Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fedex

Shipping art over the ocean

jonathanbell — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:06:42 -0800

I'm looking for international shipping strategies and recommendations, UK to Canada. I have a large amount of family ephemera and memorabilia - mostly old photographs, notebooks, small framed pictures, etc., - that needs to be shipped from London, UK, to Canada. It's probably two standard archive boxes worth in its un-bubble-wrapped state. In addition, there are also 4 or 5 large glass-framed artworks (probably about 1m x 70cm max) that have to go the same way.

Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for getting this stuff over the ocean cost-effectively? I suspect the latter needs some kind of art specialist, but would they also take the family ephemera? Or would we be better off just bubble-wrapping the ephemera into standard FedEx (or other) boxes? None of it is enormously valuable.

Any personal recommendations or suggestions would be hugely welcome. Thank you in advance.

Where to find cheap photocopies in San Francisco?

roxie110 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:53:54 -0800

Where can I get cheap photocopies in San Francisco? Is there anywhere in the city cheaper than Kinkos or OfficeMax? I need to make about 1,000 copies for a class I'm teaching--a 40-page workbook plus a bunch of handouts, black/white, single-sided.

In Berkeley there's a 3- or 4-cent copy place, but I haven't found any in San Francisco. Help! And thanks!

Take My Stuff - Please!

lunasol — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:29:06 -0800

Which is the best shipping service to use for moving? USPS, Fedex, or UPS? I would like them to come to my house. Specifics: I'm moving most of my non-furniture stuff about 1200 miles.

- Time is not an issue. I won't need this stuff for a month or so.
- I will have about 6-8 boxes holding clothes, books, and some kitchenware.
- I have one larger item - a TV - which I'd like to have someone come to my house, pack it up and ship it for me. I'll pack everything else myself.
- Budget: I'm willing to pay for pickup, but I'd rather not pay for speed, since I don't need the stuff to get there quickly.

A lot of the info I've found about these options online is sort of confusing and assumes a basic familiarity of shipping classes that I don't have. From what I can tell, USPS only does this for express and priority mail, which is more expensive than I need. Fedex picks up, but all fedex shipping is super-pricey. It seems like my best bet is UPS but I'm wondering if I might be missing something.

Also, will any of these entities send someone to pack up my TV?

A very special shoe

Evangeline — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:29:10 -0800

70 Euros to ship a shoe? What the heck is going on here? That is not a typo - it's just one shoe. My boss left a shoe in a hotel in Rome that he is very keen on getting back. Apparently it was a very expensive shoe.

The hotel manager said it would cost about 70 Euros to ship it to the US. What!?! I checked the Fedex rates, and he is indeed correct. That's about US$140. Why is the rate so freakin' high?

Before I spend thirty minutes on hold with someone from Fedex who will probably not have an answer for this, can someone enlighten me? Thanks.

Do Fedex Overnight packages have the location of origin postmarked or printed on them in any way?

dkleinst — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:36:53 -0800

Do Fedex Overnight packages have the location of origin postmarked or printed on them in any way? If so - do any other mail services not have this feature?

Mail at my expense?

tiamat — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:18:40 -0800

Pre-paid international shipping? I'd like to have someone drop something off in Germany and have the item shipped to me in Canada at my expense. Simpler is better. I understand the best carrier to use from Germany to Canada is DHL (as per a previous Ask.Me question).

How do I go about arranging an account where my friend in Germany can mail me things at my expense? Just get DHL labels and put my CC# on them? Or setup a DHL account and get billed? Other?

I'm talking about a very low volume, maybe once or twice a month each way.

Suggestions of other carriers are welcome, but I've heard bad things about UPS and FedEx in Germany, and I want to use the same shipper going both ways.

_{[I don't have regular 'net access right now, so please be patient if asking for more info.]}

Any recourse for bungled MacBook FedEx delivery?

quarterframer — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:07:04 -0800

Any recourse for bungled MacBook FedEx delivery? No one saw the package, and no one will help... I've done some searching in the posts and found some similar but not identical scenarios. I'm hoping someone can give me pointers on where to get some help replacing a missing delivery.

My wife ordered a laptop from Apple and it was delivered to her school by FedEx. It was (maybe) signed for by a slightly dim (seriously) school employee. My wife saw it had been delivered on the FedEx website and went to find it but it had gone missing. No one at her school can recall for sure if they saw it or where it might be.

The phone calls have gone like this: FedEx says talk to Apple. Apple puts in a tracking request with FedEx. FedEx tells Apple it was delivered and signed for at the school. Apple will not reship, since it was signed for at "a place of business" (although I don't see anything about that in the sales receipt). The person who signed for it can't recall anything specific, they get lots of deliveries. The school says they are not responsible. The credit card company offered no assistance.

We just can't afford to get another MacBook, so we are willing to do whatever it takes to get some satisfaction with this before her on-the-fritz, grindy hard drive, flickering screen G3 iBook finally dies. My wife is now assigning the follow-up to me because I tend to be more assertive on the phone.

Please tell me if we are SOL or what I might be able to do. Who should I call first? Can I take anyone (the school?) to small claims? I'm kind of bummed Apple didn't step up at all on this. Both the school and the transaction took place in Alameda County, CA if that helps. A police report is being filed tomorrow. We are told that wont help anything but it would be good to have.

Thanks!

pizza by air

zek — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:50:14 -0800

Who has the best New York pizza by FedEx? I live in Texas and want to surprise my wife, who grew up on white pizza in New York. When we lived in the hinterlands of Oklahoma several years ago there was a place that we sometimes ordered from located near Poughkeepsie NY that FedExed great, authentic New York pizza. However I can't remember who they were and I won't assume they're still the best for this.

I'm sure there's good brick oven pizza in Texas, but all we have within 50 miles is Dominos.

Any suggestions from anyone that's done this, and knows New York pizza?

Oh just give my package to anyone. No sweat.

kookoobirdz — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:51:50 -0800

Fedex gave my package to my random neighbor without asking me. WTF?! Isn't this a violation of privacy, some kind of breach of contract, and a financial risk to me? I seem to have the opposite problem of this guy, who can't get Fedex to leave his package when he's not there. I don't want them leaving it unless I am there.

The other day I get home and there's a Fedex tag on my door. For a second I thought they had put it on the wrong door because it had somebody else's name on it. But then I realized they were saying they gave my package to somebody else. I live in an apartment complex and this was some person down the way who I've never met or heard of. Whaaa? This has never happened to me before. I felt so violated. I don't know any of these people. How can they just give my package to someone who's not me and isn't a designated receiver of packages like a doorman or building manager or leasing office? How is this legal?

In this case, it was just a jacket I had ordered from a catalog, and I got the package from the neighbor the next day after a couple of tries, when we both happened to be home. His halting English prevented him from explaining why Fedex had given him my package, but he was nice enough and handed the thing over. So no harm done this time...

But what if it had been a package with markings that indicated or hinted at the sender and/or contents, and those weren't contents or associations I wanted my neighbor or anyone to know about? Think politics, business, sex, legal matters, financial matters, whatever. There could be any number of things indicated by a package that you wouldn't voluntarily share with the people around you. Isn't it a violation of my privacy to disclose those things?

What if my neighbor accepts my package while I'm away for a day or two and then leaves for a three-week vacation, and the package is something I need urgently? How can Fedex transfer this discretion to him? What if my neigbor decides he'd like a shiny new whatever's-in-the-box, and decides to sign with a false name and a fake signature and then deny ever having signed for it when Fedex produces the "evidence"? What if my neighbor is a jerk and we hate each other and he decides to sign for it and throw it in a ditch and, again, deny having signed for it? It would just be his word against mine and Fedex's with no way to prove that he's got whatever it is.

What could I possibly do at that point? What could Fedex do? I'd have to appeal to the sender to send another one and they'd be like, "look, we did our part, this is Fedex's problem." And Fedex would be like, "This is our policy and your neighbor signed - - it's between you two to resolve." And the neighbor would be like, "Chem huskenur. Ts'tesutyun." And I'd be like, "Fuck!"

I feel like they have no right to give my packages to random strangers. And it's not up to my unknown neighbor to make that decision for me. It should go: sender, Fedex, me. If after three failed attempts at delivering to me or to my leasing office (which accepts packages for all residents), they need to keep the package at their facility like they say and let me come pick it up. I understand that the sender has the option of requiring a signature, but that's the point of Fedex's three-tries policy. If they make a reasonable effort to get it to me, but cant, then I think it's fair that I should have to go pick it up at my local facility. But don't just cop out and dump the thing at the next best location. Where's the accountability?

I looked on their website and saw that this neigbor option is standard policy. I can't believe this is permitted. Shouldn't there be some legal argument here? Isn't there some kind of compact between sender, carrier, and recipient?

Is there a way to get them to not do this? This isn't Mayberry - I don't want them to ever deliver to someone who just happens to be near my place.

On a side note, another shipper, I'm guessing it's USPS, just leaves stuff on my doorstep while I'm gone. Wouldn't mind so much at a house, but at a busy complex that is deserted during the day, that's like a thief magnet for random loiterers. Wish they wouldn't do that. I'll be calling both them and Fedex to make these requests. Has anyone else tried this and if so, what happened?

No, Amazon.com, I refuse to believe your entire market consists of unemployed bums.

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:55:17 -0800

How can I decline/avoid UPS and Fedex's #$!@ing "signature required in person" deliveries? I don't want to drive to any more farflung warehouses just to get my stuff! Everybody knows the problem: you order something online, you track the package, and on the day it's "out for delivery," you come home not to find your merch, but instead a door tag. "Sorry we've missed you," it says; "We'll be back at the same time tomorrow. When you're at work."

For people like me who work outside the home with something like 9-5 hours, this sucks. The retailer's attempt at security costs me three days of extra wait time plus the time and gas to drive to the other side of Ann Arbor and stick my head into some ill-publicized warehouse in the few hours between when I get home and when they close. Clearly I'm not the only one with this problem.

So how do the rest of you deal? Is there a standard way you can let your merchant know that, hey, I'm not going to be around, so just save the cost of signature confirmation and I'll take my chances? Or is there at least a number you can call to tell the carrier to save his time and not bring the package by, but rather just hold it?

I've been screwed by UPS and FedEx in the last few weeks, and neither of their websites hint at any way around their policies.

Who's the wo/man I should be talking to in FedEx?

bigmusic — Fri, 12 May 2006 09:40:08 -0800

FedEx Help - - I did a driving course online and I need the documentation in my hot little hands before I go to the judge on monday. I paid for next day and should have received it yesterday. But I left a PO Box as the mailing address, they called and we changed it to a street address (I should have been told prior that they don't ship to PO Boxes, but - anyways)-- so no harm no foul -- I would receive it by 5pm today.

BUT - they (the driving school )screwed up and sent it second day (yesterday the 12th) so that means according to FedEx tracking system that it would arrive to me on Monday before 4:30pm. Great.

So I called the traffic school, many, many, many times and got them to change it so it would be delivered on saturday. But I being the smart little man that I am called Fedex to confirm this and looked it up on tracking -- nothing had changed! Still scheduled for delivery on Monday. I called FedEx and they said it's very hard to change the delivery date of something midshipment. (I'm really pissed at the driving school now.)

Who do I call besides customer service (they've been as helpful as they can) to make sure it gets delivered to me tomorrow? Is there a special person in fedex who listens to this kind of thing and can help me? Is there a super customer service god of FedEx?

What kind of dog is Spotcom?

trharlan — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 07:41:38 -0800

What kind of dog is Spotcom? Why is he so cute?

Does UPS / FedEx intentionally slow down non-premium deliveries?

trharlan — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 13:17:22 -0800

When a person chooses to send a package via UPS or FedEx, and s/he chooses not to opt for the premium one- or two-day delivery, will the carrier hold the package (rather than delivering it) at the nearest hub for a day or two to spite the tightwad shipper? In other words, if they could deliver it faster than promised without incurring extra expense, do they still delay the parcel's delivery so the service isn't any faster than promised?