[Milsurplus] Fedex Shipping...Cheap, and you get what you pay for.

[Mike Morrow]

Bruce wrote:

>On Delivery Notices: Never had one left that DIDN'T have a tracking
>number, and a contact phone number, clearly imprinted. I can only
>conclude that your troubles may be due to a specific negligent driver.
> In short, it may be one bad apple spoiling the bunch.

I've lived and accepted deliveries in the same location for 20 years.  I've
had only one or two Fedex notices that ever had a tracking number, which in
Fedex's antiquated way of doing business requires the driver to manually
write that number on the delivery notice.  Hence, the drivers usually skip
that blank on the rare occasion that they even bother to leave a notice.

It's not a particular driver.  For many years this has been characteristic
of Fedex here in north Alabama long before they began ground transport
"services."

As far as a contact phone number being on the notice, it is just a 1-800
number through which you have to navigate the Fedex organization to finally
talk to someone at the local terminal.

>Unless you explicity specify, on ground packages, that a signature
>is required for delivery the package will indeed be left at the delivery
>location in whatever spot the driver thinks is best suited for it.

This completely makes my point!  Any shipper that can make arbitrary
decisions on where to drop a package, without any communications with the
recipient, without even the simple courtesy of leaving a delivery notice so
that the receipient can determine if a package was supposed to be present,
is a shipper to be avoided.

>HOWEVER -- Specify signature service, and the package will
>NOT be released without a signature.

The intended recipient of the package has absolutely NO control that ensures
the shipper will take even that minimal precaution.  It is totally out of
the intended recipient's hands.  UPS or USPS on the other hand, have *never*
left a package here where it could be subject to local pilfering.

>I think they're [prices] lower because they're running a more efficient
>operation

That is what they'd like people to think, irrespective of any supporting
evidence.  Their "service" is worse than valueless if the package doesn't
finally make it to the intended recipient, no matter how nice and easy
they've made things for the shipper.

73,
Mike / KK5F