Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 20:03:24 -0800
Reply-To: The Skylight Guy <reid@DCCNET.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: The Skylight Guy <reid@DCCNET.COM>
Organization: @Home Network
Subject: Re: Vendors and shipping
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Rich:
Lucky you- you see I have only sent about 30 packages UPS, then I
decided to stop. They have lost things, delivered them to the wrong
addresses, and broke things. One or two packages made it safely and on
time to their intended destination. This is not a gross exaggeration. As
you can see by the other e-mails and as Bill and Juli and John pointed
out- I'm not the only one.
Rich, the online advice you give is always so good, however, you've got
one thing wrong. I'm not missing something. Are you attempting to flame
me? Or are you "just kidding" <g>? Or are you genuinely trying to help
me? Sometimes, the impersonal nature of email makes it difficult to
ascertain the sender's intent of the message...so I'm interested to know
what gain I will receive by you saying I'm really missing something to
the entire group? Also, the maxims at the end of the message... I assume
you are trying to help me. If so, re-read what I wrote...I wrap my
products really well - according to how UPS suggested in fact (again no
hyperbole here). My point is what Bill summarized from the consumer
reports- the US / Canadian postal service may be a little slower (a day
or two) but it is cheaper, there is no hassle, and it arrives in one
piece (the majority of the time...no place is perfect). We all should be
able to voice what has happened and then we can read it and make
informed choices about what services we choose. The online community
needs newsgroups so we can stay well informed of all business practices,
esp. with online vending because it is still relatively in its infancy.
Sure there is the BBB and consumer reports, etc, but sometimes it takes
a long time for certain issues to surface. Sometimes, if an injustice is
happening to one person, it happening to a few. Soon the few become a
sizable group. If it is the odd case where this is not the case, like me
and UPS, thems the breaks (forgive the pun). People think that stuff
like that will never happen to them. Well, when it does, it's shattering
(oops, I did it again). Obviously UPS is a big company and is not
breaking everyone's stuff 95% of the time or they wouldn't be in
business. They just won't get my business...and they told me that they
are ok with that too.
Granted, it is bizarre. Sometimes it is just a coincidence that a person
has bad luck so many times in a row. Like buying a Westy and having the
heads go, then the fridge, then the brakes, then the....hey! We might
all might have something missing! <g>
It seems you have had good luck..less than 1 item was broken out of a
thousand in 20 years (you're not counting your package damaged by UPS
from the Crate and Barrel :) ...If I had those odds with UPS, I'd
probably send stuff via UPS too. Thanks for sharing your stats: a sample
size of a 1000 over 20 years is better than a sample size of 30 over a
year. I hope I haven't jinxed ya. For now, I'll stick with USPS and the
Canadian Postal Service.
Peace!
Trevor Reid
T H E S K Y L I G H T G U Y
est.1997
RR6 1501 Smith Road, Gibsons, B.C. zzzzzz\zzzzz_
Canada V0N 1V6 Ph 604 886-4564 |E[__][__]|[_]\\
e-mail: skylight@dccnet.com |skylight | guy||
............................................ =-(o)------(o)-==
http://www.theskylightguy.com
Rico Sapolich wrote:
>
> In a message dated 1/6/01 3:47:56 AM, reid@DCCNET.COM writes:
>
> << I definitely won't use UPS because they will arrive broken at
> least 95% of the time- no matter how well I wrap them >>
>
> Trevor,
>
> Either this is hyperbole or else you are really missing something. Without
> exaggeration, over the past 20 years I have received certainly more than a
> thousand packages via mail order. They have been all manner of things and
> the bulk of them have arrived by way of UPS. Some of the items, once again
> without exaggeration, were precision instruments insured for $10K-$30K and
> shipped via UPS. In all that time, I am hard pressed to enumerate the
> instances of shipping damage at the hands of UPS. If I were to characterize
> it, I would have to say damage occurred less than 0.1% of the time.
>
> Also, I live in PA (aka, God's Country) and I have shipped some rather
> ungainly items to members of this list as far away as Hawaii. I imagined
> what these items would have to endure en route and I took the necessary steps
> to insure against any shipping damage.
>
> So, don't kill the messenger because of the message . . . a problem
> recognized is a problem solved . . . an ounce of prevention is worth a pound
> of cure . . . or any other maxim that applies.
>
> Rich
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