RobbieTunes

About 3 months ago, I shipped some stuff to TL179 in Maine and a frame to gmouchawar in California. I took both items, boxed and addressed, to the Fed Ex terminal, where she input the info, charged me, and gave me a receipt with the tracking numbers.

She sent both to Maine. Her fault, not mine. Fed Ex charged me for the shipping to California from Maine, due to their mistake.

Last week, I shipped a frame and parts to rat fink in California. Went to the same Fed Ex terminal, she printed my receipt, shipped it to California, where it was discovered she again typed in the wrong city, mispelling it by about 4-5 letters. The street address was also input wrong. Fed Ex brought it all the way back to NC, and is now turning it around and shipping it all the way back to California.

Again, they want to bill me for their mistake. The difference with USPS wasn't that much, but I didn't cut the box down, so I used Fed Ex for tracking, etc.

Their mistakes, 2 in 6 months. My expense. My recommendation: READ their label after they print it, get it corrected on site. Or don't use Fed Ex. Or ignore the above...whattya say, feeling lucky?

Citoyen du Monde

I print out my own labels online. Never a mistake and a price savings on top of that.

Bianchigirll 

the girl is either an idiot or has lots of FedEx stock! I do hope you have brought this to the managers attention. I normally use USPS

sykerocker 

Admittedly, it's probably just a local problem, but in the Richmond area I absolutely refuse to use FedEx. Honda does all their shipping that way, and we have no end of trouble with our delivery driver. UPS, on the other hand, is absolute professionalism.

One of the big differences between the two is that the UPS driver is a unionized employee, working under a lot of strictures and regulations. The FedEx driver, on the other hand, is an independent contractor.

I've always felt that FedEx was a cut under both UPS and the USPS.

Chris_in_Miami

I do the same thing, I have only myself to blame if I screw it up. On the other hand, I have had Fedex "audit" one of my shipments en route and tack on a $izable dimensional shipping charge. I didn't notice it until my account was due and, by then there was no recourse (though they did reverse the charge when I complained.) Just another thing to watch out for...

RobbieTunes

I used to print my own, and got a specific box from LBS, with the dimensions actually printed on it. I printed and shipped Fed Ex,and they "audited," also, tacked on $69 charge, even when recipient offered to let them look at the unopened box when it got there (they charged before it got there, kept the box hostage, of sorts).

I complained, to no avail. It happened again about a month later, and I demanded the recipient refuse it until the driver measured it, and wrote the dimensions on the box. They refunded my money. That was 2 years ago, and I started using them again because the counter people were helpful. On full bike boxes, they save $40 over the Post Office. I didn't cut the box down because I added a wheel and some bike bits.

Last year, UPS did the same thing, audited en route, but the recipient notice what looked like tire marks on the box, and they not only had to refund my surcharge, they had to pay an LBS to redo his wheels. They got off fairly easy, he accepted the wheel rebuild. He could have made them find and buy a blue smoked fade '89 Ironman Expert.

Chris_in_Miami

I hear that a lot, and yet my experience has been almost completely opposite. I worked in a receiving department many years ago and was always amazed at how different the inside of the trucks looked - FedEx's truck was always very neat, everything on shelves while the UPS truck looked like it was rolled before it got to me. It remains true to this day in my experience, I rarely receive a box shipped via UPS that doesn't have the corners rounded off, yet FedEx never does this.

I agree that it must be a regional thing.

rat fink

That has been my experience as well. However, I have found that it's best to overpack everything. A good rule of thumb is to package items in a way that they could be dropped from chest height without receiving any damage, never write fragile on the package, and always print your own shipping label as carefully as possible (idiot-proof, I usually tape over the address label with clear tape, so it can't be compromised by water or scuffing). I have found that it makes little difference who you ship with if you do those things.

redxj

The thing I always think about between UPS and FedEx is a former poster here who worked for UPS for 30 years ships Fed Ex. I was having problems with Fed Ex locally taking my packages to the Fed Ex/Kinko's closest to me. I weighed and measured each package before going so knew the exact shipping charges that I should have. The one place always charged me more than online. I stopped going to that one and go to another Fed Ex/Kinko's and it has been great. Every item is shipped exactly what the online calculator tells me it is going to be.

Anyone notice USPS raised their rates recently? A package sent Priority mail under 1 lb would ship for $4.95 any where in the U.S. Now the same package to the western states is $5.50 and even still over $5 to the east coast leaving from here in Michigan.

RobbieTunes

Small Flat Rate here is 4.95, but they have some very slightly larger boxes that do not apply.

markk900

To add a little "international" perspective here, if you are shipping to Canada then UPS should NOT be used. Regardless of the value of the shipment or the size, UPS tacks on a mandatory "brokerage" fee for processing through customs, usually upwards of $40. I recently received a couple of packages from the US via FedEx, and they were not only prompt but there were no issues at all. However, in general, I have found USPS (or Royal Mail from the UK, and Australian mail from down under) to work extremely well with the Canadian post office system. I will also say one of the biggest benefits of using regular mail is that if a delivery is attempted by the postie and you are not home, they leave a card and return the package to the local post office for pickup....FedEx/UPS will just leave the package by the front door. Fine for stuff you don't care about but asking for trouble if the package is valuable.

I've been buying stuff for motorcycles and bicycles (and other hobbies) for years and still feel the good old post office is best for most transactions.

Mark

tarwheel 

Sounds like a problem with your local office or an individual there. I have had much better service at lower cost with FedEx compared to UPS or USPS. I shipped a bike up to Chicago for a tour with my brother using FedEx for about $35. The bike arrived fine. For the return trip, there wasn't a FedEx office in my brother's town, so he shipped it UPS. They charged me $100 for shipping my bike the same distance, same packaging. When the box arrived, the top was smashed in, and the only thing that saved my frame from being destroyed is my packing -- I had wrapped every tube with foam pipe insulation.

yuoil 

I too have had the experience of FedEx being much more reliable than UPS, but USPS the best of the three if you ignore price... I would say it's local (ie the clerk) but if they refuse to fix the mistake on their buck I think that's bad business. I do know I had an insured computer sent UPS and they ran over it with a forklift. It took lots of pictures and threats to get them to pay the insurance...

I suppose any agency will have customers with bad experience though, eh?

RobbieTunes

Well, as far as US Postal, I really like using them when I can. Flat Rage makes it easier for dummies like me.

I shipped a wheel box to TX from NC, $15.93 Parcel Post, in December. It didn't ever make it, and came back last week, needing 16.94 postage due.

They remeasured, reweighed, and determined that someone in Flowers Mound TX was off their postal rocker. The postmaster here apologized, slapped an Overnight sticker on it, and off it went. On the other end, the postmaster called the recipient, apologized, and explained the error. You can't get much more accountable than that.

Shimagnolo

I was warned against shipping UPS to Canada a couple years ago...by my local UPS Store!
I rent a box at the local UPS Store.
There is always someone there to sign for it, they can accept shipments from *any* service, and it never spends the day sitting out on the front porch.

John Nelson

USPS has a fairly restrictive maximum size box they will accept. You'll never make it unless you remove both wheels. I prefer to leave my rear wheel on when using a cardboard box, as it provides much better protection for the derailleur and chainrings. That's always possible with UPS and FedEx and still stay within the "ground" category of shipment.

squirtdad

There is a difference between FedEx (employees of FedEx) and the FedEx ground (contractors) so this might be part of the difference

nickkoto

I've had some variation of this happen to me a couple of times and I've never understood it. The way I see it, once the local post office accepts a piece of mail from the customer, there shouldn't be any reason to re-weigh it once it reaches a further destination. They won't recover costs anyway by sending it back and forth an extra trip and certainly the service suffers, but once they agree to a price with the sender, imho it's just as binding as any advertised price. If they made a mistake weighing it the first time, they need to eat the cost.

sunstealth

UPS is the worst shipper i've encountered, tehy always overcharge, canada border fee are astronomical

usps are alright,fedex are good too

canada post are pretty good

but the best are DHL and purolator

theschwinnman

I heard that DHL kicked the didly, it's a shame, I always had good experiences with them too.