Who, in your opinion, is the least likely to damage my computer and/or monitor, on a nice little trek from Los Angeles, CA to Honolulu, HI? Or, on a similar note, when/if they do damage it, who’ll be the most likely to cough up the insurance payment with the least trouble?
FTR: Computer, roughly 30-45 pounds, estimated value $3K (adjusted, slightly, for depreciation plus costs of components added since initial purchase); monitor, roughly 30-40 pounds, estimated value $450.
If you are that concerned go to someplace like mail boxes etc. If you go directly w/ ups, usps, fedex you will have a hard time collecting if damaged (they will say you didn’t package it enough) - I think Mail Box etc. will also take responsibiilltiy
Least likely to damage? FedEx, based on the fact that I never get packages from fed-ex that look like a rancor has been chewing on it.
Who is likely to pay up with the least hassle? UPS. I would say USPS is more likely to pay, but you said least hassle, so I think the USPS would have more red tape.
While never having sent anyhting that big, I have sent much delicate and easily damaged artwork via FedEx with very good results.
In the art world at least, they have, by far, the best rep.
As far as collecting claims? I dunno.
From what I have been told by several different people who have worked there, do not send breakable items via UPS. I’ve talked to people who pack the UPS trucks, on both coasts, a decade apart - both of them said that the words “fragile” on a box are essentially and encouragement to drop-kick it. (Exaggeration - but not much). FedEx is a great company - but don’t forget the smaller ones: Airborne Express and DHL. Both are great, and a little cheaper than FedEx.
hangs head in shame
You know, in my rush to get stuff packed up and shipped out, I totally forgot all kinds of things. The first was the little guys (thanks jadailey!), the second was to go check epinions and whatnot for ratings of all these different companies.
Well, the less was less an oversight and more a respect for dopers’ opinions, but still…
Thanks again, all. And, yeah, I’ve heard similar things about UPS, so I guess I can safely rule them out now.
I worked at UPS for 9 years and saw many horrific examples of package abuse, both in my time as a loader and in my time in management.
UPS talks a great talk when it comes to “handling packages with care”, but their high pressure environment means that employees frequently take out their frustrations on the boxes.
I ship only via FedEx now, FWIW.
I too go with FedEx whenever it actually matters. When I was assembling my computer I must have received 20 boxes over a period of about a week. All the FedEx ones arrived on time and intact. While not ALL the UPS ones had problems, a few were late and one was somehow delivered to another house down the street (I still don’t understand this, as it was only 1 of 3 packages UPS delivered to me that day, and it took 3 days for them to fess up to what happened).
I think it’s just a matter of size. The USPS is huge so of course its gonna be slow/painful. UPS is certainly larger than FedEx. The more packages shipped, the more difficult to coordinate shipment and manage to get all the boxes on the right planes, let alone have enough planes to fit all the boxes on.
Several years ago, one of the New Republic writers wrote an article about his computer going missing when shipped Federal Express. I have to go from memory here because the article’s not in the online archives, but the part that would concern you went like this:
FedEx employee (after days trying to track down the package, with no luck): “What was in the package?”
NR writer: “A computer.”
FedEx employee (making wow-I-could-have-had-a-V8 gesture): “Well that explains it. Don’t ever send a computer by FedEx.”
Something like that anyway.
Hm. Maybe they’ll let me take it on the plane. I do have a really big suitcase…
sigh
I am in charge of Customer Service for a dot.com. We ship default by UPS Ground Service. I have seen so many horrible mis-shipments with UPS over the past four years, that I would only want to ship something personal through them if I wanted to see it lost or damamged. In my opinion Fed-Ex is very good, but not nearly as good as DHL for domestic shipments. DHL’s customer service is hands down the best in the delivery industry, and their tracking system is the easiest and most reliable.
When I bought all my new parts for my computer I shipped everything by FedEx except my CD drive. I shipped it 2-day with UPS and when it finally showed up (a day late) rather than have someone sign for it they sat it under my mailbox when it had been raining alot in the freakin’ city. Did they want someone to steal it? When I called the order in I told them to have it delivered after 4pm they said no prob. Well it was delivered before and thus left outside. As for FedEx, ahhh wonderful FedEx, they not only had my stuff on time but they also delivered the stuff after 4pm like I asked them to. I wonder who’ll have my business in the future?