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Comment by kylec | Hacker News Reader

I know it's anecdata, but in my experience UPS is way better about actually delivering packages to me than FedEx is. I live in a building with a call box, to which both FedEx and UPS were given their own codes, but most of the time FedEx "attempts" a delivery they mark it as undeliverable. It's gotten to the point where I'm now preemptively requesting my FedEx-shipped packages to be held at a local FedEx ship & print center rather than even waiting for the first attempted delivery. UPS, on the other hand, delivers packages without a hitch nearly every single time.

I don't know whether this has anything to do with the contractor vs employee nature of these companies, but I do know that UPS is way better at actually doing their job.

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I echo this. I receive about 5-20 packages per day froma variety of vendors and origin countries and I can say that UPS is superior to Fedex in many subtle ways. This has been my experience across the spectrum of offerings: ground, rush air, and freight.

Perhaps I'm comparing apples to oranges but my USPS guy who is the same nice man for at least the last 10 years, has been much more reliable than either the FedEx or UPS delivery staff.

He even collected the strewn around mail from our mailbox the other day and visited us to let us know that someone has likely been stealing our mail and that we should check our credit cards. I'll miss him when he retires soon.

Frustratingly, my USPS people alternate, and one lays on each side of the line. One is amazing, always careful, etc. The other...left a cardboard box directly under a gutter spout in a rainstorm today.

Ever contacted your local postmaster? Every organization has rotten apples, but I’ve found USPS usually acts on complaints more frequently than UPS or FedEx.

From my experience quality of USPS varies. Some employees are doing a superb job, but some just don't seem to give a f*k. I've seen mails delivered to wrong mailboxes, sometimes I've seen mail that is even from a different street. One time they marked item as delivered, before they actually did which made me worry it was stolen (fortunately the item was delivered 2 hours later).

Other time (more an issue for Amazon in that instance) they delivered item but never scanned it so an opportunist could claim that item was never delivered and there's no way to verify that.

As I said there are also good things. I really like that USPS doesn't artificially delay packages like UPS (if item could be delivered sooner, but was paid for 2 days delivery, they will hold it). I for example had a package delivered next day because it was shipped from a close place, even though the estimate was 3-5 days.

> but some just don't seem to give a f*k. I've seen mails delivered to wrong mailboxes

This happened to me during tax season no less. My only saving factor was that they put it into the mailbox of a relative who lived next door (and their last name is significantly different from mine) imagine a total stranger with my tax refund plus all that information. Thank you incompetent USPS employee. We definitely complained about them, not sure if they've sorted that out but I also bought a book not short after that, and you guessed it, my relative got my book instead.

I love USPS, my packages shipped through them arrive before noon every time, never damaged, and if something requires a signature my carrier(a) wait for more than 3 seconds for me to get to the door.

I like USPS too. RFD isn't an option, so my mail goes to a post office in a nearby town. I often forget to check my mail and they just put it into a box for me. Usually, maybe once every two weeks, I'll go down and get it. If not, they hold it until the box is full and then they call me and tell me I have mail and should come get it.

The other delivery companies just drop my stuff off there or, if they aren't open, they'll drop it at the gas station/convenience store. UPS has gotten stuck on my lawn, twice. FedEx can never find the house. So, it is just easier this way and the post office has been very accommodating.

It is one of the great joys of living in a very rural area.

FedEx has always been awful in my experience. I've had them drive on my lawn, leave stuff in the rain, and not knock on the door. The estimated date is always wrong. They even fucked up kinkos somehow. The only thing I like about them is the hidden arrow in the logo.

With me it's gotten to a point where I will pay for FedEx 2nd day air just to avoid FedEx Ground. My worst experience is this

https://www.fedex.com/apps/fedextrack/?tracknumbers=01384025...

It took ten days (counting from the 1st delivery attempt), and as far as I can tell five separate delivery exceptions (with the same address that I've used for any other delivery service, including FedEx 2nd day air), for them to finally deliver it. And guess what happened when I finally opened the package? The phone that is supposed to be in the package is gone (this is a pixel XL phone ordered from Google Store; fortunately Google is very responsible with this and in fact when I explained the situation to them they immediately acknowledged it to be a problem they are aware of)

Agree, although my opinion is admittedly influenced by the volume of packages we receive from Amazon delivered by UPS (although USPS seems to be delivering more these days). We tend to have the same UPS delivery person who generally knows the ins-and-outs of the neighborhood to the point where we had a package mis-labeled with the wrong address (same street, missing digit) and he recognized the error and delivered it without our intervention. We tend to receive far fewer Fedex deliveries, but generally if there's a delivery issue it's with them.

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