UPS shipping rant

Morgan3820

Morgan3820

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El Conquistador
Just paid UPS $20 to ship a one pound shoebox cross country from NC to OR, expected delivery date ...9 days from now! For $20 more it would take 3 days. Call me unreasonable but 9 days seems to be a long time. Makes me think I should have gone with USPS.
 
Yep I avoid UPS like the plague..not only takes forever it usually arrives damaged! Ill take USPS or FedEx all day long.
 
Really like USPS service. I will use UPS if I want to ship something of decent size, and I pack it well since it's not going to be treated well. FedEx is my go-to shipper if I know it needs to be there at a certain time and (usually) not damaged.
 
The usps is a competitor in the market,they even do Sunday deliveries . 9!day delivery time should be not acceptable,since they all have a fleet of aircraft.
 
9 days? What's the mode of travel? Steamboat up the Mississippi? LOL
 
You could practically drive it there yourself in that amount of time. What a joke.
 
Ryanb said:
You could practically drive it there yourself in that amount of time. What a joke.
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Bet it costs more than $20 to do that though :rolleyes:
 
frfly172 said:
The usps is a competitor in the market,they even do Sunday deliveries . 9!day delivery time should be not acceptable,since they all have a fleet of aircraft.
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The OP has chosen to pay for ground shipping, not air.
 
I quit UPS in 1997. The year of the strike against customers. I lost almost 3000 in shipped merchandise and UPS told me in almost these words..... Too bad.

I prefer, if it fits, it ships. Surprising how much I can stuff I can fit in those priority boxes.
 
It's approaching Christmas, all of the shipping companies are swamped. Normally I can make an amazon order and get it in 2-3 days, lately it's been more like a week +
 
How did you ship it?...UPS direct or vis a UPS Store. There is a BIG difference.

Standard ground UPS is 5 days cross country...add a day or two for Holiday rush. If you ship ground via UPS Stores they can ship it "Parcel Post" where they have USPS deliver for what they call the "last mile" and USPS are the ones physically dropping at your door. It is the supidest sytem ever.

Unlike FedEx stores, the UPS store is an utter embarrassment to the UPS brand. They are just branded drop off sites that are all franchised...that are not even approved drop off sites as far as UPS is concerned in regards to receiving a package into their system. It is not considered received until picked up and scanned by the brown truck. You might as well be at a Staples or Office Max shipping center. They are noting more than a place to slap on the UPS name for branding. They bought up Mailboxes Ect. but did nothing but change their name to UPS Store.

I love UPS over the rest but utterly despise The UPS Stores. If you go directly to a UPS customer Care Center at a hub, it is a completely different company that is actually very efficient.

USPS used to be the bottom of the barrel, but they have really stepped up their game in regard to parcel delivery honing in on UPS and FedEx's weaknesses...which they have to do since they will collapse if they just rely on first class mail revenue which is dramatically on the decline. The "if it fits is ships" campaign is brilliant for the average consumer.
 
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cowman said:
It's approaching Christmas, all of the shipping companies are swamped. Normally I can make an amazon order and get it in 2-3 days, lately it's been more like a week +
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Dang really?? I had to order a Vent hood for the stove. Prime 2 day shipping, I ordered it last Friday with a guarantee date of today. Sure enough it came in yesterday!! Had it been a DJI Phantom 4 or a Segway it would have come tomorrow and delivered after I leave for work...I work 4 to midnight btw.

That's what I hate about prime, 9 times out of 10 it will be delivered UPS. UGH!!!
 
One of the few things the government gets right, I always use USPS, best way to ship
 
Shawn said:
How did you ship it?...UPS direct or vis a UPS Store. There is a BIG difference.

Standard ground UPS is 5 days cross country...add a day or two for Holiday rush. If you ship ground via UPS Stores they can ship it "Parcel Post" where they have USPS deliver for what they call the "last mile" and USPS are the ones physically dropping at your door. It is the supidest sytem ever.
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I dunno. I think it's a regional thing. UPS SurePost seems okay around here.

I sometimes have packages delivered to me by UPS SurePost, and they always arrive a day early. I think its because we have no carrier route delivery where I live. Everyone has a PO box. UPS actually gets the packages to the Post Office the day before they're scheduled to be delivered because in most places, a carrier will have to to get it to the house the next day. But seeing as how there's no carrier route delivery here, the SurePost packages are, in effect, always available for pickup one day early. So it works out okay.

FedEx SmartPost, on the other hand, is from the deepest, darkest, dankest pit of Hell, where it is overseen by Satan and his least-competent minions. I have never -- NEVER -- had a FedEx SmartPost package delivered to me any earlier than a week late. Ten days late is about the average. No matter which direction the package comes from, it sits at a facility in New Jersey for at least five days before being meandering its way here. I had a package from Minnesota take 18 days to arrive. No joke. It's absolutely horrible.

Rich
 
cowman said:
It's approaching Christmas, all of the shipping companies are swamped. Normally I can make an amazon order and get it in 2-3 days, lately it's been more like a week +
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All normal here. FedEx guy was a little grumpy that the country store and gas station didn't have his favorite flavor of danish in stock this morning and that he didn't get enough ice from the drink fountain, even though the lady running the store said she had more ice in the back room, and meant it when she offered to go get him as much as he wanted... we decided after he left that he must be in the holiday grumpy mood of all package deliverers... well... except...

simtech said:
Dang really?? I had to order a Vent hood for the stove. Prime 2 day shipping, I ordered it last Friday with a guarantee date of today. Sure enough it came in yesterday!! Had it been a DJI Phantom 4 or a Segway it would have come tomorrow and delivered after I leave for work...I work 4 to midnight btw.

That's what I hate about prime, 9 times out of 10 it will be delivered UPS. UGH!!!
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Our UPS guy rocks. So does the FedEx guy who normally isn't grumpy. And the two ladies who handle the USPS contract are great, too. But the UPS guy is by far the most fun...

Older aging hippie guy, pony tail with grey streaks, wears the shorts nearly year round even in snow weather, and drives that brown truck like he stole it... nothing but a huge cloud of dust behind that guy. If I hear him coming down the driveway I have to go straight outside without grabbing a jacket if I want to say hi or have anything for him, or he's a cloud of dust back up the driveway.

Always has earbuds in, but also usually has something blaring from the broadcast radio. I assume he talks to people on the phone a lot and wires work better than Bluetooth on washboard roads. Don't know.

Our delivery folks out here rock. Even our propane guy is a hoot. Poor dude was gone for a while and I wondered if he moved on, but no... he shattered an ankle and was forced to work in the office for almost a year while he rehabbed it. Finally saw him a few months ago and he was happy to be back in his truck.

I can't imagine there's a single tight bolt anywhere on any of their delivery trucks though... washboards... what a beating those vehicles must take.
 
UPS is awesome! If they drive over your, say...properly packaged weedeater complete with visible tire tracks, they will honor your claim and pay you back in full! Even if they don't tell you about the damage and the recipient has to. After lengthy and numerous phone calls. After the first 3 CSRs don't say sorry to you. And after they do everything in their power to blame you for the tire tracks ("you should have packaged it better" - even though you used the exact packaging the manufacturer uses to ship them all over the country). Awesome, I tell you.
 
I shipped 6-1 lb and 1-4 oz glass jars of our honey 1000 mi to Florida using USPS med flat rate box. Very little cushioning, marked "fragile/glass/honey" on the outside. Delivered without any oozing in 3 business days. <$15, can't beat that. I ordered a gift on Mon afternoon, 2-day Fed Ex, 2,500 mi. Received it at noon the next day.
 
Morgan, looks to me like a business opportunity for you.
The motto of successful businesses, find a need and fill it.
You just found a need.
Your serve :)
 
USPS and any service that uses them for the last mile is slow around here. I was favorably impressed by FedEx recently. I ordered an expensive item at 2 pm one day and paid the extra $20 for overnight since I was going out of town after that. The driver was on my doorstep at 9:15 am the next morning.
 
Personally, I HATE that last mile crap. UPS will drop packages inside my hangar if I'm not home. The Post Office will leave a slip of paper in my mailbox whether I'm home or not. Either way I end up taking a trip to the post office to get my package that was supposed to be delivered to my house. The really bad part is that since I don't normally get mail at my house, I don't normally check my mailbox (it's at the bottom of a hill and out of sight), so quite often when I get that last mile package that I think is coming via UPS, it ends up being another day or two before I begin to wonder what happened to it. By then, there's another slip of paper or two, threatening to send the package back.

I wonder, if they send the package back, does it go by mail or UPS?
 
Living SE AK with no ground service. UPS will charge me the 3 day rate, never get it in 3 days. I use USPS Priority mail or USPS Flat rate when shipping 90% of my mailings. If a business will not ship USPS to me I look for another supplier.
 
I think it fraudulent for UPS or Fedex to hand off your package to the P.O.
When I purchase my shipping label, pay my money to the courier the last thing I would accept is them to third-party it.
If you woke up from surgery and they told you another surgeon did your liver-ectomy because it was more convenient, would anyone be happy with that? If you hired a cab and all of a sudden he stops the car, says get into that Neon at the curb to go the rest of the way, is that ok?
 
UPS around here is the best option. We have a great driver. Seems like when FedEx does bring something it's always a new face driving. I like having the same driver all the time with UPS.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I think it fraudulent for UPS or Fedex to hand off your package to the P.O.
When I purchase my shipping label, pay my money to the courier the last thing I would accept is them to third-party it.
If you woke up from surgery and they told you another surgeon did your liver-ectomy because it was more convenient, would anyone be happy with that? If you hired a cab and all of a sudden he stops the car, says get into that Neon at the curb to go the rest of the way, is that ok?
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You do realize that FedEx is the largest USPS contractor and flies its Priority and Express mail almost exclusively. So, when you hand off you Express box to the Postal Clerk, they third-party it to FedEx.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I think it fraudulent for UPS or Fedex to hand off your package to the P.O.
When I purchase my shipping label, pay my money to the courier the last thing I would accept is them to third-party it.
If you woke up from surgery and they told you another surgeon did your liver-ectomy because it was more convenient, would anyone be happy with that? If you hired a cab and all of a sudden he stops the car, says get into that Neon at the curb to go the rest of the way, is that ok?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that the shipper has to select SurePost or SmartPost as the delivery option in order for them to have USPS do the "last-mile" delivery. At least officially. Around here, the UPS guy will sometimes leave UPS Ground packages that require a signature at the Post Office if I'm not home. He also did it for a package that was marked "live plants" on a very cold day last winter even though the package didn't require a signature. I thought that was nice -- and smart -- of him.

I've been told that that delivering UPS Ground packages to the Post Office is actually illegal. But no one complains about it. The drivers all know that everyone who lives here has to pick up their mail at the Post Office anyway, so it's a sensible thing to do. And the staff at the Post Office aren't exactly overwhelmed with mail, so they don't care, either.

What my driver does is put the Post Office's 911 address on the Info Notice -- even the Post Office doesn't have a real street address here in Sparrow Fart -- rather than writing "Left at the Post Office" on it. As long as no one complains, no one is the wiser.

I do expect that some idiot will complain some day, however, and then that little convenience will become a thing of the past.

Rich
 
It is interesting to track the path a package takes for origin to delivery. I live near I-40 about 70 miles east of Ft. Smith. It is a 3 hr. drive to Tulsa. I had a package from Tulsa go up through eastern Missouri over into Illinois before coming back through Memphis and then through my town on the way to Ft. Smith before coming back for delivery. I could have walked to Tulsa in the time it took the package to get here. Another time, a package from near the Texas border south of Oklahoma City went all the way to Wisconsin before working its way back to me. Surely, they had east/west routes out of OK City.
 
If i can't have USPS I go FedEx ground. Both have been great for me. Always on time. I ordered a set of dinnerware for my mom and Ups shipped it, it arrived in good condition, 2 days late. Small inconvenience I know, but enough for me to avoid them.
 
My last USPS order shipped from Los Vegas went to Honolulu for a few days before coming back stateside. Go figure.
 
It seems all the carriers are having trouble in our neck of the woods. UPS, FEDEX, USPS have all delivered to the wrong addresses. Neighbors are calling each other for delivery. And we live in the country. At least DHL doesn't deliver anymore, they actually ran into our garage door.
 
We have trouble with deliveries sometimes when there's a substitute driver. I don't blame them either, I don't know how anyone would know where anyone here lives without having been to the house once or twice.
 
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