Rate Your Shipper! Let's Hear Your Experiences!

[JChristophersAdventures]

First... right to the point... shipping companies are a paradox... they mostly do a great job... at the same time they are giant, faceless holes in the ground which can suck your package into the abyss where it is just "lost" (which is a politically correct term for "stolen") and no human being can be found to answer for anything!

So, let's rate the shippers. Specific fish related experiences would be great, but not required.

#1 (best) UPS: Not perfect, but 99 times out of 100 they come through... reasonable timeliness and they actually get it to my address (my door or porch) in one piece (sometimes a little ragged around the edges, but passable).

#2 (not bad) USPS: I guess I should say that I use almost exclusively UPS and USPS, about half & half. I don't recommend shipping fish using USPS if you can help it, but when it comes to other things, they do okay and there are often cost savings involved over the other carriers. They are also more convenient especially for small towns and rural areas. I have to drive an hour to a UPS or FedEx shipping centers, while the local post office is just a block away. Real employees, not just today's temp-of-the-week.

#3 (a distant 3rd, at best) FedEx: I probably get a shipment through these guys just a few times a year. I try to avoid them whenever possible. They screw it up about half the time! I'm not kidding. Before I swore off using them, I had some very dire times where the delivery was absolutely critical... and, they dropped the ball every time... every time.

I would have rated DHL ahead of FedEx, but they do so few deliveries in the US now, they are hardly relevant in my opinion, but if you have others you'd like to mention besides the big 3, then by all means let's here about them.

And yes, You guessed it... I'm journeying through "FedEx Hell" once again! This is an aquarium related order (thankfully it isn't livestock!) through AMAZON, but not shipped by AMAZON. It did not occur to me that this independent seller would not use UPS. You get used to ordering through AMAZON and you get used to it being UPS... so, I didn't ask, request or direct them how to ship.

Your ratings? Your experiences?

Edited September 21, 2023 by JChristophersAdventures

[HelplessNewbie]

I had 2 USPS Priority Mail packages with live fish arrive 4-6  days late at my home. If I can help it, I now avoid buying livestock shipped that way.

UPS and Fedex livestock deliveries are okay for me, with UPS having a better on-time record.

Edited September 21, 2023 by HelplessNewbie

[JChristophersAdventures]

@HelplessNewbie Yes, I can see where people are tempted to use USPS priority as there is such a huge cost savings, but we are really rolling the dice when we do that. On the other hand, where I live it is pointless to do next day, as it will always take 2 days no matter what, so 2nd day is the only good option for livestock because priority always takes 5 days or longer by USPS. Thanks.

[Odd Duck]

Funny how much difference we see between carriers.  I’ve not gotten anything as a true overnight from anybody but FedEx.  Everybody else’s (UPS and USPS) overnight or next day delivery has ended up at least 2 days or more, even when only shipping from 4 hours away.  To be fair, shipping from 1200 or so miles away from one source using USPS was also 2 days (but at least it wasn’t more) despite the overnight promise.  But FedEx from about 1500 miles from a different source was a true overnight on 2 separate occasions.  I’ve not had a single issue with a FedEx shipment.  A few with UPS, multiple with USPS.  My local USPS will sometimes automatically hold a box marked “live fish” for pick up during extreme weather but not reliably.  The bigger problem is that the postal carrier will come to the door to leave the notice but not bother to actually knock on the door or ring the bell to see if I’m home to receive the package.  🤦🏻‍♀️ 🤦🏻‍♀️ 😠 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Odd Duck Yes, I know... Seems to vary a lot depending on where you are at and where the shipper is out of as it relates to you. Not necessarily the miles, although that is certainly a factor, but the path each shipper uses to deliver to your door and the personnel they are dealing with. I should mention that a few months ago, I was mowing our corner lot, when I noticed a box sitting on the corner of my property, next to the stop sign.

Yup! It was a neighbor's package (2 houses away), we know everybody in our neighborhood, so I walked it over there. She was waiting for it and hadn't heard anything... she never did... no phone call, no email, no text... it was FedEx. Here's the thing. I've lived in 2 other states over the last 1/2 dozen years... that's 3 different states. FedEx was terrible in the other states as well... and, not all just rural boonies.

So the lesson, in my opinion, is know how the carriers do in your area and do your best to work around it.

 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Pepere That is really good service! I'm certainly not knocking USPS (they are my second choice and I use them frequently). Was that 2nd day air? Thanks.

[nabokovfan87]

USPS: It might show up, it'll usually be late, and it'll usually have useless tracking.  Any sort of.... gated community, community mailbox, etc.  It's almost impossible to reliable have boxes delivered.

(for clarity, sometimes it's fine, but more often than it should be.... issues)

DHL:  It won't be on time, it'll be late, and it'll take about twice as long as normal.

UPS:  It'll get there, but it'll look like it got kicked the whole way.  I've had to call the 1-800 number far too many times for my liking with the very typical... "it's say delivered, but it isn't"

FEDEX:  The "gold standard" for me.  Tracking works, support is good, and they do things the right way when it comes to my own packages.  A lot of times you see on the news about stuff being tossed, destroyed when delivered.  Yeah.  I've seen it to.  I have never had an experience like that.  For me, I prefer to only ship out via FEDEX if I can.

Amazon:  I'll put this here because it's a bit of a wonky situation.  First, I don't have prime.  Fun fact, you don't need prime.  It's a cost I don't want to incur and I don't think it's "worth it" for most everybody.  They place some pretty weird restraints on their system.  I do have family in the house that has a prime account.  The irony of different customer experiences is quite, hilariously, laughably tragic.  I need a box to get here in a week?  Order it on prime.  (Prime has not been one day / overnight shipping in a LONG time around here).  If you want the order to be placed, sit for ~3-5 days, and then be delivered at the same rate as a prime box, just order it regularly.  Having random, unmarked cars show up at the house for people "delivering for amazon" is a really serious concern for me.  They force people to use their own cars, don't have enough delivery workers, and I've had plenty of packages missing or damaged due to "random person" delivering an item.  Because of all this, there is a lot of stuff I refuse to buy online.  I also avoid certain stores/sellers because of things like expiration dates.  It's a bit more work that it should be, or than it used to be, to simply "buy it off amazon" and they've definitely screwed up delivery of items more than just about anyone. 

In order of rating, top being the best:
1. Fedex
2. UPS
3. DHL
4. USPS
5. Amazon

On 9/21/2023 at 12:13 PM, Odd Duck said:

The bigger problem is that the postal carrier will come to the door to leave the notice but not bother to actually knock on the door or ring the bell to see if I’m home to receive the package.  🤦🏻‍♀️ 🤦🏻‍♀️ 😠 

This is the absolute worst.  Happens so often.  I really hate that drivers don't have enough time to do their job properly.

[Guppysnail]

It is good to get to know which carrier provides the best service for you. 
 

Example For me both sending and receiving 

USPS next day is 9/10 times late and becomes 2day or 3 days before delivery. Priority mail is a no go because non living priority packages are 5-7 days. I only send or receive overnight early delivery. I’m putting a stamp on my children after all 🤣My local hub is a mess, has been for 20 years I’ve lived here.  

UPS knock on wood overnight is overnight 10/10 times. Early delivery is early delivery. 
 

For @TeeJay who I have shipped fish to a fair number of times USPS is spot on 10/10. UPS is seldom on time and always a hassle. 
 

Because my hub is the problem we jump through hoops to get UPS instructions on the box and pay extra for early delivery to try and ensure it gets to him. 
 

FED EX I have only used 1 time. On time but the box had seen some rough adventures.  

 

My suggestion is communicate with the receiving party and ask if they experience issues with your preferred shipper and communicate to your seller if you have issues with certain carriers.

 

 

 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@nabokovfan87 I couldn't agree more on Amazon Prime! I don't use it either and have friends/family with it and they don't do any better on deliveries than I do. Yes, Amazon has gone downhill in a lot of ways from what they once were. But, that's the down-side to competition... its great for the customer when companies compete... but, eventually someone "wins" the competition... then watch out. Has anyone noticed how much Wal-Mart's pricing policies have changed since they no longer compete against K-Mart (RIP)... Their slogan was: We Always Have the Lowest Prices Guaranteed!... then, I was: Always Low Prices... then, it was shortened even more to: Always! LOL ALways... what does that mean?

I'm glad FedEx works for you. You make a good point... it is important to do due diligence on each individual seller under consideration (especially on eBay and Amazon).

[Guppysnail]

On 9/21/2023 at 10:42 AM, JChristophersAdventures said:

at the same time they are giant, faceless holes in the ground which can suck your package into the abyss where it is just "lost"

I often imagine there is an entire planet somewhere stacked to the ozone layer on its entire surface with lost mail. 
 

Seriously I have never seen a usps lost package warehouse. Has anyone else?

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/21/2023 at 5:14 PM, Guppysnail said:

I often imagine there is an entire planet somewhere stacked to the ozone layer on its entire surface with lost mail. 
 

Seriously I have never seen a usps lost package warehouse. Has anyone else?

It's a whole mess when you look into certain logistics like amazon returns (and what happens with all those items).  It's been reported several times over the years that they just dump/trash a lot of things. The frustrating part is this new phenomenon about re-sellers on amazon and tanking the quality of what's available.  At least up here...  There's always "lost" expensive items for some reason. Really frustrating when that sort of things happens.

I imagine that USPS warehouse is somewhere off the coast right near the Pacific garbage patch.... 😞  It sure isn't in the warehouse waiting to be on the truck, on the truck, or on the front porch!

[Andy's Fish Den]

I don't have any problems with USPS or UPS in my area, 99% of the time with both companies my package arrives on time when they originally say it will. I don't live in a city or town, and about a half hour from a decent size city, but still get the good service. Now FedEx is another story. I have had a few things supposed to come by them over the last couple of years, and not a single shipment has been on time, or even delivered! One shipment, originally said it would be delivered on a Monday, nothing came, got email saying it was running late, would come Tuesday. Nothing showed up on Tuesday. On Wednesday, tracking said it was out for delivery. I was outside mowing the grass, and watched a FedEx truck come down the road, never stopped, about an hour later, I got an email saying that is was undeliverable due to no one home. I called FedEx and after a bit, finally got a hold of someone at my regional hub, and finally got it rerouted to a FedEx store in a town about a half hour away. What a hassle! Now, if I go to order something online and it shows FedEx as the only shipping option, I don't order from that site. 

Amazon does pretty good for me, if I buy something and it says it will be here tomorrow or in two days, it will be. You just never know what time, I've had their vans pull in my driveway as early as 830am and as late as 945pm. 

[dmurray407]

On 9/21/2023 at 6:48 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

If you want the order to be placed, sit for ~3-5 days, and then be delivered at the same rate as a prime box, just order it regularly.  Having random, unmarked cars show up at the house for people "delivering for amazon" is a really serious concern for me.  They force people to use their own cars, don't have enough delivery workers, and I've had plenty of packages missing or damaged due to "random person" delivering an item. 

I use Amazon quite a bit because I live in the boonies and it's easy. I must be lucky because one of their warehouses is in Minneapolis (not too far) and I frequently get stuff the same day or the next day at no extra charge beyond my Prime. That said, do I really need it that fast? Sometimes (OK, rarely, but I'm impatient 🙂 ) and the choices in my small town are very limited and I usually don't feel like driving into the "city". Example-I "needed" some black aquarium gravel earlier this week (no, it wasn't an emergency but I wanted to get my project done before going out of town next week). I went to Petsmart ( the only local pet store we have-it's 15 mi away so not too far) and they had no black gravel-lots of hot pink and purple, though. I checked 2 Walmart stores with no luck  which are about my only options, so yes I did order the gravel from Amazon and it was here the next day (60# in one cardboard box-I'm sure the driver was swearing at me) All my Amazon deliveries come via Amazon vehicles-though they did used to use privately owned cars to deliver around here as well, which was weird. All in all, I think all my delivery folks/services do a pretty good job. I buy things from a lot of different places and it seems like the different sellers are to blame a lot of the time when things are running late. I just ordered some stuff from the Coop on Wed and it was delivered this am by my mailman-can't beat that !    One other comment about Amazon is that the Prime price is going up-it will be $139 for me to renew, the "free" shipping was well worth it for me when it was $89/year, but I'm going to have to think about the $139......

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Andy's Fish Den Exactly! I get that almost every time from FedEx (that's why I use them as seldom as humanly possible). Here is a typical FedEx tracking example when I used them:

At around 3PM on 9/21/23 (about 58 hours after arriving at the distribution center that is less than 1 hour drive from my house) and several "no attempt" attempts (no FedEx trucks in our town on the 19th or the 20th), operational delays?, security delays?...WT #*! does that mean?... my package was finally delivered... the driver says "I couldn't deliver it sooner because I couldn't locate the box on my truck"! Yeah, right! Whatever.

Edited September 22, 2023 by JChristophersAdventures

[JChristophersAdventures]

@dmurray407 I would like to dislike Amazon more than I do because they are way too big, in my opinion, but they do some things so very well... and you aren't alone in noticing that you can't find what you need locally, like you used to. It is a fact that one (of the many) reason(s) prices have gone up so much is that stores like Wal-Mart and the Big Box Home Improvement stores no longer carry the best value items in their stores, only on-line, if at all.

Just try to buy a pack of 120 X'acto knife blades (at any price) from Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Menards... you name them, you can't do it. Same thing with small drill bits.... they want to sell you a 2 pack for a jacked up price or a variety pack with more big bits... you know, the ones that are always left over from the last variety pack you bought, after all the little ones are worn/broken. In most cases, you can't even get a value quantity of them on-line at all, except from Amazon.

And they wonder why Amazon is kicking their posterior! hahaha And, they deserve it!

Edited September 22, 2023 by JChristophersAdventures

[dmurray407]

On 9/22/2023 at 3:28 PM, JChristophersAdventures said:

you can't find what you need locally, like you used to.

I would much rather buy locally-we had a pet store in town many years ago and I was so sad when she closed-she had a pretty good aquarium section. All the useful shops are closing their doors here and are being replaced with "occasional" shops-expensive knick knack shops that are only open one weekend a month. I get the drill bit situation-I can't tell you how many sets I have! I use the smaller bits the most and they either break or get lost  🙂

 

[Odd Duck]

On 9/22/2023 at 4:21 PM, dmurray407 said:

I get the drill bit situation-I can't tell you how many sets I have! I use the smaller bits the most and they either break or get lost

Yep, just like the 1/2 or 10 mm sockets that always get lost.  😝 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Pepere Yes, I know we are supposed to "rail" against not paying more for the shipping than we paid for the fish, but really... if you know your USPS route performs well and you know the temps are good from there to you, and you know the fish aren't the overly sensitive kind... then, you are likely to be okay. Yeah, if I was buying insanely rare or expensive fish... would always do 2nd day... but, sellers like AquaHuna base their business on price and focus on the more common community tank fish... it is no wonder they use USPS priority. That's great that it works so well for you... saves you a lot of money... wish USPS was that solid for everyone. Thanks.

[gardenman]

Fed-Ex here is horrible. I ordered some live snails on e-Bay from a reputable seller. I paid for second day air. They spent four days on the ground in Colorado "due to bad weather."  (Temps were in the low seventies with no rain/wind all four days.) They then spent three more days on the ground in Memphis, then four more days from Memphis to here. They were dead by the time they finally arrived. Fed-Ex flat out lied multiple times. First about the weather. Then later they insisted they'd attempted to deliver but no one was home. That was also a lie as they had the package leave their Philadelphia airport facility and arrive in Delaware twenty minutes later. They just went straight from Philly to Delaware and didn't even try to deliver it.

 

And that's not uncommon here. UPS, USPS, and Amazon are great! Fed-Ex is a mess.

[JettsPapa]

Most of my experience is with me shipping to other people.  I've shipped dozens of packages, all with USPS Priority mail.  While there have been a few hiccups, the vast majority have arrived within 72 hours, and often within 48.

I had one shipment with a significant number of deaths (it was shrimp), and that wasn't due to a delay in transit.  Since then I have always insulated the box when shipping shrimp or fish, regardless of weather, and it hasn't happened again.

[gardenman]

Just to follow up on my earlier post. What I've heard with Fed-Ex is that if a hub gets overworked, and can't process all of the incoming packages, they'll just park the excess trucks out of the way and hold them there until they have a slow day to process them. The theory is that this keeps the majority of packages moving in a timely fashion and only disrupts a relative handful. If a facility can handle ten truckloads of packages, but twelve show up, the last two trucks to show up get parked until there's a day when they have spare capacity, say a day when only nine trucks show up.  That's why my snails spent four days on the ground in Colorado and then another three days on the ground in Memphis. They arrived after both hubs had reached their capacity for the day, so the trucks got parked until they had a slower period. You would tend to think that if your package was delayed it would move to the head of the line the next day, but that's not how Fed-Ex does it. The delayed package gets set off to the side until there's a day with lower demand, and only then does it get moved. This is designed to alienate the fewest customers, but it really alienates those customers when a two-day package takes eleven days to reach its destination as it did in my case.  

[nabokovfan87]

In the past 2 weeks....

Amazon flat out lost two shipments.

FedEx "failed to deliver" the box to the I correct city. It was a system glitch, but yeah.... frustrating. We'll see if anything shows up tomorrow.

Needless to say, take it as a word of caution that shipping issues may just be the norm and things like one day shipping.... might not exist anymore. (Like prime one day shipping just went away for some due to sheer demand)

[JChristophersAdventures]

@nabokovfan87 I have noticed that as well... one day shipping may end up going away altogether for everyone, everywhere. It doesn't mean that you won't get one day service sometimes, but it makes more sense for them to under promise (2nd day shipping) and sometimes over deliver, than the other way around. They have the same staffing problems now that all the other businesses have and the reality is that all the carriers automated their hubs a long time ago, so they are really limited in how much further AI can help them.

The idea that they will have 1,000 of drones flying every day over every city from 3 major carriers delivering packages is nonsense... what a joke! And, even with self driving trucks, you still need to get the package from off the truck and to the destination building... so, now you have a robot system in every truck to bridge that gap? That would likely double the cost of the truck and what about maintenance on the whole thing? Now you need more highly skilled people to service that. 

I just don't see any of that happening (or any other scenario) that is going to yield any major improvements to shipping services. The best we can do is know which carrier does what we need them to do in our area and adjust accordingly. I'm glad FedEx works for some people, but they certainly don't cut it for me. Thanks.