Got an account with UPS recently to ship my frozen fish in insulated boxes. Was using the post office and they used to be awesome. Anywhere in the U.S. in 3 days including Hawaii with Priority Mail, and cheaper too! Once in a blue moon they screwed up. Unfortunately those days are gone as twice in a row I shipped a fish from northeastern Indiana to northwestern Ohio and it took 4 days. The second time I paid for 2 day delivery! I could have driven it in 2 hours!
Anyway UPS has always been dependable, albeit more expensive and when they guaranteed something would be there by the end of a particular day it was true.
Not anymore!
I shipped a box on Monday to a destination that was supposed to get there at the end of the day Wednesday. Didn't make it until the end of day Thursdat. Another box that was supposed to get there on Thursday didn't make it until end of day today (Friday).
I have two boxes that are supposed to be on time to Montana end of day today. Nothing yet.
And we won't even go there with the price and surcharges.
Anyway just had to vent. Will probably be switching to Fed Ex as my rep with UPS won't even get back with me. I know my venting may sound petty, but when there are fish valued to $245.00 in each box I get angry when I have to replace them and make a claim!
Sure I can pay a higher rate for 3 day select but they wanted $140.00 to ship two 12 pound 24 X 10 X 10 boxes to Montana.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 11/09/1410:54 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Cecil we use all three mostly UPS last year had some problems. I think UPS hires a lot of extra people for Christmas and the service goes way down. Reason I think so is we know our regular UPS man this time of year never know who it is. Good luck with Fed ex if they do a better job let us know. We might switch too. Had a friend send me some Mako and it was a day late getting to me. Dale
I ship lots of guns, it's what I do. I have learned that all three carriers suck. The one thing that drives me nuts about the post office is that the priority mail is not really "priority". It's a kind of "if we can get there quick" mail. If usps fails, on delivery time of priority, they do not hold themselves accountable.
Usps also has a tracking system that is USELESS. Fully 20%, by their own numbers, of the packages sent by usps do not get scanned! It is so bad that I do not even offer tracking to my customers as the number of useless tracking numbers just begins to irritate people. This area the other two do FAR better!
Last edited by timshufflin; 11/08/1405:09 AM.
I just got a new pond, I made it twice because I aint so bright.
Latest tracking shows the two boxes are sitting in Spokane, Washington and the fish are probably now thawed out despite them being incased in 1.5 inches of solid foam all the way around the box and top and bottom.
Even if UPS pays the claim (I know from experience they will attempt every excuse in the book not to) it's a shame as it took two years of hand feeding to produce these exceptional fish only to have them potentially spoil.
I do have a ray of hope though albeit meager. A fish I sent to Lawton, OK on Monday that didn't get there until Friday was still partially frozen.
Edit:
As of Saturday morning boxes have arrived to Kalispell about 10 miles from the customer. He is going to drive over and hope someone is there to pick up the boxes. Said he did this once before, and as long as someone is there, and he can produce the tracking numbers he may be good to go. We're keeping our fingers crossed.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 11/08/1410:41 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
It used to be that FedEx home delivery used private contractors to deliver (the driver owned their truck and contracted it with FedEx to deliver packages). They had the FedEx green logo on the truck. FedEx express is more reliable here, and the drivers actually are employeed by FedEx (the purple and orange colored logo), and FedEx owns and maintains the trucks. That was 4 years ago, I don't know if that still holds true now. Earlier this year I had FedEx Home Delivery drop off 3 packages the same day, and each package came in a different truck, with a different driver. Silly. Here, in this area, UPS is much better than FedEx for delivery times and meeting delivery dates.
Since you are the mfg and shipper, I would value and insure the fish for more. I know it's a PITA, but what else are you going to do? Many of the companies that I purchase things from charge the customer for shipping, and allow the customer to pick who they want to use, what speed they want it delivered, and at what cost.
My customer finally got a hold of someone at the warehouse and the guy actually tried to go through the trailer and find the boxes. He couldn't find it but the trailer was packed. For what it's worth the guy said whenever they have problems it always seems like the package was routed through Illinois (Chicago area). Said it's a nightmare there.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
If it's UPS, I believe Chicago is the largest single sorting "hub: in the USA. I do know that if it's routed through the Chicago hub, it IS the hub with the largest theft rate of all their hubs. I was told to avoid theft, to insure the package for over $1000. That puts it over a threshold where they don't allow the package to sit on the truck in the facility, it comes off the truck when it arrives and goes into a special locked area and re-loaded on the truck right before it leaves.
That info was gathered from talking to the UPS "higher ups" when they were visiting during the time we were building prototype trucks for them at Utilimaster.
Scott, not aimed at ya, didn't know ya escaped from there. Also I think that the great goat jinx just adds to their luster. Back in the 70s everybody at work loved ta listen to the Cub games. Some to cheer, some to jeer but we all had great fun with Harry Carry hangin out with his landing net with the bleacher bums. HOLY COW !!!!
Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
I have both FedEx and UPS accounts. UPS was a tad less expensive on shipping fish in the insulated containers, and promptly paid on damaged shipments. Problem was, they were almost always damaged!! UPS once delivered a customer a shipment of fish that had obviously crushed badly because it was ripped in half, lost all the water and even mangled most of the fish. Their delivery of rotting, bloody fish was the last shipment I ever sent using them.
FedEx on the other hand will not guarantee damaged shipments unless the container is "approved", by them. But, in over 500 shipments, not one box has ever been even slightly damaged. Often, the FedEx pilot comes to the counter to take personal control over my live fish shipments. I can take them to FedEx at the airport, my cut-off time for next day delivery is 9:45PM and often, fish are delivered under 12 hours later. One minute past their "guaranteed delivery time" no shipping charge! With guys like our own, Brian (highflyer) piloting for FedEx, it's no wonder the service I receive is great!
I have both FedEx and UPS accounts. UPS was a tad less expensive on shipping fish in the insulated containers, and promptly paid on damaged shipments. Problem was, they were almost always damaged!! UPS once delivered a customer a shipment of fish that had obviously crushed badly because it was ripped in half, lost all the water and even mangled most of the fish. Their delivery of rotting, bloody fish was the last shipment I ever sent using them.
FedEx on the other hand will not guarantee damaged shipments unless the container is "approved", by them. But, in over 500 shipments, not one box has ever been even slightly damaged. Often, the FedEx pilot comes to the counter to take personal control over my live fish shipments. I can take them to FedEx at the airport, my cut-off time for next day delivery is 9:45PM and often, fish are delivered under 12 hours later. One minute past their "guaranteed delivery time" no shipping charge! With guys like our own, Brian (highflyer) piloting for FedEx, it's no wonder the service I receive is great!
Interesting.
One of the biggest producers of goldfish here in the U.S. told me DHL was the best for shipping live fish. Unfortunately AFAIK they quit operations in the U.S.
I have had boxes of mounted fish that were crated and could have survived a nuclear blast destroyed by UPS. It seemed one would literally had to try and do damage to them.
Once they tried to get out if paying insurance even when it was obvious a forklift had gone through the side of the box.
I have colleagues that say to never ever let a shipper know you're a taxidermist by using the word taxidermy in your return address.
They claim there are PETA employees working for the shippers.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Did anyone of you see that video last week of a UPS guy kicking a box back to his truck, and the contents were valued at $12,000.00?
I would have to say that the best service I have seen so far is FedEx Freight. Always on time and never any damage reports. Some of the control panels we ship can get a tad pricy. They have to go freight tho.
Cecil, if I call and tell ya me and my goat are comin fishin, ya best fence the garden and tie up the dog. Otherwise your relative weight may drop to somewhere around 60-70 percent,
Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
A story from the flip side...Both UPS and Fed Ex deliver here nearly everyday, and problems with either are extremely rare. But, earlier this summer I was working in the shop and Fed Ex came roaring in, not unusual as they are always in a hurry, but this time the driver didn't stop at the shop, but drove on past up to my house.
Since there was no one home I headed out the door to intercept him. As I walked up beside the van I watched the driver, (not my usual one), get out and stroll quickly up to the porch. He was on the phone, and completely oblivious to my presence.
I watched this clown reach the bottom, front porch step, where he stopped and tossed the package on up on to the porch, in the general direction of the front door. It hit the deck, somersaulted and cartwheeled a few times, and came to rest. Since I was coming up on the passenger side of the van, I just crossed over to the driver's side and stood by the door.
The guy came trotting back, still on the phone, and nearly got to the door before he looked up and saw me.
"I left it on the porch"...still on the phone, by the way.
"I saw that", was my reply. "Now go get it and bring it here so we can open it, to see if it survived your delivery"
You could see the anger in his face. He ended the phone call, and walked back and retrieved the box. I opened it right there, still not letting him back in the truck, and verified that everything was alright. And it took me a LONG time to get the box open, and carefully inspect the contents. He was fuming mad by the time he left.
"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"
If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1) And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1) Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT? PB answer: It depends.
Now don't get me wrong, I expect a bit of consideration and even less respect when getting anything through the mail. But... I have a good friend who is a respectable guy that worked for UPS. A good ten yrs ago he explained that the "company" was trying to make themselves more efficient(greedy) and expected its drivers to record their delivery time and location as they were en route from said delivery. By this I mean typing in the info while they were either walking back to the truck or driving away(at that time not illegal). A major problem, actually the worst with not only delivery companies but all major corps is greed. The second is that they are all so big that they don't give a hoot about return customers. Try dealing with your bank. I could used to walk into the bank and say "Hi Glenda, I got a problem, can I see Jim(the owner and president) and she would walk me to his office and we would resolve my problem. Now if I want to talk to even a teller, it will result in the bank changing my free account(with only about 6 or 7 requirements to remain free) to a checking account that costs me $8 a month and drops the interest rate from a whoppin 2% to .75%. Unfortunately this is the way things are and will only get worse. I pity my grandbrats for having to deal with these type of problems that will only get worse. If ya have a problem with this rant or my attitude, pm me and I'll have my public relations company answer ya from Istanbul in beely intersteendibly Englisha when they're good and ready!! You will however tho be told many times that your call is important to me and to please stay on the line or you will lose your place in the order of answering your sooo important call. (Are you getting this Faith)? Dadburn it Cecil, see what ya started with yer smelly half thawed fish!!!!
Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
Luna absolutely hated the FedEx guy's when they delivered to my shop. She was cool with the UPS dudes tho. Don't know why.
There was a guy that picked up and delivered just about every day from a heat treat company that we had them do all our parts. Luna absolutely did not like this guy. He was a nice guy and we tried everything for the 5 or so years so he could even get close to Luna. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with this guy except she watched his every move, with a full blown Mohawk!
One Friday afternoon I'm throwing on a feed bag for the guy's, like I always did, and he rolls up. Today's lunch was Porterhouse and all kind's of good stuff my sister whipped up. Luna is going berserk when he pulls in.
OK, this has got to work, I thought. I grab a raw steak and hand it to him. I'm standing right next to him and it was a total NO-GO even with me right there. She just kept an eye on him in damn near attack mode until he jumped in his truck and left. I left the steak out there and she would have nothing to do with that, but was inside the shop wanting everyone's else. That premium, not so cheap Porterhouse went into the dumpster.
Don't know why, but if you can't make friends with a dog you see almost every day for 5 years or so, there has to be a reason. Just don't know what it is?
Dogs are a better judge of character than most people.
UPS/FedEx - no A/C in the trucks. The drivers are supposed to drive with the door to the package compartment closed, and the doors to the cab closed. There really isn't much air movement inside the trucks even with the fan on high during a hot summer day - we built many, many trucks for all the shipping companies. I was in R&D and we did a ton of testing on them, so I've spent quite a number of hours in them. I see why the drivers drive with the doors open.
Door hardware failure and seal failure was common because if the drivers did what they were supposed to do, the doors opened up 100's of times a day.
Also, due to the number of accidents in reverse, if they put the truck in park, they HAVE to drive forward - company policy. That's why you'll see the drivers backing into a driveway, or stopping on the street and running to the house.
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You're forgetting the goat fiasco.
