Posted on 09/20/2011 5:31:39 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER
I make many of my small purchases from Amazon or Ebay. Over the last few months the USPS delivery time for small parcels has almost doubled.
I'm about ready to pay a little more for Fedex or UPS.
Media Mail is still a good deal for me.
Unless you want to wait FOREVER it is worth it to pay a little more. At least FedEX or UPS care that your letter or package actually gets delivered!
Whenever I have to send packages anywhere, I always use FedEx ground. Always reliable, best tracking system, comparable prices. (After two seriously delayed UPS shipments, I switched to FedEx and haven’t used UPS since.)
If I were you, I would get my UPS and/or FEDEX systems in place 'cause it's only goin' to get worse (AND more expensive) with USPS.
I recently had a FedEx Ground package delivered by the USPS. The two organizations obviously have some kind of mutual delivery agreement.
Go with FedEx they are non union. Great service.
Some of my FedEx orders get left at the post office and I have to drive into town to get them.
I live in the boonies and I think FedEx doesn’t want to get their truck dirty or something. My wife did tell USPS to not leave packages at our mail box that is a third of a mile from my house. So a package gets shipped FedEx to my wife and I then need to drive 7 miles round trip to get the package. That is if thee post office is still open.
How cool is that?
It depends on who is doing the shipping and what service they as for. I ordered a new book and another product on Amazon last Friday. The book arrived on Monday and the other product has not arrived yet.
Media mail can take forever, it seems.
However, I ship several hundred packages a year for my small business via the post office, about 25% international and the remainder domestic.
Small items via First Class mail usually in padded envelopes or small boxes and larger items Priority Mail.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the speed and reasonable price. Just sent a 12”x12”x10” box from VA to MI this morning by Priority Mail, Thursday delivery (two day service since today is Tuesday), with tracking for $12.70. That’s half the price of 2nd day UPS air.
A small padded envelope (000 size) with a small electronic printed circuit board inside is about $1.00 via first class mail and is 3 day service to most US locations, and around $2.00 to Europe.
Priority Mail is a joint venture with FedEx, by the way, where the post office handles pickup and local delivery with FedEx doing the long distance portion.
So far my loss rate has been reasonable, one domestic package out of 800 and a couple of international packages that left the US but went astray in the country of delivery.
wise up: dump usps!!!!!
I'm in the midst of some heavy-duty carton shipping. UPS STORES (franchises) are outrageous in their charges. The UPS warehouse/shipping center was slightly lower in cost than the STORES. I'm now using the U.S. Postal Service exclusively and it's saving me a considerable amount of money.
USPS delivery time is generally one or two days later than UPS. Makes no difference to me. If someone needs express service when shipping Grandma's cheesecake, this service is available with all delivery companies, including the Post Office.
A one-hundred-percent-perfect delivery system does not exist on this earth. Even the divine love arrows shot by the Roman god, Cupid, oft miss their mark.
Leni
I really have no complaints about the USPS. I do a fair amount, not an incredible amount of shipping with them. The “flat rate” boxes are a great deal if you are shipping some weight. They are NOT good for very lightweight items.
You have to be a lot more discriminating about shipping stuff these days, by that I mean, you have to really consider the options. (Unless you do it every day or quite often) Used to be UPS could ship a small box, say like a shoebox, 3-4-5 lbs, anywhere for $5-7. I can’t seem to ship anything via UPS for less than about $12 now, no matter how small nor how light. Shipping has also become VERY distance-sensitive. The same item shipped cross country can cost almost double the same item shipped just a few hundred miles.
Our modern world.
I’ve got an incoming package which has been sitting, according to tracking data, in the local post office since 6:30 AM last Saturday.
I have only had 1 Ebay order and it arrived rather fast (USPS).
Amazon.com — that is another story. I have placed 3-4 orders through them. Typically, the orders take 2-3 weeks to arrive. Orders that come from ‘individual companies’ within Amazon arrive faster than orders ‘fulfilled’ by Amazon.
Amazon is my LAST RESORT for online ordering because of their slooooooooooow shipping.
One Amazon order, per online tracking, sat in a shipping facility in NJ for 5 business days. Another order sat in a shipping facility in northern Mississippi for 4 business day.
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I recently ordered some vitamin supplements on a 3-business-day shipping through another company. They arrived in 2 days via UPS. That package travelled from South Dakota to Kentucky to Missouri to Oklahoma to Arkansas, and still arrived ahead of schedule.
I recently ordered a laptop computer through another company, and it arrived in 2 days via UPS.
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Amazon is my LAST RESORT for online ordering because of their slooooooooooow shipping. Maybe, they think that will encourage people to sign up for their Prime service. For me, I usually just do a google search, find another source, and order from them.
I pay the $79 per year Amazon Prime...guaranteed 2-day delivery on most items I could ever need. Well worth it.
I had a package sit in the Jacksonville, Florida PO for 9 days. It took several calls to find anyone interested in looking for it.
USPS sucks so bad where I live that I consider myself lucky if I actually get mail. My neighbors often get mine and I get theirs.
UPS and FedEx provide me with excellent service. I wish they would just privatize it already.
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