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I may go back to doing business directly in stores, to get what I want, when I want it.
The problem is brick and mortar anymore only carry stuff that they know sells and dont stock uncommon parts or wider selection of colors or whatever for what you are buying. You want something else THEY special order it at cost in time and money greater than you can order it online. Why pay them extra to special order something I can order directly?
Now if its just some common item they stock in brick and mortar, sometimes easier to just pay a bit more to avoid all the package delivery stuff.
I really hate making two trips to a store to pick up a special order.
UPS has been careless lately since I live in a corner house they must assume that I will make the final delivery to my neighbors. Three of the packages I received the last two weeks belong to houses up or down the street. I never have problems with USPS.
I found out my package I ordered is coming from Fed Ex with a Fed Ex tracking number. Then when I looked again, it said Fed Ex will deliver my package to USPS to mail it to my house. Why? I didn't know they worked together like that. I had no idea USPS would ship Fed Ex packages.
Yes, this started a few years back. I think it cuts on cost, and is faster than using USPS for the whole leg of the shipment & delivery.
USPS doesn't "ship" the FedEx package, to my understanding. FedEx delivers to your local USPS office, which finishes the last leg of delivering to the address.
I'm not sure why some are done this way, and others are not. Doesn't matter to me. A retailer can choose to ship via USPS the whole way, do this halfway FedEx & halfway USPS, or FedEx the whole way. (Or UPS)
The only problem is that there is no tracking once it is delivered to the USPS location.
I have been told by a UPS insider that the tracking information is many times where your package is "supposed" to be based on an algorithm, and not necessarily exactly where your package truly is.
FWIW.
When i get a "package delivered" notification, it is usually at my front door--unless they took it to the wrong house.
I used to ship quite a lot of very important boxes from my work place, all over the U.S. I can tell you that the tracking information is when they SCAN the package. That barcode on the package. That's how the packages/boxes are tracked. The box gets scanned when it's picked up, when it's transferred to another truck, when it arrives at a warehouse, when it's put on truck or airline en route to another city, etc.
Maybe I'm different but I always get the USPS tracking number once the package is transferred to the USPS. When you go to fedex tracking, the last entry should be them dropping off at USPS and there should be a number next to that info. That number is the preassigned USPS tracking number. Now it is possible that this is only available when we actually signed into our fedex account and maybe not to those using the regular fedex tracking site.
"FedEx now offers a service level called FedEx SmartPost. With SmartPost, FedEx carries packages through its network of warehouse and truck beds. But instead of dropping packages on customers’ porches, FedEx merely drops them at the local post office. USPS carries SmartPost parcels for the final leg of their journey, known as the “last mile.”
Cheaper than standard ground shipping, SmartPost offers shippers a cost-saving option and reduces FedEx’s workload. It’s also slower, and while it offers unified tracking, customers may find it confusing."
"The company is also rapidly integrating FedEx SmartPost package volume into FedEx Ground standard operations and increasing large package capabilities.
FedEx SmartPost relies on the United States Post Office to deliver packages to their final destination while FedEx handled the pickup and transportation of the parcels.
Nearly two million FedEx SmartPost packages that were previously given to the US Postal Service for delivery to homes every day will be increasingly integrated into FedEx Ground operations and delivered by the same service providers currently handling FedEx Ground residential packages."
The fact is the USPS receives roughly $18 billion in taxpayer-backed subsidies annually. I guess FEDEX is a customer but does it give you a price break? That's a big NO.
I like this type of delivery, because instead of FedEx or UPS tossing packages on my front porch, they get put into a locked USPS neighborhood cluster box. For someone who works day shift, away from home, it could be a big problem, having packages sitting unguarded, in view of the street. There's a product I order repeatedly and one reason I buy from that dealer, is because they offer optional USPS delivery, at no extra cost.
Because the letter carrier is going by the location everyday where the other services will often make a special trip so they will often subcontract with the USPS to take the final mile for delivery
Remember the shipper, not the receiver is the customer. Even if you pay the shipper for shipping and handling. The loss that FedEx or UPS takes in buying postal services cost less than paying for the time needed for their own driver or courier to take that piece to your location.
I have a PO box delivery (live in a very rural place) and this has made my life incredibly difficult because many on-line stores won't allow you to enter a PO Box as a delivery destination. They use FedEx or UPS. But when FedEx and UPS use the PO as the final destination delivery tool, the PO address HAS to be on the address used. My work around is that I now have to call these companies so the customer service person can manually override and enter my PO Box #.
Get this: Back in early spring this year I ordered something without knowing about UPS and FedEx's new game. It was delivered to the PO by UPS with just the street address on it. THE PO CHARGED ME POSTAGE because they had to do a change of address from my street address to the PO Box address!!!!!!!
The postmaster told me that this all started in January 2019 because the USPS gave the big delivery services a deal on pricing - it is now cheaper for UPS and Fedex to pay the postage on the final delivery leg than it formerly cost them to pay for a driver and truck and gas to do all the final direct home deliveries.
YUSPS doesn't "ship" the FedEx package, to my understanding. FedEx delivers to your local USPS office, which finishes the last leg of delivering to the address.
Not always true. I live in a town where the USPS does not deliver any mail or packages to anyone. We are all required to come to the Post Office to pick up mail and packages. So, if someone send something via Surepost to me; it doesn't actually get to me; it only gets to the local Post Office.
Extremely bulky or heavy item? Guess I need to figure out how to carry it and fit it in my car.
Time sensitive item? Guess I need to take off from work, so I can be at the post office during their business hours.
It is a royal PITA.
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Cost Shifting to the Tax Payer
