems out of Incheon, S. Korea?

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Level 1

9 points

Anyone having UPS delivery problems out of Incheon, S. Korea?

My iPad Air shipped out of Chengdu 11.18.2013 and arrived Incheon 6:05 a.m. Korean time 11.19 (still 11.18 here). Then it apparently sat there for days (3 or so) with no change showing on UPS tracking screen.

Finally I got an email from UPS in the AM today (EST) saying it would be delivered, as promised all along on the tracking site, on the afternoon of 11.22 (tomorrow as I write).

But wait! In mid-AM (yes, I am obsessed), I checked tracker and saw that finally the screen showed a change: the word "EXCEPTION" now appeared in red cap letters at top and it shows for 11.22 a remark that flight was "canceled due to circumstances beyond the control of UPS." No new delivery date given. No updates on screen since then.

I went to live chat and they could tell me no more. Said to watch the tracker.

Ugh.

WHY would my iPad have sat in Incheon for so long? Why does trouble with just one of many UPS flights out of Incheon for Anchorage screw up my delivery so royally? Why does Flight Aware show no cancellation of any UPS flights betweem Incheon and Anchorage?(Yes, I am assuming that's the way to Louisville, UPS domestic base.)

How many iPads and iPhones got delayed, I wonder.

And I guess now I have to wait until after the coming weekend, maybe eve to get a new delivery date.

(Yes, when I ordered on line at Apple store, delivery was promised between 11.25 and 12.2 --- so I am still ahead of the game. But Apple always beats those outside estimates.

Would be a lot less frustrating if UPS tracking actually provided some useful information.

I am still hoping against hope it will still show up tomorrow.

Anyone else excperienced this kind of thing?

iPad Air Wi-Fi, Cellular, iOS 7.0.4, 128 gb memory, black

Posted on Nov 21, 2013 11:59 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 21, 2013 12:05 PM in response to JackArrow

International shipping delays happen all the time, due to weather, political unrest, mechaical issues with aircraft, Customs issues, etc. Not typical with Apple products, but it happens and there is nothing you - or anyone here- can really do about.

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Answer 2

JackArrow Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 21, 2013 12:11 PM in response to Kilgore-Trout

Thanks James. AOK. I am resigned to swallowing my silly and childish (I admit it!) impatience. I coulda bought it at the Apple Store. Was in one unexpectedly 3 days ago. Meanwhile my old lumbering original iPad crashes every time I use Safari even though I've wiped and restored it twice ...

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Answer 3

CocoKu

Level 1

5 points

Nov 21, 2013 6:11 PM in response to JackArrow

Hey I'm having the exact same issue!! Same flight cancelled for me! I emailed ups and they assured me that my iPad air would be delivered on Monday the 25th barring anymore unforeseen issues! Hope this helped! I was super annoyed about this too! I was so excited to get it tomorrow!!

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Answer 4

CocoKu

Level 1

5 points

Nov 22, 2013 7:36 AM in response to JackArrow

Transit has resumed for me!!! Departure scanned!

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Answer 5

JackArrow Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 22, 2013 7:55 AM in response to CocoKu

Same here. But still no new delivery date indicated on my tracking screen.

Looking at Flight Aware, I see there is no UPS flight that quite matches the 7:55 p.m. local time departure scan.

I suspect our iPads have since been scheduled for UPS flight 99, the daily run, which was supposed to leave Friday at 11:10 p.m Korea time or 14 hours earlier my time, 9 a.m. eastern, I think ...

That was almost 2 hours ago.

Weather ok there.

More trouble?

There was a 99A inserted into the flight schedule yesterday; it arrived ... but it left BEFORE our scan times.

So I guess our ipads were not aboard (unless they actually scan after they are loaded which I doubt).

Too much guessing going on here.

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Answer 6

CocoKu

Level 1

5 points

Nov 22, 2013 8:02 AM in response to JackArrow

Ugh yeah that sounds crazy! Super annoying. Just freaking get it here already!!! I guess we ordered ours on the same day, I was super excited when it said it would arrive today and not 2 weeks from now like Apple indicated!! That made for a bigger disappointment!

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Answer 7

Nov 22, 2013 8:09 AM in response to JackArrow

Well, there was this strom, Typhoon Haiyan, that you may have heard about? It pretty much stalled all air traffic in that entire region of the world for days. It impacted air traffic far beyond the Phillipines.

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Answer 8

JackArrow Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 22, 2013 8:11 AM in response to CocoKu

Me too.

Ordered mine on line Nov. 13.

I bet we get em ok on Monday 11.25. Once they are on the way to Anchorage, I think it's pretty quick to move them on to UPS hub in Louisville (I bet they are there by the end of Saturday) then on to us.

And once we have 'em, this will all just be a weird distant memory!

Good luck.

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Answer 9

JackArrow Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 22, 2013 8:13 AM in response to Michael Black

Flight Aware was showing no cancellations and almost all flights on schedule between Incheon and Anchorage. But who knows? Some issue with aircraft, repositioning, scheduling ... could be anything.

It's nuts to even think about ... but sort of a fun distraction.

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Answer 10

Nov 22, 2013 8:19 AM in response to JackArrow

Inchon is a big staging area for many of the relief flights from the west too, so just excess traffic may have forced commercial schedules to change. There was likely a backlog of flights that had been held back because of the storm (especially at the cargo terminals), so probably a bunch of confounding issues for flights originating out of there.

Does flight aware even offer tracking of cargo flights?

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