Crazy Shippers

[dpd1]

I always think it's funny when grumpy people talk about abolishing the postal service. I can't imagine what it would be like, with only a couple private carriers, and Jeff Bezos' in house shippers, airborne UAVs, and whatever other crazy stuff he wants to do... monopolizing all shipping.

I just noticed a little $3.20 FedEx fee attached to a shipment the other day. I call in and ask what it's for... They tell me that even though the customer charged the shipment to his account... they auto-billed me the $3.20, because: "we were the ones that arranged for the shipment". So basically, they got their delivery fee, then they charged us for essentially, filling out the web form. UPS charges us the $8 fee per pickup if we use them, because... even though we are in a massive urban area where their trucks are going up and down the streets all day, they still technically consider it a "residential area". No amount of coaxing has gotten them to stop charging this. And it's not like either one has improved their service over the years... Their guys just keep getting more lazy and less intelligent, as the years go by.

[HRoth]

Yes, the residential delivery surcharge from UPS was one of the two reasons why I chose to use USPS instead. That and the fact that UPS insisted on being paid by check. Stupid. I have not regretted using the post office all these years. It's cheaper and faster and they give me free boxes. And now with the tracking, it's ace. People who gripe about it are simply nihilists who want to destroy the government, period. I have no use for them or their tea.

[dpd1]

I don't think they would still want a check, because now they love having your bank/card info straight away, so they can add on all their fees after the fact, and have less chance that you'll notice the charges getting attached to your monthly billing.

A while back I was setting up something through the UPS site, and I couldn't get it to allow me to just pay for the shipment, at the time of sending. It just kept on giving an error. So I called them up, and was kind of astonished to find that... #1 They didn't even really seem to have a dedicated web support group. #2 Some random guy told me the issue was an "ongoing bug". Then he told me to just put it through on my account, and it would work. After I hung up, I thought about it... Oh, OK... How convenient. A "bug" prevents everybody from being able to pay up front, so they can then tack on all their fees later, and hope you don't notice. Nice.

[HRoth]

This was about ten years ago that I dealt with UPS. I was shocked that they did not have an option to pay with a card, not even if I called them up. It just seemed so old-fashioned. To me that was not a good sign, not to mention it was inconvenient. That is obnoxious about their tack-on fees.