USPS has lost stuff.
But the worst was yellow trucking. They somehow lost a 20 foot long package of aluminum extrusion.
Who offers surepost? UPS. So yes, the blame lies on them.
I posted “other”; I don’t recall any of the listed carriers ever losing a trackable package, but twice UPS has delivered packages to me that looked like an elephant had stepped on them, with the contents utterly destroyed, and without comment or apology.
OK then. I blame UPS for providing the service that the shipper requested and paid for. How dare they!
Knock on wood, but none of them. Every time I’ve had a package not turn up, I’ve had reason to suspect that it was never sent in the first place (either no tracking number was provided, or the tracking number was created and not ever recorded as having been picked up).
In recent years FedEx has been the most reliable for me, but it seems to go in cycles, and for outgoing packages, also seem to vary based on where I am shipping stuff. USPS has lost more stuff, but they’re also the ones most likely to at least pretend to care and to look for missing stuff. UPS is known in the family as “Oops I dropped it”; I don’t think they’ve ever lost anything of mine, but that’s the one most likely to deliver late, damaged, looks-like-they-played-soccer/football-with-it packages, and the least likely to give a damn.
I recently had two books delivered late; both USPS via Bensalem, PA.
I’ve also had international mail not arrive at all; no way to tell if those were the fault of USPS or the mail service in the country of origin. Although there was that one tracking number which China Post said was invalid.
Well you’re a Bee Gee so they probably assumed you lived in Australia.
I asked around and was told the failed to deliver/never received bucket is approx 0.0166%
Did the shippers source that number?
Not lost, but I had a signature needed package. The problem was I was I was > 1000 miles away at the time (on a supported bicycle trip with limited cellular/internet access).
I was able to contact them (Fed Ex IIRC) and tell them to hold the package. problem is that they only hold so long and had sent the package back (to Sweden).
The shipper was able to get me a replacement (it may have come from closer – it wasn’t clear) but still was a mess.
I live at 123 fake street E – I sometimes get packages for 123 fake street W which is a 4 apartment building – you would think “Apartment X” would clue them in that they are probably at the wrong location.
Brian
None of the ones in the title hold a candle to Amazon’s own delivery service. A complete bunch of idiots and it takes forever to fix any order that goes missing.
How about excess zeal, combined with a total lack of reasoning skills? Allow me to point to an older pit thread featuring a companywhich sounds a little like … well, you’ll figure it out. And the "I really don't give a F*ck award" goes to: - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board
It was from a person at a company that uses FedEx and UPS for e-commerce (and uses auditing companies for making sure the invoices from FedEx and UPS are correct), he said it was very approximate. My assumption was that it was from his perspective, not the carriers.
I don’t want to vote just yet, but, as far as I can remember, I’ve never had this problem at all shipping packages, no matter which service I use. No lost packages, even temporarily. The worst is it taking a couple days longer than they said it would, e.g. when I was promised that something would come by 12/24, but it took until 12/26.
(Why was I shipping so close to Christmas? Last minute replacement gift for one that arrived on time but I made a mistake in buying.)