MDI Mainer

Handing the parcel over to USPS for "last mile delivery" is an option (cheaper) selected by the merchant or shipper, not a choice or decision by UPS or FedEx. If paid for full service, both UPS and FedEx are perfectly happy to deliver it to your door.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Amazon could teach them all a lesson.

DL Loc: St. Petersburg, Fl and Island Park, Idaho

I hope BH reads this thread. Complaining to others let’s off steam but does not help the problem. You need to let BH know and you also need to it FedEx know.

Bill_de Loc: US

Before Covid Amazon was beginning to ship for other companies with the intent to compete with FedEX and UPS. with the pandemic they couldn't keep up with it because of the sudden increase in their own shipping needs. I heard on the news the other day that Amazon is taking on some deliveries for other companies.

Something I found funny. My mail carrier told me that by the end of three years they will have all new vehicles. I pointed out to her that by the end of three years Amazon is committed to having all electric vehicles. She burst out laughing and said "Now I get it. Our new trucks will be Amazon's repainted ones".

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Raptor

When I have purchased expensive camera gear I arrange to have it shipped to a Fedex store. Safe, secure, no worries about stolen package. Signature required but that's the cost of peace of mind. Enjoy your Sony! I just bought a full frame and it's amazing.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

I have this problem as well and it is a FedEx problem. FedEX often list what they must know to be incorrect delivery dates on heir site and then change them at the last minute. Sometimes multiple changes occur. Both UPS and USPS are better.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Years ago, overnight package services were just that...companies that, for a premium price, would pick up a package, transport it to the destination, and deliver it based on written commitments that were published in tariff documents for the public to read. These tariffs were also filed with the federal government, who took various steps to ensure that the commitments were met. There were three primary providers in the United States, United Parcel Service, Federal Express, and Airborne Express. Delivery was on a best-effort basis, and targeted performance was 95% success in meeting published delivery commitments. The business evolved to a sort of natural segmentation. UPS was a ground-only method, Airborne was next-day business-to-business (they didn't advertise except in a limited number of trade journals), and Federal Express served a more general customer base with next day deliveries. Of course, some more remote locations had to be satisfied with two-day delivery times, because many were served only three days per week.

Delivery by noon was at a higher price, and in some markets, it was possible to get delivery by 10:30 AM by paying a (fairly substantial) premium. Special services could be purchased. When I started at Airborne, Saturday delivery cost an extra $40 per package. The delivery commitment was 5 PM We also offered a service using counter-to-counter shipments via major airlines. The base price for that was about $150, plus charges for package weight and size.

The whole industry experienced a shift in the 1990s. Several factors drove it. UPS had been doing some overnight express and discovered that there was a lot of money to be made. They were essentially rolling in cash, so they bought a lot of brand new airplanes and built a number of airport facilities and got into the business in a big way. At Airborne, we discovered that even though life was generally pretty good, we had some empty space on our aircraft that could be used to carry items essentially without adding any cost except for a tiny amount of additional fuel. That got us involved in expanding into business to home shipments, which ended up killing us. The company had about one-third the number of route drivers of either Fedex or UPS, so when we got our first contract to deliver Caller-ID units to homes (remember those), it just about brought us to a standstill. No way we had enough trucks and drivers to make all those additional deliveries.

From then until today, the industry has been adjusting to a series of new realities. Fedex bought Rodeway Express to build their own ground-based business, thousands of people had to be hired to support new dock-to-dock freight businesses, and everyone had to buy trucks and hire drivers and build sort centers to support higher volumes and vastly increased delivery points. The result is that Fedex is no longer the premium overnight business it originally was, and UPS has had to completely reinvent themselves as well. The jury is out on Amazon. It currently has the sweatshop reputation that plagued UPS for years until their union got independent from the company management. Amazon drivers turn over every month or two in many of their markets.

So B&H and everyone else has to work with what is available to them. And they have to do that knowing that none of their customers is really willing to pay what would in fact be a reasonable charge for the premium delivery service that they (and we) know would be most appropriate for the equipment that we order. Let's face it...if it were a real concern beyond just something to fuss about, you would choose the more appropriate shipping option and pay for it. So in reality, they are providing exactly what customers truly want...which is free shipping.

And to the posters who have suggested that the problems arise because the companies have to deal with thousands of other packages every night...recalibrate yourself. The true scale is that they deal with millions of packages every night. Many millions. Airborne Express, the smallest company, was handling over a million packages every night 30 years ago BEFORE we ever started accepting residential deliveries. A 95% success rate still leaves a lot of packages tht do not meet the stated delivery goal with these numbers.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

The reason people use them is the are usually the cheapest to use. So if the shipper is paying the fee, they use feed ex. They also pay the highest fees to postal places. They get more packages than others because of this.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Just an FYI, but if you have signed up for a Free Fedex Account, you can redirect there package to a number of other locations where it will be held for pickup. My closest is Walgreen's (1.8 miles) – and yes signature required packages can be delivered here.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

BH reads UHH, so if B&H is in the title, they have probably read it.

henryp Loc: New York, NY

I appreciate your order and regret FedEx disappointed you. I'm not sure what is "common knowledge" in Florida but our decision to use FedEx was not based on a whim, nor on one vendor's price vs another's price. We use FedEx because UPS has proved disappointingly consistent for our customers and for us. I know there are as many UPS fans here as there are B&H fans and I know many will speak up in reply, but we rely on FedEx because they've done the job over the past several years.


Which other camera retailer frequents these forums, and dpreview and fredmiranda, etc? I think this is just one indication that B&H cares about our customers and their experiences.

UPS, FedEx, DHL & USPS all struggled over Christmas a few years ago, hiring too few seasonal workers and underestimating traffic and volume. The next year they went too far the other way and overspent, incurring the wrath of stockholders. I don't recall the date we switched to FedEx offhand but I'm confident it preceded this unfortunate situation.

henryp Loc: New York, NY

UPS Mail Innovations works with domestic and international postal services, providing the pickup, processing, and interim transportation of your package. The postal service makes the final delivery.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Hey Everyone

B&H cannot control the delivery services any more than you can. As I noted above if you don't want to stay home, then choose an alternate delivery site where you can pick it up on your schedule.

henryp Loc: New York, NY

We usually require a signature on delivery but during the pandemic, shippers have adopted alternate options for this.

At https://www.fedex.com/en-us/coronavirus.html FedEx says, “We’ve suspended Signature Required for most shipments.” In addition, at https://www.fedex.com/content/dam/fedex/us-united-states/Service-Alerts/images/2021/q1/2019_nCoV_Service_Impacts_August_20.pdf they say:

Signature suspension notification
To promote the World Health Organization’s guidance on social distancing and do our part to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 across our communities, effective immediately we have temporarily implemented no-contact pickups and deliveries, including temporarily suspending most signature requirements for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground deliveries in the U.S. and Canada. The signature suspension also includes FedEx Freight in the U.S. and those normally required as part of our same-day service, as well as in our FedEx Office retail stores and onsite locations at various retailers. In some cases, signatures will be captured by the driver manually entering the recipient’s first initial, last name and “C-19.”

Our FAQ says, “It says my order was delivered, but I can't find my package. What should I do?
We're sorry to hear that about your shipment. Please email (cs@bhphoto.com) or call Customer Service at 800.221.5743 or 212.239.7765 as soon as possible to begin the claims process.”

henryp Loc: New York, NY

We do all we can to publicize Jewish holidays well in advance including notes on our site, in Twitter, Facebook, etc. And while there are two week-long holidays, almost all the rest are one or two days at most. Coincidentally September is rife with Jewish holidays this year. See https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/HelpCenter/StoreInfo.jsp#hoursOfOperation