The case for PAID shipping

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ZrowsN1s
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The case for PAID shipping

#1

Post by ZrowsN1s »

Well it happened again. A package marked "delivered at mail box" that is no where to be seen. In some ways I'm sympathetic, it's the end of the mail carriers shift, they want to go home... but the package will be late if they do... so they mark it delivered. No big deal right?

It's friday, I'm at work and as of 1pm today the package was still not delivered (it was marked delivered at 5:07pm yesterday). I spent an hour on hold with USPS this morning to report the problem because they're email system kept giving me "error try again later" when I tried to report it that way.... Anyways after an hour of torture listening to the same 2 minute loop of easy listening music I got through to someone. They took all the info and said someone would get back to me... next Wednesday. The knife might be waiting for me when I get home tonight. Or it might actually be lost (I seriously doubt it was stolen, I was home when it was allegedly "delivered"). But I have no way of knowing...

Problem is this.... this is a Sprint Run of a knife I've been waiting on for a while (the wharndelica in hap40). If it doesn't show up by Wednesday and it is truly lost, it may be sold out and I may miss out on the knife. Point in fact BHQ is already sold out (I got their in stock email yesterday). I called BladeOps and asked them if they had one they could hold for me until this issue was resolved... they are sold out as well. I told them I really didn't want to miss out on this knife and told them I intended to buy one from another company and I asked them if they would take their knife back if it eventually shows up. They said they would (This has earned them some future repeat business from me). And I managed to find one in stock at KnivesPlus. So the good news is one way or another, I will have this knife!

But this brings me to the point. The USPS has burned me before. And I swore last time it happened that I wouldn't use them anymore... but prices and MAP went up, and every dollar started to count.... so when companies offered free shipping through the USPS, I took the offer. And for the most part it has been OK. But about every 5th knife it seems, I have some kind of issue. If this was just any knife, I'd just wait until it was sorted out, no big deal. But it always seems to happen on the sprints, knives that aren't so easily replaced, and knives you can't wait a week and buy another one. This has been a PITA that has stressed me out and taken up a few hours of my time dealing with. In hind sight I should have paid for shipping with UPS or FEDex. It's $10. But I would have gladly paid $10 to not deal with this, not to mention I would have had my knife in hand days ago. And there is the issue of now either having to return a knife or file a claim with USPS if it is indeed lost.

I mean it this time, from now on I'm paying for shipping on Sprint runs and Exclusives (probably even regular production runs). It's not worth the hassle and headache when things go wrong. And getting help from the USPS is a slow and aggravating process.
-Matt a.k.a. Lo_Que, loadedquestions135 I ❤ The P'KAL :bug-red

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The Meat man
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#2

Post by The Meat man »

Even though I've never had that kind of problem before, I've decided to forgo the "free shipping" option from now on, when buying knives. I mean, I'm already spending $150 to $200, what's another 5 or $10? To me it's worth paying shipping just to get the added speed and convenience.

It's sort of disgusting to order a knife and have it arrive a week later when the retailer is only a 3 hour drive away. I'd much rather pay the extra 6 dollars to have it delivered sooner.
- Connor

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ZrowsN1s
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#3

Post by ZrowsN1s »

The Meat man wrote:
Fri Jun 15, 2018 6:23 pm
.... I'm already spending $150 to $200, what's another 5 or $10?....
Exactly. I just got cheap. Thought I'd save a few bucks. Learned my lesson the hard way again. The package is still MIA as of this evening. Glad I was able to find and order a replacement knife (and paid for UPS this time). I'm not even sure what's going to happen if the other one never shows up, I assume I will have to file some sort of claim with USPS, not sure how that works. Hope I'm not out $94 because they claim it was delivered.
-Matt a.k.a. Lo_Que, loadedquestions135 I ❤ The P'KAL :bug-red

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The Deacon
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#4

Post by The Deacon »

In the seven years I've been at my present location I've probably placed at least a thousand online orders and have always opted for the least expensive shipping method offered by the vendor. The majority have been delivered by USPS and their track record has been exemplary; zero lost, one damaged, three or four delayed well past their expected delivery date, and the rest basically delivered on time or very close to it. UPS delivered most of the rest, only losing one, damaging three, and having one seriously delayed. Fedex and DHL both did so poorly I wish no seller would ever use either.

Point is, no carrier is perfect, and results may vary by location, but USPS does a **** good job here.
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Evil D
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#5

Post by Evil D »

I have never had a major issue with USPS, only having things delivered the day after they were scheduled but I've never had a BS delivered notice. I typically pay for the ~$10 or so priority/2-3 day shipping option since it isn't ridiculously expensive and it cuts the shipping time more than in half in most cases. I'm certainly not made of money either but realistically people will spend $10 on Starbucks and not think twice, I just budget and prioritize my money. If I have to scrape together the money to get something I can just scrape together another $10 for shipping, but I've usually done it more for faster shipping than more reliable shipping.
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#6

Post by MacLaren »

USPS has been golden to me so far.
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#7

Post by The Meat man »

Evil D wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 7:24 am
I have never had a major issue with USPS, only having things delivered the day after they were scheduled but I've never had a BS delivered notice. I typically pay for the ~$10 or so priority/2-3 day shipping option since it isn't ridiculously expensive and it cuts the shipping time more than in half in most cases. I'm certainly not made of money either but realistically people will spend $10 on Starbucks and not think twice, I just budget and prioritize my money. If I have to scrape together the money to get something I can just scrape together another $10 for shipping, but I've usually done it more for faster shipping than more reliable shipping.

My thoughts exactly.
- Connor

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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#8

Post by MacLaren »

Personally, when I ship, I ship USPS and almost always opt for signature confirmation.
Its s few more dollars, but well worth it imo.
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#9

Post by jmh58 »

Back in the early 90s I was building a Hot Rod.. Got boxes everyday.. My UPS guy would put my packages at my garage door under cover and out of sight.. Today our UPS guy is an aspiring QB.. He throws the package at your house and hopes they land on your property.. Yes.. I have seen him do this.. Yes.. Me and many others have complained.. Yes.. He still has his job today.. :eek: John
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#10

Post by ugaarguy »

jmh58 wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:15 am
Back in the early 90s I was building a Hot Rod.. Got boxes everyday.. My UPS guy would put my packages at my garage door under cover and out of sight.. Today our UPS guy is an aspiring QB.. He throws the package at your house and hopes they land on your property.. Yes.. I have seen him do this.. Yes.. Me and many others have complained.. Yes.. He still has his job today.. :eek: John
Get video and upload it to social media. It seems that embarrassing these companies publicly is the only way to get them to address an issue.
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#11

Post by SpyderEdgeForever »

jmh58 wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:15 am
Back in the early 90s I was building a Hot Rod.. Got boxes everyday.. My UPS guy would put my packages at my garage door under cover and out of sight.. Today our UPS guy is an aspiring QB.. He throws the package at your house and hopes they land on your property.. Yes.. I have seen him do this.. Yes.. Me and many others have complained.. Yes.. He still has his job today.. :eek: John

Wow my friend that is disgusting that he does that with packages! It shows that he has no respect for others or their property.
If I may ask, when you complained, what types of responses did you receive from his superiors or those you complained to?

Here is a related question for everyone on this thread: If for some reason you order a knife and it arrives to you damaged, and the damage clearly happened as a result of negligence or abuse on the part of the shippers, whether it be USPS or UPS or another, what is the best response?
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#12

Post by ZrowsN1s »

The Deacon wrote:
Sat Jun 16, 2018 4:44 am
.....
Point is, no carrier is perfect, and results may vary by location, but USPS does a **** good job here.
An excellent point. Location matters. If I lived elsewhere I may have the opposite experience, ups and fedex could be terrible there and usps could be great.
-Matt a.k.a. Lo_Que, loadedquestions135 I ❤ The P'KAL :bug-red

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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#13

Post by ZrowsN1s »

The galling thing about this and the previous incident, is the listing the item as "delivered" when it was not. From my ability to get a refund to the type of claim I may have to file. Marking it delivered makes it my problem instead of theirs. If I hadn't fought my way through the dead ends of their 'customer service'.... filling out three online forms that only generated error messages and spending an hour of my day listening to muzak designed to break your spirit.... to report the incident, they wouldn't even know it was missing.
-Matt a.k.a. Lo_Que, loadedquestions135 I ❤ The P'KAL :bug-red

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"Ghost hunters scope the edge." -sal
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#14

Post by kbuzbee »

Our USPS does that frequently. In every case, the package was delivered the next day. Whether they delivered it or it had been misdelivered to a neighbor who put it in our box I couldn’t tell you, but once I watched the USPS truck go by, saw the online status go to delivered. Nothing in our box but the truck was still on our street so I walked down and asked him about it. He was like “oh, sorry, yeah, here it is”

But generally I agree, around here USPS is very reliable... eventually.

Ken
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#15

Post by Evil D »

kbuzbee wrote:
Sun Jun 17, 2018 7:16 am
Our USPS does that frequently. In every case, the package was delivered the next day. Whether they delivered it or it had been misdelivered to a neighbor who put it in our box I couldn’t tell you, but once I watched the USPS truck go by, saw the online status go to delivered. Nothing in our box but the truck was still on our street so I walked down and asked him about it. He was like “oh, sorry, yeah, here it is”

But generally I agree, around here USPS is very reliable... eventually.

Ken


Oh I'd absolutely lose it over that. That's deliberate failure to do your job and that's not ok. That guy needs fired.
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#16

Post by kbuzbee »

Evil D wrote:
Sun Jun 17, 2018 9:46 am

Oh I'd absolutely lose it over that. That's deliberate failure to do your job and that's not ok. That guy needs fired.
Haha, yeah, i guess I’m just a little more relaxed about the whole thing. It all worked out, and generally does.

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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#17

Post by Evil D »

kbuzbee wrote:
Sun Jun 17, 2018 12:11 pm
Evil D wrote:
Sun Jun 17, 2018 9:46 am

Oh I'd absolutely lose it over that. That's deliberate failure to do your job and that's not ok. That guy needs fired.
Haha, yeah, i guess I’m just a little more relaxed about the whole thing. It all worked out, and generally does.

Ken


With one of us it might be a late knife but with others it could be much more important. I'm far more forgiving of honest mistakes than I am of deliberate halfassing.
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#18

Post by kbuzbee »

Evil D wrote:
Sun Jun 17, 2018 1:09 pm
With one of us it might be a late knife but with others it could be much more important. I'm far more forgiving of honest mistakes than I am of deliberate halfassing.
In my case it was my wife’s meds, which is why I chased the guy down. Anything less I’d have let it roll. But I hear you, brother.

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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#19

Post by bearfacedkiller »

I have never had issues with the USPS or UPS except that I live too far in the woods. FedEx is another story. I avoid them.

Thankfully I live in a town of 400 people and I am on a first name basis with my UPS man and the folks at my post office. Unfortunately the USPS won’t deliver packages to my house so I have to go pick all of them up at the post office. The plus side is that they are always on time and never lost or stolen and the post office is only about 5 minutes away.

UPS is a whole other situation. They will deliver to my house in the summer although I am sure they hate my private road/driveway. It’s pretty long, steep, narrow and rough. In the winter they won’t deliver to me at all and if something comes to me through UPS in the winter I must drive 30 miles to a UPS center to pick it up. That really cuts down on my Amazon shopping in the winter.
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Re: The case for PAID shipping

#20

Post by Evil D »

bearfacedkiller wrote:
Mon Jun 18, 2018 8:24 am
I have never had issues with the USPS or UPS except that I live too far in the woods. FedEx is another story. I avoid them.

Thankfully I live in a town of 400 people and I am on a first name basis with my UPS man and the folks at my post office. Unfortunately the USPS won’t deliver packages to my house so I have to go pick all of them up at the post office. The plus side is that they are always on time and never lost or stolen and the post office is only about 5 minutes away.

UPS is a whole other situation. They will deliver to my house in the summer although I am sure they hate my private road/driveway. It’s pretty long, steep, narrow and rough. In the winter they won’t deliver to me at all and if something comes to me through UPS in the winter I must drive 30 miles to a UPS center to pick it up. That really cuts down on my Amazon shopping in the winter.

Man I'm envious of your setup. I would love to live in a little town like that. I did when I was much younger but even that area has blown up now. It's getting harder to find decent little towns that have things like high speed internet but aren't also booming with development, and if you do they're probably places I can't afford to live lol.
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