Looking for your input on brokerage fees.

[fortheloveofcrabs]

Option 2 is the way to go, but is there a way to NOT use UPS. I've have 10 or packaged delivered by them from the US and Canada and not ONCE (I'm not kidding here) NOT ONCE in those 10 delivers have things gone correctly.

-I've heard it all, no one was home (when I was all day).

-The address doesn't exist (WHAT?!)

-Oh, sorry, I know this was direct overnight, but we accidentally put it on a train to Winnipeg (this was on an order of live rock from BC… Yeah…)

-The driver couldn’t’ find your buzzer number (Umm, compare the last name on the package and the names on the buzzer list at the front door – I’m on the only one with my last name in the building).

-One time I knew UPS was supposed to come that day, so I literally sat and watched the front gate for a UPS guy – then he showed up and dialed something on the buzzer system. My phone didn’t ring so I ran down just as he was ending the conversation with whoever he was talking too. He asked my why I wouldn’t buzz him in… Ummm, because you didn’t buzz me!!!! How hard is it to push four buttons?

Anyways, the list goes one… Moral of the story, I simply don’t shop from anyone that only ships UPS. I’ll pay more to use someone else.

Please offer an alternative shipping option…

(Sorry, I know this is a little off topic, but…)

[snarkys]

Well I can say that we get very few complaints about UPS here and the few we do get are generally about the brokerage or taxes which will be resolved with this change.

If you have had an issue 10 out of ten times i would say it has something to do with the way that UPS operates in your area or a crappy employee because this certainly doesn't represent the feedback we have received from our customers.

The only other option really is the postal service . I have detailed a few times in this thread why that simply just isn't an option. We do go out of our way to fulfill our customers needs but USPS just can not be done.

On a side note I believe all Canadian UPS shipments are guaranteed on time deliveries. If they are late they will refund your shipping costs, you should call your vendor next time UPS is late since this can be a substantial refund : )

[fortheloveofcrabs]

Originally Posted by snarkys

If you have had an issue 10 out of ten times i would say it has something to do with the way that UPS operates in your area or a crappy employee because this certainly doesn't represent the feedback we have received from our customers.)

So what you’re saying is UPS is fine, just not in Edmonton… Or Nanaimo (according to Christy). Are these valuable markets to you as a business owner? If they aren’t fine, I can appreciate that they are small markets.

Originally Posted by snarkys

The only other option really is the postal service . I have detailed a few times in this thread why that simply just isn't an option. We do go out of our way to fulfill our customers needs but USPS just can not be done.

There is no other option – even for an extra charge? There are only two couriers in your part of Minnesota? No FedEx, no DHL, no nothing? It’s very possible that in Golden Valley you are really limited as to whom you can ship with, it is just a shame that I’m excluded from your client base as a result; you are a quality on-line retailer with very competitive pricing.

Originally Posted by snarkys

On a side note I believe all Canadian UPS shipments are guaranteed on time deliveries. If they are late they will refund your shipping costs, you should call your vendor next time UPS is late since this can be a substantial refund : )

Yes they are. They are guaranteed to be delivered on the expected date of delivery. So if the package is supposed to come Monday, and you’re not home Monday, the new delivery date is set as Tuesday, and they try again. Fine.

So, if, say UPS says that the address doesn’t exist (I’d like to point out I live on the main downtown drag (Jasper Ave.) in Edmonton, not some back road), they call you, and bump the delivery date a day. If they put the package on a train to Winnipeg by accident, the new delivery date is postponed. I’d like to reiterate that this was a LIVE shipment, sent “Guaranteed next day by noon”. When I asked what “Guaranteed next day by noon” service meant, they told me that you get priority, and they guarantee to try to do everything in their power to make that happen – but sometimes “external” circumstances (apparently putting a box on a train is an external circumstance) interfere and the delivery date has to be changed.

I had arranged to take the day off of work to receive the shipment that never came, and had to later take a second day off to get the new shipment. Even if they had refunded the cost of shipping – would that have really made a difference?

In this particular situation, the retailer re-shipped a new batch of rock (Air Canada this time) and had to deal with UPS to be compensated for loss of the first shipment. I don’t know how it ended.

In all my troubles, not ONCE have I been refunded a penny - my packages were always delivered “on time”.

All I’m really trying to say is that we live in a world of choice. We all choose to keep fish tanks, and choose the products we use and buy. Please give us the option to choose our couriers – if it is at an extra cost to the buyer that is their choice.

If it’s not possible, it’s not possible, you sound like you have done your homework on this matter. It’s just too bad because it is a lose-lose situation for both you and I.

I really don’t mean to come off as crass or aggressive, it is just a very frustrating situation. Thank you reading, and taking the time to listen to your customers.

-Paul

[michika]

Originally Posted by BigA

I think option 2 would be the way to go. A newbie question here now. What is this for? Obviously an online store or retailer, but which one?

Bulk Reef Supply.com

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by BigA

What is this for? Obviously an online store or retailer, but which one?

We're in the Bulk Reef Supply forum