For the last 4 months I’ve noticed that UPS sets the delivery date to the last possible day in the range and never delivers until that date. Prior to that I used to receive packages anywhere within the US in two days. Now I’m waiting 10 fricking days for a package to come from CA to NY and 7 days from the Midwest. I remember thinking to myself that 2-day shipping was a waste because it gets delivered within that time anyway. Well I think UPS caught on to that and is now throwing packages on the shelf and taking their own sweet time to drum up more business for their expe-fuckin-dited shipping. So I call up UPS and ask them what the deal is and they give me the boiler plate crap “We are commited to get you your packages by the delivery date.” I tell them that they are getting them to me by the delivery date but that they are now setting the delivery date to the outside figure and never delivering until then. The guy gives me the same damn line again. I swear it was akin to asking “Why don’t you just make 10 louder?” My kingdom for my packages!
Does “the competition” do this too?
It’s a conspiracy against you personally. My packages always arrive ahead of schedule.
Well, you are probably right. Amazon certainly does this with their “free shipping” – it gets stuck at the back of the queue. But I’m having trouble seeing it as corporate perfidy. They’re pretty upfront about the “we’ll get it there faster if you pay more” option. And you’ve made your own cost/benefit decision about whether you want to get your package delivered cheaply or quickly.
There is, I guess, a small chance that they just have optimized their systems to the point where the transports are truly filled and yours is waiting around until it rises sufficiently in priority to make it onto a plane.
Interesting. I’ve never had this problem. Mine have always come ahead of schedule, too.
Perhaps they just put it on the shelf and deliver it at the last possible moment because the recognize you? “Oh, it is that mouthy guy that bitches and yells at us for doing our job, guess that one gets put on the shelf for a bit.”
It’s amazing how people’s experiences differ.
I was just asking myself the other day why anyone would ever opt for expedited shipping with Amazon, because whenever i order from them (admittedly, not frequently) the package always seems to arrive very quickly.
Last Tuesday evening (1/11) i placed an order for three items—two books and a CD—and selected the free shipping option. The order confirmation email came at 5.32pm, and said that my order would be shipped in two packages—one book in one package, and one book and the CD in the other package.
At 10.27am the next day (1/12), i got an email telling me that the first package had shipped. Then at 9.14am the following day (1/13) i got an email telling me that the second package had shipped. Both packages arrived on Friday (1/14), three days after i placed the order.
With timing like that, there’s no way i’d pay extra for faster shipping. Also, when i order stuff from Amazon it’s not usually something i need in a hurry anyway, so even if it did take a couple of weeks it would be no big deal.
Same here, mhendo. I always get my amazon.com packages in three days or less and I almost always use the super saver free shipping option.
I been shipping UPS for several years now, and never noticed some magic 2 day (or even close) cross country delivery ability using regular ground shipping. My UPS packages shipped from Maryland take the same amount of time as yours to arrive (7-10 days) if shipped coast to coast.
Yea my Amazon shipments arrive fast too. It’s just UPS and just for the last 4 months or so.
My Amazon shipments always arrive pretty fast too, since I moved to a larger city anyway. And anything I have shipped to me via UPS always seems to arrive the day before the first day in the estimated arrival range.
Heh, a few weeks ago I ordered a computer, the estimated ship date from Dell was January 6, the computer arrived on January 5. (It actually shipped the 3rd.)
Oh, and I should add that I didn’t pay for 2-day shipping, I got the free shipping deal Dell was offering at that time.
I use UPS everyday, and I’ve never had a problem. Im pretty sure you’re imagining a 2 day delivery to anywhere in the country. As I recall UPS has 8 zones, figuring you’re looking at typically a day per zone, so Coast to Coast is 8 days, the next state over is probably one unless you’re in California or Texas which both have two zones. It’s been this way since at least 1990 (my first job after the Army when I saw a shipping manager).
Based on some of the replies, I suspect Amozon ships from somewhere in the middle of the country.
If it’s not expedited, they have no reason to rush it anywhere. If you need it there earlier you pay to have it there earlier. That’s the way it works.
Long delivery times are due to timing or miss timing, intermendiate points of transfer, time of next transport to next terminal, etc.
If you have or can get the tracking number go to <www.ups.com/> and click on tracking. enter your tracking number and see the current status.
After delivery you can get the complete history of the transportation-time sequence by clicking on “Detail”
In my experience, it depends on where it’s shipped from. I’ve had UPS ground packages come from PA to here in one day, but anything from CA takes the full 7 days. Same goes for Amazon, I’ve had super saver packages arrive within two days, even before the shipping email comes through, and other have taken two weeks. I just chill and they all show up eventually. 
Sure.
But, if there’s room on the truck or the plane or whatever, they also have no reason to leave it sitting on a shelf out of spite. If they’re going to offer a guaranteed expedited service, then they need to have the capacity to ensure they can meet their commitments, and most of the time that is going to result in some excess space that they can fill with non-expedited packages. It’s cheaper for them to fill a vehicle that’s already going anyway than it is to leave packages behind just because someone hasn’t paid for fast shipping.
I agree. Any activity that separates packages into a “slow” queue, instead of just putting the packages onto the same truck as the “fast” packages, results in additional productivity costs. Perhaps the revenue generating aspect outweighs the costs, but I would submit that the costs would be even lower if they did endeavor to ship everything as fast as possible.
On a somewhat related note - Early in December, I purchased an item online at approx. 4:00 pm, the item was delivered before 10:00 am on the next day. Spooky.
I’m a little confused with the OP too. Complaining that UPS delivers on time? 
7-10 day shipping takes 7-10 days. Not even a hint that it ever takes longer.
Don’t know if the OP lives in an urban, suburban, or other setting. I’m in the woods. After the last UPS strike, the driver informed me that as a cost cutting measure, those of us off the beaten path will get deliveries when there are enough packages to justify the run. That’s why I ship FedEx.