USPS giving me indigestion - is Fedex consistent?

[HDGVapor]

OK so I have placed my second order. My first order was "dipping my toe" into Volcano...just a pass thru (love it!) and some blank V cartomizers and PP caromizers. Just about out of the PP and have tired of my JC juices and am jonesing for the sweet tart juice in my second order.

Well the first order came in time warp speed. Orderred Thursday late at night, arrived Monday before lunch - USPS priority mail.

Second Order I placed Monday evening. It shipped Tuesday. I don't expect it to be here today, but I thought USPS priority mail was 2-3 days and I don't see anything in their tracking system since it was sorted in HI on the 29th 3 days ago. I'm starting to worry. So much so that I decided to wait on placing my next order because I didn't want to end up with two lost orders...

I know its not Volcano - its USPS. But since I wasn't sure about the success rate of USPS priority mail coming from HI I wanted to get some feedback from your experience.

Is it worth it just to pay for Fedex? Do the orders seem to consistently arrive in the 2 day time frame with Fedex?

I don't mind waiting 3 days or even 4. Its the possibility of things going into Limbo that I don't like..

Hoping this is a case of the postal workers not doing the needful and scanning the package as its sorted along the way.

Just wandering what the success ratio has been. As much as I like the free priority mail when I place my 50 dollar orders...its not worth the indigestion wondering if the post office has lost an order.

I am ready to pull the trigger on my next order and if Fed Ex is spot on reliable its just worth the extra 7.99 to me...but if not, well, i may as well have indigestion from USPS for free lol

[Spliner]

Welcome to USPS hell. I've had an order from China in the hands of the US Postal Service since it arrived in the US for almost 2 weeks now. It is currently bouncing back and forth between states just for the fun of it.

USPS is unreliable. Yes, you can quote me on that.

FedEx is a dream.. you pay a little extra but tracking actually updates and it gets there on time 99% of the time.

Spliner

[HDGVapor]

Thank.s They FINALLY posted an update and it looks like they misrouted it to the wrong town. Fortunately its in the right state, so hopefully I will get it tomorrow. Lesson learned is if its something I GOTTA have on time...FEDEX is definately a must.

your situation sounds so sad...like shipping pinball!

[Spliner]

Yup.. you'd think once a package hits the actual postal service in the US it would take no more than say.. oh.. 5 business days to reach your house from just about anywhere in the US. I've had packages bounce around for weeks before, this last one is on day 13 and its not even in my state yet!

Last warranty return I sent to Volcano took a flippin month to reach them. It finally arrived, and they were able to get me a replacement within something like 3-4 business days once it finally did get to Volcano, but in getting from my house back to Hawaii it got miss-routed twice before it arrived at its destination.

USPS is not on my 'happy' list lately.

Spliner

[dphillips1977]

I personally haven't had too many problems with USPS priority mail. I've been making regular orders every other week for quite some time now. My orders are always in the wee hours of Friday (Eastern Time) and I always get my package on Monday. There were only two times when this did not occur and I received my order on Wednesday both times. I have heard wonderful things about the Fedex two day delivery but, I am personally too cheap to cough up the extra dough (especially placing my orders on Friday which pretty much means I would be getting them on Monday through Fedex anyways). At some point when I have tried all of the juices, and hardware and fall into routine orders I will probably start making larger purchases ever month or so to get free Fed Ex shipping. I know they do free USPS priority shipping on purchases of %50 or more but, am pretty sure that orders of $100 or more get free Fedex 2 Day.

This last order I placed was one of those two times in which it arrived late. Maybe a bad week for USPS?

[techienerdnc]

I'll add that FedEx delivered my volcano order to me 1 day after Irene hit us. We had no power, no phones, and downed trees all over my neighborhood. 3 days later, USPS FINALLY delivered mail to our residence.

I'll take Fedex everytime...I was sold before this event, but now I won't even think twice about using usps over Fedex.

[HDGVapor]

OK. so I finally got my order today.

I am very spoiled when I say "finally" considering I placed an order Monday and got it today (Friday) lol

All praises to Volcano who shipped it out with super speed.

My biggest problem with USPS in this was the communication...putting "missent" on their tracking website and then not updating it until AFTER it arrived at my door, and in the mean time refusing to give me any information but rather directing me to contact the poor volcano folks (which I did but then had to update the ticket with a "nevermind" because it had arrived at my door before they had gotten to the ticket due to the time zone differences.

I haven't dealt with Fedex much but at least with UPS if something gets sent to the wrong processing center the tracking information is pretty clear about what happened and where it is headed and what the updated ETA is. USPS likes to keep the suspense going I guess.

I was sweating it a bit...I was down to a 2 day supply of juice and had this order plus two juice orders all in the works...ironically they ALL arrived today so I am going to have a blast trying out about 10 different juices with my new Magma gear.

Currently loving some Lemon Blueberry Cotton Candy from Top Vapor...nice desert vape

[Artist Boy]

I had an order say it was picked up by USPS and never got another update on the tracking. 5 days later it showed up. I keep an eye on the tracking, 4 days after it showed up at my door. It finally showed as delivered.

.....well is sure is a good thing I wasn't just going by the tracking info, or it would have sat out there for days. Sometimes I don't check the mail for like a week. I have a tiny shoe box sized mail box. my postal carrier hate me cause they just keep trying to cram more into it.

[dphillips1977]

Might just depend on the cities that they have to route through to get to where you live. Anytime I use USPS I get an update early Saturday saying that it was processed in their Honolulu facility, then an update really late Sunday or really early Monday saying it left Rochester NY and then one at about 7:00AM saying it is out for delivery in Endicott. Just like clockwork. Guess I'm just really luck Hopefully my luck will remain after the move out west.

[thess416]

I worked for UPS for over a decade and I'm pretty familiar with the Fed-Ex system too. Here is a lil secret about USPS priority mail.... The 2 day priority mail advertisement is not a guarantee, it's not even from door to door (meaning from sender to receiver) it's an average delivery time from post office to post office. Tracking with USPS is all but useless with the exception of "Express Mail" and even that isn't even on par with UPS and Fed-Ex. Lastly, USPS is loosing money, they are just about bankrupt. That last bit can speak for itself.

UPS and Fed-Ex are consistent, they also have there issues, but they are far superior to USPS. They are also much more expensive. So my advice is that if you are ordering something that is of value or you just have to have it, go with Fed-Ex. If you don't live in HI, make sure your orders are over $50 to qualify for free Fed-Ex shipping.