[Kenwood] RE:Why does anyone ship UPS?

[Rick Markey, KN3C]

It depends on who you talk to.  I'm not a fan of UPS, but was told by a 
dealer on the west coast that they stopped using Fed-X because they had a 
high rate of damage.  That has not been my experience, but this dealer will 
no longer use Fed-Ex.  Another friend who has a small business related a 
similar story, and he was in Philly.

One major problem with UPS is this business of restricted delivery.  At any 
time, UPS can decide that your area is on restricted delivery due to a low 
volume of packages.  Restricted delivery means the truck won't come until 
UPS feels it has enough packages to make it worthwhile.  My wife had a 
delivery of medication from a pharmacy take 7 days, and it was shipped from 
the next town, some 20 miles away.  The pharmacy had never heard of 
restricted delivery, and UPS does not warn the shipper or the recipient 
about the problem.  I wrote to UPS and complained but got no response.  We 
now use US mail for pharmacy delivery.  They come 6 days a week no matter  
 what!

I was told my a UPS driver that UPS was trying it's darndest to get rid of 
it's ground business.  At my place of employment, we got a heckuva deal 
from Fed-Ex that makes 2-day Fed-Ex, just slightly more expensive than UPS 
ground.  Rather than try to lower it's rates to compete, UPS turned around 
and wanted to charge us $10/week to pick up packages because of low volume. 
 Never mind that they stop every day anyway.  We don't ship UPS anymore. 
 Maybe they got exactly what they wanted??

US Mail is no different.  I can ship stuff from Ft. Myers to my home in PA 
in 4 or 5 days.  It takes 2 - 3 weeks to ship something to northern Jersey. 
 Go figure.


de Rick, KN3C