Projects Why not use the US Post Office ?

If you read UPS's (United Parcel Service, not USPS) packing instructions,
it says to pack all items in a manner to be able to withstand 4 foot drop on to
a concrete floor.

On a side note, I have the coolest mailman ever.
Just a super nice guy. When I moved in he came
to the door and said "Welcome to the neighborhood".
That doesn't happen much in Miami.

 

I'll be honest--I think the US Postal service is one of the best deals going. What other service that vast can you get for 42 cents?

My postal carrier waves to me when they see me coming in the Suburban, anywhere in town. The girls at the counter are frequently a little grouchy, but shit, they put up with whining people bitching about them day in and day out, just like is going on here.

I listened to someone gripe about the price of a stamp going up a cent, and made the comment that I thought it was still a helluva deal for mailing a letter across the country, and I think I made the girl's whole week.

Give a little love to the postal service. Long hours, hard, heavy work, thankless job, horrible weather, 6 days a week...

-Brad

 

Heres a real pro!
http://www.wimp.com/speeddelivery/

 

the post office isn't cheaper on bigger packages. they have tons of stupid rules about writing on boxes. they are hard to get a refund from and always are wanting to sell it to you. i never get it any more, it's too hard to collect. fedex and ups have not been a problem. i'm sure they try for the volume they do, but they get thumbs down from me. sure a letter is cheaper to send with them, but not the bigger stuff. i won't be cryin if they go belly up.

 

I've got long horror stories about UPS, to the point where I'd just as soon trample the shit, wet it with the hose, and then lose it myself and save the shipping. Fed Ex has never caused me any problems and the USPS is the cheaper and pretty much as reliable, but you got to package stuff right. I sent a Terraplane grille a while back. I took about half a day and a bunch of new wood 2x2s to make a frame to screw it to, then wrapped the whole deal in industrial saran wrap, like they use to bind stuff to pallets. Oddly, the only place I've been able to find that heavy saran wrap stuff is at UPS stores. Fed Ex got it there no problem. I also shipped a 46 Ford back seat to Florida just wrapped in that saran wrap stuff, sealed every little mouse turd in there pretty as you please. Again, Fed Ex got them there cheap and safe. Here's that Terraplane grille, what a shipping headache.

 

Not to cool ..............



Hey Roger,

You sure you want to be like a FNG and keep all that info on the internet?

Maybe like someone already said ,edit your post .....

OR Don't,its up to ya!

 

Not for nothin', but there is a car out there that trim will fit on perfectly!

Bob

 

I've probably had 500 plus items in the US mail coming and going over the last 10 years. I've shipped heavy machine shop tools to the other coast with no damage. I've received car grilles in excellent shape. It all boils down to the integrity of the person shipping the item. It also comes down to "shit happens" with the handling along the way.

I bought one thing and was pondering why the shipping was so cheap, but decided, WTF I've blown it and ate some shipping now and then. The item was crushable, but arrived pristine and was wrapped in nothing more that brown paper around the thin cardboard box.

Sometimes the shipping gods smile on you, sometimes they don't.

 

I love USPS I ship with them every time. I don't think any major corporation that deals with the vast majority of people in the U.S. and worldwide as customers can please everyone 100%. Do your part and package correctly and they will do their part and get it there. If it's not up to you to package it, then ask for insurance when you buy it. It works. Oh and to all the people on here who wish for anyone or any business to go belly up in today's economy are PRICKS in my book.

 

I've spent a lot of time on postal service docks. I haul mail under contract with USPS. My advice would be....PACK ITEMS TO WITHSTAND A NUCLEAR ATTACK !!!!

 

Best delivery I ever got was when a mandolin I bought off e-bay was just thrown in the middle of the road. No wind that day, just rain. My aunt almost ran over it, and picked it up.

Bought a grill for my Nissan truck, came UPS. Seller had just stuck it in a cardboard box, wrapped it in plastic, and shipped it. The corner of the box was caved in and the UPS man gave me instructions on how to report it as damaged. I opened the box anyway (I'd waited a month, it could be no worse than my old grill anyway) to find that some of the chrome had wrinkled in a pretty much hidden corner.

 

im still waiting for my newest issue of JUGGS to show up----wheres it at?

 

What he said. The best part about USPS is they offer something none of the other carriers can touch. If you get a box of rocks or a rubber check, there's this little thing called "mail fraud." It may take Uncle Sam a while to run it to ground but it's a felony.

There is a trick to sending stuff USPS. If it's fragile, spend the extra $ and send it Priority/First Class. Parcel Post/Third Class gets handled alot and more handling means more chance of damage.

 

I agree with packaging stuff correctly.

I also agree that USPS is cheaper and, most of the time, is just as good as (although usually slower than) UPS/Fedex.

Where things differ is if the package gets lost.

In my experience, if USPS loses it - its gone. Belly of the beast. They will never find it and some ebayer will end up buying your stuff at pennies on the dollar from some government warehouse and selling your own stuff back to you.

UPS and Fedex have lost my packages, but they always find them eventually (within a week, tops) and deliver them.

DHL was somewhere in between. They'd lose packages for months at a time, but they would eventually get them to the destination.


My advice - if you're shipping something that is not replaceable, UPS or Fedex are your best bets. Anything else - USPS is cheaper.

 

Gotta pay the extra coin for the irreplaceable stuff and go USPS registered. Man, they put a stamp on every sealed opening of the box, and the stuff goes armored car with a signature every time a postal clerk handles it.

Sending stuff through the mail is like buying pizza. You can get one of them pre-made frozen jobs that pretty much has everything you want on it except it comes with the onions you hate, or you can get exactly what you want made to order from the corner pizza shop. USPS has what you want, but you've got to know what to order.

 

How dumb USPS shipping is:

Items shipped in my own city, from one zip to another -

First Class, Priority gets sorted in town and arrives within a couple days.
Media, Parcel gets sent to the bulk mail center for the northeast, near Pittsburgh and at least a half day's drive from here, then sent back here for delivery, 7 days minimum. The only bright side is I've only had one package in the last couple years coming to me not get scanned there.

To me it makes no sense for it to cost less for something to be sent back and forth several hundred miles, but that's government efficiency for you.

I used to mail stuff to a friend who lived about 30 miles away. Sometimes it would go direct, sometimes by way of the next town over, so it would take anywhere from three to 10 days. I started sending the letters first class in a small box, they'd get there just about overnight. That never made sense either.

Like everything else you gotta play the game.

 

Kustombuilder what size is your mail box? if the slot is too small what does the carrier do? if the box is too short ? you can't leave mail sticking out of the box, its a sure sign that someone will steal something. I'm not trying to hammer you, it's just that if the receptacle is too small...... reminds me that WWII expression "a BLIVIT... Ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag." get a bigger box, talk to the carrier, solve the problem instead of bitching about it.

 

We ship 98% of our parts via Priority Mail because up to 10lbs it is cheaper and faster than UPS or FED-X ground. In 5 years of sending parts, I've had two shipments lost forever and one damaged. Most of the time, damage is because the sender/shipper didn't package it correctly or carefully. We use USPS to keep the cost to the customer as reasonable as possible and because most of our shipments go to a residence. UPS and FED-X both charge a premium to deliver to a residence.

Bottom line, if your sending something out, take the time to package it the way YOU would want it packaged if it was coming to you!

www.shiny-hiney.com

 

My mailman kept ridin' my ass about my small mailbox....so I bought a big black one....but left a surprise inside:

 

Forgot to mention, if you don't know, if you ship stuff Priority Mail, the PO will give you the boxes. You can also get flat rates on some of the sizes. Try THAT with UPS or FED-X. If it's small stuff, go USPS.

www.shiny-hiney.com

 

Nice work, but an awful lot of trouble to make a stupid point. Maybe you needed a bigger mailbox.

 

If you knew my mailman, you'd understand. He's my neighbor, and we're always messing with each other, he's a cool guy. I did this on April Fool's day, and left it for about 2 weeks, my other neighbors all had to come by to check it out, it was pretty funny.

 

I've had the same experience with UPS. Shipped a padded dash cover that was well packed. I took out the insurance and insured it for double what I sold it for. Just as well as UPS managed to bend the package 90 degrees. Refunded the buyer and still ended up with my price.

 

maybe i am different than everyone else but i am sick of paying for crap i don't need. i don't want insurance so you don't break it, deliv con to see if you did it when you said you would, priority so you will do it fast. pay you extra to do your job, that sounds like a gov thing. i have shipped and received 1000's of packages and all this stuff does is cost you money. they have too many stupid rules to even list like not allowing a box to say oil or wine. it might be dangerous, i bet everyone who ships a bomb writes bomb on box, and thanks for feeding me the bs of it's protecting me from another 9-11. i don't just wish bad on them, i just want them to do their job or go belly up so someone else can do it. if that makes me a prick- so be it.

 

All in the packaging. I use the USPS for everything and have never had a problem.

 

As long as it weighs under 70# and the size is within the limit I ship by mail. I've shipped Buick drums this way even 36 rear bones. I've only had a problem twice and insurance covered it both times. Once was lost the other time damage. I NEVER ship without insuring

 

I always use the post office, for both buying and selling. I aways get my stuff, have never lost a parcel and the price is reasonable.

Courier services on the other hand are simply a joke. Over priced and can't find their asshole with both hands.

If you are pissed about your bent trim, blame the shipper not the delivey service.

 

Looks like poor packaging to me. Can't ship something fragile like that in a cardboard box. Should have been shipped in PVC pipe or at least a heavy cardboard shipping tube.

 

UPSer here. While I make more than $6.50/hour I'm expected to "flow" 1200 pieces/hour. My numbers get as high as 1600/hour when I'm in the zone. We ship up to 150 lbs. and it's nothing personal but we're not really encouraged to make love to your individual item. It's just one of many I'll handle on any given day and the contents contained inside are of less concern than which belt the label dictates I put it on. I'd say package handling is similar across the board. Not gonna matter who your preferred shipper is. Having said that, I'm not interested in destoying your item. The shipper needs to insure that things are well packed and can survive a cross country ground shipping through several hubs on multiple belts and in multiple trucks with multiple disgruntled package handlers just trying to make their numbers.