Economy Shipping

RDL2004

Note to self: Do Not Ever use this shipping method again.

If I had selected USPS for $6.95 the package would have been in my mailbox by Wednesday afternoon. If I had paid a bit more and selected UPS the package would have been delivered to my door Wednesday morning. But no, I chose the $4.99 "Economy Shipping" and it's Friday and my package is in Atlanta (?) which is basically 400 miles in the opposite direction from where the package was shipped from. Estimated delivery date is Tuesday, over a week from when I placed the order. Really? It said 3 to 7 days, but I was honestly expecting 4 or 5 at the worst, considering the actual distance.

It also seems that selecting "Economy Shipping" means something like "no need to hurry since they obviously don't need it soon". I have placed many orders with this supplier over the last 10 years and I don't remember it ever taking more than 12 hours to ship. It was closer to two days this time, and then it just sat in some UPS facility for two more days. Maybe I just got unlucky this time.

Sorry for the rant, I must have got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Hopefully this post will be of some use to somebody the next time you're deciding on how to have something shipped to you.



Just to clarify, this method of shipping is where UPS delivers the package to your local Post Office, who then takes it to your mailbox.

edit: I just noticed UPS says the actual weight is 11.8 oz. It could have been sent by 1st Class for $3.60 if they had only offered it

mindrobots

But you saved almost $2!!

I recently paid a bit more for 2nd day air....for some reason the package sat in Columbus from Saturday night until Monday late night before it got on a truck to drive to Cleveland. I guess they met their commitment but still, you think they'd try to exceed my expectations.

They must work M-F and have a truck that goes out Friday night so stuff can sit in Cleveland until Monday morning and the next truck goes out Monday night with all the stuff that sat in Columbus all weekend and whatever showed up on Monday. Maybe run trucks M-F EARLY AM instead of T-S EARLY AM?

Go Brown!

photomankc

The UPS -> USPS economy option is to be avoided at all costs. I don't hear too many songs of praise from people that try it. If you do I'd think of like ebay parts from Hong Kong. Order and forget, then have a happy surprise when one day said part arrives!

LoopyByteloose

Sounds like the gnomes is the Marketing Department are trying to punish those that stray from the most expensive options.

My local wifi service provider has just pulled the plug on my Linux/Firefox configuration and tells me to use Windows. Arggggh...

My last Hong Kong purchase was supposed to be shipped FedEX and arrived via some mysterious, no name Taiwanese logistic service without any tracking.

The truth is that the more these things happen, the less I buy and the more I shop and negotiate.

tonyp12

I also used economy with my last order from 'M' in Texas, It toke them 24hours before they started to full-fill the order so I guess they put you in low priority from the start.
Placed order at 3pm on 03/06 got packet at 3:30pm on 03/13.

UPS segment, 3/7 to 3/10 from Texas to Miami,
I toke Postal service 3 days just to move it the last 26miles.

If you can not use the items for a week anyway (like waiting for pcb etc), $2 saved.

LoopyByteloose

I can wait, but people are trying to push me into a corner to spend more.
I used to be happy to wait six weeks for surface delivery of book orders by ship to Taiwan... just to save cost. But the USP now requires everything international to go via air.

So I buy less and less. Watch TV to learn Chinese instead.

I just bought a new air conditioner for my small room and the sales people tag teamed me to up-grade... threaten to provide 2 years less warranty if the installer found the room to be larger than the acceptable size by even a small margin, wanted me to change the wiring from 110V to 220V, and to install a split unit instead of one that sits in the window. They also wanted me to finance rather than to pay cash.

I've gone from having McDs try to constantly up-size my double cheese burger to everyone trying to up-size everything.

I suppose some of it is the economic downturn, but we have trained sales people to abuse the customer.... And this is one customer that will just refuse to buy if not listened to.

The shipping issue and the logistics companies are a special situation as they figured they would build a huge empire with internet sales. Stores shut down, commercial real estate and small shops have suffered; but now the cost of goods getting pounded with added delivery fees .... and the delivery people are expected to perform miracles. And if you don't want to pay delivery, you have to take whatever Walmart offers.

This is not a sustainable business model. Shopping has got more difficult, more costly, less fun.

RDL2004

3 days just to move it the last 26 miles

I hope this doesn't happen to me. The package actually made it to the main Post Office in Jackson yesterday, about 25 miles away. Most of the time the local Post Office manages to get packages from Jackson out for delivery here by the next day, but since it's a week-end, I don't know.

Erik Friesen

If you spend more than $200 at mouser, they typically upgrade to 2nd day. Sometimes, I have ordered on friday, they don't get it out, so they upgrade to 1st day, then it goes out on sat and gets to me monday.

My dad lives in northern California, and numerous times I have received a usps priority package monday that was sent saturday afternoon. I live in Southern Indiana.

NWCCTV

threaten to provide 2 years less warranty if the installer found the room to be larger than the acceptable size by even a small margin,

That's about the time I walk out.

LoopyByteloose

NWCCTV wrote: »

That's about the time I walk out.

I would have walked out... but this is a special 110v vertical window, low outside projection a/c and very few shops in town sell one.... and the weather has just turned very hot.

It seemed wisest to get one set up for delivery and then consider alternatives as the Taiwan consumer law lets me cancel for a full refund within 7 days of purchase.. no questions asked.

I did go home and measure the room and it is smaller than their limit. The debate came about because they wanted the room area size in Pings. A Chinese/Japanese ping is 35.575 square feet and I was buying an a/c rated for a 6 Ping maximum.

Finding the conversion factor for Pings is an annoying detail. As it turns out my room is 5.055 Pings.

My old one is just working as a fan. I'd rather not wait any longer and can't get a better price.

If anyone was serious about sizing air conditioners, it would be in cubic feet or cubic meters... not floor area.

Units can be confounding here. I buy fruit in Jin, which are about 1/2 kilo.. more than a pound. The room sizes are in Pings. And my bank wants deposit slips dated for the year 102 (Taiwanese years, since the founding to the Republic of China). It seems that cars both in metric and US standards are sold here....

It is all part of the overseas adventure... at least that is what I keep telling myself ;-)

tonyp12

>be larger than the acceptable size by even a small margin,
A/C units do need to cycle to get a chance to defrost and to get right dehumidify effect you should not buy to large unit either.
You should use the recommended btu for the room size and maybe they got to many warranty claims from people who buy to small units that run constantly.

LoopyByteloose

Or, I could have just been talking to some very shrewd Taiwanese salespeople than were not willing to accept that I have used this size and configuration for 15 years with satisfactory results. It is rated for 4-6 pings. I think it is about 2250watt and 2000kcal... a bit small.

I have 5.055 pings of floor space. What is 5 pings at 35.575 square feet per ping? About 200 square feet. Not the Taj Mahal.

The smallest unit they sell is for 3-5 pings, but it won't fit in the window configuration. I actually have to pay about 25% extra for the odd ball unit. There is a wide selection of cheaper conventional window units for similar and even one for 110v.

I really don't want to buy a different styple of a/c and have to ask the landlord to rewire for 220 volt, and pay a rather expensive installation fee to run lengthy tubes and electrical cable on the outside of the building.

During the high humidity summer months I leave it on 24/7, but at 27-8 degree centigrade... just to keep the humidity out. I tried on and off, but the walls were growing slime and the books were rotting.