Help me ship a package same day from SF to Texas
October 7, 2006 5:35 PM Subscribe
What companies can ship a box same day from SF to Texas without having an account with the shipping company?
Hi, I need to ship a ~50 lb box (dim: ~20 X 15 X 15) from San Francisco to Denton, Texas on Monday. I called FedEx about it, but apptly they only allow same-day shipping of packages over 15 oz to customers with accounts reaching back to 1999 (due to September 11th). Anyway, do you know of a shipping company that could ship this package for me, same day, no hassles?
Thanks!
Hi, I need to ship a ~50 lb box (dim: ~20 X 15 X 15) from San Francisco to Denton, Texas on Monday. I called FedEx about it, but apptly they only allow same-day shipping of packages over 15 oz to customers with accounts reaching back to 1999 (due to September 11th). Anyway, do you know of a shipping company that could ship this package for me, same day, no hassles?
Thanks!
I've used AdCom's services in the past, and always found them reliable for same day door-to-door delivery. Don't know if they'll service Denton, TX, but you can always ask them.
posted by dersins at 5:55 PM on October 7, 2006
posted by dersins at 5:55 PM on October 7, 2006
DHL is another large shipping company.
For what it's worth, in my time I have used every major shipper, and a lot of minor shipping / courier companies, for overnight, same day, door to door, and counter to counter services.
The only one I ever had consistent trouble with was DHL. Multiple lost packages, late deliveries, and terrible customer service. This may or may not be typical of their service, but because of my experiences with them, I will never use them again, and would never recommend that anyone else use them, either.
posted by dersins at 6:55 PM on October 7, 2006
For what it's worth, in my time I have used every major shipper, and a lot of minor shipping / courier companies, for overnight, same day, door to door, and counter to counter services.
The only one I ever had consistent trouble with was DHL. Multiple lost packages, late deliveries, and terrible customer service. This may or may not be typical of their service, but because of my experiences with them, I will never use them again, and would never recommend that anyone else use them, either.
posted by dersins at 6:55 PM on October 7, 2006
I've had exacty the opposite experience with DHL for whatever it's worth. In fact, one time a driver just barely missed me at my office and I was going out of town. I called customer service, and they had him *turn around* and come back to my office to drop the package.
posted by SpecialK at 7:08 PM on October 7, 2006
posted by SpecialK at 7:08 PM on October 7, 2006
I've heard many major airlines offer shipping service on their passenger planes; you take the package to the ticket counter, pay an arm and a leg and it goes out on the next flight. Probably the fastest way to go.
posted by bizwank at 8:28 PM on October 7, 2006
posted by bizwank at 8:28 PM on October 7, 2006
I've only ever been on the receiving end of DHL, but out of all the shippers our family used to send packages to us, DHL was by far the nicest and easiest. They also have nice late pickup hours.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 10:40 PM on October 7, 2006
posted by Mr. Gunn at 10:40 PM on October 7, 2006
No one does "same day" delivery between cities that far away that I've ever heard of. UPS and Fedex do next-day (i.e. overnight) and you can send via UPS at a UPS store and pay cash.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:12 PM on October 7, 2006
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:12 PM on October 7, 2006
I've done car keys via Southwest Airlines freight... you just go to the air freight office and give them the shipment, it goes aboard the next flight, and the recipient picks it up in the destination city. Faster than FedEx. I think Southwest flies out of Oakland and to Texas.
posted by rolypolyman at 11:13 PM on October 7, 2006
posted by rolypolyman at 11:13 PM on October 7, 2006
1. Many major airports have 24-hour USPS offices (I know that LAX does), and overnight express mail might be the way to go here especially if you can mail it in the next few hours; then it's got almost 40 hours to get there before 5pm on Monday. Check the SFO and OAK websites to see if they've got one.
2. I checked the Southwest Airlines website (front page - products and services - cargo) and it looks like they'll only take shipments from "known shippers" (ie, probably not you) for things over a pound - this sounds like the TSA's work with FedEx you mention above. The car keys mentioned by rolypolyman probably would have been under a pound. I'm assuming other airlines have to follow the same rules.
3. I'd ask the people over at flyertalk.com, an aviation-based forum with lots of industry insiders, about what they'd do.
4. I wonder if you'd save money by flying it there yourself and having the shipment as checked baggage - if you bought a same-day return ticket from Oakland to Dallas, rented a roller-skate car, and dropped the thing off yourself, you might actually come out ahead if the lowest quote on shipping the thing is, say, $1000 or something crazy like that. (Aside: Southwest is legally forbidden from offering same-ticket flights to or from Dallas Love Field, their closest airport to Denton, TX, to or from any not-adjacent-to-or-in-Texas airport because of the Wright Amendment, so if you're planning on flying there, you'll either have to buy two separate tickets with enough time to collect your baggage and then re-check in, or fly someone else.)
My very slow internet connection here in Indonesia precludes me from checking the DHL and USPS website or the websites of airlines, but I imagine you can do these things.
posted by mdonley at 12:23 AM on October 8, 2006
2. I checked the Southwest Airlines website (front page - products and services - cargo) and it looks like they'll only take shipments from "known shippers" (ie, probably not you) for things over a pound - this sounds like the TSA's work with FedEx you mention above. The car keys mentioned by rolypolyman probably would have been under a pound. I'm assuming other airlines have to follow the same rules.
3. I'd ask the people over at flyertalk.com, an aviation-based forum with lots of industry insiders, about what they'd do.
4. I wonder if you'd save money by flying it there yourself and having the shipment as checked baggage - if you bought a same-day return ticket from Oakland to Dallas, rented a roller-skate car, and dropped the thing off yourself, you might actually come out ahead if the lowest quote on shipping the thing is, say, $1000 or something crazy like that. (Aside: Southwest is legally forbidden from offering same-ticket flights to or from Dallas Love Field, their closest airport to Denton, TX, to or from any not-adjacent-to-or-in-Texas airport because of the Wright Amendment, so if you're planning on flying there, you'll either have to buy two separate tickets with enough time to collect your baggage and then re-check in, or fly someone else.)
My very slow internet connection here in Indonesia precludes me from checking the DHL and USPS website or the websites of airlines, but I imagine you can do these things.
posted by mdonley at 12:23 AM on October 8, 2006
Response by poster: Thanks for all the great answers :)
posted by pantufla at 10:38 AM on October 8, 2006
posted by pantufla at 10:38 AM on October 8, 2006
No one does "same day" delivery between cities that far away
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Many companies do this between cities that are even further apart. It costs a lot of money, but it happens all the time. The entertainment industry (especially television) could not function without courier services that can get materials from New York to LA the same day.
posted by dersins at 6:12 PM on October 9, 2006
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Many companies do this between cities that are even further apart. It costs a lot of money, but it happens all the time. The entertainment industry (especially television) could not function without courier services that can get materials from New York to LA the same day.
posted by dersins at 6:12 PM on October 9, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kcm at 5:45 PM on October 7, 2006