Text 13843, 100 rader
Skriven 2007-04-23 08:07:41 av Christina Wilson (206.babylon5)
  Kommentar till text 13837 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (200.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Volume 11 - Ordered
===============================


Gregory Weston wrote:
> In article <0001HW.C25224DF00271F0DF0182648@news.verizon.net>,
>  Amy Guskin <aisling@fjordstone.com> wrote:
> 
>>>> On Mon, 23 Apr 2007 08:40:12 -0400, Kurt Ullman wrote
>> (in article 
>> <kurtullman-98B7BF.08401023042007@customer-201-125-217-207.uninet.net.mx>):
>>
>>> In article <0001HW.C25219290024605EF0182648@news.verizon.net>,
>>>
>>>> Luckily Cafe Press packs these things really well, so when it's sitting 
>>>> behind the bushes underneath my mailbox (why?  I don't know), at least I 
>>>> know 
>>>> it's protected inside that cardboard sheath.
>>>       Probably because CP uses UPS or DHL instead of the US Postal 
>>> Service and they can't by federal law use the mailbox.  If your enquiry 
>>> was more related to behind the bushes instead of in the mailbox, I 
>>> haven't a clue.. <<
>> I thought Cafe Press had this weird thing going on where the shipments were 
>> part UPS, and the rest of the way USPS, but I could be remembering that 
>> wrong.  Or maybe it was that they put UPS labels on everything, but in some 
>> areas the USPS was required to deliver them anyway.  Anybody else remember 
>> something about this?
> 
> There's all kinds of weird things going on in the shipping industry. 
> USPS and FedEx, for example, had a resource sharing mechanism in place 
> (I'm not sure if the agreement is still in effect) whereby both agencies 
> would use FedEx resources for long distance transit but USPS resources 
> for local delivery. It was an excellent attempt to leverage the 
> strengths they each had.
> 
> I've had a couple of UPS packages ultimately delivered by USPS. I'm 
> really not sure what triggered that. I know there are some places UPS is 
> unable to deliver, but I'm not in such a location _and_ as far as I know 
> UPS simply doesn't accept such packages.
> 
> My wife works for a company that ships a large volume of product and 
> they discovered a while ago that for a particular subset of what they 
> ship USPS was hugely cheaper than what they were paying UPS. UPS noticed 
> the drop in volume and asked what was up and when told said: "Oh, well 
> we can beat that price." The truly bizarre thing is that their plan for 
> beating the USPS price was to ship via USPS to the delivery-point's UPS 
> depot. They'd get lower rates because of their shipping volume and pass 
> some of the savings back to my wife's company.
> 
>> Another reason I suspect the USPS is that the doorbell never rings when my 
>> script books are delivered.  My UPS guy not only rings the bell every time
-- 
>> he actually has a distinctive ring!
> 
> UPS drivers are on fairly strict time schedules and ringing the bell is 
> pretty much at their discretion unless they're absolutely required to 
> get a signature - and even that doesn't seem to be quite enough. I 
> haven't had good UPS service across 3 addresses over the past 25 years 
> and go out of my way to avoid giving them any business if I have any 
> alternative. The laundry list includes:
> 
> - Crushed boxes, more often than not.
> - A computer that was shipped in one piece and delivered in more than 50.
> - A package left without any weather cover behind the house in the 
> middle of January with no delivery tag on the door. Three days later a 
> neighbor said: "Did you know there's a package on your deck?"
> - An expensive piece of computer equipment, signature required, left on 
> a doorstep clearly visible from the road with the "this end UP" arrow 
> pointing at the mall half a mile away that's the best place in the state 
> to get your car stolen.
> - Most recently, an expensive package needing a signature left at the 
> door. Different front door than the previous one, but the delivery 
> record accessible online says that it was handed to my wife. Oddly, she 
> and I were out at lunch at the time.
> 
>

I've usually done well with UPS. My stories involve the Post Office <g>. 
My aunt gave us a ice cream maker years ago--but she had taken out the 
paddles, which we discovered when we got home. So she mailed them. They 
never showed up. We live in Chico, CA--and we figure they went to Chino, 
CA. Then there was the music catalog I ordered in spring of 1978. It 
didn't come, so I forgot about it. About 2 years later it showed up with 
a pile of address labels on it. It had been sent to Chicago etc. And at 
my current address (an apartment) there have been times everyone's mail 
has been left in my box--and I've delivered it. We don't have pickup 
here either. We should, but the mailperson just doesn't. When I moved 
from another address, I did the forwarding thing--for Christina Wilson. 
But in the complex there lived an Elizabeth Wilson--they forwarded her 
mail too. The amount of wrong mail put in my box is staggering. Many 
aren't even for the same street. When shipments involve USPS, I have 
them sent to work. Even though it is about 1/2 mile from where I live, 
the mail service is significantly better. I also mail everything from 
there too.

And don't get me started on FedEx...the package I sent about a month ago 
still hasn't been delivered. (And the hoops I had to leap through to get 
the refund...)

Christina
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