I placed an order with Figi’s last Friday and received an email saying it had been shipped via UPS with a tracking number. After looking at the tracking today, I see that it has been turned over to the local post office for delivery at the request of the shipper. So now I won’t get the item until tomorrow at the earliest instead of today. WTF! I know UPS delivers in my town, I’ve seen them do it. Hell, I’ve even had packages delivered to my house by UPS. The post office is only a block and a half from my house and it’s a very small town! Bunch of morons!
I think they call that ‘Smartpost’, and use it for lighter packages. I guess it might be cheaper.
I personally prefer it, since UPS just leaves my packages on the patio where it can get rained on or stolen. Post office delivery puts it my locked mailbox.
It’d be nice if they were clear about what they are using, or give us a choice.
Yeah, that would really piss me off. I wonder if that is associated with a discounted rate UPS provides to the shipper, or if they are charging people their full normal price and then off-loading onto the USPS.
The USPS in my area is staffed by a bunch of kind, pleasant, grandfatherly people, who are unfortunately also only marginally competent, inefficient, and not in an hurry to fix the mistakes they make. “Oh, we lost your package? Isn’t it amazing how that still happens with all this technology? Well, here’s the form you have to fill out…”
In order to avoid dealing with them, I always request shipping by UPS or Fedex if it is anything I remotely care about. I would be furious if I paid extra for UPS shipping only to have the package dumped back onto the USPS.
I ship or receive about 1 package per week for work, and in my experience, FedEx is more reliable than UPS by about a factor of 10. I always use FedEx if I have a choice.
A choice would be nice.
Does delivery tomorrow still fall within the delivery period promised for the item? If not, then you do have cause for complaint.
If it does, then the reason they passed along to USPS is so UPS has enough time to deliver the other packages in their system prior to the shipping deadline so they can avoid paying out the refunds for not meeting their guaranteed delivery time.
And now you have made me defend UPS. I feel dirty.
Huh, your experience is exactly opposite to mine. I loathe both of them with a passion that knows no uttering, because of the usual bullshit: pretending I’m not home and then wanting me to go pick up my packages at their warehouse in Ultima Thule, where public transit dare not tread. When Canada Post, or its Xpresspost courier service, misses me at home, the package is available for me the next day four blocks away.
This, basically. Plus it’s more cost-effective for them and FedEx to hand off to USPS for that “Last Mile” delivery in many cases, rather than send a truck specifically to your house if they don’t have to.
(Think about this when people talk about privatizing the USPS and what that’d do to your letter and package rates once it turns from an essentially non-profit company into a for-profit one.)
Yes it does fall in the delivery period, but the delivery period is so broad as to be useless. Also, as I said, UPS has delivered to my house before so why would this be any different. Also, the post office is only about a block and a half from my house so it’s not like they saved a lot by handing it off to the post office.
Not for you specifically, but there were probably packages for other people farther away that fell within the post office’s purview. From the shipping company’s point of view, it’s say, 10 miles and 45 minutes of an employee’s time to unload 5000 dollars worth of goods at the post office vs 40 miles of wear and tear on the truck and 3 hours of the employee’s time to deliver them all themselves.
Note: Numbers made up out of thin air.
SmartPost is quite possibly the stupidest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen. All it does is add expense and delay to shipping something. I’m currently waiting on a package from Kohls that has been diverted into the SmartPost system. It came from a warehouse in Denver on Monday night and was entered into FedEx’s system. FedEx shipped it to Indianapolis over the course of a couple days. This evening it was sent out in the mail, with expected delivery to my home in Kentucky next Monday or Tuesday.
If they had just dropped the befrigged thing in the mail on Monday, I’d probably already have it. And it would have cost Kohls less, to boot.
So, next time, get a Kohl’s CSR on the line, and ask for USPS shipping all the way.
Yup. I’ve been doing some Christmas shopping via Amazon.ca, and they just upped and switched to UPS for shipping and it’s horrible. I didn’t know they were shipping via UPS, so I missed first attempt at delivery. Then they lost my package when it went back to the depot. Because of that, the info number on the delivery slip didn’t register in their system so I couldn’t call and have it re-routed, because apparently their phone tree does not account for people who need to speak to actual humans. So I waited a week to get the second delivery attempt notice, after which I was able to go on their website and re-route the package to work. Which still hasn’t arrived. They better not have done the final delivery attempt in the meantime!
Before, when they used Canada Post, the package would have either been stuffed into my mailbox, or the delivery notice would have informed me to hit up the nearest post office to pick it up.
Thing is, that’s all they promised you in exchange for your money. That’s life.
The only shipper I have a problem with is FedEx, which often requires an actual person being there to receive even an inexpensive shipment. If I got a desktop PC and monitor sent by UPS, and a cordless mouse sent by FedEx, the PC and monitor would be waiting on my doorstep, but I might have to drive 20 miles to the FedEx shipping office for the damned mouse if a Saturday didn’t fall within the three-day period when they attempted delivery. (And no, you can’t call them up and get them to leave it. They say it’s the seller’s requirement, and no, you can’t change it. Don’t ask me why the same requirements never seem to hold when something arrives via UPS.)
I wish they’d tell you how they planned to ship, because if it was coming FedEx, I would buy it from someone else who’d ship it by another means, or do without.
Does anybody remember the days when everything took six to eight weeks for delivery?
Perhaps Amazon works differently in Canada, because when I order stuff from Amazon in the US, I get an email message when the item ships saying, for example, "We thought you’d like to know that we shipped your items, and that this completes your order. Your order is being shipped and cannot be changed by you or by our customer service department.
Your estimated delivery date is:
[Date]
Track your package at http://www.amazon.com .
Your shipment was sent to:
[Recipient address]
Your package is being shipped by USPS and the tracking number is [USPS tracking number]"
I even get a similar email from Amazon.co.uk when I order from them. So they make it very clear up front how the items is being shipped and when you can expect it (and how you can track it). Also, I’m surprised that you said that Amazon switched to UPS for shipping; in my experience they use all three services (Fedex, UPS and USPS) seemingly at random.
And unlike others in this thread, I like Smartpost. The post office is convenient to visit and it’s open later than the UPS depot.
Please use ordinary post if you send me anything in rural Thailand!
One U.S. firm insisted on using FedEx to send me some trivial documents. I then get a postcard from FedEx asking me to call them to give directions and arrange delivery. :smack: (I told them to put the documents in the mail the same way they’d sent me the postcard, but apparently that would violate their covenant with the sender.)
Much worse was the time I got some floppy disks delivered here via DHL. They insisted there was some $200+ customs fee that had to be paid, but the only receipt they’d provide for that was obviously nonsensical.
(I complained to their local agent, a lawyer, and she told me quite frankly that the Bangkok DHL office was run by crooks!)
Get a load of this fuckup: screengrab of tracking page
Let me recap. I live in West Chester, PA. You will notice that the package that was shipped from CA on 11/10 via Fedex actually got to West Chester, PA on 11/17. [Which is bullshit in itself because you’ll notice that the package took 3 fucking days to travel from Ohio to PA. Was the Fedex guy walking?]
ANYway. You will then notice that on 11/17, at which time it was in Smartpost’s hands, the package left West Chester and then mysteriously traveled 37 miles northwest to some little town that looks nothing like “West Chester” on a shipping label. Then it mysteriously traveled to Harrisburg, also not mistakable for “West Chester,” and it finally got to my house on 11/21.
What is this, the 1920s? It should not take 11 days for Fedex to ship a domestic package. The address label on the package was 100% correct, so there is no reason for it to have been re-routed like that.
I read your post with that sinking feeling and then went to check: yup, my current order with Amazon.ca is being shipped UPS. 
I don’t think I have ever had a problem with the post office. I have had a problem pretty much every time with UPS or Fedex. It’s 2012: the post office has tracking, insurance, the whole bit. And yet companies insist on using the shitty private firms. As we say around here, pourquoi faire simple quand on peut faire compliqué?
There’s nothing really odd or stupid about this. FedEx and UPS are much better set-up for collecting packages and moving them the long distances quickly and efficiently. Final delivery is where they have a weak spot - they are much better at delivering to large locales. So they latch onto the agency that is already making the rounds to residential houses anyway. It saves them money, and yes they do pass some of those savings onto you. Try seeing how much it costs to ship to a residential address via UPS sometime, even it is just 1 state away.
These kind of service was inevitable with people wanting free shipping or low-cost shipping.