USPS troubles - how about switching to DHL?

[mke]

My package has been delivered. The problem at the end was the tracking which failed, it restarted working after Japanpost reported back to USPS that the package is moving inside Japan. This happened after it had been delivered.

In the US, it was just slow. Perhaps, USPS should send some managers to Japanese shipping companies to learn.

[Ron Z]

1 hour ago, mke said:

@Ron Z

In your first posting, you wrote you don't trust DHL. In the explanation post, it is now UPS. Or is that a different "don't trust"?

 

I use UPS for ground, or basic shipping.  I don't use UPS for anything that HAS to be there next day.  FedEx for that.  I had to send a satellite receiver back for service.  UPS grilled me about it, and didn't want to insure it at all, and it sounded like may not have shipped it.  I gave up, drove up the hill and called FedEX.  They picked it up an  hour or two later without any hassle. 

 

I worked for UPS  a little over 40 years ago, during the last semester of college, and for a couple of months after that.  I've seen it from the inside  There have been other issues with DHL over the years.  The fact is that everything costs much more than the USPS.  With the number of packages that we mail every year, even overseas, their service has been quite good, and the local PO here in Beaver Falls, and back in Syracuse was always helpful to sort things out if needed.

[sketchstack]

My take: I’ve had good and bad experiences with every shipper. I don’t believe that any one of them is exponentially better than any of the others*. The vast majority show up on time as promised. It’s easy to forget that when you have one or two negative experiences.

 

I recently had a DHL parcel with very expensive contents that showed up looking like it was run over by a truck. For all I know it actually was. Luckily the contents were intact. Does that mean I’ll never ever use DHL again? No. It was bad luck. 

 

*Interestingly, Amazon’s own “Prime” vans have been delivering 90% of my Amazon Prime purchases lately. It’s an excellent service, their tracking is so detailed it shows where the driver is and alerts me when they’re very close. The delivery confirmation includes a photograph of the actual parcel so I know where to find it if they concealed it somewhere. Amazon’s delivery service has been surprisingly good —I hope the other carriers are paying attention. 

[ParramattaPaul]

2 minutes ago, sketchstack said:

Amazon’s own “Prime” vans have been delivering 90% of my Amazon Prime purchases lately. It’s an excellent service, their tracking is so detailed it shows where the driver is and alerts me when they’re very close. The delivery confirmation includes a photograph of the actual parcel so I know where to find it if they concealed it somewhere. Amazon’s delivery service has been surprisingly good —I hope the other carriers are paying attention. 

Yes, Amazon Prime's service is excellent.  Sadly though, none of their drivers seem to be mentally or physically capable of turning the handle on a gate to see if it is unlocked and walking the extra six paces to the front door so they are compelled to leave parcels at the gate.  Fortunately, none of the parcels have 'grown legs' yet.

[inkstainedruth]

A few years ago Amazon had third party delivery for at least some of their stuff.  I know because I spent a couple of hours on the phone with someone in Customer Service going "WHERE IS MY PACKAGE?  I could have driven across the river to their local warehouse and back by now -- even as rush hour is getting underway, because I know where it is!"  Turned out that the guy was at the OTHER END of the main road I'm on the corner on (although my frontage is the side street).  Don't know how he ended up there, given that they had my address and zip code correct.  And this wasn't even a deal with ordering from a 3rd party vendor, either -- this was DIRECTLY from Amazon.  So my "it should be delivered by now" turned into the guy finally pulling up in front of my house and walking up the driveway at ten after 5 PM.  But at least the CDs arrived, AND because of the grief I got a credit that I could then use on my next order.  As opposed to the 3rd party vendor (who, I suspect, just ordered the slightly less expensive CD from Germany to resell to me, and were too cheap-ass to bother arranging for tracking info with DHL).  Admittedly, I don't order from Amazon a lot, but the experience with the selling using DHL made me be really cautious about dealing with third party vendors in future.  Because I didn't have any real recourse, other than to give them the negative feedback they richly deserve (if I could remember the company's name, I'd go look them up and see if they still sell through Amazon or whether Amazon dropped them like a hot potato....  But what really torques me about Amazon is that they give *reputable* 3rd party sellers "deals" that make it CHEAPER to go through Amazon than ordering DIRECTLY from the seller themselves (yes, I've had that happen).

But the absolute WORST story I ever heard (mind you this was a couple of decades ago at this point) was about Rodeway.  When I lived in Massachusetts, I'd go out every now and then to a small yarn and fiber store in Harvard, MA (about 30-40 minutes from where I lived in Framingham).  One time, I walked in and the owner was on a tear.  She had ordered a fairly large floor loom for a customer, and it was being shipped in three separate packages by the manufacturer.  And Rodeway had LOST two of them.  Didn't have a clue as to why they weren't on the same truck the whole way from wherever the starting point was (which I think was in the Midwest, or maybe in the Rockies).  She was just ranting on the phone at either them or the manufacturer because she had NO idea how to break it to the customer that "I'm sorry, you paid a couple THOUSAND dollars on this and Rodeway lost two thirds of it in transit...."  I felt bad for the unknown customer, but I also felt bad for HER because their screwup made HER (and the manufacturer) look bad.  Because of course a loom doesn't work very well until it's assembled (and assembled correctly at that) and it can't be assembled if you only have part of it delivered.

I never heard what happened -- whether she was able to get them to find the missing packages, or had to re-order the entire shipment (or at least replacements), or whether she ended up suing Rodeway over this, or even whether she had to refund the buyer out of her own pocket.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[alexwi]

On 7/17/2021 at 11:36 PM, inkstainedruth said:

A few years ago Amazon had third party delivery

In the spirit of continuing to take this to discussion to"strange new worlds, To seek out new life..."

 

Amazon still uses 3rd parties for deliveries pretty much everywhere, even though the trucks have their logo. It's actually quite profitable to provide last-mile service to them.

 

For the past 2 years, I've avoided amazon like the plague for ethical reasons. The only 3 orders I placed with them this year were only because I couldn't find two of those things anywhere else and the last one because no other vendor was able to promise delivery in less than a whole week, which seems to be part of the trend I'm seeing in other retailers just lying down and asking amazon to finish them off. Ironically, the MORON who delivered, left the box in front of the building despite this not being Pleasantville and less than an hour passed between getting their SMS and me getting home to realize it was stolen.

 

I printed a sign asking for no deliveries to be left outside, but guess what amazon drivers do...

 

If they keep at it, my next sign will be "May the fleas of a thousand camels nest between your legs if you leave a package outside" in English and Spanish.

 

For me, amazon's a great tool for looking up products, their reviews, and alternatives. I'm amazed how very few people seem able to make the connection between the disappearance of businesses in their cities and neighborhoods and their own actions. On the flip side, as I mentioned in another thread, big box chains, which already have the space and could very easily deliver same day without too much of an investment, seem to not care and all that stores like Staples, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, etc., can think of is redecorating so their spaces don't look too barren. It's pitiful.

 

Oh, shipping, yeah, I hate hate hate those hybrid usps-fedex or usps-dhl kinds of deals. They seem to operate as if they had people in charge of making sure packages are NOT delivered quickly. They're all horrendous.

 

alex

[mke]

@alexwi

> I printed a sign asking for no deliveries to be left outside, but guess what amazon drivers do...

 

With Amazon, you have to decide in your account settings where 'Amazon delivery' has to place your incoming packages.

Search for "Delivery Location Selector"

If you don't select anything, they can deliver where they want.

 

[alexwi]

2 hours ago, mke said:

With Amazon, you have to decide in your account settings where 'Amazon delivery' has to place your incoming packages.

 

I just looked for this and I actually set it up already. It reads "Call or ring the intercom so that the customer opens the door and accept the package. Do not leave the package unattended as it will get stolen." I don't even remember when I did this, but I did. Thanks for the tip, though!!!!

 

I'm thinking of adding "DO NOT LEAVE PACKAGE OUTSIDE" as one of the lines of my address next time I order from amazon.
 

Alex

[inkstainedruth]

17 hours ago, alexwi said:

 

I just looked for this and I actually set it up already. It reads "Call or ring the intercom so that the customer opens the door and accept the package. Do not leave the package unattended as it will get stolen." I don't even remember when I did this, but I did. Thanks for the tip, though!!!!

 

I'm thinking of adding "DO NOT LEAVE PACKAGE OUTSIDE" as one of the lines of my address next time I order from amazon.
 

Alex

I did that with an order from a 3rd party vendor.  Then contacted the seller directly to reiterate that request (and that's when I ALSO asked the seller for tracking info and got the BS about how "DHL doesn't provide tracking").

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sketchstack]

On 7/23/2021 at 6:55 PM, alexwi said:

 

I just looked for this and I actually set it up already. It reads "Call or ring the intercom so that the customer opens the door and accept the package. Do not leave the package unattended as it will get stolen." I don't even remember when I did this, but I did. Thanks for the tip, though!!!!

 

I'm thinking of adding "DO NOT LEAVE PACKAGE OUTSIDE" as one of the lines of my address next time I order from amazon.
 

Alex

 

I think it all just comes down to numbers. The drivers have a quota and they probably don’t see the value in taking any more time then they need to in order to meet said quota. And Amazon won’t care about a few missed packages until it becomes more than a rounding error in terms of overall sales.

 

Kind of like how credit card companies are seemingly fine with rampant fraud because in reality it is minuscule compared to their profits. Simply put, it may not make financial sense for them to fix the problem(s). 

[inkstainedruth]

I'm not sure that the credit card companies are "fine" with it at all -- at least not in my experience.

Years ago I had a card declined at the (then) local Sam's Club -- this was back when Sam's ONLY took Discover.  There was a problem and they called my house and couldn't get hold of my husband because he was out mowing the lawn!  (The problem, IIRC, is that it was a small charge -- and that's a red flag because it often means that someone who has a stolen card is "testing the waters" before running up a huge tab....)

More recently, a few years ago we had trouble doing the shopping for the sideline business because (unbeknownst to us) new Sam's credit cards were in the mail, and we had to do major scrambling (involving frantic phone calls to other card issuers) because of course we were a 20 hour drive from home.  (I do NOT have a high opinion of the bank that issued the Sam's Visa cards -- to begin with, they cut our credit limit in HALF).  

So the next March, my husband made a POINT of calling them and saying "We're doing the annual thing down in Mississippi.  Then in June, we are doing something in Indiana...."  For March, things went fine.  For JUNE, though?  Not so much.  Got a message left on my answering machine from the credit card company.  I called back and got told "We can't talk to you -- you're NOT the primary card holder...."  I said "First of all, I'm the one signing the checks paying the credit card bill to you people every month.  Secondly, you people were told about this THREE MONTHS AGO.  So if there's a problem, you have to call HIM because he's already in Indiana..."  (nb: my husband had already called me on my cellphone saying there was a problem while I was doing last minute shopping).  And get told "Oh, we can't make outgoing calls...." (say what?).  So I told the person, "Well, you have TWO choices -- you FIND someone who can make outgoing calls, or you can talk to ME!  Because you morons were told that this event was happening in MARCH because of how you screwed us over at the show in March last year...."  After that?  I use that card to walk in the door and to start the pay transactions at the cash register (usually in the self-serve lines).  Then pay with a different card.  Oh, and we have a tab built up which I can't use to offset paying because I'm "not the primary cardholder...."

I lost a different credit card a couple of weeks ago.  I called the company as soon as I got home, and had to listen to a list of recent transactions to verify that they were legit.  Then had to tell my husband to NOT use his card for that account until the new cards came in the mail (I don't remember if he's said whether he's taken the old, no longer valid, card out of his wallet yet).

Oh, and we're a couple of those deadbeats that pay our credit cards off in full every month, so the credit card companies aren't making extra money in APR charges.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[MuddyWaters]

I had the option of USPS vs DHL. I took the latter because USPS has been taking forever lately to send into Canada. (bleep) me, I knew there was an increased risk of having to pay duty tax with DHL: $55 on a $150 order. I'm stunned...

 

 

[Detman101]

1 hour ago, MuddyWaters said:

I had the option of USPS vs DHL. I took the latter because USPS has been taking forever lately to send into Canada. (bleep) me, I knew there was an increased risk of having to pay duty tax with DHL: $55 on a $150 order. I'm stunned...

 

 

Wow!

[pgomme]

3 hours ago, MuddyWaters said:

I had the option of USPS vs DHL. I took the latter because USPS has been taking forever lately to send into Canada. (bleep) me, I knew there was an increased risk of having to pay duty tax with DHL: $55 on a $150 order. I'm stunned...

 

 

 

In my limited experience, the risk of paying duty and taxes is 100% with private couriers. I live in Quebec, so the taxes alone as 15%. How much of the $55 was DHL's overpriced handling fee?

[MuddyWaters]

2 hours ago, pgomme said:

 

In my limited experience, the risk of paying duty and taxes is 100% with private couriers. I live in Quebec, so the taxes alone as 15%. How much of the $55 was DHL's overpriced handling fee?

 

That's what I realized later. Rough breakdown: $20 for tax, $10 for duty, and $20 for DHL administrative fee.

 

I researched online. Apparently this is a rampant ransom scheme that DHL does once shipments cross border into Canada. I already paid $30 for shipping and now I have to pay admin fees?

 

Do I pay an admin fee when I cash out at the grocery store, get my hair cut, etc? No, because it is part of the service, similar to carrying objects from A to B across borders. A real scam. I will never use DHL again.