MOTM

I wanted to add my two cents to this.

I would much prefer to ship everything by UPS or FEDEX or anybody 
other than the US Postal Service.

Why is that?

Everybody else will pick up from the factory.  USPS must be taken to 
the post office.

Everybody else believes in customer service.  The USPS does not.

The last bunch of MOTM packages that were sent out by USPS required 
20 minutes to drive to and from the post office, waiting in line 
another 20 minutes, waiting for the post office person to correct 
the transaction, because they forgot the insurance the first time, 
and having to write them a second check because the first amount 
they charged did not include the insurance they had forgotten.

The USPS will not track packages unless you pay for their premium 
service.

When you contact the USPS because a package has not arrived when it 
should have, they tell you that the package will not be considered 
lost until it is missing at least a month.

In short they act as if they have a monopoly, and as if they all 
have guaranteed jobs, no matter what kind of customer service they 
provide, or how rudely they treat their customers. 

UPS and the others will get the packages there with much better 
service, although they too are subject to the delays of customs.  
There are other couriers cheaper than UPS, but generally not at the 
size and weight of MOTM packages.  Small boxes weighing 2 to 4 
pounds are not the bread and butter of most couriers.

I personally would recommend paying the few extra dollars and 
getting UPS shipment to anyone outside the US.  Your package will 
ship faster, it will get there faster, and you can track it.

The same applies to anyone who has their shipments sent to a PO Box 
in the US.  You will probably get better service if you have it sent 
to a friend's or relative's street address via UPS. 

When we ship via UPS we enter the shipment in the computer program 
provided by UPS, the label is printed automatically, and UPS is 
notified via the internet that we have a pickup waiting.  They 
usually pickup within 4 hours.  It is fast and accurate.  My 
business ships about 50,000 packages per year all over the world.  
UPS has by far the lowest error rate of any carrier we use.

Paul Haneberg

I wouldn't mind obligatory delivery through UPS/FEDEX/etc at all, but I
would like to be able to choose between "super turbo charged ~$25 a module
express shipping" and something a bit more in between that and USPS.
Somewhat like how Mouser handles it maybe? (If that isn't a pain to set up,
html/logistics wise).

Just my 2... Euro cents ;)

Krimo

-----Original Message-----
From: paulhaneberg [mailto:phaneber@...] 
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 12:09 AM
To: motm@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [motm] Re: *** Important Foreign Shipping Issues ***



I wanted to add my two cents to this.

I would much prefer to ship everything by UPS or FEDEX or anybody 
other than the US Postal Service.

Why is that?

Everybody else will pick up from the factory.  USPS must be taken to 
the post office.

Everybody else believes in customer service.  The USPS does not.

The last bunch of MOTM packages that were sent out by USPS required 
20 minutes to drive to and from the post office, waiting in line 
another 20 minutes, waiting for the post office person to correct 
the transaction, because they forgot the insurance the first time, 
and having to write them a second check because the first amount 
they charged did not include the insurance they had forgotten.

The USPS will not track packages unless you pay for their premium 
service.

When you contact the USPS because a package has not arrived when it 
should have, they tell you that the package will not be considered 
lost until it is missing at least a month.

In short they act as if they have a monopoly, and as if they all 
have guaranteed jobs, no matter what kind of customer service they 
provide, or how rudely they treat their customers. 

UPS and the others will get the packages there with much better 
service, although they too are subject to the delays of customs.  
There are other couriers cheaper than UPS, but generally not at the 
size and weight of MOTM packages.  Small boxes weighing 2 to 4 
pounds are not the bread and butter of most couriers.

I personally would recommend paying the few extra dollars and 
getting UPS shipment to anyone outside the US.  Your package will 
ship faster, it will get there faster, and you can track it.

The same applies to anyone who has their shipments sent to a PO Box 
in the US.  You will probably get better service if you have it sent 
to a friend's or relative's street address via UPS. 

When we ship via UPS we enter the shipment in the computer program 
provided by UPS, the label is printed automatically, and UPS is 
notified via the internet that we have a pickup waiting.  They 
usually pickup within 4 hours.  It is fast and accurate.  My 
business ships about 50,000 packages per year all over the world.  
UPS has by far the lowest error rate of any carrier we use.

Paul Haneberg







 
Yahoo! Groups Links

Bad advice.  For Canadians anyways.

 

As someone on the receiving end, UPS is by *far* the wost company to ship
goos internationally to a private residence.  Enev my UPS driver thinks so.

Maybe it's easy to ship, but it's the biggest pain in the arse. 

 

Purolator & fedex are both quite a bit cheaper for large heavy packages, and
they are faster & much MUCH cheaper to get the packages across the border.

 

And No, courier packages are not subject to the same delays as USPS.   They
do need to go through customs, buy they get priority.

 

Take it from me, I've received probably hundreds of packages, and If UPS is
carrying it, it always takes longer than other couriers & is a *lot* more
expensive after it gets through the border.

Paul

 

 

 

  _____  

From: paulhaneberg [mailto:phaneber@...] 
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 3:09 PM
To: motm@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [motm] Re: *** Important Foreign Shipping Issues ***

 


I wanted to add my two cents to this.

I would much prefer to ship everything by UPS or FEDEX or anybody 
other than the US Postal Service.

Why is that?

Everybody else will pick up from the factory.  USPS must be taken to 
the post office.

Everybody else believes in customer service.  The USPS does not.

The last bunch of MOTM packages that were sent out by USPS required 
20 minutes to drive to and from the post office, waiting in line 
another 20 minutes, waiting for the post office person to correct 
the transaction, because they forgot the insurance the first time, 
and having to write them a second check because the first amount 
they charged did not include the insurance they had forgotten.

The USPS will not track packages unless you pay for their premium 
service.

When you contact the USPS because a package has not arrived when it 
should have, they tell you that the package will not be considered 
lost until it is missing at least a month.

In short they act as if they have a monopoly, and as if they all 
have guaranteed jobs, no matter what kind of customer service they 
provide, or how rudely they treat their customers. 

UPS and the others will get the packages there with much better 
service, although they too are subject to the delays of customs.  
There are other couriers cheaper than UPS, but generally not at the 
size and weight of MOTM packages.  Small boxes weighing 2 to 4 
pounds are not the bread and butter of most couriers.

I personally would recommend paying the few extra dollars and 
getting UPS shipment to anyone outside the US.  Your package will 
ship faster, it will get there faster, and you can track it.

The same applies to anyone who has their shipments sent to a PO Box 
in the US.  You will probably get better service if you have it sent 
to a friend's or relative's street address via UPS. 

When we ship via UPS we enter the shipment in the computer program 
provided by UPS, the label is printed automatically, and UPS is 
notified via the internet that we have a pickup waiting.  They 
usually pickup within 4 hours.  It is fast and accurate.  My 
business ships about 50,000 packages per year all over the world.  
UPS has by far the lowest error rate of any carrier we use.

Paul Haneberg









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At the risk of going severly OT, here's *my* two cents:

USPS does indeed pick up packages. See www.usps.com for details. All this can be 
transacted through the web, very similar to UPS. So theoretically, you should not have 
to go anywhere near a post office lobby.

Priority mail w/Delivery Confirmation is a cost effective solution, and delivery time is 
almost always 2-3 days in the contiguous states. I've placed orders with Mouser on a 
Sunday afternoon and received it on the following Tuesday. International Express 
mail, while pricey, does provide tracking, The bottleneck is Customs, yet another 
monopolistic bureaucracy, although in light of Homeland Security, they have enough 
problems to deal with.

It also should be pointed out that UPS charges a premium for residential delivery. The 
USPS goes to all US addresses (some 9 billion) 6 days a week. 2 to 4 pound packages 
*are* their bread & butter.

Full disclosure; I'm a mailman and have 10 years to retirement, help me out here ;-)

Paul, I think I speak for all MOTM customers in giving thanks for your sub-contracting 
with SynthTech to speed up the throughput. You don't need more headaches, so give 
the carrier pickup service a try, it might change your mind.

Chuck
who receives no gratuities for this blatant (but voluntary) commercial

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "paulhaneberg" <phaneber@o...> wrote:

> 
> I wanted to add my two cents to this.
> 
> I would much prefer to ship everything by UPS or FEDEX or anybody 
> other than the US Postal Service.
> 
> Why is that?
> 
> Everybody else will pick up from the factory.  USPS must be taken to 
> the post office.
> 
> Everybody else believes in customer service.  The USPS does not.
> 
> The last bunch of MOTM packages that were sent out by USPS required 
> 20 minutes to drive to and from the post office, waiting in line 
> another 20 minutes, waiting for the post office person to correct 
> the transaction, because they forgot the insurance the first time, 
> and having to write them a second check because the first amount 
> they charged did not include the insurance they had forgotten.
> 
> The USPS will not track packages unless you pay for their premium 
> service.
> 
> When you contact the USPS because a package has not arrived when it 
> should have, they tell you that the package will not be considered 
> lost until it is missing at least a month.
> 
> In short they act as if they have a monopoly, and as if they all 
> have guaranteed jobs, no matter what kind of customer service they 
> provide, or how rudely they treat their customers. 
> 
> UPS and the others will get the packages there with much better 
> service, although they too are subject to the delays of customs.  
> There are other couriers cheaper than UPS, but generally not at the 
> size and weight of MOTM packages.  Small boxes weighing 2 to 4 
> pounds are not the bread and butter of most couriers.
> 
> I personally would recommend paying the few extra dollars and 
> getting UPS shipment to anyone outside the US.  Your package will 
> ship faster, it will get there faster, and you can track it.
> 
> The same applies to anyone who has their shipments sent to a PO Box 
> in the US.  You will probably get better service if you have it sent 
> to a friend's or relative's street address via UPS. 
> 
> When we ship via UPS we enter the shipment in the computer program 
> provided by UPS, the label is printed automatically, and UPS is 
> notified via the internet that we have a pickup waiting.  They 
> usually pickup within 4 hours.  It is fast and accurate.  My 
> business ships about 50,000 packages per year all over the world.  
> UPS has by far the lowest error rate of any carrier we use.
> 
> Paul Haneberg

Okay, first off, I had no intention of demeaning anyones profession, 
I was merely trying to explain what the problems were in shipping 
outside the US.

I have checked the USPS Website.  We have been using Airmail Parcel 
Post.  Global Priority is a possible option for smaller packages.  
I'm not sure if those are tracked or not.  Global Express is a good 
option as it does include tracking and allows heavier, larger 
packages.  However, it is roughly 4 times the expense of Airmail 
Parcel Post.

UPS charges a little more still, about 4.7 times the expense of 
Airmail Parcel Post.

I am willing to ship anything by any method anyone wants.

However collecting payment for that shipping service is up to Paul 
S., as far as how he chooses to collect for it and how he chooses to 
calculate it.  Paul S., reimburses us for shipping expense.  Our 
expense for preparing a kit for shipment is a flat rate regardless 
of package destination.  If we have to go through a substantial 
amount of extra work to ship by a given method, then we will ask 
Paul for more money and he in turn will charge you more.

Paul S.  also specifies what shipping method we use, I make 
recommendations only, but as I said we ship a lot.  Paul mostly used 
USPS when he was doing the shipping.  We use UPS mostly because it 
is easier for us.  

Since I have never had USPS pickup packages, I can't comment on 
their service, but UPS stops in at our location twice a day, every 
day.

We do have a postage machine and can print the "stamps" for anything 
going anywhere.  We have no problems with international mail.  
However, we have had very bad experiences trying to figure out how 
much postage to put on a given package, which is one of the reasons 
we take the packages to the post office ourselves.  The postman does 
stop by everyday and pick up the ordinary mail.

We also ship on a semiregular basis by FEDEX, but have had more 
problems using them than UPS.  We have had severe problems with 
DHL.  We have had good success using BAX Global for larger overseas 
shipments, but they are not cost effective once you get below about 
50 pounds.

I suspect that a lot of the problems that have come up have more to 
do with the customs service in the destination country than the 
shipping method.  We have had problems ourselves when importing raw 
materials from overseas, with customs clearance sometimes taking 
months.

Anyway, I'll be happy to listen to any suggestions on how to improve 
the service we provide to MOTM customers.  We have come a long way 
in the last 3 months, and hope we are still improving.

Paul Haneberg

We have 2 issues here:

1. what is easiest & cheapest to ship 
2. what is cheapest & easiest to receive

UPS may very well be the easiest to ship with, but that is not what I was
talking about at all.  I was trying to give the *receivers* perspective.  I
think that was abundantly clear in my post.

>I suspect that a lot of the problems that have come up have more to 
>do with the customs service in the destination country than the 
>shipping method.  We have had problems ourselves when importing raw 

You suspect wrong.  I'm not an idiot, and my post was based on facts, not on
opinions.   UPS charges more for brokerage (notice I said "brokerage", not
"duty") than almost any other method of shipping.... and we're not talking a
little bit here, it's a lot more expensive, especially if it's a high-value
shipment.

My point is, it may very well be ewasy to ship UPS domestically in the US.
It might be easy to ship UPS internationally from the US, BUT UPS is a royal
pain when you're on the receiving end in Canada (I suspect it is for other
countries as well, but I cannot comment).  I'm always disappointed to find
out that a vendor will only ship UPS, because I know it going to cost me an
extra 5% or so. 
Read my lips :  UPS IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE WAY (total cost) TO GET A PACKAGE
INTO CANADA.

Pau

I haven't used it to ship, but a lot of foreign shipment that I receive are sent DHL.  Has anyone used them for shipping within and from the USA?

Ivan