Combined shipping results?

[Ray B]

I'm wondering if any on here have had experiences with having items sent where the sender started the package either with Fedex or UPS and after the item got near the destination (within a few hundred miles) dropped the item off at the USPS for final transport and delivery? I have ordered parts from Numrichs and Brownells and their first option for shipping seems to be this double method. Every time this has been the method the appearance is that the USPS is quite lax in processing. I currently have an item coming from Brownells, according to UPS they dropped the item off at the USPS terminal at 8:33 AM Yesterday- USPS still claims to have not received it. A few months ago a similar result when Fedex dropped a package off and it set at USPS for a couple days before they processed it. all of this is strange because if the package is sent fixed rate USPS I get it in two days. This package was sent 12/18 and clearly won't be here until at least 12/26. definitely unacceptable service from someone.

 

[JimP]

It's standard practice anymore and possibly even more so if part of your address contains a PO Box number.

Where I live we have no home delivery of US mail, only PO Boxes, and not knowing how a company is going to ship I have to put both my PO Box and physical address for the shipping address, and even then I have problems getting things.

But with what is called "Sure Post" the odds of my order reaching me is a lot better

 

[CAustin]

I was in the local post office the day before Christmas Eve and the packages were stacked to the ceiling unprocessed. I could see the back room from the counter and they were 10 feet deep against the wall.‘‘Tis the time of the year where they simply can’t do it all in a timely fashion.

 

[Wade J VanGinkel]

About half of all my orders do this
Always adds 1 to 2 days. The thing that really irritates me is if it's a package they won't leave it in my box which is a half mile from the house. So a note is left which then requires me to drive into town 6 miles away. Adding another day

 

[Ridgewalker]

It happens more and more on my orders. Particularly small items.

 

[Hogpatrol]

The drones are coming.

 

[Ray B]

This is getting beyond ridiculous. I ordered a talley base & QD rings (weight .52lb) from Brownells on the 16th; they shipped it UPS/USPS combo on the 17th. UPS had it 18th-23, when they transferred the package to USPS early in the AM in Wenatchee, about 20 miles away. USPS still notes on the tracking website that they have not received it. I will likely be contacting Brownells if it doesn't appear in tomorrows mail and request a trace and ask that they NEVER use the combined system again. The propaganda from UPS/FEDEX/USPS notwithstanding, the system is crap. Evidently if one can claim the other one lost it, then they are a lot less conscientious about their service.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I remember when you could order something from Midway USA and they'd deliver it the day before you ordered it. OK, maybe not quite that fast, but one or two days after you ordered something, you got it.

About a month ago, I ordered some Swift A-Frame bullets and they were shipped UPS-USPS. I followed the tracking on the UPS website until it was transferred to USPS, then I tracked it via the USPS tracking and signed up for email alerts. I received an email that it was being returned to sender as "Undeliverable." I phoned the local Post Office (westside of Houston) and was amazed by the exceptionally good service. First, a real person answered the phone. I told them my problem and they put me on hold for about 5 minutes and came back and said they had the package and I could come by and pick it up. When I did, the USPS employee told me that UPS slapped the "Surepost" sticker on the package and it covered the label with my address on it, so that's why USPS couldn't deliver it.

I sent an email to Midway and told them they are jeopardizing their great reputation by shipping this method.

 

[JimP]

I don't know if it is a shipping problem with the supplier or a shipping problem with the shippers.

It is a love hate with this system. But it does usually add a day to two days to the shipping.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Different strokes but when I see something I want to buy, I check Amazon to see if it's on the Prime list. For a couple bucks extra, I go with the Prime. I know it'll more than likely be on my doorstep in a day or two.

 

[JimP]

Different strokes but when I see something I want to buy, I check Amazon to see if it's on the Prime list. For a couple bucks extra, I go with the Prime. I know it'll more than likely be on my doorstep in a day or two.

Hello, my name is Jim and I am also a Amazon Prime addict.

 

[Hogpatrol]

@JimP, It wouldn't pay you to live in my location. I'm lucky in that I live within fifteen miles of two HUGE Amazon warehouses and get some things the same day. The old GM plant that was leveled is on tap for another warehouse and it's less than ten miles away. And, oh yeah, I can stop any time.

 

[JimP]

When Amazon showed up on the www I used them a few times now they are my go to for first choice.

But then where I live you either need to drive to shop or drive further to shop. The nearest real sporting goods dealer is 120 miles east or 120 miles to the west, somehow I got stuck right in the middle. Amazon for me right now is usually a 3 day process but then I can usually get what I want and with prime it is even better.

The last couple of years I have been using the dickens out of my Prime membership. I purchased a Fire Stick from them and watch all kinds of shows on the TV now. If I would have a smart TV I wouldn't of needed the Fire Stick.

 

[Ray B]

Since today marks two weeks since I placed the order, and still no info from USPS on receiving the package via UPS, I called Brownells. they check through their system and learned that just in the last few minutes USPS had located the package and entered it in their program. USPS also set the expected date of delivery as Monday. I suppose it's too much trouble for them to put it on the truck with the rest of the mail for delivery tomorrow (since the package is a whole 18 miles away). What is interesting is that I placed another order with a So Calif company yesterday and they are sending it fixed-rate USPS packet and it is scheduled to be delivered on Monday, same as the Brownells packet. I think it may be a unwritten rule for USPS personnel to impede packages sent with the combined delivery system. the odds are just too great for it to be happening at random. Whatever- any further mail-order purchases that I make, and there are quite a few, I will specify to NOT use the combined system.

 

[JimP]

One thing that I have also learned is to never order a package that is supposed to be delivered around the Christmas holidays

I have been burned by all the shippers when I have had to do this

 

[Dwight Beagle]

I live in the country and a fair amount of my stuff is delivered by USPS on behalf of FEDEX and UPS. The rural route USPS drivers suck around here. I moved to North Texas going on 23 years ago from the hill country outside of an old German town called Boerne and didn’t have issues with the rural USPS mail carriers. Here it’s continuous and almost weekly I get some of another person’s mail and vice versa. Plus they have lost a number of packages they were delivering for UPS and FEDEX. I’ve complained and the Postmaster says the rural carriers are not employees but subcontractors/1099 and he doesn’t have any control over them.
When UPS delivers stuff they are usually pretty good.

Which brings me to FEDEX. The driver who works my neck of the woods is extremely obese. This is not an exaggeration, he has never, not once delivered a package on the day it’s supposed to be delivered. Usually there are least two exceptions, sometimes three. so the package is always delivered five to seven days late. Last but not least I occasionally receive notice the package has been delivered. Technically it’s true but it ain’t delivered to my address. He drops it in front of an unoccupied house about 1.5 miles back towards town from my house. The last time he dropped off a package down the street it was my FoxPro electronic predator call. I’d sent it to FoxPro for repairs and they had fixed it and sent it back. When I got notified the package had been delivered I drove down to the unoccupied house. There was my caller and since it rained all day the outer cardboard box was soaking wet. Fortunately FoxPro packaged it well and no moisture got inside the caller.

Amazon Prime? I use it a lot. It’s great.

 

[CoElkHunter]

I live in the country and a fair amount of my stuff is delivered by USPS on behalf of FEDEX and UPS. The rural route USPS drivers suck around here. I moved to North Texas going on 23 years ago from the hill country outside of an old German town called Boerne and didn’t have issues with the rural USPS mail carriers. Here it’s continuous and almost weekly I get some of another person’s mail and vice versa. Plus they have lost a number of packages they were delivering for UPS and FEDEX. I’ve complained and the Postmaster says the rural carriers are not employees but subcontractors/1099 and he doesn’t have any control over them.
When UPS delivers stuff they are usually pretty good.

Which brings me to FEDEX. The driver who works my neck of the woods is extremely obese. This is not an exaggeration, he has never, not once delivered a package on the day it’s supposed to be delivered. Usually there are least two exceptions, sometimes three. so the package is always delivered five to seven days late. Last but not least I occasionally receive notice the package has been delivered. Technically it’s true but it ain’t delivered to my address. He drops it in front of an unoccupied house about 1.5 miles back towards town from my house. The last time he dropped off a package down the street it was my FoxPro electronic predator call. I’d sent it to FoxPro for repairs and they had fixed it and sent it back. When I got notified the package had been delivered I drove down to the unoccupied house. There was my caller and since it rained all day the outer cardboard box was soaking wet. Fortunately FoxPro packaged it well and no moisture got inside the caller.

Amazon Prime? I use it a lot. It’s great.

I might have this story beat? In the late 90s I ordered some Trijicon night sights for my son in laws Glock 22 for Christmas. At the time, I lived down a dirt driveway about 2000 feet off the main road in a forest. I came home from work down the driveway in the dark and with my headlights I could see there was a small package hanging from a pine tree branch over the driveway. You guessed it, the night sights! It had been kind of delivered by one of the “contract” UPS drivers by tying it to the branch with a string! Amazing!