Why do people use FedEx or UPS vs USPS?

[SAWYER]

Usps dc is not reliable nor is it a tracking number

 

[yhelothar]

4-5lbs is about the cutoff point where UPS/Fedex is cheaper.

 

[sportage]

USPS is closer and has the night drop off for packages. I can print a label and drop the box off at 2am. As long as the box fits in the night deposit bin, that is.
I prefers shippers to me NOT use ups. Have had very weird issues with ups, and they never deliver to my house until the very last of the day. Usually after dark.
The weird?
I missed delivery so called n requested package held at ups center for customer pickup.
Next day, ups says package was held, but when at ups... no package.
Ups cs has no idea where it was. Claimed it had was held but where ???

Later same day, tracking showed it was (and get this)... "left with woman at side door".
Well, first off, there is no side door. Second, no woman at the house unless it was left with a lady break-in thief?

No package on hold at service center, no package at home. Wondering if I should walk the neighborhood seeking houses with side doors AND a woman living there...
"pardon for the intrusion lady, but did you get a package from ups lately?"

Three days later after the scheduled delivery date, package suddenly sitting outside front door.
Ups tracking suddenly updated to "delivered - left at front door".

This kind of weird delivery thing has happened three times.

I prefer any order sent to me not sent using ups.
Too weird.
Drivers seeing invisible women and non existtant side doors.
Packages held but not there.
Sudden appearance three days late.
Just too weird.

 

[ViRGE]

The local copy shop doesn't ship USPS. This may sound petty, but I don't have boxes and bubble wrap lying around, so having someone else pack it is far more convenient.

 

[corwin]

I can box up anything and hand it to my mailroom person at work to ship through FedEx or UPS using our company account, as cheap or cheaper than USPS...convenience and cost line up perfectly...before I found out I could do that I used USPS too

 

[Rumpltzer]

Anything over 3lbs, and it gets sent by FedEx Ground because USPS costs too much.

Also, I just want to use the USPS online thing to print the shipping label and pay the postage. Every time I need to stand in line at Post Office makes me want to kill everyone... in the world.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I've always used USPS, mostly USPS Priority 2-3 day shipping with insurance. Most of the time it reaches in 2 days, and 100% of the time it's significantly cheaper than UPS or FedEx. I've never had any delivery issues with them either.

Nope. FedEx has been consistently far cheaper for me than USPS, especially when you tack on real tracking and insurance.

 

[Mixolydian]

USPS Priority Mail flat rate. I know exactly what it will cost to ship an item regardless of size/weight, the boxes are free, and they'll pick it up at my door for free. It's a total-win.

 

[Ns1]

Have they updated delivery confirmation???

I'll answer this question myself, yes they seem to have updated delivery confirmation to real tracking

 

[alkemyst]

We are shipping more than our stuffed animal.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Usps dc is not reliable nor is it a tracking number

It appears to have changed. I just shipped something the other day and the DC now looks completely different than what I remembered. It actually shows when/where it leaves or arrives at different locations.

 

[Ns1]

It appears to have changed. I just shipped something the other day and the DC now looks completely different than what I remembered. It actually shows when/where it leaves or arrives at different locations.

+1, couldn't believe it myself.

 

[Exterous]

UPS always costs more than FedEx in my experience when I'm shipping stuff, so I never bother with them.

Wait...seriously? In my experience FedEx is never cheaper. Although now that I think about it maybe their prices vary by region

 

[Ns1]

Wait...seriously? In my experience FedEx is never cheaper. Although now that I think about it maybe their prices vary by region

5 pound box shipping from 91601 -> 10005, 12" x 12" x 12"

USPS (6 business days):
12.70 Parcel Post, no insurance no delivery confirmation

FedEx Ground (4 business days):
13.13 insured for $100 with tracking


My FedEx rate would actually be slightly lower with business accounts, so I get double the benefit here (lower rate + net30 payment terms). Once you start shipping heavier items USPS is not nearly as attractive.

 

[blankslate]

The more valuable the item and the more important the timeliness of it getting where it is going the less you want to use USPS. There is a reason they are going bankrupt. The place is staffed by lazy incompetent government employees. Go to any Post Office and watch them. If they don't piss you off you are just like them....and that is not a compliment.

The reason they are going bankrupt is the law passed in 2006 that requires the USPS to pay $5.5 billion dollars a year to pre-fund retirement benefits.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/

Operationally speaking, the USPS nets profits every year.

The financial problem it faces now comes from a 2006 Congressional mandate that requires the agency to “pre-pay” into a fund that covers health care costs for future retired employees. Under the mandate, the USPS is required to make an annual $5.5 billion payment over ten years, through 2016.

These “prepayments” are largely responsible for the USPS’s financial losses over the past four years and the threat of shutdown that looms ahead – take the retirement fund out of the equation, and the postal service would have actually netted $1 billion in profits over this period.

As for lazy employees you can find those in any large organization.

 

[The-Noid]

2 lbs ships overnight for $8.50 with a UPS business enterprise account. I think each additional lb is $2.
Letters/Legal ship overnight for $6.
Both flat price regardless of US address. Saturday is an extra buck.

That is why I use UPS.

That and we have two boxes in the building and pickup is at 6:30PM.

 

[TwiceOver]

My work's FedEx account is 100% of the time cheaper than USPS priority.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

2 lbs ships overnight for $8.50 with a UPS business enterprise account. I think each additional lb is $2.
Letters/Legal ship overnight for $6.
Both flat price regardless of US address. Saturday is an extra buck.

That is why I use UPS.

That and we have two boxes in the building and pickup is at 6:30PM.

So is this something that someone like me who ships 4 packages a year could get?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

My work's FedEx account is 100% of the time cheaper than USPS priority.

So your business uses FedEx but you use USPS for personal? That's the sense that I'm getting from everyone. USPS is by and large cheaper for the average person who doesn't have access to some kind of company shipping account.

 

[Ns1]

So your business uses FedEx but you use USPS for personal? That's the sense that I'm getting from everyone. USPS is by and large cheaper for the average person who doesn't have access to some kind of company shipping account.

For smaller items USPS is hard to beat but for larger items USPS is not competitive.

 

[TwiceOver]

So your business uses FedEx but you use USPS for personal? That's the sense that I'm getting from everyone. USPS is by and large cheaper for the average person who doesn't have access to some kind of company shipping account.

No. I use FedEx via my employer because it is always cheaper, comes with tracking, and has insurance of $100 automatically.

I shipped 58 pounds of luggage for my wife's stay in Texas last summer and it was ~$16 shipped.

For the average Joe, yes USPS is the cheapest option. But those who care, use FedEx, then USPS, and if there isn't some strange homeless looking guy to carry the package, THEN UPS.

 

[Ns1]

For the average Joe, yes USPS is the cheapest option. But those who care, use FedEx, then USPS, and if there isn't some strange homeless looking guy to carry the package, THEN UPS.

+100

 

[SparkyJJO]

So your business uses FedEx but you use USPS for personal? That's the sense that I'm getting from everyone. USPS is by and large cheaper for the average person who doesn't have access to some kind of company shipping account.

I have a FedEx account. For a basic one there are no requirements of a minimum number of packages shipped per month or anything, but it does save me a couple bucks.

 

[Schfifty Five]

So your business uses FedEx but you use USPS for personal? That's the sense that I'm getting from everyone. USPS is by and large cheaper for the average person who doesn't have access to some kind of company shipping account.

If i needed to ship something large/heavy, USPS would rape me in charges.

FedEx ground would be significantly cheaper.

If I needed to ship a small, less than 1 lb item, USPS priority can't be beat.

Why is this so hard for you to understand? Why are you purposely trying to to prove USPS is better. It's different for everyone and every shipping need. You're at the point where you're just trolling and arguing for the sake of arguing. Grow up dude.

 

[rayfieldclement]

You MIGHT not be able to ship guns and knives etc with USPS.