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Im with you on this one.  I refuse to use Fedex and whenever I can I ask the seller to use UPS or USPS.  I had a very expensive electrical item left at the end of my driveway lying beside a random tree.  They called that "delivered".  UPS for me.

I love FedEx. They are cheaper than the post office (FedEx Ground) and have free tracking and free $100 insurance.

I try to package things that are valuable like an elephant is going to be stepping on them.

All the major shipping shipping companies deliver millions of packages a week. The fact that yours might be insured for $2k doesn't make them handle it differently. It simply insures you in the event your item is damaged.

UPS is okay but they are usually a day or 2 slower on average for the same price.

nightsblood wrote:

Im with you on this one.  I refuse to use Fedex and whenever I can I ask the seller to use UPS or USPS.  I had a very expensive electrical item left at the end of my driveway lying beside a random tree.  They called that "delivered".  UPS for me.

I'm complete opposite.
UPS is lazy. they always leave the package by the road. (we have a long driveway) and FedEx always drives down the driveway and leaves the packages by the gate.

UPS leaves packages in the rain. thankfully it doesn't rain very often, but I've only received wet packages from UPS.
We had 1" of snow this winter and UPS "couldn't" deliver for 2 days because the roads were "dangerous". Yet FedEx delivered both of those days.

I hate UPS.

USPS would be OK, if they tracked well, and I could get a package. But they don't track well, and anything of size requires me to be late for work, or pick it up on a Saturday.

FedEx all the way for me.

I really think it depends on who your delivery driver is and how well you know the driver.

I would assume most damage that occurs has been done before the driver get the package.

FRAGILE!!!


Mark the box fragile a bunch of times.  Only way they will not throw your packages. 

Mark all boxes fragile and they will get treated better.  Can't expect them to be nice to every package

wburke17 wrote:

Seller should have removed the axles before shipping!!

Not a bad idea.

Always pack as if it is going to a war zone and always pay for the insurance. I feel cheated that I have to pay them extra to make sure it doesn't get lost or damaged. I mentioned that to a postal worker once and all she could say was "I know what you mean but that is just how it is."

So I chalk it up to the cost of playing that game. it sucks but in order to play you gotta pay.

Here is my first hand experience with shipping but from the other side of the fence.

Many Years ago (around 1994) I needed a second job to make ends meet. I took a part time job at Roadway Package Services aka RPS. I unloaded trucks all night from 8 Pm until 1 AM 5 days a week. If we hustled enough or had a slow night we might have walked out by midnight.

it worked like this. The truck would back up into the dock. We removed the packages from the truck and placed them on a conveyor belt. Then another person scanned the packages as they came by.  That belt then fed a giant sort table. There was a belt for each truck and there could have been up to 6-8  trucks or so unloading at the same time.

We had foremen coming over every 10-15 minutes yelling at us to go faster and that we weren't working fast enough. There were usually 3 of us to a truck. 2 unloading and one scanning. We rotated on the scanner each truck so we could catch our breaths. We never tossed the boxes out on purpose to break them but sometimes accidents happened and the boxes spilled their contents out. We would do the best we could to stuff them back inside and throw some tape on it to keep it closed. Sometimes they ripped open or just weren't sealed tightly to begin with. Some of them were tore up before we even touched them. They must have gone through another sorting facility first.

I eventually made it to the sorting table where all the items from the trucks came off from various conveyor belts. Sometimes, the chutes would get jammed and packages would fall off the belt from as high as 12-15 feet up. Belts were stopped packages fetched and jam cleared then work resumed again. We took the packages from the table sorted them by zip code onto other conveyor belts behind us. Those belts fed other trucks where loaders loaded them up.

After seeing this process first hand I think the damage comes mostly in shipping to/from sort facilities and from sorting accidents than the guy delivering directly to your house. I could be wrong and there may be exceptions too.

I have had the satisfaction of seeing many of my items delivered from various carriers and not once have I ever seen anyone mistreat the box or haphazardly toss an item onto my porch. I have to make the guess that the underpaid laborers loading and unloading the trucks to meet nightly quotas are to blame for most of the damages. That also includes the jams on the conveyor belts causing stuff to fall down. Not sure if any of the current carriers work like this or have a system similar or not.


Results form this job?
By the way I lasted 6 weeks in that job and lost 15 lbs. My hiking boot soles were worn slick. My hands when not blistered were calloused and fingerprints work slick. I made about $7 an hour. I was sore each night before I went to bed and just as sore when I woke up 4 hrs later for my day job. My day job was as a file clerk at a bank. I slept during lunch. I was sore for most of those 6 weeks too. I left RPS after realizing that I I was barely making any money after taxes and fuel costs. I left my day job at 4:00 was home by 5:00 in bed by 5:30 and back on the road by 7:30 to be at work by 8. it was a great weight loss plan though.

After FedEx shipped a 50 pound motomag from Phoenix AZ to Wahroonga Australia for me in 48 hours from door to door I swore they were the best! I get a 75% discount so normally it would have cost over $1000 for that service..... but still incredible! I can't figure how they did that. Literally 48 hours.

mxfan69 wrote:

Hi, I am an employee for a company who's only job is to deliver your package safely. What you don't know is that I am going to smash, trash, squash, and other wise attempt to destroy your package. Oh, I'm sorry, there was something expensive or that might have been important to you in that package, oops, my bad. Let me try harder next time NOT to perform my job correctly and see if I can make the next box even flatter than the last.

Every friggin time with these SUMBIATCHES, literally EVERY FRIGGIN TIME!!!!

All b1tching a side, why is it that these folks can't get a bike related package to me without damage is beyond me. I am almost afraid to order things now if I think FedEx is the shipper as it is almost certain the package is going to be screwed a long with the contents.

They have bent forks on bikes, damaged mag wheels, lost a seat post (package arrived empty), and this morning brought me a well packed box (thank you Bob) but some how managed to bend the axle on a wheel set built from NOS parts. HELLO FedEx, you've smashed the box so much that the dam axle has busted thru the box and is sticking out, do ya really think that is how the sender ment it to be.

In the next two months I've got two new bikes coming to me and I can think of nothing now but "will they get damaged?". I know the answer to one bike is to request the sender to use UPS who has always done good out here, but I think the other seller uses FedEx specifically. I guess I'll ask that seller if he can do UPS for me too.

Ok, rant over........

hahaha.. welcome to alabama 

i always tell people to pack my stuff very well because it will get beat all to hell getting to me.

i also have expensive items insured. this really is the best protection.

mxfan69 wrote:

lost a seat post (package arrived empty)

QFT !!!!!  its like anything small enough to fall through the cattle grate
IS going to fall through the cattle grate.

i tell people who are shipping me small stuff to put it in a larger box.

Last edited by Draw (2012-05-02 12:03pm)

cancan wrote:

FRAGILE!!!


Mark the box fragile a bunch of times.  Only way they will not throw your packages. 

Mark all boxes fragile and they will get treated better.  Can't expect them to be nice to every package

Not true, actually the opposite. UPS and FedEx both did studies and found that packages marked "fragile" are more likely to be damaged. Mainly because the workers are jackasses and do it out of spite.

monkee363 wrote:

Been a pkg. handler at UPS for 22 years.

I NEVER SHIP ANYTHING THROUGH UPS!

That should tell you guys everything!

Does your name tag say PACKAGE HANDLER?