Whoomp Whooomp, I love USPS!

DHL overnights most of my packages I send Ground Service plus they normally are the lowest cost

Crap in, crap out.

How reliable is the service, though? I get the feeling lately that no one at the USPS actually cares anymore. They are government employees, so it would take a mountain of complaints to see a mailperson lose their job. Not to mention that their revenue is limited by the rate of inflation, and I seriously doubt the government is bailing out the USPS as much as Fannie/Freddy.

Sure, the couple of test packages the C.R. guys sent out arrived on time, but what about the millions of other packages being over-nighted? How many of those actually arrive the next day?

I was just wondering about this a few minutes ago. I walked outside of work and saw a UPS van, Fed Ex van, and DHL van all parked outside. Its possible that each was just dropping off but seemed just as likely that they were dropping of and picking up since each department probably has a carrier of choice. Seems like it would be an easy thing to streamline...

When sending books, you can't beat the rates for USPS media mail across country. The Priority flat rate box is also an awesome deal at under $10.

They can deliver for less than the others because they are losing money. The government covers the over-expenditures of that organization, and the end result is the federal government subsidizing part of the cost for your super competitively priced overnight package delivery service.

I just shipped a boatload of various-sized goods through USPS for eBay sales (thanks, economy!), and their service has never let me down.

(OK, save for that one time where I could have walked a package to Hawaii quicker, but still...)

I cringe when something is shipped to me via UPS, but I heart DHL and FedEx.

Did Consumer's Report test whether signatures were properly obtained (or packages simply left on doorsteps)?

Did Consumer's Report test how fragile (but properly packed) items fared? No - they shipped a book.

Did Consumer's Report document if "We missed you" stickers were properly used, or simply slapped on a door without ringing a bell?

Most people's complaints with BOTH companies isn't meeting their time commitment, it's more service related. In addition the the issues above, what about tracking lost packages, insurance claims (outsourced and horrible), etc.

If people wanted to compare costs, the information is widely available and doesn't not require CR's 'investigating'.

I run a small internet company that has used UPS almost exclusively for the last 10 years. We have tried using Fedex, USPS, and DHL, and I can tell you with no reservations: UPS is easily the best of the bunch.

Why? Because unlike the others, they actually seem to learn from their mistakes, and their customer service is way higher than the others.

/not a shill for UPS, just a satisfied customer

@blackmage439:

I get the feeling everywhere that people don't care anymore. No one is making decent money, the cost of living has crept up and the wages haven't matched.

Don't buy the hype, postal workers lose their jobs more easily than you'd think, but I think that threat of firing is not a path to happiness.

You are right however, the failure rate on USPS is higher, so if it HAS to be overnight, I use another carrier, but for anything short of ABOSOLUTELY CRITICAL I send USPS and I have had a very, very high rate of success.

@blackmage439: did they ever care?

USPS has the worst tracking system.

USPS is great for the most part. Unfortunately, the post office in my town is horrible. The carriers are contractors because the USPS hasn't designated the area as non-rural (even though the city's population is over 90,000), and the postmaster is a lazy no-account idiot. Mailed items are constantly lost, stolen, misdelivered, or days late. If I drive 5 miles to the post office in the next town, service is perfect. Amazing.

The only other problem is that their tracking is hardly a decent tracking system, but it is slowly improving. They implemented tracking before the hardware was in place, so not all depots had tracking scanners. Even then, sometimes packages weren't scanned because it took too long and there was no one to do it so they just shipped the packages on to avoid delay.

@blackmage439: "Sure, the couple of test packages the C.R. guys sent out arrived on time" They mailed 48 packages between the three services. That's 16 with each service. That isn't a couple. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, it's a small sample, but it's not a couple of mailings.

i use the postal service exclusively - i've never had any trouble & i like that i can often "overnight" a package w/ preferred mail for ~$5 (based on proximity). bonus points for delivery to PO boxes & APO/FPO addresses.

uh, DHL?

I hate UPS only for the reason that I'm the last leg of their delivery route. I always end up getting my packages around 6:00 at night..

Anyone have any thoughts on SmartPost? It's a USPS/FedEx hybrid - I've gotten the occasional item shipped to me that way, and haven't had any problems with it - but then again, I also have no visibility to how much it costs. Just found out something I bought last week (BoC, for any who know what that is) was shipped out yesterday from Dallas-ish and should be getting to me here on LI late next week.

If using ground:
As far as reliability, I've shipped thousands of packages over the last few years. Most of these packages are shipped through USPS, some through FedEx and a very small amount through DHL.

USPS: in the last 7 years has lost 2 packages outright, and has delayed 1 package 2 months. (it was lost, then found.) Out of thousands of packages thats it.

FedEx: in the last 7 years they have lost 3 packages. Doesn't seem bad except I've sent 15 times more packages through USPS then FedEx.

DHL has never lost anything, but I've used them less than 100 times. Unlike FedEx the first $100 is NOT insured, so while its usually less expensive with DHL the risk of loss or damage is on you, not them.

As for speed: USPS is always faster then FedEx if you are comparing first class/priority to FedEx Ground. Never pay for priority mail if your package is eligible for first class mail (up to 13 ounces). I've never seen a difference.

On price, as a general rule if its under 2 lbs USPS is cheaper. If its over 2 lbs, but you are sending it in-state or to a nearby state FedEx might be cheaper. Otherwise, if you can fit it in a USPS flat rate box do that, if not, FedEx.

Buy and print postage online with USPS. Delivery confirmation is free for priority mail, and .12 for first class (I think). Do it in the post office and you get charged .55.

@blackmage439: I've never had worse reliability than with UPS. The most noteworthy (although no the only) instance of their incompetence was when they delivered a package that was correctly addressed to my apartment to a local business that was more than 10 miles from me. It took them several days to get the package back from the business and deliver it to me, and no one apologized or could explain how they made the mistake. They knew the correct address and it was entered into their system - they knew the address where it had been delivered, and that too was entered into the system, yet no alarms went off at any point to suggest that maybe the driver was an incompetent moron.

I managed an independent packing and shipping store and I can say that UPS was by far and away the best as far as service and getting things delivered on time. In the 3 years and 4 x-mas shipping seasons I had a grand total of less than 5 packaged damaged that were packed by us sent UPS, out of probably 200,000 to 300,000 packages sent. And on all of them I was able to claim them out in less than 3 weeks.

I love USPS because whenever I mail a priority mail package from DC to Phoenix it is there within 2 days, which is even faster than the 3-5 days they advertise :-D

USPS is the #1 thing the government has ever done. I've yet to find a #2.

i've pretty much found that if i needed something overnighted the usps was not the most reliable. the only thing that's really great about them is they can deliver to PO boxes and they don't require extra info like phone numbers.

i think my favorite was a book from one state away took six weeks in media mail. like literally a two hour drive took them six weeks.

Bear in mind the info above only applies if you're and individual sending one large envelope overnight. When I shop and need overnight service, I find UPS to be the cheapest and most reliable. Now, granted, that only applies to sites I buy from (newegg, amazon, thinkgeek, and a hand full of others), but the service usually runs around ten bucks.

On the topic of the USPS: It seems their level of reliability is directly dependent on your local post office, not their overall infrastructure.

Example A: For about five weeks in July / August, I didn't receive mail on Saturdays. In fact, I live in a quadraplex (four apartments in one building), and no one got mail on those Saturdays. So, I confronted the post master. He apologized, and said someone new was on at least two of those days. The problem stopped up until last weekend when, again, no mail showed up on Saturday. This time I went to consumer affairs. I probably wouldn't have even cared except something important was due to arrive in Sat's mail. Saturday's mail (complete with the usual sale circulars, and town newsletter) showed up on Tuesday.

Example B: At a previous residence, I had a package on the way via priority mail. Almost two weeks came and went, and on the same day I was planning on contacting them, the company I had ordered from actually contacted me to let me know the package was sitting in my local post office. I never received a "missed delivery" slip. I called the post office, and they promised to send it out the next day. When they did, I actually stood by the mailbox to take it from the mail man. When I inquired (politely) about the slip I never received, he said "I left a slip" (bear in mind, these are locked mailboxes) to which I replied "I never got a slip" to which he replied "It must have gotten lost in the mail" At this point, I was actually struck speechless. That's a rarity for me - I'm a strong verbal communicator, and I'm always quick w/ a comeback - I was genuinely speechless at the fact that the guy who lost / misdelivered the slip had the stones to tell me it must have gotten lost in the mail. I just took my package, turned and walked away.

I travel about 5 months out the year for work and I always need something shipped to me the next day. I still trust Priority Fed-Ex overnight or DHL more than I would USPS.

From the amount of mail that I have had lost I would not trust them with a package. I do not mail anything now - just pay all bills online...

@blackmage439: My local office in Los Angeles area (San Fernando Valley) seems to care. I received a Smithsonian magazine with a torn up cover in a plastic bag with an apology letter inside. No big deal, but I was really surprised the post office would do that. I've also never had a problem at my new home with Netflix, never a cracked disk from the letter carrier trying to mash it into the mailbox. Damaged disks, probably (though not definitively) due to the letter carrier, was a big problem at my old residence.

Well as a UPS rep, (NOT FOR UPS!!! please dont kill me) I really like UPS. I get a sweet discount (5 dollar Next day air)and i can complain to director level staff about the BS they feed you when they lose your crap. Anyway, Locally, Ground shipping is the way to go. You get a big chunk of your fuel surcharge cut off(30% for air, 10 percent for ground) but itll get delivered by EOBD meaning 6-7pm (bummer) I havent had very muchy luck with Fedex, because their reps are bastards who cant help me at all... really, F*ck Fedex. Dhl hasnt doen to bad in my book, bnut i havent used them enought to really critisize. USPS, really their service sucks... I havent lost so many deliveries (gamefly and netflix) in my life. And they HAVE NO WARRANTY ON LOST GOODS- for the most part. When you ask for help they tell you to screw off. The only reason their so cheap s because they lack a massive fuelsurcharge that the private couriers are (forced?) to put into place. I like UPS, consider DHL, reluctantly except USPS, and despise fedex. really though, I should swing my ups contact number to consumerist

@Bladefist: Interstate Highway System?

I buy DHL prepaid letter-size envelopes from Costco for about $12 each, and they go (almost) anywhere in the US by noon the next day. Pickup is free. Can't beat that price, but DHL does exclude some rural zip-codes.

@admiral_stabbin: I am pretty sure that the postal service hasn't gotten any taxpayer money since they were semi-privatized in 1970.

@Bladefist: I'd vote for the Interstate Highway System, or maybe Rural Electrification. Both programs have been highly successful at doing what they set out to do, so successful that people rarely think about them.

what if the USPS was privatized, split up and sold off? What kind of impact would that have, I wonder???

@DeannaFlying fox: I also managed to get a BOC! I have had Woot and a few other companies ship to me via SmartPost. It seems OK but it is gawd awful slow. Usually I am not in a hurry, so the cheaper the better.

I think that if DHL or UPS handed you 10 pieces of junk advertisement with your package they might be a little more competitive with their prices.

@laserjobs: I had thought I'd heard that they were going to eliminate media mail, but I see it's still there on their website, so maybe I heard wrong.

@altryan: USPS is already semi-privatized. It doesn't receive any subsidy from the federal gov't and therefore your tax dollars and is not subject to Congressional oversight.

@Bladefist: Clean Air Act?

Never had a problem shipping with FedEx. Get packages from companies using FedEx is another story. UPS is reliable but we don't ship with them. DHL is the worst of the three private carriers. 12 different deliveries to the same address came up with 12 different reasons why it couldn't be delivered on time. The worst being that no one was home while the client sat at the curb all day and never saw a truck drive by. After that, the client agreed to our higher shipping charges associated with FedEx and hasn't missed a shipment since. USPS has become somewhat unreliable in my area. We've received letters a month after they have been post marked.

Moving from New York to Seattle I shipped all my things USPS. Between Media Mail and freight (or whatever the slowest shipping is), I paid about $200 to ship 14 medium-large boxes, making it by far the cheapest option. They did lose a box though, so I guess you get what you pay for.

@blackmage439: You are completely incorrect about the Postal Service. My father worked as a regional manager for them for 20 years. He fired people every single day. It's just that the people who replaced them were usually just as bad as the people he fired. It's just a giant bureaucracy, and sucks as much as any other giant bureaucracy.

Personally, I never use UPS because they will literally store your package in a warehouse .5 miles from your house in order to avoid delivering it early. And once it's gone into the warehouse, who knows if it will ever come out again?

@RonDiaz:
The Postal Service is exempt from paying federal taxes. USPS can borrow money at discounted rates, and can condemn and acquire private property under governmental rights of eminent domain.

The USPS does get some taxpayer support. Around $96 million is budgeted annually by Congress for the "Postal Service Fund." These funds are used to compensate USPS for postage-free mailing for all legally blind persons and for mail-in election ballots sent from US citizens living overseas. A portion of the funds also pays USPS for providing address information to state and local child support enforcement agencies, and for keeping some rural posts offices in operation.

I found the above online. Also since the employees are government employees or civil servants I would think a big portion of their benefits come from the government not the post office. If DHL, UPS or FedEx received the benefits above they might be able to beat the price of the USPS.

USPS only for me. UPS charges incredibly ridiculous amounts of brokerage, so much in fact it's worth the 2 hour drive (each way) to do it myself. FedEx isn't as bad, but it's still twice what USPS cahrges. I won't do eBay business with sellers that only ship UPS. I'll email them and explain the proposition: I'll buy your item if you make the exception. Most will do it. The rest can re-list their items for all I care.

Avoid UPS like the plague, if you're Canadian.

@sir_pantsalot: With that comes a pretty significant mandate, though. USPS guarantees universal delivery everywhere in the U.S., something that none of those private companies offer. I'm not sure they'd want to pick up all those rural routes, even in exchange for the subsidies you mention.

Although I know that Fedex usually is not the cheapest, I prefer to use them for items I really care about, so they have my vote for preferred carrier.

The amount of times Fedex delivers packages have not been damaged is nill. The times UPS delivers packages damaged (dings and outright have to returns) are so high that I have to look at every package I get (forced to sign for everything because someone took packages off my porch). I have seen boxes that look like someone dropped them from a huge height, and others that appear been jammed by sharp objects. UPS boxes are also covered in tar like grease so I have to keep them on a cleanable surface before I open the box.

As for USPS they try too hard to fit a package into a mailbox. There have been a lot of times in the past few years where I don't even know how they managed to jam the package into my mailbox. Boxes are crumpled, letters which say don't bend are bent to get the fit. If they deliver to your front door the package is fine.

@RonDiaz:

So far, the only 2 weights I've seen posted on the forums are 6 pounds and 9 pounds.

Roombas, these ain't. ;-)

I'm not going to call for the weight, though - it's not like it'll change what's in the box. When I get it, I get it - easy as that. I'm just happy a) I got the BoC and b) that they upgraded me to 3 - I was one of the unwashed masses who couldn't get the I Want 3 button to work.

Also bought the 16gb flash drive they had up there a day or 2 later - we'll see how long that takes to get to me. :-)

@LatherRinseRepeat: Seconded. With other shippers, at least there's something resembling a tracking system in place, but USPS tracking tends to go directly from "Electronic Shipping Info Received" to "Delivered" with zero steps in between. Your package may have fallen into a black hole and been delivered via Pony Express for all you know.

FedEx Does get a lot of benefits from the government mostly through USPS.

FedEx has a huge contract with USPS in their Domestic and International shipping by using FedEx's planes. They won a 1 Billion Dollar contract from them. ever notice their drop boxes out side of USPS or the fact that you can ship some FedEx in USPS?

FedEx is also doing the Ballot mailing this year and years to come.

DHL is leaving America almost exclusively and selling off many of its portions to FedEx.

@blackmage439:

The "I don't care attitude is in no way unique to the USPS. FedEx and UPS and DHL and every other service has its share of people who don't give a shit. And I assure you, there's also a number of people who do really honestly care. However, the bulk I'm sure is made up of people who do their job as best they can, then go home at night. watching TV and drink beer, then get up in the morning and do it again.

Another part of it is any kind of reporting or story or anecdote. No newspaper or blog is going to report "Hundreds of thousands of packages delivered to happy consumers." No, it's going to be "USPS drop my package" or "DHL lost of shipment" or "FedEx kicked my week old puppy, set my package on fire, peed on my grandmother, then ran away".