Why does Woodpeckers ship USPS?

[Todd Brewer]

Woodpeckers products ain't cheap! But I do buy from them now and then as they are made in the USA and are of excellent quality. I would think they would ship UPS or FedEx not USPS. I think we all know that USPS tracking system is worthless. Only information I ever see is that it was shipped, no updates, no shipping progress and only a "delivered" notation after I already received it. DUH! Why do I want to check shipping progress after I already received it? If I will be out of town, I have to have a neighbor check for the package every day because I have no idea when to expect it. On one occasion, I never received a package shipped USPS (not from Woodpeckers). By the time I investigated, all I got was a blank stare from my postal carrier.

In addition to a delivery date and on-line reports of the package progress, UPS will text me the day before delivery, again the day of delivery, and a text after delivery. Very nice!

If they can't default to UPS (or FedEx) then warn me they are shipping USPS and give me the option to choose UPS or Fed Ex. When spending the green for Woodpeckers products, I would prefer to spend a few dollars more (if indeed it is more expensive) for a carrier where I can monitor the progress and get a delivery date.

Sorry USPS workers, I know you are under cost constraints, but I can't support a carrier with an inferior tracking system.

I sent Woodpeckers an email regarding this issue. Curious to hear their response.

So what say you, fellow woodworkers, do you think it's worth saving a few dollars and not knowing when to expect your package? Or would you pay a little more to have peace of mind?

Todd

[Paul McGaha]

Todd,

I guess I'm satisfied with the way things are. With some vendors you get a choice of how it's to be shipped and with some vendors they make the choice.

I bought something a while back and it shipped Fedex. I kept an eye on tracking the shipment for a few days. This shipment was finished off by USPS and showed up on a Saturday, much to my surprise.

I've bought several things from Woodpeckers and never had a problem with the shipping by the way.

PHM

[Mike Henderson]

I use USPS a lot, both to ship and to receive goods. Most of what I ship is priority (2-3 day). I'm very satisfied with the USPS tracking system. I can see when the item is received, and every station the package goes through - and then when the item is out for delivery and when it's delivered. Pretty complete shipping detail. Hard to imagine someone would want more.

For the stuff I ship and receive, the USPS priority is a lot faster than UPS ground. UPS ground is sloooooow, slooooow, sloooooow. In fact, it's the major complaint I have against Lee Valley. It takes FOREVER to receive a package from Lee Valley, compared to having it shipped USPS priority.

Mike

[Bruce Wrenn]

I vote for USPS. When I ship my blades to Dynamic Saw in Buffalo using a flat rate box, they are there in two days, but UPS coming back is often a week. MLCS uses USPS, and my bits arrive in three days. They used to use DHL, which dropped them off at local post office for delivery.

[Sam Murdoch]

The US Postal Service is excellent, fast and inexpensive. I have never, ever had an issue. Their tracking is as good as the others and in my small town, stuff that starts out with the others often ends up being delivered by the post office. +1 to the USPS.

[Mike Heidrick]

Their tracking is as good as the others.

No way. Not even close. Sometimes it is fast and sometimes not. UPS is always fast and when they have problems they tell you and update tracking. USPS is not even that much cheaper either. UPS is very competitive on smaller items. I think people like it because their carrier picks up but my UPS driver does the same thing. He is also at my house within 4 minutes every day he delivers. UPS hands it to USPS on all levels and my dad is a retired USPS carrier and we grew up on the USPS dime.

[Sam Murdoch]

No way. Not even close. Sometimes it is fast and sometimes not. UPS is always fast and when they have problems they tell you and update tracking. USPS is not even that much cheaper either. UPS is very competitive on smaller items. I think people like it because their carrier picks up but my UPS driver does the same thing. He is also at my house within 4 minutes every day he delivers. UPS hands it to USPS on all levels and my dad is a retired USPS carrier and we grew up on the USPS dime.


I suspect a lot of our responses will be based on where we all live. UPS is good but in my experience - no way better - than the US Postal Sevice. Just my experience from a rural Maine town.

[Mike Heidrick]

I suspect a lot of our responses will be based on where we all live. UPS is good but in my experience - no way better - than the US Postal Sevice. Just my experience from a rural Maine town.

All towns still uses the same tracking system and USPS's is LAME. USPS most times does not get updated until delivered.

Delivery is prob a different issue for you in Maine so I will agree with you there.

[Kim Gibbens]

Woodpeckers products ain't cheap! But I do buy from them now and then as they are made in the USA and are of excellent quality. I would think they would ship UPS or FedEx not USPS. I think we all know that USPS tracking system is worthless. Only information I ever see is that it was shipped, no updates, no shipping progress and only a "delivered" notation after I already received it. DUH! Why do I want to check shipping progress after I already received it? If I will be out of town, I have to have a neighbor check for the package every day because I have no idea when to expect it. On one occasion, I never received a package shipped USPS (not from Woodpeckers). By the time I investigated, all I got was a blank stare from my postal carrier.

In addition to a delivery date and on-line reports of the package progress, UPS will text me the day before delivery, again the day of delivery, and a text after delivery. Very nice!

If they can't default to UPS (or FedEx) then warn me they are shipping USPS and give me the option to choose UPS or Fed Ex. When spending the green for Woodpeckers products, I would prefer to spend a few dollars more (if indeed it is more expensive) for a carrier where I can monitor the progress and get a delivery date.

Sorry USPS workers, I know you are under cost constraints, but I can't support a carrier with an inferior tracking system.

I sent Woodpeckers an email regarding this issue. Curious to hear their response.

So what say you, fellow woodworkers, do you think it's worth saving a few dollars and not knowing when to expect your package? Or would you pay a little more to have peace of mind?

Todd

Well Todd, and Mike, this will probably come as shock to you, the ONLY tracking service the USPS offers is EXPRESS MAIL. What most people THINK is a tracking number ( EXPRESS MAIL only ) is Delivery Confirmation. All the customer is paying for is the Delivery scan. Any additional scans that can be seen on the Track/Confirm page are bonus. You get what you pay for. And you are right Mike, UPS hands the USPS a lot of their packages to deliver ( 100 to 300 per day in our small office , Fedex does the same thing, just not quite as much as UPS )
If you need any further explanation, please ask.

As for the blank stare from your carrier, they don't have access to check on confirmation numbers on their scanners. I am pretty sure the UPS and Fedex drivers don't either.

[John Fabre]

I order an item from the East coast on Friday through USPS, had it delivered on Tuesday. UPS (snail mail) is a joke, took them over a week to ship from SD. to UT. FedEx and USPS is the only way to go. On small boxes, you can't beat USPS. I shipped a little package to Seattle through USPS $5.15, if I shipped UPS would cost $9.85. Make sure to insure it, you can track it then.

[Tom Blank]

Ordered hardware from LV on the 15th, UPS is scheduled to deliver on the 26th. Today, the package is in Hodgkins, IL. Ordered a couple of bits from Holbren this morning (20th), USPS is scheduled to deliver them on the 24th. I can't tell where the bits are today, but I really don't care.

I'll take the four days via USPS over the ten via UPS every time. Pus on these two shipments, USPS was $5 cheaper.

[Curt Harms]

A lot of the stuff we order from Amazon ships via FedEx to the local post office. That seems to make a lot of sense to my not-familiar-with-shipping brain. It saves the FedEx ground driver a lot of local stops and the USPS does those routes every day regardless. I've also found that sometimes when things are USPS all the way, I can take a tracking # to the post office and they can track it when the USPS online tracking web site cannot.

[Richard Wagner]

Maybe there is something to this tracking routine that not all of us understand.

If you ship USPS Express Mail you get point-to-point tracking. Most of the complaints expressed here have been about "Delivery Confirmation (https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction!input.action)". If point-to-point is what you need, it is not the Postal Service that you should be complaining about. It is the shipper who designated the tracking method to be employed.

Check your packages when they arrive. If they were shipped "Delivery Confirmation" the tracking number will be a 0300 xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx format. The 0300 designates the tracking method employed.

If you expect point-to-point tracking, ask for Express Mail. The tracking number will be something like EA xxx xxx xxx US.

BTW The real answer to the original question is most probably because Woodpeckers' has established a shipping rate with USPS that is most beneficial to Woodpeckers.

[Mac McQuinn]

I really like and use USPS exclusively. When my wife and I were doing a reduction/moving sale via Ebay over 5 year's time, I sent over 2000 items through USPS. There are a couple delivery zones which are slow although items still arrived safely. If you look at the larger picture at what USPS offers as far as convenience, etc, I can't believe they're not promoted more.
I ordered a camera for my son as a last minute Christmas present a few years ago and it was shipped USPS Priority. It didn't make it by Christmas eave so I thought I was not going to get it in time for the following morning. As we were sitting around the fire on Christmas morning the door bell ring, answering the door, I was greeted by my mailman, hand delivering the camera on Christmas Day.

Mac

[Bob Reda]

I use all three depending on the situation. USPS gives free boxes and has the flat rate if it benefits me. They will also pick it up at my doorstep free of charge. Fedex and UPS are cheaper than USPS priority mail, but they don't give free boxes and don't pick up for free, you can drop off for free though. So I just guess what you are wanting to do. All three carry the others luggage on occassion (probably more than I think)

Bob

[Mike Henderson]

Well Todd, and Mike, this will probably come as shock to you, the ONLY tracking service the USPS offers is EXPRESS MAIL. What most people THINK is a tracking number ( EXPRESS MAIL only ) is Delivery Confirmation. All the customer is paying for is the Delivery scan. Any additional scans that can be seen on the Track/Confirm page are bonus. You get what you pay for. And you are right Mike, UPS hands the USPS a lot of their packages to deliver ( 100 to 300 per day in our small office , Fedex does the same thing, just not quite as much as UPS )
If you need any further explanation, please ask.

As for the blank stare from your carrier, they don't have access to check on confirmation numbers on their scanners. I am pretty sure the UPS and Fedex drivers don't either.
I'm probably not the Mike you were addressing your response to, but with Delivery Confirmation, I can track the item in USPS all along the line. I see an entry for accepted at my post office, then acceptance at the local sorting station, then departure from that station, then acceptance at the next sorting station, then departure, then acceptance at the destination post office, then "out for delivery", then delivered.

That's pretty good tracking for me. And that's with delivery confirmation.

Mike

[Steve Rozmiarek]

+1 for UPS here, for a different reason. USPS leaves packages at the mailbox, I'm very rural, on the ground sometimes, no matter the weather, for everyone to see. UPS will drop it someplace out of the weather.

[Steve Colvin]

To the point about being out of town and having a neighbor check - you can just have the Post Office hold mail while you are gone. We do it frequently.

[Keith Christopher]

Actually if you look at deliveries, FedEx and UPS sometimes 'sub' to USPS depending on the load. Sadly USPS is often under used these days. If you order something and it has a fedex tracking number but the postal worker delivers it, then you know what I am saying. Check it out.

http://www.fedex.com/us/smart-post/outbound.html

[Brian Elfert]

I would choose USPS over Fedex Ground or UPS ground any day of the week. Priority mail is generally faster than the other two and USPS includes Saturday as a business day so stuff gets to me faster. If someone ships with UPS or Fedex overnight on Friday I'll get it Monday, but it will have cost several times what Priority Mail costs. USPS, UPS, and Fedex will all leave stuff under my covered overhang. I'm far enough from the road that nothing has ever gone missing.

I've been in situations where I purposely find a vendor who uses Priority Mail due to time constraints and not wanting to pay UPS/Fedex two day or overnight rates. Only once in the past two years have I been desperate enough for a part to pay overnight rates. It cost me $75 to have a $125 part sent overnight. The part wasn't terribly heavy even.

[Guy Belleman]

Woodpeckers has been great to deal with. Many vendors will not ship to overseas military addresses, even using USPS. Vendors that will use USPS and fill out the customs forms are preferred due to my having a military overseas address that only gets mail by USPS. In the states, UPS and Fedex may be better values, but please support the dealers that will ship to our military and DOD employees overseas using USPS, like Woodpeckers

[Mike Gillispie]

Guy I agree, I've had an APO adress for 8 of the past 10 years--it's great to find companies that use USPS.

[Marc Pelletier]

Here's a Canadian perspective. I won't order anything from the US that comes via UPS. They are absolutely criminal in what they charge for brokerage. The USPS / Canada Post combination doesn't charge a thing for brokerage and is quicker at dealing with the border. From what I can tell USPS provides fantastic service and you-all should support it as much as possible. Canada Post.... not so much.

[Andrew Kertesz]

I have never had a problem with USPS and if I'm not home most of the time they put it on the back porch inside the fence, UPS does NOT do that. Something many people may not know about Fed Ex the residential route drivers are contractors and own the route so that can vary by route and location.

[Richard Wagner]

I'm probably not the Mike you were addressing your response to, but with Delivery Confirmation, I can track the item in USPS all along the line. I see an entry for accepted at my post office, then acceptance at the local sorting station, then departure from that station, then acceptance at the next sorting station, then departure, then acceptance at the destination post office, then "out for delivery", then delivered.

That's pretty good tracking for me. And that's with delivery confirmation.

Mike

You are one of the lucky ones because you are not guaranteed "point to point tracking from USPS on "Delivery Confirmation".

A Quote from the USPS:

Tracking vs. Confirmation of Delivery
Some USPS® products provide Tracking, while others provide only Confirmation of Delivery. It is important to understand which products include these services and the difference between “tracking” and “confirming”. The “Tracking Mail” and “Confirmation of Delivery” FAQs provide additional detail on these topics. This FAQ provides specific information about Confirmation of Delivery. For additional information on Tracking, please go to the Track & Confirm – Tracking Mail FAQ (http://faq.usps.com/eCustomer/iq/usps/request.do?session=%7b735b02a0-3e22-11e1-6d2d-000000000000%7d&event=1&view%28%29=c%7Bbed79ad0-2570-11df-c8ab-000000000000%7D&objectId=&eksObjectId=&objectType=Case&isJumpEnabled=false&isContentJumpEnabled=false&vendorKey=&objT). Sorry - this link does not work.
Premium products, such as Express Mail®, include Tracking. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent via Express Mail should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was accepted and when it was delivered or a delivery attempt occurred. Additionally, the user will likely see several additional scans as the item moves through the mail stream, such as “processed’ or “arrival at unit”. Products that include tracking provide end-to-end visibility.
Lower-cost products, such as Delivery Confirmation™, only include Confirmation of Delivery. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent with Delivery Confirmation should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was delivered or when a delivery attempt occurred. USPS may also provide users with additional scan on items that include confirmation of delivery, such as “processed”, “arrival at unit”, or “out for delivery.” However, the price of these lower-cost products does not include end-to-end visibility.

[Mike Henderson]

You are one of the lucky ones because you are not guaranteed "point to point tracking from USPS on "Delivery Confirmation".

A Quote from the USPS:

Tracking vs. Confirmation of Delivery
Some USPS® products provide Tracking, while others provide only Confirmation of Delivery. It is important to understand which products include these services and the difference between “tracking” and “confirming”. The “Tracking Mail” and “Confirmation of Delivery” FAQs provide additional detail on these topics. This FAQ provides specific information about Confirmation of Delivery. For additional information on Tracking, please go to the Track & Confirm – Tracking Mail FAQ (http://faq.usps.com/eCustomer/iq/usps/request.do?session=%7b735b02a0-3e22-11e1-6d2d-000000000000%7d&event=1&view%28%29=c%7Bbed79ad0-2570-11df-c8ab-000000000000%7D&objectId=&eksObjectId=&objectType=Case&isJumpEnabled=false&isContentJumpEnabled=false&vendorKey=&objT). Sorry - this link does not work.
Premium products, such as Express Mail®, include Tracking. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent via Express Mail should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was accepted and when it was delivered or a delivery attempt occurred. Additionally, the user will likely see several additional scans as the item moves through the mail stream, such as “processed’ or “arrival at unit”. Products that include tracking provide end-to-end visibility.
Lower-cost products, such as Delivery Confirmation™, only include Confirmation of Delivery. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent with Delivery Confirmation should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was delivered or when a delivery attempt occurred. USPS may also provide users with additional scan on items that include confirmation of delivery, such as “processed”, “arrival at unit”, or “out for delivery.” However, the price of these lower-cost products does not include end-to-end visibility.
Yes, I realize that, but the USPS is moving towards tracking all delivery confirmation shipments. All the "delivery confirmation" shipments I've made in the past few years have provided full tracking. I expect that will continue and improve in the future. It's to USPS' advantage to provide that to their customers.

Mike

[Tom Walz]

We sell Woodpeckers tools. We will be happy to ship your tools anyway you wish.

Unfortunately the question of what shipping method is best varies greatly. There were some excellent comments made above. In 30 years of shipping all over the world we have found that the services can vary greatly depending on the people involved.

UPS and USPS are heavily dependent on the particular delivery person.

With some services, the customs fee into Canada is ridiculously high.

We typically ship by either: 1. Whatever the customer wishes or 2. Whatever we think is fastest and cheapest if there are no customer requests.

I am not an expert on this but I have two very nice and ladies, Emily and Whitney, who are very good customer service including shipping options.

Emily Got Married Sale

As long as I am doing this I might as well have a big sale. My number one, customer service rep and daughter, Emily, got married last Tuesday and will be back to work on Tuesday the 26th. On Tuesday the 26th only will offer an additional 10% off any item we sell, including Woodpeckers, plus free shipping.

[Richard McComas]

I uses USPS when ever I can. Here in Alaska it's usually less expensive and I'm not hung up on the tracking thing. Of course USPS lost 15 billion year.

[Jim Neeley]

+1 Richard, Priority Mail one-rate to Alaska it is! :-)

[Todd Brewer]

Interesting that so many like USPS. Until they get a tracking system like UPS and FedEx I will always prefer UPS and FedEx.

I know USPS is hurting so an update to their tracking system is probably not likely.

Interesting that some can track USPS all the way. Never worked for me.

I contacted Woodpeckers and their response was: We give you the option to choose a shipper at checkout. I have confirmed this. Maybe I got cheap as UPS vs. Parcel post amounts to $17.87 vs. $10.60. My apologies to Woodpeckers.

[Mike Cogswell]

I order an item from the East coast on Friday through USPS, had it delivered on Tuesday. UPS (snail mail) is a joke, took them over a week to ship from SD. to UT. FedEx and USPS is the only way to go. On small boxes, you can't beat USPS. I shipped a little package to Seattle through USPS $5.15, if I shipped UPS would cost $9.85. Make sure to insure it, you can track it then.

You have it backwards: Snail mail is USPS, not UPS. UPS = Big Brown Truck (United Parcel Service), while USPS is the US Postal Service.

[Mike Cogswell]

+1 for UPS here, for a different reason. USPS leaves packages at the mailbox, I'm very rural, on the ground sometimes, no matter the weather, for everyone to see. UPS will drop it someplace out of the weather.

My mailman brings parcels that won't fit in the mailbox up to the porch, same as UPS and FedEx. Sometimes the mailman even brings me packages that were shipped UPS. The tracking will show that they were turned over to USPS for local delivery.

[Matt Meiser]

By the way I ordered some stuff from Woodpecker today and was presented with a multitude of options and after seeing that I remember seeing it before.