Shipping services sure are sucking lately...

[Frizzle Fry]

OK, so in the last 2 weeks I've used the three main shipping services; USPS, UPS and FedEx.

USPS:
Package sent, quoted 6-9 days delivery w/ tracking. It arrived in 8 with no problems.

Fedex:
Package sent on the 16th via 7-day delivery service. Tracking works, says delivery scheduled for the 23rd, on the evening of the 23rd the tracking # stops working and no package arrives. I call Fedex, they tell me it's now scheduled for delivery on the 27th and the tracking # still doesn't work! No explaination, no apology. Apparently my package (bound for Massachusetts) is in Tennessee at the moment and has been since the 21st

UPS:
Package sent the 20th, and arrived at the UPS Store/Router 15 minutes from my house on the morning of the 22nd. Apparently I can't go and pick it up at the store, and it's not scheduled to be delivered to my house until the 26th

What the hell? I know the USPS is Federal and that means they're backed pretty well, but UPS and Fedex are fairly well respected and frankly they have pissed me off and perplexed me respectively! I tried to lodge a complaint with Fedex, but I guess the fine print says something about paying $5 extra for faster shipping not being a guarantee of faster shipping! As far as UPS goes, I had another package arrive at the same store on the 23rd that was delivered on the 24th

Anybody have similar stupid experiences?

[PyRo]

That's dumb. With USPS if priority or overnight isn't their in 3 days or 1 day respectively they will refund you the shipping cost. After mailing hundreds of packages I haven't had one yet that I could try and make that claim on. USPS is the best by far in my opinion. Sometimes they are just more expensive.

I had UPS destroy a set of Jeep doors that I mailed. They were damaged and I don't mean they were dropped or something. Someone went to town on the package kicking, smashing, etc. I bet some dock worker was having a bad day and decided to take it out on my boxs when he discovered they were 60lbs each.
Luckly I bought $600 worth of insurance. Well they pick up the boxes from the receiver, hold them for two weeks and deny my claim for insufficient packaging because the boxes I used were beat up. News flash, they weren't beat up before UPS beat them up. They refuse to so much as refund the cost of the insurance that they refuse to honor.
To add insult to injury instead of returning them to where they got them they shipped them back to me. When I called them and said I never wanted them returned, ship them back to Oregon they told me I would have to pay for shipping again. So I essentially paid UPS $120 to destroy my Jeep door and hold them for three weeks.

[Ruler_Mark]

OK, so in the last 2 weeks I've used the three main shipping services; USPS, UPS and FedEx.

USPS:
Package sent, quoted 6-9 days delivery w/ tracking. It arrived in 8 with no problems.

Fedex:
Package sent on the 16th via 7-day delivery service. Tracking works, says delivery scheduled for the 23rd, on the evening of the 23rd the tracking # stops working and no package arrives. I call Fedex, they tell me it's now scheduled for delivery on the 27th and the tracking # still doesn't work! No explaination, no apology. Apparently my package (bound for Massachusetts) is in Tennessee at the moment and has been since the 21st

UPS:
Package sent the 20th, and arrived at the UPS Store/Router 15 minutes from my house on the morning of the 22nd. Apparently I can't go and pick it up at the store, and it's not scheduled to be delivered to my house until the 26th

What the hell? I know the USPS is Federal and that means they're backed pretty well, but UPS and Fedex are fairly well respected and frankly they have pissed me off and perplexed me respectively! I tried to lodge a complaint with Fedex, but I guess the fine print says something about paying $5 extra for faster shipping not being a guarantee of faster shipping! As far as UPS goes, I had another package arrive at the same store on the 23rd that was delivered on the 24th

Anybody have similar stupid experiences?

memorial day + unions = no trucks. The coders of the time calc'ers didnt factor in the holiday day that well.

[bornl33t]

I use USPS for almost any package anymore. Even after insurance they are usually less expensive and always more reliable. Not to mention they are less squeamish when it comes to weird content...IE paintball equipment.

[skife]

USPS for everything

unless its pre-paid shipping, then i use whatever they want.

[SCpoloRicker]

From 2006-07 I used Fedex for overnight delivery hundreds of times, with no issues that were raised to my attention.

Granted, this was a while ago, but I was shipping to dozens of pubs, with color proofs that had to be checked against press before production.

[Frizzle Fry]

memorial day + unions = no trucks. The coders of the time calc'ers didnt factor in the holiday day that well.

I'd say that might be a factor, but the Fedex package was scheduled to be delivered before the holiday weekend, and the USPS package has been just sitting in the depot while ANOTHER package for me arrived at the depot, and was delivered to me.

[billybob_81067]

My cousin got a quote to ship a couple I-pods to some foreign country from UPS and it was over $300.00.

He then tried the post office and their price was $15.00.

[BiNumber3]

just recently i had a package to ship to canada, UPS quotes me $110 to ship it.... n then they tell me USPS's cheapest quote would be $60, but doesnt include tracking...

so i go to USPS, they shipped it for $25

For all the things ive shipped, USPS has always been pretty fair with pricing and timelyness. Only issue id have is that they can be a bit rough on packages, especially heavier ones, but if packed well, u shouldnt have any probs.