Caveat Emptor re: Identification Plates Inc.; Mesquite,TX

[Kev Williams]

And now for another USPS plug

Greg

I don't know of a single supplier I use who ships by USPS. They use UPS or FEDEX as do I. Tracking on USPS is not reliable enough.

Last week when my new laser and related equipment arrived wired for European 220v, I ordered a 3000w step-up/down transformer so I could run the thing. It was shipped FedEx on Monday. Tracking said it would be delivered Thursday (today). Yesterday I received a recorded message from FedEx saying it would be delivered today. At 3pm I ran tracking, it arrived at the FedEx office in town, 6 miles away, at a little after 1pm.

It's now 10:15pm and FedEx has yet to deliver my transformer...

The USPS isn't perfect, but they're cheaper, faster, and in the long run I've had better results with them.

[Brian Robison]

I ship USPS all the time also. Free boxes too! And they pick up.
Shipping to NY or Ca is always more expensive. I've sent heavier boxes to
Hawaii for less than NYC, go figure.....

[Doug Novic]

Went to ship products with my UPS account. 3 pounds for 28.00. Went to the USPS account and shipped the same for $4.15 AND it got there in two days (Maryland to Kansas City MO). Clicked the FREE option box to have my customer notified of the shipment. They got updates that were so accurate they changed their preferred shipper to USPS. Their estimate is a savings of 70% +/- with the same shipment times. Not bad at all.

[Glen Monaghan]

I ship almost exclusively USPS Priority Mail (which is essentially First Class mail for packages over 13 oz) and have been generally pleased with it. Whenever I've compared prices for small to medium packages, USPS has been fairly significantly less expensive, although one heavier package was less expensive and faster by FedEx. USPS flat rate priority shipping is particularly cost effective because the boxes are free (saves $0.40-1.00 each on 100-140 boxes per month) and most of my packages are pretty small (fit into small and medium boxes) but fairly heavy (pounds, not ounces, so by-weight postage is significantly higher than flat rates), and the price is the same for any US destination.

That said, USPS tracking could stand improvement. In the last three weeks, I've had three packages that USPS tracking showed leaving a nearby sort facility and then nothing for 7-10 days. In each case, I waited the mandatory 5 days past expected delivery and then contacted the USPS. Every time, they basically said "We don't have any way to tell where it went or where it is until an employee picks it up and scans it again, try contacting the destination PO and ask if they've seen it." I was told that they scan arrivals and departures, but the departure scan doesn't tell them where it actually went! In one case, the package was misrouted to 9xxxx instead of 7xxxx, and apparently it was set aside on receipt and left to rot for a few days before getting scanned and sent to the correct destination. The other two waylaid packages just "magically" appeared at the destination PO 8-10 days after expected delivery date, with no other tracking updates in the interim.

Come to think of it, I had another package go missing back in July, for which I sent a replacement after 2 weeks. That missing package never turned up and I eventually forgot all about it until now... probably too late and too bothersome to try to file the claim for thirty-something bucks...

[Greg Bednar]

So this package is coming to be from a supplier via UPS, looks to me like they are the middleman at times for the USPS because they turfed it off to USPS and it still isn't here. - My delivery via USPS to Puerto Rico took 3 days. And the projected delivery date is the 16thups.JPG

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

It's called UPS Surepost. Fedex is doing the same thing called Smartpost. They both carry it a portion of the way, then dump it at the Post Office for them to deliver it. While it is much cheaper for the company shipping, it typically more then doubles the shipping time. On a Sunday evening, I recently ordered a small item online that was listed as UPS shipping with a fee that was appropriate for UPS. One State away with shipping on Monday and it should have arrived by Wednesday at the latest via UPS. By Wed night, tracking shows it is sitting in a depot 3 hours & still 1 State away. UPS was closed Thurs-Fri for Thanksgiving. By Monday morning, it was received at the Post Office 3 hours away and finally delivered Wednesday. If it had been shipped USPS, even if it was delayed, I still could have received it on the Fri or Sat after Thanksgiving.

One more lesson learned. Call to verify if the company is truly shipping UPS and not UPS Surepost.