United States Post Office VS UPS

[royvaldez]

Today, I spent my day packing Studebaker parts for shipping. One of the boxes were a pair of light buckets for a 1950 to 1951 Studebaker. I went to the post office and ask them to give me a price on shipping priority with insurance. She came back with$40.00. I looked at here and said what!. I told her I am going to check somewhere else. UPS looked at the same box and charged me $19 with insurance. Story short, what is going on with United Post Office. Was she testing me? Hmm

[PackardV8]

USPS has a website on which you can get exact postage costs for any size and weight package. Try using it. Sometimes, if the parts will fit in one of the various Flat Rate Boxes, USPS is less expensive. I've found if using your own packaging and if it's a larger box, UPS or FedEx will be less expensive.

I'm surprised someone who sells and ships parts doesn't have accounts with USPS, UPS and FedEx. To have an account costs nothing and makes it quick and easy to get costs for any package.

jack vines

[studefan]

I've noticed the US Postal Service prices have noticeably increased in the last couple or years. Still, I would them every time over UPS. I would say that about 80% of the items received (maybe 30 transactions over the years) from UPS have been damaged in transit.

One of the most memorable was a NOS stainless center horizontal trunk piece for the 1964 Daytona that I carefully stored for 40 years (you know, the one that always gets dented). It was perfect but not shiny enough for my liking so I sent it out to have polished to show quality. It arrived back home after polishing literally in the shape of a pretzel. I stared at that box speechless and in disbelief for many minutes. I protected that baby for 40 years and, in the hands of UPS for a short period of time, it was ruined. No UPS here anymore unless they are the only choice left.

[Hallabutt]

Roy,

I think you are mixing apples and oranges. The question you asked about was for top of the line service. The clerk should have given comparisons of all the available rates and their delivery schedules. The answer you received from UPS for the same packaging was not for the same level of service.

We just went through some of this in another thread in the Stove Huggers section. Suffice it to say that the USPS is really up against some tough odds. I encourage you to read of some that discussion. The PO does not set their own rates, which are set by the "Postal Regulatory Commission." Too much to go into but the philosophy since 1970 has been to set rates a bit above that of private carriers, so as not to allow for the USPS to have a competitive advantage. The USPS has had to come up with innovative services, for which there is no competing equivalent from the private carriers. Think Priority and Flat Rate Priority.
About The PRC - Postal Regulatory Commission

www.prc.gov › about
The Commission is an independent agency that has exercised regulatory oversight ... It provides the analytic support for Commission review of rate changes, ...

[Chris Pile]

I have 2 online stores (not Studebaker stuff), and it doesn't matter whether I use the Post Office, UPS, or FedEx - they've all failed me at times. Broken items, lost items, useless tracking info, outright lies - doesn't matter. In my eyes, they are all crooks - but short of in person delivery, I don't have a choice.

Here's the most recent example - I live in Wichita, and recently needed to ship a guitar to a kid in a Denver hospital. I double box everything before committing it to the tender mercies of any shipping company, and the guitar is bubble wrapped into oblivion on the inside. The Post Office charged me $122, it took 10 days, and arrived looking like this... Yes, the item was damaged, but it was playable. My original rectangular box was gone - it arrived in the smaller inner box. I did not write fragile on it, it wasn't a 2 piece box, and it didn't have brown wrapping paper inside when I packed it. This was unpacked and repacked by someone unknown.

I should have delivered the guitar in person - it would have arrived undamaged in one piece. I could have driven it out there and back in 2 days for less than $122 and had money left over for pizza.

[unclemiltie]

We try to insure everything. For us it seems this improves the quality of handling. We check prices occasionally to find cheapest as prices tend to fluctuate over time

[Commander Eddie]

I use the UPS WorldShip at work. I just put in the ship to address, how I want to ship it (Ground, 2nd Day, etc.), any additional services like insurance, the package dimensions and/or weight, and it calculates the cost right on my screen. I just print out a shipping label and I'm done. It even allows me to generate labels for several packages for the same address at one time. Each with it's own price and specifics. It alerts UPS that you have a pick up and they bill us monthly.
If you have a business this is a great way to go. Unfortunately, I don't believe USPS has a program like this yet.

[showbizkid]

Gentlemen, let’s remember to be cordial to one another. No more divisions, please, and no insults. Thanks.

[Chris Pile]

Hey - I have PROOF. Look at the box. There is NO EXCUSE for that kind of horrible service.

[showbizkid]

I understand your distress, but blanket statements are unfair. You can’t tar an entire workforce for the poor performance of a few.

[candbstudebakers]

Clark, I just read this thread and do not understand where you are coming from on your statement, nothing was said that is not the truth, I have used every body over the years for shipping and the things that have happened to me was well covered by statement of others so I didn't respond.

[Hallabutt]

Sorry to say that no shipper is perfect but.... Have things change in the seven years since I retired from the USPS, so I don't really know what it's like today, but a comment on the way it was then. Part of my job was to deal with large volume mailers. My mandate did not include canvasing the mailers for their satisfaction of our service vs the competition, nor were they obligated to respond if surveyed. Some of my colleagues would, no doubt, feel the negative feedback would make itself heard, so why rock the boat. I always thought that attitude left a big information gap on the positive side of things. I tried my best to build a rapport with the mailers. It really wasn't that hard it just required being real and honest, and show that a partnership was better then an adversarial relationship. I wanted to know what we were doing right and how we could improve our service. I think that the mailers knew that when I asked it was because I really wanted to know, and that answering honestly could be an advantage to both of us. I can honestly say that in the decades that I did the job our service almost always came out on top.

Chris I feel your pain. No amount of insurance is adequate to compensate for an irreplaceable, artifact lost. Customer satisfaction is a fragile commodity, built on trust. Once lost trust is not easily refundable.

Bill

[62champ]

In 2000, I ordered an M1 Garand from a Garand expert on the east coast. A week after it was supposed to arrive at my local FFL, I called him and he said he would look into it. UPS tracked it to somewhere like Indianapolis or Nashville and then it disappeared from their tracking system.

He called me back and told me what had happened and he would have another one in the mail the next day. He did not sound too surprised so I asked him if this happened much. He chuckled and said he insures them for about 150% of their retail value and out of the 100 or so guns he ships each year, he said on average, UPS "losses" 5 to 10 each year. He said the really rare stuff he recommends a private shipper to someone who did not want to take a chance.