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Fedex v/s UPS

AirbusPilot

Well Known Member
Hi Folks,

My airplanes is still on ground because my Skytec Starter Failded, Skytec made a very good job repairing it in a few hours, also fedex charged me from Chile to USA just USD116 and took Just two days from pickup to deliver.

Ok now is UPS, they charge USD189 from USA to Chile, but they leave the package waiting in USA for almost a week, then the package arrive to Chile (Yesdterday) and UPS didn't liked Skytec Bill for custom, because it said warranty repair, now they are asking me to do a lot of paperwork and request me to ask Skytec for a bill for a full price of a new Skytec USD375 plus shipping USD189, so I will have to pay almost USD 300 import taxes and worst they are very slow making the paperwork, they think maybe next week they could delivery the starter and I will have to paid for all days that UPS has the starter in storage.

I have bought lot of things in USA, not the first time that I send something for repair, but is the first time that I use UPS (I alway use Fedex or USPS), never have so many problems with other companies, anyway I asked Skytec to use Fedex but they are UPS Fans:mad:

Is there any of you guys that work at UPS and could help me to speed up the guys here in Chile???
 
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UPS = No Saturday Delivery
FEDX = Saturday Delivery + A VERY HOT delivery chick.

Guess which one I use. ;)
 
UPS = No Saturday Delivery
FEDX = Saturday Delivery + A VERY HOT delivery chick.

Guess which one I use. ;)

UPS --- will put orders on my porch, out of sight to the street.
And better than that, the driver would drop off expensive
items with other deliveries, at my wife's work place, because
he knew we were building an airplane.

FEDX --- just takes them back to the warehouse when no one is home.
Then I have to go out of my way to pick them up.

Guess which one I use ;)

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
Interesting

I tend to use Fedex ground to ship everything. It is cheaper and only takes a day or two longer than air. UPS is a little less convenient but still good. My neighborhood UPS guy is a friend and attends all of our airpark functions. He takes care of us. We use UPS for JDair (www.jdair.com)and have had good success with only one product getting lost.

Most of the RC model stuff I order comes by UPS. They have a greater propensity to damage stuff than Fedex.

Oh well, choices are limited.
 
USPS

Go international with USPS if you can. I helped with shipping some parts to RVators in Europe and nothing can beat Uncle Sam's Postal Service. A bit longer but cheaper and hassle free.
 
UPS --- will put orders on my porch, out of sight to the street.
And better than that, the driver would drop off expensive
items with other deliveries, at my wife's work place, because
he knew we were building an airplane.

FEDX --- just takes them back to the warehouse when no one is home.
Then I have to go out of my way to pick them up.

Guess which one I use ;)

L.Adamson --- RV6A

The one with the HOT delivery chick? :D
 
My wife and I run a small business and receive and ship daily. If I am given an option I would rather that Fed Ex ship to me. No hot chic delivery girl, in fact a grizzled, grey haired old fa*t, but we can and do relive our days as sailors on sister ships from long ago.

When we ship, we use USPS flat rate shipping boxes that we can print the postage for ourselves. That is convient living in a rural area.

UPS has destroyed more shipments to us than I care to tell about.
 
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Everyone's experience seem to be different.

Personally, with over 40 years of receiving packages, UPS has a grade of 96%

FedEx has a grade of 12%
 
Skytec doesn't want to make a new invoice

Because they said they didn't sell me a new starter, they just repair my starter over warranty, but UPS doesn't want to make the custom paperwork with the original invoice, so the guy from UPS said my starter will be keep on custom and sell in a public auction in about 6 month:mad:

So I asked to skytec to send me a new starter this time by fedex, I will have to wait till monday to know what happens.:confused:

I think people from Skytec are great, the only problem is they didn't know how things work to the south of US border.

Wish me luck I want to be flying again soon
 
I like UPS because often Ground shipments get there early...it almost seems like Fedex ground packages are sometimes delayed to always push out to the expected date. Could just be my perception.

Everything of mine gets shipped to a UPS store box (the most permanent address I've ever had...10 years now) so nothing is ever left sitting out, and I don't have to be home.

Fernando, I hope things work out. I remember an issue like that with a company I worked for (on the shipper's end) but I can't recollect how we worked it out...other than it was tricky on both ends, and we used Fedex outside of the US.
 
I like UPS because if I miss the home delivery I can drive to the appropriate "depot" and pick it up. Fedex won't let you do that (at least in my experience).

Doug
RV6
 
Choices...

Ordering from Aircraft Spruce one state away, and we are 20 miles from both companies local depots...

UPS -

Puts us at the end of their delivery route by servicing commercial customers first - package arrives late (sometimes 6 pm) in the day. Two days to get here.
Leaves box on doorstep.
No direct tracking - got to go to web site.

FedEx Ground -

Packages arrive early in the morning. One and half days to get here - Saturdays included.
Leaves box on doorstep.
Sends a 'delivery confirmed' e-mail within 5 minutes of box being left on doorstep.
Spruce rates them slightly cheaper.

Both - no hot delivery chick...:(

Guess which one I switched to?

Shipping outbound

UPS

Local UPS Stores are franchises - cost markup is high, and not published.

FedEx Ground

Go to local Kinkos - pay published rates.

Guess which one I use?
 
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Puts us at the end of their delivery route by servicing commercial customers first - package arrives late (sometimes 6 pm) in the day.

Interesting point... one nice thing about the box address, is it qualifies as a commercial address. So cheaper (in some cases) and faster.

I'd pick Fedex in your case too. :)
 
UPS VERSIS FEDEX

For many years I ran a small business specializing in racing transmissions and driveline components for road racing cars. UPS convinced us to try their service for shipping transmissions. Over a six month period, we had a casualty rate of 100%. Every transmission that we shipped with them was damaged in some way by UPS. Their union drivers did not like anything heavier than 70#, and our gearboxes shipped at about 90#. It is my firm belief that they intentionally damaged the shipments. Then we had to deal with their CLAIMS DENIAL department. We finally had to engage a lawyer to get UPS to recognize our claims. Switched to FEDEX ground, and the claim rate dropped to less than 1%. FEDEX also bailed us out during the extended UPS Teamsters strike a few years ago. I will always recommend FEDEX over UPS for any shipment.

Craig
 
UPS vs FEDEX

UPS seems to do all right if the parts do not have to cross any kind of borders. As soon as customs is involved, UPS is the worst of the lot. I have seen 45$ brokerage charges on a flashlight costing 10$ (US to Canada) ,on small tools ordered from the US and almost anything that had to cross the border.

For us Canadians, USPS followed by Fedex is the best solution. Cheaper brokerage rates plus better service.

As a side note, I used to work for an air cargo company here in Canada. We flew freight for most cargo companies at one point or another. We had clients like TNT, Airborne Express, Fedex, UPS, Purolator etc. UPS was the worst of the bunch, all they looked at was absolute costs, no regards to past performance. FEDEX would on the other hand reward it's more efficient subcontractors (with high on time performance numbers) with better margins but UPS would sell you out if they found a cheaper available price from anyone.

UPS is usually blacklisted for us Canadians...A deal breaker.
 
Idea

After you put on the new starter wait for the auction at UPS and most likely no one will bid on your old starter and you can get it for peanuts. You can have a spare or sell it.
Just a thought.
 
Fedex vs. UPS

FEDEX for me no question. Here in Alaska when I shiped UPS blue (2dayair) it always took 4 to 5 days. UPS stated that the 2 day shipping only applied to busineses. As a private party I was out of luck. Strike one. I ordered $2500 in car parts and UPS lost it, when they found it a week and a half later they dumped it in the drivway with a torn open box and left it for me to find when I returned from camping three days later. Electronics dont like dirt and rain. Strike two. I ordered some parts from Diamond Aircraft in Canada. Even though I had paid the whole bill including shipping, UPS claims postage of a couple hundred dollars due because of "import fee's" I refuse to pay because I was not told anything about it before hand and oh yeh FEDEX did not charge me anything additional on a prior shipment from Diamond Aircraft. Strike three, I dont do business with UPS, and I dont buy from busineses that use UPS unless there is absolutly no other option. Then I call the manager and usally am able to talk them into FEDEX or USPS. For best price ship USPS flat rate box, For the fastest shipping with the least damage FEDEX is the way to go. If you want post office grade rough handaling, slow shipping, and high prices good ole UPS does it. Russ
 
Won't ever use UPS again

I ordered a GE variable frequency drive for my CNC machine from the US with 'free' delivery to Canada. The supplier used UPS as their shipping agent. The VFD arrived as expected with no additional fees at the time. Two weeks later I received a bill from UPS for $178 usd. The VFD is small item and its cost was $400 usd.
I've since learned that the American companies using UPS are often unaware how much UPS is gouging their customers on the receiving end.
After the UPS experience, I will no longer order from any supplier that offers only UPS as a shipping option.
I have had best success and lowest shipping costs using USPS snail mail. Using UPS within the US borders is likely a good choice, but not for those living outside of the US borders.
 
USPS has been the best for me getting stuff into Canada with the best price and normally no brokerage or customs charges.

Canada post is the weak link here but they are slowly improving.

UPS is the worse, they may be quicker but you pay for it and their brokerage and customs charges are as much or more than the part in most cases. I will do without before I use these clowns.

Tim
 
I go out of my way to avoid FedEx as they have been worse than a third rate delivery service based on my experience.

USPS has been the most reliable and cheapest.
 
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