On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, Lyle Bickley wrote: I've found Fedex to be cheaper than UPS over all, and especially with Ground service. I also trust Fedex more than I do UPS. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

At 11:02 PM 1/18/05 -0500, you wrote: I've got news for you. They're still delivering items without a signature even when the shipper insists that only the designated reciever sign for it. My son is in the USMC and stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. He just ordered a $3000 laptop computer. The manufacturer/seller shipped it via FedEx and insisted that only he could sign for it. But the FedEx driver had a John Doe sign for it and just left it in the day room of his barracks. He was very lucky to have found it (8+ hours later!) before it walked off. That was less than a week ago. Joe

At 11:43 PM 1/19/05 +0000, you wrote: I HAVE spoken to the supervisors and to the national customer service office and believe me they ARE idiots! I've met or talked to over a dozen people from UPS and there's only ONE that I've ever dealt with that wasn't an idiot! Joe

What Tom said. Here's another. Got a box full of Byte magazines sent to me using UPS once. It had been ripped right in half and then taped together again with many magazines missing. Left on doorstep without explanations or apologies. I should add however, that the sender, using my pictures, was able to get a refund. John A.

<snicker> I doubt it! One thing I hate is how they're often the only real shipping option, and that they'll normally hold an item so that they don't get it to you in sooner than the shipper paid for. In tracking items I've seen stuff sit in the local depot for a couple days before they deliver it when it gets into town early. I was really shocked a couple weeks ago when a package showed up 3 days early! Zane -- -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 22:04:38 -0500 (EST) William Donzelli &lt;aw288(a)osfn.org&gt; wrote: I've shipped tons of computers with UPS, through the local UPS Store. They have me 'on file' at the place and all I have to give them is my phone number. I don't have to fill out the usual forms and paperwork. They have all been used Dell machines shipped in a standard box I decided on, nothing special. They never make an issue of it, and I always specify it's a computer in the box. I recently had a Drive Sled disappear that was 'delivered' by the FedEx driver. When I tried to look into it, they had a recorded 'electronic signature' confirming it was delivered that was my first initial and last name, all in block letters. -Scott

And Priority Mail, especially if everything fits in that envelope, is cheap. -- ---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- When you don't know what you're doing, do it neatly. -----------------------

Jay West wrote: I have a soft spot for USPS Priority Mail because they will ship you Priority Mail boxes for FREE, and I *do* use those for shipping boards of low value (ie. less than $50). And I can print postage from my printer and tape it to the box, and they will also pick it up. I can be a complete recluse! ;-D -- Jim Leonard (trixter(a)oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/

In message <20050118225033.S635@localhost> Tom Jennings &lt;tomj(a)wps.com&gt; wrote: Heh. Try the British answer to USPS - Royal Mail. I've had them mangle, misdeliver, lose and downright destroy stuff before. Case in point: a PC I/O card. ESD-safe bag, four layers of that pink bubble-wrap on all sides, and a Jiffy bag. They mangled the Jiffy bag, and managed to do major damage to the bubble wrap. The address label was still just about readable (thankfully the first line of the address and the postcode survived), but there was a huge hole right through the Jiffy bag and into the PCB. Needless to say, the board didn't survive. Second case in point: an Acorn A4 laptop. Six layers of bubble-wrap, plus newspaper as filler. They managed to rip one side of the box open (bear in mind I reinforced it with two layers of packing tape beforehand), there was a load of newspaper missing, and the LCD had been mangled. I tried to get a claim form off them (the machine was sent Special Delivery, so it was insured for ?250) and spoke to a rather rude call-centre droid who told me in no uncertain terms to go take a running jump. I asked to speak to said droid's supervisor and she hung up on me. In the end, it turned out the recipient was fairly experienced with SMD soldering, so he rebuilt the LCD (a few FPCs had detached from the PCB) and saved me faffing around with RM. I'd also like to know how they managed to destroy a 6GB Toshiba laptop hard drive that was sent in a hard drive shipping box (2-inch foam on all sides)... Don't even get me started on ParcelForce... They're even worse than Royal Mail. Same applies to ANC too - they delivered a large parcel to the wrong address (not just a few doors away, half a mile away). Had the guy who signed for it not been as honest as he was, I would likely have been out ?90 and had nothing to show for it. I called ANC and was told to "f**k off and die, it's not [their] problem". LOL! The word "incompetence" just doesn't cover it, does it? :) IME, UPS have been pretty good so far, as have FedEx (they subcontract out to Business Post in the UK) Later. -- Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB, philpem(a)philpem.me.uk | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice, http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI ... A little nookie never hurt anyone!

*blink*

I know I know... but I did have to read it a few times ;) Of course, it is true either way you take it :>

True, though I use it for software and (verrrrrry) securely wrapped cards. -- ---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- FORTUNE: You have a magnetic personality. Avoid iron-based alloys. ---------

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, William Donzelli wrote: I don't use USPS if I have any other options. I had them lose over 100 cds that I bought from someone. Of course, the seller was supposed to insure the package (I paid extra for it), but they didn't. When I got the box, only 3 of 100 something cds were actually inside, and those were scuffed up. USPS was "kind" enough to include a note saying the package had been damaged, yet the only damage I saw was the bottom of the box had been opened by someone. It was right before christmas of 2003/2004 and I figure someone pinched those cds. Supposedly they never did turn up at the bulk mail recovery center, and they even had a list that I faxed them. -Toth