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Tell your shippers not to use FedEx Ground


Loren

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I ordered some parts from AB a while back.

AB notified FedEx the package was ready Friday 11 June.

FedEx picked up the package the following Monday 14 June.

It is Saturday 26 June and the package isn't here yet nor can they tell me when it will be.

Several messages from the FedEx tracking site said it would be delivered that day...without it happening which is really frustrating.

Since October last year FedEx has been struggling and it's only getting worse. (I know cause I looked it up)

 

Oddly enough of UPS, FedEx and the Post Office, the Post Office has the highest on time record at 90%!

Which is by my expectations, awful.

Two years ago Wall Street Journal did an article on UPS and their antiquated systems.

One of their major distribution hubs is so old it has machinery that can only read bar codes on one side of boxes that have 6 sides.

They have to employ people to set the boxes right side up before the machinery can read the codes!

The building can't be updated so a new one has to be built at a cost in the billions.

At the time of the article they were still thinking about it.

 

eCommerce will be handicapped if these folks can't get their act together.

The wheels have fallen off at FedEx and it's a shock that the government's USPS is better that the guys who "Run the tightest ship in the shipping business."

Then there is Amazon. I saw a meme on FB that wanted people to sign a petition asking the government not to allow Jeff Bezos to re-enter the country after his space flight.

As long as you order from Amazon direct (not one of its 3rd party sellers) it might get shipped on the Amazon Prime carrier. Which means it might get to you in good time.

No telling if Amazon Prime beats the Post Office.

Okay there's my rant for today.

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l have been through UPS hell while shipping a very valuable part for warranty rework. Their customer service is like 10 lbs of shizzle in a 5 pound bag. For the stupid prices they charge for this level of neglect, I will never use one of these clown act shippers if avoidable! I have had 100% results with good’ol USPS and Canuck post but it may take a bit longer. M

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I live in Canada and I won't order anything from the US unless it is shipped through the post office (USPS). I always find it quick and reasonably priced. FEDEX and UPS also charge extra custom charges once it gets here and there is no duty on old car parts in Canada. A total rip-off. I used to sell a lot on ebay and always used  the post offices of our two countries. Not one problem ever. Speaking of Ebay, their global shipping program is another rip-off and slow.

Edited by RobertKB
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Sadly not sure there is anything we can do about the time we get poor shipping, while usually it works pretty well considering how complicated some routes can be, millions of packages per day ... how many stops and people handle the package ... the one day Joe was sick and had a replacement worker for his usual station.

I have watched a package come close to my location, then get sent on the wrong truck and delayed 3 more days getting back on track.

I have seen packages delivered to usps 3.5 hours away, then sit there for 4 weeks before moving again.

We all have had bad shipping experiences. Gets pretty frustrating also. Was my spark plug wires sitting 3.5 hours away and stopping me from my first start on my 49 dodge.

I was trying to contact someone to see if could just stop by and pick them up ... no luck.

 

Yesterday Friday while drinking my coffee at 6:00 am, I ordered some struts for a ot vehicle from rockauto.  11:30 Saturday FEDEX dropped them off to my door ... I used standard shipping no special overnight etc...  I love fedex over ups. They show up in the early part of day ... ups never shows before 3:00 pm sometimes after 6:00 pm.

 

I feel your frustration @LorenThey are all pretty good in my book .... sometimes I sure have a few choice words for them   :D 

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they all suck about right now.....there is no competition....you may think there is but with govn't sub contracting and volume verse weight....there is not...also more to do with location.....UPS is 5 miles down the road with a hub.....FedEX is 40....DHL....and they handed the last one off to FedEx...it is a nightmare.....USPS works good IF YOU CAN get the shipper to take it to the PO and hand it off in a timely manner.

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I suspect the Pony Express in 1875 was more reliable and quicker than most couriers today. We may well be at an all time low in terms of shipping value, and satisfaction. The big courier companies all suck right now. I have had some amazing results when I recently needed a very important part at work. I used CAP Logistics. I had a part picked up at 4 pm pacific time in Southern Arizona. They flew it quickly to Seattle. Then a driver personally drive it 5 hours north, across the Canada/USA border and into my town here in South Central BC. The driver was calling me at noon the very next day confirming it was delivered. 20 hours later.  Unbelievable.  Cost? Well, ahhem....You could have bought a running, half decent spare old Mopar car.

Edited by keithb7
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I've had Fedex crush a few of my packages including a brand new radiator, they were all insured but man if it was anything sentimental, I couldn't have gotten it back. and it set me back quite a bit time wise. I've actually had some pretty good luck with the normal post office and private couriers from amazon. Can't stand laziness or neglect when it comes to shipping and handling things.

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we are all at the mercy of each package carrier.  Yes i see the Amazon Prime truck in my neighborhood everyday. Sometimes the USPO is slow, then FedEx, then UPS. So I guess just pick you poison as to your sender and hope for the best delivery service.

 

Rich Hartung

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It seems to vary a lot.  I had a USPS package that was shipped from Florida to mid California via Hawaii, and a bill that was mailed to me from 11 miles away that spent over a week looping 3 times through the local distribution center before it was returned to the sender.  (It was addressed correctly.)  I currently have a package that disappeared in Wisconsin on June 7, and hasn't turned up for the last 19 days.

 

Of course there was the UPS wine delivery of a dozen bottles that arrived in a giant plastic bag with wine sloshing around.  I refused it, they took it back to a local facility, took out the wine-soaked 10 bottles, put them loose in a different box, and sent it to me again.  My driver wouldn't give it to me, we opened it to see what was going on, then he refused the delivery.

 

We won't even talk about the On-Trac delivery that was handed to a non-English-speaking field worker a mile away from my house.  He gave it to his foreman, who was nice enough to deliver it the next day.

 

They all make mistakes.

 

Marty

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I get next-day UPS deliveries from St. Louis several times a week and when I ship to St. Louis the packages get delivered the next day even though they're shipped 3-5 day both ways. UPS hasn't lost or even misdirected any of my business-related freight in the last 11 years. They did lose or mis-deliver one of my personal items during Christmas season a few years back. It was a $25.00 item so I just let it go. I've had problems with FedEx in the past, though; and thankfully don't have to deal with them now. USPS is fairly dependable overall. No delivery direct from Amazon out here in the sticks. No good to complain about shipping costs, they are what they are.. 

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Most of my shipping, either to me or from me is work related and I work for a multinational corporation that could probably buy any of those shippers if they wanted.  So with that grain of salt, I have no issues.  I've had all the ones mentioned as well as Old Dominion, never an issue.  Even with my personal stuff, which I ship from the mom and pop shipping store, not the company's account.  I suspect different areas have different issues.

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I sent in a bill payment (via USPS) & it too nearly 2 months to get about 15 miles down the road.  I ship out almost everything by FedEx, and sometimes it might delay a day or two, but never lost, gone to the wrong place, or damaged - yet.  UPS damaged stuff I shipped a couple of times before I switched dot FedEx, and UPS never paid any damages. (I had also purchased secondary shipping insurance, so I didn't loose very much, but it isn't right - UPS was the ones who damaged it, and seriously damaged, like they must have knocked it off of the overhead track.)

Twice I had packages (shipped to me by a supplier) that went clear up to Berlin, NH instead of Berlin OH.  The zip codes are obviously different, and actually, one package, when it was on its way back west from New Hampshire, then went to Oberlin, Ohio instead of to Berlin, Ohio.  And then it was sent back to the supplier (in California), so I never got it at all.  Finally ordered it from a different supplier.

Now as far as deliveries are concerned, the person who laid out the street numbers in our part of this little town were either very confused, drunk, or both, so it's hard for out-of-towners to find the right house.  So every time they send out a new driver, my packages tend to get delivered to someone else on my street, and we get packages addressed to others in our area from time to time as well.  But we have good neighbors, so we do eventually get the stuff, just delayed.

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21 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

they all suck about right now.....

Have to agree. I have had good luck with USPS flat rate, but two month's ago I had to 2 day ship some documents to my dad's estate attorney. Three weeks later they finally arrived and then they charged me $1.88 for additional postage!  Been using UPS instead, more expensive but no delivery issues so far.

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If I have an item outside that of the USPS flat rate box....UPS is my go-to shipper...close to home, only open for 2  hours a day though.  Got to ship between 5 and 7 PM  You get used to it but for sure they have the better record for delivery, no damage and courteous drivers.  Lately though they quit taking cash for shipping.....if you do not have an established account.....got to use the card....then they don't take Discover....learning curve as things change in todays marketplace.

 

Eneto-55  It seems to be my experience if any mail had to go through Ohio...add 5 days...

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So today my daughter who orders food for our dog for us sent me a note to let me know that there would be a delay in delivery. Why you ask?  FedX has decided that our address, the one they have delivered to for almost 40 years, is not a “real” address.  So the shipper has to give them a special form to correct the problem before the will attempt delivery.  Sigh….  Fido was getting fat anyway.

Edited by plymouthcranbrook
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FedEx is my least favorite and today is the end of three days of my product with a shipping label for FedEx with no pickup by the carrier.....of course...that is the pure cheese for a shipper to create a label and e-bay recognize it as being shipped when in fact it is nowhere near entering the system....if no change tomorrow...will cancel the order and purchase elsewhere.....I do not reward poor venders.  

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Every shipper has issues in northern Maine.  I've had generally good service with FedEx, UPS, and USPS, but they each have their quirks that we have to plan around depending on what we ship, when we ship it, and to who.  Inbound, it's good practice up here to just add a day or two to any of their estimated delivery times as a matter of course.

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I've had shipping issues for years with every carrier due to a comedy of errors every time there is an issue.  The last was a box of pickled beets I was bootlegging to Illinois that according to an investigation "vanished" from the UPS FtWorth hub, even though tracking showed progress to 30 miles from its destination...apparently, the package was last scanned in FtWorth and progress thereafter was only tracked by the long haul truck that it was supposed to be on :rolleyes:

 

I've shot the bull with drivers for the carriers here and there, and they all say the same thing:  they have been swamped for over a year, with no end in sight, and Amazon is a bulk of the "problem".  If the USPS can get its issues fixed with that bs future pension plan that is basically just being used to service federal debt and modernize to handle more packages than letters, they all say that would really kick the other carriers to get their acts together and modernize to handle the recent changes in e-commerce volume that have increased their professional burden, cuz when the feds make a big move, the private sector follows to maximize profit.

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for me, FedEx is by far the most unreliable of the three available carriers (UPS and USPS seem to be equally reliable, and timely).  in over 23 years at this address, UPS has always managed to deliver.  FedEx has failed dozens of times (not exagerated).  USPS has a few hiccups.

Edited by wallytoo
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1 hour ago, wallytoo said:

for my, FedEx is by far the most unreliable of the three available carriers (UPS and USPS seem to be equally reliable, and timely).  in over 23 years at this address, UPS has always managed to deliver.  FedEx has failed dozens of times (not exagerated).  USPS has a few hiccups.

I am just really surprised with the number of bad experiences being reported here regarding FedEx service.  I have been shipping electronic equipment for over 10 years, and haven't had a single mess up with Fed-Ex, compared to several with UPS, which I no longer use.  Most of my suppliers do use both UPS & Fed-Ex for the components I purchase on-line, and both are sometimes slow, but it's UPS that has sent things to another city with the same name on two occasions.  USPS is not even reliable to deliver a simple envelope in a reasonable time frame (1 week).  But the slowest is when either UPS or Fed-Ex ships it part way, then passes it off to USPS.

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1 hour ago, Eneto-55 said:

I am just really surprised with the number of bad experiences being reported here regarding FedEx service.  I have been shipping electronic equipment for over 10 years, and haven't had a single mess up with Fed-Ex, compared to several with UPS, which I no longer use.  Most of my suppliers do use both UPS & Fed-Ex for the components I purchase on-line, and both are sometimes slow, but it's UPS that has sent things to another city with the same name on two occasions.  USPS is not even reliable to deliver a simple envelope in a reasonable time frame (1 week).  But the slowest is when either UPS or Fed-Ex ships it part way, then passes it off to USPS.

My experiences with Fedex and UPS mirror yours.  In a few cases UPS and Fedex damaged a shipment in transit.  Fedex made  me whole, UPS denied all claims.

USPS has been very reliable, only one problem out of hundreds.  That package just disappeared, never scanned at my originating office.

 

I suspect the major difference in Fedex experiences are due to the business model they use.  The majority of the Ground and Home service is handled by contractors, not employees.  And Fedex doesn't seem to manage those contracts in all areas in a even fashion.

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Well I ordered online some summer open air type sandals.

 

On 6/25 I received online order confirmation. Then I  received notice of waiting for USPS for pickup on 7/1 with the tracking #.

 

Following up with tracking # it appears that it has not moved??

 

Seller/shippers issues?? Chinese seller with ship still waiting to get container ship to port with a lie about being shipping?

 

Normally USPS delivers reliably here but Slowly !!.

 

DJ

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16 hours ago, DJ194950 said:

Well I ordered online some summer open air type sandals.

 

On 6/25 I received online order confirmation. Then I  received notice of waiting for USPS for pickup on 7/1 with the tracking #.

 

Following up with tracking # it appears that it has not moved??

 

Seller/shippers issues?? Chinese seller with ship still waiting to get container ship to port with a lie about being shipping?

 

Normally USPS delivers reliably here but Slowly !!.

 

DJ

There are a lot of sellers using 'dual mode' shipping now.  They will ship using one of the companies that sub-contract the local part to USPS but long haul internally.  That always slows things down.  Especially if the primary is DHL.   I've seen up to 7 days of no movement when they make the change.

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