Why does Woodpeckers ship USPS?

[Mike Henderson]

Well Todd, and Mike, this will probably come as shock to you, the ONLY tracking service the USPS offers is EXPRESS MAIL. What most people THINK is a tracking number ( EXPRESS MAIL only ) is Delivery Confirmation. All the customer is paying for is the Delivery scan. Any additional scans that can be seen on the Track/Confirm page are bonus. You get what you pay for. And you are right Mike, UPS hands the USPS a lot of their packages to deliver ( 100 to 300 per day in our small office , Fedex does the same thing, just not quite as much as UPS )
If you need any further explanation, please ask.

As for the blank stare from your carrier, they don't have access to check on confirmation numbers on their scanners. I am pretty sure the UPS and Fedex drivers don't either.

I'm probably not the Mike you were addressing your response to, but with Delivery Confirmation, I can track the item in USPS all along the line. I see an entry for accepted at my post office, then acceptance at the local sorting station, then departure from that station, then acceptance at the next sorting station, then departure, then acceptance at the destination post office, then "out for delivery", then delivered.

That's pretty good tracking for me. And that's with delivery confirmation.

Mike

[Steve Rozmiarek]

+1 for UPS here, for a different reason. USPS leaves packages at the mailbox, I'm very rural, on the ground sometimes, no matter the weather, for everyone to see. UPS will drop it someplace out of the weather.

[Steve Colvin]

To the point about being out of town and having a neighbor check - you can just have the Post Office hold mail while you are gone. We do it frequently.

[Keith Christopher]

Actually if you look at deliveries, FedEx and UPS sometimes 'sub' to USPS depending on the load. Sadly USPS is often under used these days. If you order something and it has a fedex tracking number but the postal worker delivers it, then you know what I am saying. Check it out.

http://www.fedex.com/us/smart-post/outbound.html

[Brian Elfert]

I would choose USPS over Fedex Ground or UPS ground any day of the week. Priority mail is generally faster than the other two and USPS includes Saturday as a business day so stuff gets to me faster. If someone ships with UPS or Fedex overnight on Friday I'll get it Monday, but it will have cost several times what Priority Mail costs. USPS, UPS, and Fedex will all leave stuff under my covered overhang. I'm far enough from the road that nothing has ever gone missing.

I've been in situations where I purposely find a vendor who uses Priority Mail due to time constraints and not wanting to pay UPS/Fedex two day or overnight rates. Only once in the past two years have I been desperate enough for a part to pay overnight rates. It cost me $75 to have a $125 part sent overnight. The part wasn't terribly heavy even.

[Guy Belleman]

Woodpeckers has been great to deal with. Many vendors will not ship to overseas military addresses, even using USPS. Vendors that will use USPS and fill out the customs forms are preferred due to my having a military overseas address that only gets mail by USPS. In the states, UPS and Fedex may be better values, but please support the dealers that will ship to our military and DOD employees overseas using USPS, like Woodpeckers

[Mike Gillispie]

Guy I agree, I've had an APO adress for 8 of the past 10 years--it's great to find companies that use USPS.

[Marc Pelletier]

Here's a Canadian perspective. I won't order anything from the US that comes via UPS. They are absolutely criminal in what they charge for brokerage. The USPS / Canada Post combination doesn't charge a thing for brokerage and is quicker at dealing with the border. From what I can tell USPS provides fantastic service and you-all should support it as much as possible. Canada Post.... not so much.

[Andrew Kertesz]

I have never had a problem with USPS and if I'm not home most of the time they put it on the back porch inside the fence, UPS does NOT do that. Something many people may not know about Fed Ex the residential route drivers are contractors and own the route so that can vary by route and location.

[Richard Wagner]

I'm probably not the Mike you were addressing your response to, but with Delivery Confirmation, I can track the item in USPS all along the line. I see an entry for accepted at my post office, then acceptance at the local sorting station, then departure from that station, then acceptance at the next sorting station, then departure, then acceptance at the destination post office, then "out for delivery", then delivered.

That's pretty good tracking for me. And that's with delivery confirmation.

Mike

You are one of the lucky ones because you are not guaranteed "point to point tracking from USPS on "Delivery Confirmation".

A Quote from the USPS:

Tracking vs. Confirmation of Delivery
Some USPS® products provide Tracking, while others provide only Confirmation of Delivery. It is important to understand which products include these services and the difference between “tracking” and “confirming”. The “Tracking Mail” and “Confirmation of Delivery” FAQs provide additional detail on these topics. This FAQ provides specific information about Confirmation of Delivery. For additional information on Tracking, please go to the Track & Confirm – Tracking Mail FAQ. Sorry - this link does not work.
Premium products, such as Express Mail®, include Tracking. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent via Express Mail should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was accepted and when it was delivered or a delivery attempt occurred. Additionally, the user will likely see several additional scans as the item moves through the mail stream, such as “processed’ or “arrival at unit”. Products that include tracking provide end-to-end visibility.
Lower-cost products, such as Delivery Confirmation™, only include Confirmation of Delivery. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent with Delivery Confirmation should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was delivered or when a delivery attempt occurred. USPS may also provide users with additional scan on items that include confirmation of delivery, such as “processed”, “arrival at unit”, or “out for delivery.” However, the price of these lower-cost products does not include end-to-end visibility.

[Mike Henderson]

You are one of the lucky ones because you are not guaranteed "point to point tracking from USPS on "Delivery Confirmation".

A Quote from the USPS:

Tracking vs. Confirmation of Delivery
Some USPS® products provide Tracking, while others provide only Confirmation of Delivery. It is important to understand which products include these services and the difference between “tracking” and “confirming”. The “Tracking Mail” and “Confirmation of Delivery” FAQs provide additional detail on these topics. This FAQ provides specific information about Confirmation of Delivery. For additional information on Tracking, please go to the Track & Confirm – Tracking Mail FAQ. Sorry - this link does not work.
Premium products, such as Express Mail®, include Tracking. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent via Express Mail should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was accepted and when it was delivered or a delivery attempt occurred. Additionally, the user will likely see several additional scans as the item moves through the mail stream, such as “processed’ or “arrival at unit”. Products that include tracking provide end-to-end visibility.
Lower-cost products, such as Delivery Confirmation™, only include Confirmation of Delivery. This means that a user checking the Track & Confirm site for a mailpiece sent with Delivery Confirmation should see, at a minimum, when the mailpiece was delivered or when a delivery attempt occurred. USPS may also provide users with additional scan on items that include confirmation of delivery, such as “processed”, “arrival at unit”, or “out for delivery.” However, the price of these lower-cost products does not include end-to-end visibility.

Yes, I realize that, but the USPS is moving towards tracking all delivery confirmation shipments. All the "delivery confirmation" shipments I've made in the past few years have provided full tracking. I expect that will continue and improve in the future. It's to USPS' advantage to provide that to their customers.

Mike

[Tom Walz]

We sell Woodpeckers tools. We will be happy to ship your tools anyway you wish.

Unfortunately the question of what shipping method is best varies greatly. There were some excellent comments made above. In 30 years of shipping all over the world we have found that the services can vary greatly depending on the people involved.

UPS and USPS are heavily dependent on the particular delivery person.

With some services, the customs fee into Canada is ridiculously high.

We typically ship by either: 1. Whatever the customer wishes or 2. Whatever we think is fastest and cheapest if there are no customer requests.

I am not an expert on this but I have two very nice and ladies, Emily and Whitney, who are very good customer service including shipping options.

Emily Got Married Sale

As long as I am doing this I might as well have a big sale. My number one, customer service rep and daughter, Emily, got married last Tuesday and will be back to work on Tuesday the 26^th. On Tuesday the 26^th only will offer an additional 10% off any item we sell, including Woodpeckers, plus free shipping.

[Richard McComas]

I uses USPS when ever I can. Here in Alaska it's usually less expensive and I'm not hung up on the tracking thing. Of course USPS lost 15 billion year.

[Jim Neeley]

+1 Richard, Priority Mail one-rate to Alaska it is! :-)

[Todd Brewer]

Interesting that so many like USPS. Until they get a tracking system like UPS and FedEx I will always prefer UPS and FedEx.

I know USPS is hurting so an update to their tracking system is probably not likely.

Interesting that some can track USPS all the way. Never worked for me.

I contacted Woodpeckers and their response was: We give you the option to choose a shipper at checkout. I have confirmed this. Maybe I got cheap as UPS vs. Parcel post amounts to $17.87 vs. $10.60. My apologies to Woodpeckers.