Shipping packages via UPS

[bansil]

I'm lucky I ship thru work,and I buy the boxes,bubble wrap etc.that's the cheap part and since I do packaging for my tems labor is free
I try to avoid shipping personal things between turkey day and first week of jan. Too much stuff moving and way to easy for it to windup lost in one of there huge "lost" warehouses for ever....

[somewhereinusa]

Well, it seems that the bean counters are asleep on this issue.
I recently ordered an item from a company in Kentucky, and being the cheap ass that I am requested the free, we'll get it to you some day, shipping.
Now bear in mind that I live about 100 miles north east of Indianapolis,total miles from where the item started out, about 220. The package went by Fed_EX from
Kentucky to Cincinnati, to Indianapolis, to somewhere in Wisconsin, to somewhere in Michigan, to Toledo. Between Michigan and Toledo it changed from
Fed_Ex to USPS. Then it went back to Indianapolis, to Ft Wayne, Andrews(really getting close now,4 miles). I realize that everyone has to get their grubby little mitts
on my package. The Andrews post office is where my mail comes from, that's where my carrier picks up the stuff. But according to their own tracking record the package
then went to Huntington (10 miles away) where it was listed as out for delivery. So sometime that day did it go from Huntington and back to Andrews? Could someone
explain to me how it's somehow cheaper for a package to travel about 1000 miles, with about 10 transfers, than going 220?.

Just last week I ordered something from Iowa using the, we'll get it to you someday, shipping method. Estimated delivery time? About three weeks? Really? From Iowa?
Well it did have to go to Denver first. Oh yea, then to Ohio. But, I must admit it only took a week, and it didn't cost anything for shipping.

And it's still better than when you would mail in your order to say, Warshawski's in Chicago. Anyone remember them, exact same address as J C Whitney, same catalog,
sometimes cheaper prices? If you were lucky, the package would magically appear in about two weeks. NO email saying we got your order, sent you order, here's your
tracking number, six follow up emails asking if you like the service/product/agent/guy who packed the box. NO pop up asking you to rate our "service". NO follow up
emails every 6 months saying it must be "time to reorder". I did however get at least one Warshawski and one J C Whitney catalog a week, and presumably will for the
rest of my life. I have however noticed a lack of Warshawsi catalogs, did they somehow realize that printing and mailing CATALOGS was probably not cost efficient?

[stonestatue]

My theory has been that they purposely make the package take longer even if there isn't much difference logistically than it being shipped via a more expensive option. They purposely do this to dissuade people from using the cheaper options if they're in a hurry, so they'll think the most expensive shipping option somehow involves a teleportation machine or just plain magic.