Meanwhile, no mail into or out of New Orleans can be guaranteed. Thanks, mail carriers.

I wonder what the delivery vehicles look like in Iraq, brown armored personnel carriers?

The really fun question is, who delivered the shipment more intact?? Depending on how many times a package is handled directly correlates with how bad shape it will most likely arrive...

Users on the forums had a much different view of DHL. http://consumerist.proboards88.com/index.cgi?board=warning...

Good they didn't throw in the USPS. It would be like the turtle with the brain of the rabbit. I just had a package shipping via USPS show up today after 2 months of transit... This coming from within the United States... That is just bad.

Way to waste my tuition, although from a consumer standpoint it is amusing. And why didn't you go here? There's a 1/3 dropout rate, nuff said.

Had UPS made it, whatever was in the box would've been destroyed. I never use UPS (pronounced "OOPS") for anything. It's always Fed Ex or DHL for couriers or USPS on the cheap.

I love DHL, I once had them ship me a package from Boston, Ma to Boise, ID in just over nineteen hours. On top of that, I had only paid for four to six day shipping.

I wish they would have done some more normal sites so this would be more useful for the average shipper.

Domestically, DHL is hit-or-miss. That's been my experience, at least.

I cringe whenever Amazon sends me something by DHL. I never know if or when I'm going to get it. Last time I specified 1-day shipping (inexpensive with Amazon Prime), my shipment disappeared for 3 days. DHL couldn't tell me where it was. It had completley fallen off their radar. It eventually showed up. I was unimpressed. (Amazon refunded my shipping upgrade fee.)

I use DHL extensively. I don't even bother with UPS and FedEx anymore. Plus, DHL is considerably cheaper than the other two.

Ah, I should remember trying to get the shipping fee refunded next time it takes me three days to get something overnighted to me. I always feel bad because the person I'm buying from is really getting screwed by the shipper, but it's better than no culpability.

Is it really moral to send unnecessary packages into a war zone?

"Is it really moral to send unnecessary packages into a war zone?

Ya maybe the reason UPS never made it to the Iraq location is because the guy was brutally slaughtered by insurgents.

@fourmajor

my thoughts too.

@guroth:

Ya maybe the reason UPS never made it to the Iraq location is because the guy was brutally slaughtered by insurgents.

Doubtful. Only the package would be brutally slaughtered, and it would be by the UPS staff, not insurgents. I've had far better luck with USPS than UPS, and that's saying a lot considering how terribly disorganized USPS is.

@fourmajor:

Is it really moral to send unnecessary packages into a war zone?

Since when has academia ever had common sense or a sense of moral obligation?

s00p3rm4n: Where are they telling you that? Hell, Amazon had their "shipping may be delayed for weeks" notice up for almost a year and a half. When I finally started emailing them about it, they told me they just hadn't bothered to take it off yet.

FLConsumer:

Since when has academia ever had common sense or a sense of moral obligation?

@mopar_man: I've actually had decent luck with the USPS once you start paying for guaranteed delivery dates. I'll gladly use priority mail with a tracking number instead of FedEx for most documents.

My only exception is if I have to send paperwork to my fiancee: It takes about 36 hours to get from the post office to customs in her country. And then it takes another four weeks before it's in her hands. FedEx can do it in about 30 hours, only ten hours more than the actual physical transit time.

Two comments:

1) The headline should really read "DHL Wins Package Race. UPS, Fedex Still In Transit." You guys sure do hate you some Brown around here, huh?

2) Where does morality come into shipping? "Is it really moral to send unnecessary packages into a war zone?" Wha???

Besides which, who are you (by which I mean anyone, really) to say what's "necessary"?

It took FedEx 3 weeks+ to deliver a ground package from SF to Toronto ...

What sad is that those companies can get packages from Atlanta to places like Iraq and Zimbabwe quicker than the crappy old USPS can get my Netflix DVDs from the distribution center in Kansas City to my house in Rolla, Missouri 215 miles away and within state lines.

I've only used DHL a couple times, but have no complaints. I once ordered a textbook off eBay that came from Bangkok (international edition). Left there on a Monday, arrived at my parents house in St. Louis on Wednesday. Needless to say, I was impressed.

@yg17: That reminds me of an old scifi satire where a person in London sent packages to Hong Kong, Harare and Harrow-on-the-Hill (some town 5 miles from London) and ended up discovering the Post Office was run by aliens with faster than light travel. It always amazed me that it took 2 days for a package to arrive to my folks in Manila when friends in France waited a month for my present.

Just to add to the UPS douchbaggery, some RAM I ordered arrived at the local facility this morning. But since it's only been one day (the place it shipped from is relatively close) UPS is going to sit on it until tomorrow. God forbid I get next-day service when I paid for ground and they make a customer happy for a change.

I bet if this shipped from Zimbabwe, I'd already have it by now

USPS time to deliver a simple adequetely postaged wedding invitation to Perth, Australia: 5 months. (Yes, the wedding had taken place 3 months before the friend finally received her invite.)

I agree with the above comments regarding the war zone. If you really need to send some poor slob to a war zone its one thing. But to send some poor bastard into a war zone just to see if he can seems wrong. no sense in sending somebody into harm's way for a super secret contest. the delivery guy most likely had guards with him too. those guards would be our troops, so they also endangered our troops for their silly little contest. oh and wasted our tax money.

DHL gets another "no" vote from me. Coca-Cola sent me a gift card last week through DHL. Supposedly twice the guy came and "nobody was home" (hmm, I must've been off in that other dimension cuz I sure don't remember being out). Only after I called their 800 number and complained did the guy come back and deliver it. Never have this kind of trouble with UPS, FedEx or even the postal service.

DHL is a nightmare and the purpose of its customer service is to never, ever pay anything to anyone for any reason regardless of what DHL did to your package.

FedEx is sort-of on my shitlist as well, because once they misdeliver an overnight package (which happens surprisingly often with FedEx to law & ordery addresses -- they must use a different address database than USPS, UPS, and DHL, at least for government buildings) and put it back in the system ("lost package"), they can't pull it out FROM the system without five days of processing, which is A SERIOUS PROBLEM WHEN YOU'RE COURIERING COURT DOCUMENTS. They also refused to refund the money for their failure to deliver, let alone failure to deliver within the guaranteed time frame.

They could tell me exactly where it was but they informed me nobody in the entire company had the power to WALK INTO THE STORAGE ROOM and PICK UP MY PACKAGE that I had paid an arm and a leg to have overnighted on a court's order. "Could the CEO go in and get the package?" "No, ma'am." "Why not? Is it locked?" "No, ma'am, we just can't go in there." "Is there a magic forcefield preventing you?" "We can't go in there." "So how do packages get out of there in five days?" "Someone goes in and gets them." "I want to talk to that guy." "You can't." "Why not?" "He can't go in there." "Then how does he get the packages out? LEVITATION?" It was absolutely ridiculous.

"Is it really moral to send unnecessary packages into a war zone?"

Haven't you been paying attention, the insurgency is in it's last throes. Mission accomplished.

Despite the fact that the country is at war, life must go on for the people who live there. It sounds as though the package contained GT hats and t-shirts and surely brought some joy into an otherwise bleak day for the recipients.

@vanilla-fro:

I'm sure the package was moved along with many other packages of questionable necessity. It's the risk that comes with the delivery person's job, and they are well aware of it (and probably paid nicely for dealing with the extra risk).

Somebody somewhere probably risked their life delivering the box of cookies I got the other day. I could have lost sleep over that thought, but I was too busy enjoying the cookies.

Wow. Just awesome. The only thing that could make this contest better would be some motion-activated cameras on each package that started snapping pictures every time it switched vehicles.

When I ship I use either USPS or FedEx. I've had no problems with either one. I've found for books/small items USPS is cheapest but for larger/heavier boxes FedEx is cheaper.

Recieving: I prefer USPS/FedEx. Packages aren't beat up and they arrive quickly.

UPS: Damaged boxes every time.

DHL: One site I buy from uses them. Shipping time varies from 3-10 days and tracking is flaky. So far everthing has arrived undamaged.

When I lived in Providence, I witnessed several different DHL drivers in different neighborhoods selling drugs.

But that's Providence for you. Everyone sells drugs.

I couldn't even get DHL to deliver a text book to me. A commercial animal farm now has my text book on management principles, ugh.

@ShadowFalls:

I lived in Alaska for 23 years. The only problem I ever had with the USPS was with things coming from the west end of Fairbanks to North Pole. (About 20-40 miles, depending exactly where) Particularly from the university, where it consistently took 1-2 weeks, to go 20 miles.

Apart from that, I never had ANYTHING, even large packages sent book rate, take more than 3 weeks. Including an M-bag to Japan. I even had a regular first-class letter get from Fairbanks to Atlanta THE NEXT DAY. (The timing at every step would have had to be flawless for that, it was obviously a fluke.)

Maybe I've just been lucky. Maybe I've just never sent packages to or from any places where USPS (and other national postal systems) sucks. But I've never had any big problems with the USPS.

Also, am I imagining things, or have parcel post rates dropped, drastically? I remember the difference from priority used to be pennies.

I haven't used DHL since they freaking ran over a box last year. The box was shipped by a co-worker and contained a prototype missile nosecone. (Disclaimer: I no longer work for this company, and now you know what defense contractors do with your money - ship uninsured missile parts through DHL.)

My holiday gifts might not be as important, but I don't want them run over either. The other part that was in the box was lost entirely.

Then again, we had a lot of fun running around the office with a big smashed cone on our heads afterwards.

my one experience with dhl was lousy. they misdelievered my package twice to the SAME wrong address...an address that wasn't remotely similar to mine and was nearly ten miles away from my house.

the poor people at the wrong address finally wrote on the front of the package, "REFUSED; please deliver to address listed on package, not this one."

I really can't believe DHL won. I regularly shop at Amazon Japan and since they only use DHL for international shipping I've had lots of run-ins with them.

As some of the commenters have already mentioned, DHL ruins your package regardless of shipping speed or location. This I have experienced several times. But Amazon Japan probably knew about it therefore they ship most packages overly protected and buffered. Its only when I receive the goods in envelopes do I receive them squashed and maimed.

Its even worse now that Amazon Japan has done away with international economy shipping since Mar this year. When they ship express I don't necessarily receive the packages any faster but have to pay more as well as additional duty fees incurred by express shipping.

I don't really care to have my packages arrive fast but in several pieces I just want it intact. Probably the next competition should be for shippers to compare who ships packages in the most intact fashion.

Dude Busted For Running An Illegal Bank For Tax Evaders From His Suburban Home Today’s lesson: don’t give your money to someone you don’t know who runs a “bank” out of his house. Oh, and you’ll get caught if you try evading taxes.