FedEx and The Mystery of the ETA

I placed an online order on Sunday with a company whose physical address I could not ascertain. My package was shipped on Monday and I was given a FedEx tracking number. Lo and behold the FedEx pickup was a few miles north of Seattle, and the ETA was Tuesday. This made sense; my house is only about a 6 hour drive from Seattle. Tuesday arrived and FedEx reported my package was in Portland at 7:22 AM. Since Portland is only 45 minutes from my house (I know, I drive it every day) I figured their ETA was a slam dunk, and I was excited. I paid for the standard slow-as-snails ground shipping and was going to get my package next day.

I got home with no package at my door. It's 6:40 PM so I checked with FedEx and they had nothing new to report. I waited. Sometime around 7PM I check with FedEx again, and there is a new posting (an hour delayed?) saying the package left their Portland location at 6:29 PM. Huh? Is my package being deliberately delayed because I didn't pay for expedited shipping? Is there any reason it needed to rest for 11 hours only 43 miles from my front door?

It's no big deal; I'll get my package today and it will still be earlier than I originally anticipated, however, FedEx gave me an expectation they couldn't deliver on, and from what little information I have it seems their current delivery date is a little unreasonable. There's a lesson here: don't set an expectation you aren't willing (or able) to meet. If FedEx had given me an ETA of Wednesday I would still be excited and happy. If I had not been given any tracking data I wouldn't have cared when it shoed up, and I would have been happy when arrived at my door. Because it was guessed that I would have it on Tuesday and they missed, I'm miffed.