Why do people use UPS?

Jedidentist

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Most sellers here use the USPS, which is wonderful. However, why do people insist on using UPS? Unless you go air, they are ridiculously slow...and the price difference between air and ground is enough that I'm not going to splurge the extra $10. I don't see how it's any less of a hassle using the USPS for sellers? You can still print and ship online and they'll pickup. And Priority Mail costs are less and infinitely faster than UPS. I've had my vinyl package sitting in a UPS warehouse for 2 days getting processed...located about 20 minutes from my house. Sorry...just had to vent because I'm sitting here on my day off without much to do, just waiting for this frickin' thing to show up so I can finish my restore. :mad:
 
I started going FedEx for all things board-sized now. The UPS store I was attending could no longer guarantee the website price. They started hitting me with a $4.50 rural charge which was complete BS. It's only half that on the website, plus they started charging it for zips not in the booklet. Sorry Charlie.

Then I found out that FedEx has a depot on the way home from work! So far so good with these guys.

USPS is still cheaper for everything smaller and larger, and shipping overseas.
 
Everyone has their favorite and most hated shipper. Also, with things like UPS you can get dramatically different prices depending if you are shipping directly through UPS or a Mom and Pop shipping Stoe.

I've used UPS before and will continue to do some in certain situations. Half the time it is it cheaper. I can take what ever I want shipped and they will package it up for me, put the labels on, email me all the shipping info, and email when it has arrived and I don't have to do a thing except hand them my credit card. UPS has actual tracking instead of Delivery Confirmation.

For smaller things I usually ship priority USPS and using the Paypal thing seems to be a bit easier for that now as well except I usually need to go weigh the package first.
 
Most sellers here use the USPS, which is wonderful. However, why do people insist on using UPS? Unless you go air, they are ridiculously slow...and the price difference between air and ground is enough that I'm not going to splurge the extra $10. I don't see how it's any less of a hassle using the USPS for sellers? You can still print and ship online and they'll pickup. And Priority Mail costs are less and infinitely faster than UPS. I've had my vinyl package sitting in a UPS warehouse for 2 days getting processed...located about 20 minutes from my house. Sorry...just had to vent because I'm sitting here on my day off without much to do, just waiting for this frickin' thing to show up so I can finish my restore. :mad:

USPS wanted $36 to ship a 6.5lb, 20x12x12 package from VA to CA via Prority mail. FedEx charged me around $9. UPS was similar in cost to FedEx. USPS is extremely expensive to ship anything that doesn't fit in one of their flat rate boxes.
 
I can ship UPS with a steep discount using my company account. My discount runs about 65% so it is often the cheapest option. However, I can't beat the convenience of USPS flat rate boxes so I use them as often as possible...
 
I use FedEx because they are usually cheaper and their local office has better hours than UPS. Our local UPS office will take packages from 2:00pm to 6:00pm M-F. The FedEx office is open 8:00am-5:30pm.

Gary
 
I hate UPS, I think their tracking pages suck and they are all around assholes. I also hate using USPS, it is always a hassle to have stuff delivered to my house using them,and when stuff does show up it looks as though the carrier used it as a soccer ball. My carrier of choice is FedEx, I get decent discounts, tracking page seems to be updated often, and my boxes don't get molested.
 
It's probably the discount, plus tracking all the way. I've also got to say that making a claim on an insured package was insanely easy with UPS and I got a check from them fast. Plus the buyer got to keep the remains of the shipped item.
 
Add me to the list of people that do not like UPS. Fed Ex has been giving some good rates and it gets there twice as fast, and as mentioned, has better hours and there is never a line.
 
Ugh, tell me about it. UPS charges $30-$40 for 'customs brokerage' when I order stuff from the States. USPS charges a flat $5. Even for domestic shipping, I've use only Canada Post ExpressPost, since it's cheaper and more convenient to pick up than FedEx and UPS (at the post office instead of some place in the middle of nowhere that closes at 5pm) if the delivery is missed.

Digi-Key switched to UPS exclusively a while ago and since then their shipping has become really hit-and-miss. Usually my parts orders arrive to my office the next day, which is great. However last time my order took over a week to arrive.
 
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For domestic, I don't really care...but once shit crosses the border (Either way) UPS can lick my left nut with their insane brokerage fees and other little fees they like to tack on.
$5 for handling? Isn't that what I'm paying you for to begin with you jackasses?

I refuse to deal with international sellers that use UPS, including you boys down south. Nobody seems to realize that cross-border, UPS KILLS the buyer with added fees you don't see.
 
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Add me to the list of people that do not like UPS. Fed Ex has been giving some good rates and it gets there twice as fast, and as mentioned, has better hours and there is never a line.

Like it was said above, everyone has their favorite/most hated shipping company. Here at our company we use UPS for all ground packages and get a great discount. As also stated above, they are very easy to deal with when it comes to a claim.

Flat rate boxes at the USPS rock, but for larger shipments, I choose UPS. Just to clarify, UPS Stores are franchised and not owned by UPS. They may or may not charge direct UPS rates like you'd find online. That is their perogative for providing the service.

To each his own and I've not really had bad experiences with any company, but I don't understand where people are saying that the shipments take longer via UPS. According to their chart, a shipment from PA to FL is 3 days. Who can get it there faster??

My company ships over 2000 packages a month via UPS and VERY RARELY are there packages held up (I mean like once every 6 months).
 
I get a deep discount with FedEx with my company. Around 40-60% range, so I have been using them. More often then not, it has been cheaper to ship 2-day air than ground. Figure that out... <shrug>

They also discount USPS, if you can believe that... not much, but still (a small flat rate package is $4.85).
 
I started going FedEx for all things board-sized now. The UPS store I was attending could no longer guarantee the website price.

I shipped a pinball playfield last year, packed it, measured it, wieghed it, used UPS.com to get a shipping quote(about $75) to charge the buyer, and when I got paid I took it to the UPS store to ship it they wanted almost $110. I took it back home, and using the weights and measurements that the store took, I got back online and printed the label and had UPS pick it up at the house. What did it cost? $75

The driver, who is a friend of mine, said that was bull, because theyre supposed to charge UPS's rates
 
i've been using FedEx ground more often recently as for less than USPS (and with more convenient hours and usually no line) i get a tracking number automatically. if it's really heavy and fits in a flat-rate box then USPS is cheaper, even with having to buy the tracking number, but i rarely ship boxes of isolation transformers so this has rarely been an issue.
 
I shipped a pinball playfield last year, packed it, measured it, wieghed it, used UPS.com to get a shipping quote(about $75) to charge the buyer, and when I got paid I took it to the UPS store to ship it they wanted almost $110. I took it back home, and using the weights and measurements that the store took, I got back online and printed the label and had UPS pick it up at the house. What did it cost? $75

The driver, who is a friend of mine, said that was bull, because theyre supposed to charge UPS's rates

I looked into pickup as well, but the per-week (or per-month) cost was too high for the small amount I ship. I'm hoping to be able to swing that someday though. :)
 
For domestic, I don't really care...but once shit crosses the border (Either way) UPS can lick my left nut with their insane brokerage fees and other little fees they like to tack on.
$5 for handling? Isn't that what I'm paying you for to begin with you jackasses?

I refuse to deal with international sellers that use UPS, including you boys down south. Nobody seems to realize that cross-border, UPS KILLS the buyer with added fees you don't see.

Yep UPS is shit for across border I agree
 
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