For instance, I recently purchased a printer toner cartridge from QuikShip - awesome service, very prompt, and cheaper than you can find just about anywhere. I decide I would like to recycle the old cartridge. QuikShip promptly emails me a UPS shipping label.
And then the problems begin.
First, you just simply cannot go to UPS.com and schedule a pick-up. You have to have a UPS account number to be charged. Fair enough. So I decided to go to the UPS Store (Chickasaw and Lake Underhill in Orlando, FL) where I was informed that $1.07 would be required to tape my shipping label to the cartridge box. The UPS Store does NOT offer the little window envelopes that are so readily and freely available from UPS upon request - as many as you want. Of course, I balk at paying $1.07. It's absurd.
So, I decide I'll look for a UPS drop box and just put the label in one of the free window envelopes stocked at such boxes and ship the package. I turn to my iPhone and the UPS website just isn't iPhone friendly and/or the AT&T 3G service is too slow to be useful. I give up and go home, package still with me.
I next call UPS on the telephone and after going through various speech recognition prompts, the system gives up on me and transfers me to a live representative. She goes through her regular routine when I tell her I have something to ship and then requests an account number. I explain the situation, and she informs me there would be an $8.00 charge for UPS to come t my residence - the shipping label only covers the actual shipping of the package. Imagine that - the pickup charge for a package to be shipped is NOT included in the shipping charge. My ears get hot and now I'm perturbed even further. How did UPS get so big overcharging its customers? Why do people still use their services?
My conduct becomes unprofessional, I rant a few minutes, and then I give up. I thank her for her time and explain that I understand that she has no authority or responsibility; I understand that my call does not matter to her personally, and I wager not to UPS either. I hang up. I blog.
So, the question now before me is what is the best use of my blog? Legal op-ed, or rants and raves?
Maybe you could have a separate page for rants and raves? I notice many bloggers do rant and rave from time to time, even if their blog isn't specifically for that. But it can be quite therapeutic. I'll gladly pay a little more for UPS shipping (although not as much as FedEx seems to want) after the ordeal I went through with the USPS and trying to ship a package. I sold an item on Ebay and the customer opted not to have it insured. It was packaged well and I had a printed label for it that goes in one of those plastic envelopes that is attached to the box. Somehow they managed to separate the label from the package. My package got lost and I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, include pictures of the item and send to Atlanta, GA where my package is probably sitting at the Recovery Center. That was over 6 months ago. I'm still waiting... I had to refund the customer and now I don't even have my item back. I think someone in the post office decided to keep it and I'll never see it again. So if you use the USPS to ship any package that has ANY value, make sure you insure it, because when they lose it, it's really lost. And forget trying to talk to a live person or anyone that knows anything because it's just as bad, if not worse, than trying to deal with the DMV over the phone. After explaining the situation to several people, they just keep transferring you around until you get disconnected or end up in voicemail somewhere. Government efficiency at its best.
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