OK, this is in jest - partially.
Over the weekend I purchased a new cell phone online. The distribution center is located about 20 miles from my house with a large hub nearby. My package was picked up by FedEx on Monday at about 1:30 pm and is scheduled to be delivered some time on Thursday. That's right, 3 days to go 20 miles. I checked tracking and it was picked up, left FedEx origin facility, arrived at FedEx location, was in transit, departed FedEx location, and now its at local FedEx facility. LOL, a bicyle would have easily gotten it here by now. Even UPS ground is usually next day on distances of less than 150 miles.
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Avoid FedEx
- Thread starter Touring5
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I fail to see the problem. It was shipped via the ground service and goes through the normal channels, such as their sorting hubs. Did you expect FedEx to hand-deliver it directly from the company to your door?
Originally Posted By: dparm
I fail to see the problem. It was shipped via the ground service and goes through the normal channels, such as their sorting hubs. Did you expect FedEx to hand-deliver it directly from the company to your door?
Same thing going on with the USPS. If I was to send a letter to my next door neighbor, it would get shipped from my small town mail box to the big city sorting facility that is 30 miles away.. then back to my small town post office then to my neighbor. Seems silly to us, but it is the only economical way for them to do it.
The only real beef I have with FedEx is their lack of updating the tracking info. Usually I get the package either on time or a day or 2 later which isn't a huge deal.. I just prefer the updates.
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MolaKule
Staff member
Originally Posted By: Touring5
OK, this is in jest - partially.
Over the weekend I purchased a new cell phone online. The distribution center is located about 20 miles from my house with a large hub nearby. My package was picked up by FedEx on Monday at about 1:30 pm and is scheduled to be delivered some time on Thursday. That's right, 3 days to go 20 miles. I checked tracking and it was picked up, left FedEx origin facility, arrived at FedEx location, was in transit, departed FedEx location, and now its at local FedEx facility. LOL, a bicyle would have easily gotten it here by now. Even UPS ground is usually next day on distances of less than 150 miles.
Progress.
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Originally Posted By: dparm
I fail to see the problem. It was shipped via the ground service and goes through the normal channels, such as their sorting hubs. Did you expect FedEx to hand-deliver it directly from the company to your door?
Good grief. BITOG hates UPS, FEDEX, and the USPS.
First off, this post was partly in jest to the other "Avoid..." threads. (seems there's a limited sense of humor here at times).
Routinely I send or receive parcels that are relatively local. Within the city I've never seen either the post office or UPS deliver next day using standard shipping. As mentioned, I've found that UPS will typically be a next day delivery using ground (brown) if within 150 miles. Usually the slowest deliveries are the ones that use a combination of both UPS or Fedex with the USPS. I'm not sweating it, just thought it funny to see the slow progress considering the normal speed of processing.
I had buddies that worked at a UPS sorting facility in H.S.. "Broken" containers yielded some interesting profits - despite some pretty tight inspection/security.
Hello, I say this NOT AT ALL in jest.
As has been said, the routing and hub distribution web of these companies is up and running and works well in my experience.
ANECDOTE: I returned a part to a seller which provided a printable label including shipping.
It was FedEx Ground.
I saw a FedEx Ground truck making a delivery and asked the driver if I could hand the box to him.
He looked at the label and said, "This is perfect. It's FedEx Ground."
I asked why and he said he was due to hook up with another truck in some parking lot and do some package sorting.
That was after 4:00 PM on a weekday. It was delivered 10:15 the next morning.
The idiosyncrasies of any system can be exaggerated.
You should never say something like "Avoid FedEx".
The self help UPS desk at my local Staples is EXTREMELY GOOD. Great rates!
I still love the USPS too. Kira
I am too busy avoiding the LEOs and my MIL to worry about avoiding FedEx.
All depends on how they set up their sorting and routing. So long as you didn't pay for a guaranteed delivery date, they aren't doing anything wrong.
The routing can be interesting though. Had a package that was sent from eastern Iowa. On UPS ground, it then took a tour of eastern Iowa before ending up at the main hub in Des Moines. Covered nearly 350 miles on its route, all in eastern Iowa, before heading north (another 250+ miles). Direct from the shipping location was less than 325 miles to my door. Looks odd, but its the nature of their system...
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Same thing going on with the USPS. If I was to send a letter to my next door neighbor, it would get shipped from my small town mail box to the big city sorting facility that is 30 miles away.. then back to my small town post office then to my neighbor. Seems silly to us, but it is the only economical way for them to do it.
The only real beef I have with FedEx is their lack of updating the tracking info. Usually I get the package either on time or a day or 2 later which isn't a huge deal.. I just prefer the updates.
I just had a situation where I paid for FedEx 2 day, they had it out for delivery on day 2 and then at 12:19pm had a note that essentially said no one was available to accept the delivery so it went back to hub.
[censored]
1. Someone was home at 12:19pm.
2. There was no door tag left.
3. When it was delivered on day 3 no signature was required.
Quite annoyed that I paid for something I didn't get.
Seems odd to me unless there was an exception. The company I work for does a fair amount of business with UPS and some with FedEx and they both seem comparable. Centralized sorting is the way they're able to handle a large volume of packages in an efficient manner. No way can a driver be expected to pay attention to what's going where. UPS has a function on their web site displaying a map of the country with Guaranteed Ground delivery and I would suspect FedEx has something similar.
Other than the extreme SW corner of Colorado, the entire state is next day for Ground along with a good chunk of Wyoming. Packages from the West coast, Texas, Ohio, and most of Pennsylvania arrive within three days.
Usually, anything that UPS can pick up and deliver in a 200 mile radius (from me) will likely be a "tomorrow" delivery.
I can order things from all of Illinois and Indiana, and also from Dayton, Louisville, Lexington, Madison, Milwaukee, Quad Cities, St. Louis... and get it the next afternoon.
HOWEVER, if the some roads *might* have ice on them, or some snow on them, all bets are off. They'll blame the weather in a heartbeat, and it'll arrive whenever they feel like delivering it.
I have switched all of my shipping to USPS click & ship on line. I can pack up stuff at any hour and get it picked up or drop off at our PO at all hours. Cost savings are about 60% and you get tracking too.
If it has to be there overnight (rare) I'll use Fedex..otherwise USPS gets all my business.
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Originally Posted By: sxg6
There's no way standard fedex ground should have taken 3 days to go 20 miles. Was this a fedex home delivery or fedex smartpost package by any chance?
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That's not a FedEx issue, it's they chose the wrong tool for the job issue.
You do realize how FedEx shipping works. They collect the packages in some regional center. Since it was FedEx ground, your package didn't fly.
I get 1 to 2 FedEx packages each weekday, via the Express service and ship a similar volume of returns via ground.
I get maybe one or two mis-handled packages each year. The problem is more often the warehouse shipping my parts. My first miship this year occurred on Friday. But I got a call yesterday that FedEx found the box and I should have it today.
Originally Posted By: Touring5
OK, this is in jest - partially.
Over the weekend I purchased a new cell phone online. The distribution center is located about 20 miles from my house with a large hub nearby. My package was picked up by FedEx on Monday at about 1:30 pm and is scheduled to be delivered some time on Thursday. That's right, 3 days to go 20 miles. I checked tracking and it was picked up, left FedEx origin facility, arrived at FedEx location, was in transit, departed FedEx location, and now its at local FedEx facility. LOL, a bicyle would have easily gotten it here by now. Even UPS ground is usually next day on distances of less than 150 miles.
Progress.
Now if I could get our local parts courier to read the instructions, my life would be great.
Maybe I should start an "Avoid local couriers" thread since my last run-in with the courier service was instead of calling the recipient, they simply found the first human being in the a local Federal Bldg who would take the part.
Customer was not happy, down computer an all, having to go track down the part.
Yep, if you'd like something delivered directly from point A to point B, you can call a courier company like the one I work for. It will cost you a LOT more than FedEx.
Originally Posted By: KD0AXS
Originally Posted By: dparm
I fail to see the problem. It was shipped via the ground service and goes through the normal channels, such as their sorting hubs. Did you expect FedEx to hand-deliver it directly from the company to your door?
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