What is a package shipping method that is convenient to the receiver?

February 13, 2006 9:30 PM

What is a package shipping method that is convenient to the receiver? If the recipient is not at home, he should be able to call and reschedule delivery for a better time. This is for a gift.

I want to ship a package from Maryland to Manhattan. My father lives in the East Village. I have used UPS before, but if my father is not home, he has had to make the trip to a UPS location to pick up the package himself. This is a gift, and I don't want to make it a burden on my father. There must be delivery methods that are respectful to the recipient. If the recipient is not home, they make it easy to reschedule delivery for a time that they are at home. Here in Maryland a package is just left on the front porch, but in NYC I don't think that happens much unless you have a doorman.

This package is about 4 pounds in a cardboard box 12" x 12" x 6", but a solution that works for other sizes would be useful for future reference.

posted by gearspring to Shopping (13 answers total)

USPS (aka the mail) is the best because they will hold the package at the nearest post office, which in the East Village will be no more than 10 blocks away.
posted by falconred at 9:44 PM on February 13, 2006

I uses USPS for pretty much everything these days too. They seem to be far more careful about leaving packages out in the open and it's generally easier to got to a post office than a UPS depot if you do have to pick it up. For the shipper they have these neato machines that allow you to ship your own parcels using a credit card without having to wait in line and IMHO they are cheaper and more reliable than UPS, FedEx or, god forbid, DHL.
posted by fshgrl at 9:58 PM on February 13, 2006

USPS, please! I live in an apartment with no place to hide packages, and it's far easier to pop down to the PO (half a mile away) than to watch UPS miss me for three days running, and then get a car, drive said car a few miles away, etc.

USPS also allows you to schedule redelivery, and they'll hold your packages for an insanely long amount of time - I've picked up a parcel I missed months before, and they still had it in the back room.
posted by kalimac at 4:35 AM on February 14, 2006

Can you send it to him at work? Is there a neighbor nearby who is usually home and who can accept packages for him?
posted by caddis at 4:40 AM on February 14, 2006

Any USPS offices in NYC generally seem to feature lines around 30 mins long at the "packages" window. Unless you're lucky and go at weird hours.
posted by meehawl at 5:17 AM on February 14, 2006

When sending FedEx, you can sign the airbill to say you don't require the reciever's signature. I'm sure you can do likewise with UPS.
posted by zsazsa at 5:34 AM on February 14, 2006

Response by poster: Can I pay USPS for special delivery or something so my father doesn't have to wait in a 30 minute line?

Is FedEx Ground Home Delivery any good?
posted by gearspring at 5:35 AM on February 14, 2006

USPS is the best in my experience. FedEx seems to know to come back later if I'm not home; they usually show up about 6:30 pm.

UPS - feh.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:02 AM on February 14, 2006

If you decide you don't want to go the USPS route, and there's a UPS store in your father's area (looks like there are 5 in the east village), they'll probably offer a package-receiving service. They'll probably charge a buck or two for the convenience. You might be able to call one of those stores directly to pre-pay that charge. Ship it there, and tell your dad "pick it up here."
posted by adamrice at 7:47 AM on February 14, 2006

Fed Ex gives you the option to have a package delivered to a service station in the recipients area.

Fed Ex Home Ground delivery will leave a package at the persons home if it is safe to do so. For home deliveries a signature is not required. You can require a signature for a $2 fee.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 7:53 AM on February 14, 2006

If you are willing to pay overnight delivery rates, you can select an option with a short delivery window and arrange for your father to be there during that period. E.g., you can use one of the priority overnight FedEx options that guarantees delivery by something like 10am, so your father would only have to hang around between say 8-10am on the appointed day. Of course, this will be considerably more expensive than ground shipping.
posted by brain_drain at 11:06 AM on February 14, 2006

You could check with FedEx (disclosure - I work for them) and find out where the "hold at location" is for his address. It may be close by and more convenient than trying to meet the courier. The nearest one to the East Village I can think of is 130 Leroy. He could pick it up before 8:30 pm or from 9:30pm to 11:15 pm if I'm reading the information correctly. You might also look into whether it can be held at a Kinkos that might be closer.
posted by Carbolic at 12:44 PM on February 14, 2006

FedEx and UPS have different policies. If you sign the "deliver without signature line," the FedEx driver will always leave the package. The UPS driver leaves it, or doesn't, depending on how "safe" the situation looks. You can't override this.

Both FedEx and UPS will re-deliver to another address. Both will ring a neighbor's doorbell if you instruct them to.

My office switched to UPS for a while but went back to FedEx, despite the higher cost, not only for reliability but because UPS frequently wouldn't leave a package, even in a neighborhood with separate houses.
posted by KRS at 12:56 PM on February 14, 2006