BikeFlights.com switches from FedEx to UPS

[kppolich]

No complaints with UPS here, yet. Our UPS guy is great. I've watched him treat all of our packages with care and they are always the first ones out and about in the morning.

I have a Kickr incoming via BikeFlights, it was shipped via UPS. Will follow up when it arrives!

[Hellgate]

Originally Posted by Blown Reek

Since I like BikeFlights but hate UPS, I'm not sure where I stand on this issue.

Agreed. UPS tends to take the long way around...

[tbike4]

This sucks. Rant over.

[AdamSklar]

I'm into this. I make 10-15 shipments with Bikeflights a month. Just shipped a bike to LA and it was less than half the price that it normally is. I've had much better experience in my area with UPS too so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[pdmtong]

Originally Posted by pdmtong

Agreed. My local UPS charges $10 holding fee day one, then $5/day thereafter.
When I found that out, no thanks.

Originally Posted by Bentley

So if you have a signature required they will attempt to deliver 3 times then they hold it for a week, all no charge. Why bother asking them to hold it when you can get them to do it for free. YMMV, but that is my experience.

it's not the UPS depot...rather the UPS "store". the problem is that going to the depot is a PITA and of course the store is closer to my residence

[ojingoh]

UPS is way better *for me* than the local liars and thieves Fed Ex contractors. On-Trac is implausibly even worse.

[R3awak3n]

So much UPS hate....

In my experience they are all bad. Have had good and experiences with ups, fedex, usps, dhl, ect....


Just the other day I got some tile dor my kitchen, fedex, the dude was throwing the boxes down the floor in front of me as I told him, hey thats tile... he said ok. Kept doing it. Half the tile was broken (even though probably been broken from the first toss into the tru k at og drop location).

I do think fedex is faster than ups and they deliver on saturday so I do prefer em (and of course everyone that has it close to them, its a valid reason why you prefer em)

[saab2000]

Shipbikes dot com is my favorite. I think they still are with FedEx. I’ve had good experiences with them.

[Bob Ross]

Well...

Since every BikeFlights transaction I've had went swimmingly and I generally think that any change to a Good Thing™ will make things worse (at least in the short term) this announcement leaves me skeptical, bordering on disappointed.

However, separate from BikeFlights, my FedEx vs UPS experience tends to skew towards favoring the latter, especially if you are not using Next Day/Overnight service. FedEx Ground service is run by and populated by morons, period. I'd prefer to use UPS for shipping anything that doesn't have to be there tomorrow.

[NYCfixie]

I'll add into this thread again and give a different viewpoint. For graduate school (yes, I went back to school in my late 40s), I wrote a paper comparing the Enterprise Risk Management plans of both FedEx and UPS (if you are up for reading a 20 page academic paper PM me and I will send you a copy) and learned a great deal about both companies.

The most interesting point, related to this thread, is that UPS is and has always been one integrated company whereas FedEx runs each vertical business (FedEx, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, Kinkos, etc.) as separate businesses. FedEx Ground was Roadway Package System, was purchased by FedEx, and then re-branded but they always used a contractor model so FedEx Ground/Home drivers are not actually FedEx employees; they are private contractors. FedEx keeps it this way to control costs.

This is not unlike Amazon using private individuals and/or private commercial contractors to deliver its packages and calling it "Amazon Delivery Services". The issue is that most private individuals and commercial contractors get paid by the number of packages they deliver so they are more concerned about volume than care for the individual boxes getting to the destination in one piece.

One could also argue that UPS' full time employees do not care because they have union protected jobs.

In the end, I think the "middle processing" and "transfer" is about the same for FedEx and UPS but what varies is the "pick-up" and "drop-off" person. In NJ, we had the best UPS driver in the world who would send us XMas cards and knew everyone on the route but if packages were damaged when they got to him there was not much he could do. He would often leave packages with neighbors and ask them to call you and check first just because he did not want to make you wait until the next day; often he would just come by at special times because he learned when people got home. In Boston, our doorman tells us that we have the same UPS driver every day which is great but FedEx and Amazon are a nightmare because you never know who and when they will show up. Often the drivers are in a hurry and get angry when our doorman wants to check every box for damage before accepting them.

I think if someone did a study they would find that UPS and FedEx damage packages in equal amounts so who actually knows if this change is good or bad from a damage standpoint. Can one really prove where along the way a box may have been damaged?

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

this is unwelcome news to me.

i have a local FedEx office a few miles away that i routinely have packages held at. not so easy with UPS. i definitely would have preferred they stay with FedEx. Oh well.

Saw that but even tho the $ seems the same(wheelbox to SF), the 'UPS store' local to me has really short hours..to bad. I'm looking at ShipBikes for next wheelset ship.

My only real grip is the driver that swiped an IWatch outta the box..

[Lewis Moon]

I really hate UPS. I have received an order of magnitude more damaged goods through UPS than any other shipper. I have watched shipments come to within five miles of my house then head to Portland Maine before coming back to Tempe. At work I've had UPS drivers refuse to pick up packages because they were inconvenient. I've watched a UPS driver dump a box marked "fragile, scientific equipment" off the back of the van onto the road without even blinking.
I really like BikeFlights, but I'm going to have to pass in the future.

[William]

...Fed Ex sucks more than a brand new Dyson vacuum cleaner. So much so that a buddy of mine who ships and receives a lot of product in his business quit using them. I've had my own issues with them as well.







W.

[wallymann]

agree 100% -- this is terrible. i will no longer use bikeflights. UPS sucks.

[Jdg68]

We've had FedEx lose a few packages which we later received...delivered to the wrong address etc.

In fact, right now, they are researching a large package (a new 1up Rack) which was supposedly delivered last Thursday to us...