Technology

My wife worked for FedEx. I worked for UPS. Several of our friends have worked for one or the other. Several we know do or have worked for USPS. The only carrier we're missing is DHL. We can all confirm there's plenty of shenanigans, random pilferage, and organized theft to go around for everyone. They all hire anyone with a pulse as temp workers. It always surprises me when people think one is really better than another. Maybe that's true for your home's route, but not on the whole.

Only UPS tries to ninja a "sorry we missed you" ticket into the door I'm sitting directly behind.

I always had decent experiences with OnTrac shipping through NewEgg (though I don't buy from them anymore), packages would arrive 1-2 days earlier than expected and would be in perfect condition. But then I got on Reddit and saw people constantly shitting on them and didn't understand it.

I've had bad experiences with all of them, it's just the most consistent with FedEx. Out of the major services, I prefer USPS and DHL, by far, but even they still fumble things from time to time. FedEx has just been a consistent pain to deal with, across 3 addresses at this point. Plus, I happen to get off work and get home right around when FedEx comes through my neighborhood, so I've had the pleasure of seeing the lady that handles this area literally hurl every package small enough for her to be physically capable of doing so the 8 feet from the sidewalk to peoples' front porches. I buy a lot of small, delicate things. Do other couriers toss stuff around? Probably at some point. But I know it's a 100% guarantee it'll happen with this lady, so I'll take the "probably, at some point," over a sure thing.

If they don't deliver something to me and determine I need to go pick it up, their delivery hubs are also the least convenient to reach. One is across my county, the other halfway across the neighboring county, Both are at least 90 minute trips each way on public transportation, with a healthy walk between the last stop and their location. At least UPS drops things off a 15 minute walk away, and the post office is probably a 10 minute walk.

UPS used to give real time tracking info here, but that disappeared sometime in mid to late-2023.

Agreed on the rest though, Amazon and UPS delivery are both much better than FedEx. I could not think of FedEx being a good retailer until they can improve the quality of their deliveries.

I think you mean "by far the best is USPS", and as much as I may complain about the shitshow the fed has made if it, you're right. And they're doing it with congress fucking their financing.

It's very consistent, I've lost far fewer packages via USPS than anyone else (and I was shipping stuff 40 years ago, long before Fedex did resi service, and UPS was still slower than postal).

UPS has had serious tracking capability since the late 90's, and Fedex had been barcoding ever package almost from the start. Both of them demonstrate what happens when you have your customers over a barrel - Amazon came in and is beating them at their own game (Logistics).

Really pathetic for UPS - at one time they were the largest logistics provider in the world, I think. With all that knowledge, experience, and capability, instead of looking forward they sat on their hands and focused on protecting their near-monopoly.

Literally last week the Amazon guy dropped every package for my apartment complex at the same apartment

At least my neighbor was friendly about it and took the time to actually deliver the packages properly

I baked him muffins as thanks

Okay I am a Amazon delivery driver Amazon app is very gps specific and sometimes it’s wrong by a lot and no way for us to know since the use their own gps.

It's a crapshoot regardless of the company. It just depends on how bad of day your delivery person is having and anyone is capable of having a bad day.

It's very area-dependent. In my area, all delivery people are fine, but FedEx consistently can't get their delivery estimates correct and my packages overall tend to be in worse condition from them.

Got a package delivered by Amazon the other day. When I got home it was on the porch. When I checked the delivery notification the photo was of my neighbors porch. Guess they redilvered it, thanks neighbor.

I guess I've been lucky. All the ones I've had deliver stuff to me have been very considerate.

Of course, now I've just jinxed myself.

The problem is they are all poor emulations. Amazon already has problems and these new "marketplace" don't address any of them. I haven't seen one be better than Amazon in any way. At least Wish, Temu, and AliExpress have a wide variety of stuff at cheaper prices. Even if everything else about them is crap.

fedex ground is still like the old rps, a poorly-managed collection of contractors and sub-contractors. only the air freight ('express') is really 'fedex'.