Originally posted by Radio bug
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I'm a US expat living in the Netherlands.. In general, my experiences have been better with USPS than with UPS. Unfortunately both services seem to expect you to be home all day to receive packages, and apartments here do not tend to have guards or any secure place to leave packages. If I'm very lucky, one of my neighbors will take it into the building and leave it at my door. If not, since I work fulltime, unless I can arrange to work from home on a given day, I have to go pick it up at a local stationary store a short walk away (USPS) or at the facility on the other side of my city (UPS). Last December I had a package get lost, possibly in Customs, for about 6 weeks. (Fortunately it was from LL Bean and they sent me a replacement.)
There also seem to be other delivery services that leave packages for pick up at places more or less convenient, but I think those have mostly been for packages I've ordered from within Europe.
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Originally posted by Darcy View PostThanks for that link, moriond. We'll ask our UPS rep about Mail Innovations.
Regarding shipping via USPS: we'll look into this again, but unless things have changed significantly since we last shipped via USPS, I can't see us shipping internationally with them again. The reason we don't ship USPS is that, when we used to ship USPS, it was unreliable. Delivery of some packages would be delayed by weeks or the packages would be lost entirely, and because the tracking information from USPS is so poor, we would get continual emails and phone calls from customers who had orders shipped that way asking when their package would arrive, why the tracking information hadn't been updated for days, etc. Sometimes if a package was a week or two late we'd ship a replacement at our cost and then when the original package in fact arrived we'd have to pay return shipping charges and ask customers to make a trip to their post office return the duplicate to us. Also, we have trouble even getting USPS to pick up packages at our factory. Some days (or for several days) they don't pick up at all. We've talked with them about that problem but there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it. But maybe things have improved since we had these problems: it's worth checking out for sure!
I don't know about overseas shipping but, within the U.S, things have gotten worse.
About the time I received my Punch order, in late spring or early summer of 09, I ordered other items in similar colors, unfortunately, the seller only shipped USPS.
While my Tom Bihn Punch order was handed to me by the UPS person, I received the other vendor USPS order with a rip the width of a human hand at the opening, as if somebody had tried to reach out and grab the content.
The content was inside smaller boxes which were too wide and tall to fit into the rip.
All my online orders exclude vendors who ship USPS and are not willing to make any exceptions.
I have heard and read many horror stories of shipments "lost" or damaged by careless USPS practices.
I don't know anything about Mail Innovations and the postal service in Australia.
I just want to caution people that sometimes, "cheap" ends up being very expensive as one could end up out the money and without goods.Last edited by backpack; 06-26-2012, 01:06 PM.
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Thanks for looking into it, Darcy. I suspect your past bad experiences were to do with Surface Mail, a service which is no longer available from USPS.
The postal serice is notoriously poor in some countries (Italy comes to mind in particular) but in Australia it is reasonable. Perhaps limit USPS only to Australia, since Australia is the most expensive destination with UPS?
Audrey
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Thanks for that link, moriond. We'll ask our UPS rep about Mail Innovations.
Regarding shipping via USPS: we'll look into this again, but unless things have changed significantly since we last shipped via USPS, I can't see us shipping internationally with them again. The reason we don't ship USPS is that, when we used to ship USPS, it was unreliable. Delivery of some packages would be delayed by weeks or the packages would be lost entirely, and because the tracking information from USPS is so poor, we would get continual emails and phone calls from customers who had orders shipped that way asking when their package would arrive, why the tracking information hadn't been updated for days, etc. Sometimes if a package was a week or two late we'd ship a replacement at our cost and then when the original package in fact arrived we'd have to pay return shipping charges and ask customers to make a trip to their post office return the duplicate to us. Also, we have trouble even getting USPS to pick up packages at our factory. Some days (or for several days) they don't pick up at all. We've talked with them about that problem but there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it. But maybe things have improved since we had these problems: it's worth checking out for sure!
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Originally posted by moriond View PostThe Kickstarter Web update page for the Touchfire mentioned a UPS shipping option called Mail innovations for international deliveries where UPS flies packages overseas using their normal cargo fleet, but they then hand the packages over to the local postal service for final mail delivery. This would appear to alleviate the problem of having to be at a specific location at a particular time to receive the package that Audrey complains of, since you can refer to your normal postal service in case you do not make a direct connection with the carrier.
Audrey
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Katy, My job(s) separate us all the time, He always takes me back !
Funny story: Last week I brought my beloved spouse with me on a trip. Formal attire was required one evening so we had a suit carrier which we checked. I had my tristar with everything else we needed in case the suit carrier was lost in transit. On the way home I checked the tristar seeing I was going to have to wait at luggage claim anyway. When the tristar came up the shoot I exclaimed "There's Tom!" and ran off to secure the tristar while my beloved was looking around for a human male. *oops*
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Originally posted by Tlacltme View PostKaty is magic! She pulls hard-to-find TB products out of thin air, with a smile!
And though I was joking earlier about placing an order to save $2.....sigh....just did exactly that! You know the order: a couple of OPs here, a packing cube there....I'm incorrigible!
Along with mind reading classes, I've also taken a few introductory magic courses.
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$10 is still awesome.
When I had to ship a Synapse back (in order to get one in a diferent color, not because I didn't like it) in its original TB box, it was going to be way more than that. $17 maybe. Which is why I managed to cram it(barely) into one of the flat rate boxes, which was still more than $10.
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Originally posted by Tlacltme View PostKaty is magic! She pulls hard-to-find TB products out of thin air, with a smile!
And though I was joking earlier about placing an order to save $2.....sigh....just did exactly that! You know the order: a couple of OPs here, a packing cube there....I'm incorrigible!
It's been a little while since I've gotten a big TB box, but I am holding fast, I tell you. I am starting to envision a purchase of epic proportions (part of which will require Katy's help and awesome-magical penmanship) but there are contingencies involved so for now, sitting tight.
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Just placed my order as well. Figured I'd do it before solar is gone. I'm sure the new color will be nice, but I like the yellow solar.
Originally posted by falconea View PostCan you offer an option of the USPS flat rate boxes as an alternative for smaller orders
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Originally posted by Badger View PostI actually never phone in my orders. However, yes: Katy is a supreme enabler, and everything is her fault.
And though I was joking earlier about placing an order to save $2.....sigh....just did exactly that! You know the order: a couple of OPs here, a packing cube there....I'm incorrigible!
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Originally posted by Badger View PostI actually never phone in my orders. However, yes: Katy is a supreme enabler, and everything is her fault.
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