# Lenses, bodies, etc now delivered USPS?!?



## YuengLinger (Aug 24, 2015)

I've noticed Amazon in the USA is using the postal service more and more. When the item is a book or bamboo cutting board, no problem...But, just saw that a next-day order for a new lens (about $1,000 in value) is coming USPS. :-*

Any concerns about this shift? About L series lenses and maybe higher-end bodies being delivered USPS?

Is anybody going out of their way to avoid certain carriers? On B&H we can choose--if willing to pay. Don't think any such option is available on Amazon...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 24, 2015)

I find that it is generally a big improvement for me. Faster delivery than UPS or FedEx. I usually get items in one day, if I order Thursday, it arrives Friday or Saturday, Order Friday and it arrives Monday. With UPS, order Thursday and it arrives the Next Tuesday, Order Friday, and its the Next Wednesday.

There is a simple reason for this, UPS does not work weekends due to Union Rules requiring double time payment to workers.

USPS works 7 days a week moving mail.

I ship items for my small business almost exclusively by USPS, and have stopped paying UPS $15 a week for UPS daily pickup.


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## YuengLinger (Aug 24, 2015)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I find that it is generally a big improvement for me. Faster delivery than UPS or FedEx. I usually get items in one day, if I order Thursday, it arrives Friday or Saturday, Order Friday and it arrives Monday, while UPS delivers it Wednesday.With UPS, order Thursday and it arrives the Next Tuesday, Order Friday, and its the Next Wednesday.
> 
> There is a simple reason for this, UPS does not work weekends due to Union Rules requiring double time payment to workers.
> 
> ...



Reassuring. Old perceptions fade slowly. Thinking back a bit more clearly, I have had quite a few smooshed, crunched, dented, scraped, ripped, and nearly open packages delivered by the big brown trucks.

Still find the occasional USPS Sunday delivery to be surprising--especially when it's our friendly weekday postman.

And I will give kudos to Amazon for a new trick: Order something two-day or one-day, and separately order standard to take advantage of media or "Pantry" credits, and they sometimes combine the orders so everything comes faster.

Happened with the Sigma Art I ordered for today. As an afterthought, I wanted a new B+W filter, but chose two-day shipping. Was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but Amazon managed to stick into the same box as the lens arriving this afternoon.

Any other experiences with camera gear deliveries? FedEx vs UPS vs USPS?


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## dcm (Aug 24, 2015)

I've received more damaged boxes from UPS than Fedex or USPS, but YMMV.


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## Random Orbits (Aug 24, 2015)

The thing that annoys me most with Amazon is that their warehouses are all over the place. Place one order for multiple items, and it ships in multiple packages and arrive on multiple days. Tracking with USPS is a lot worse than UPS/FedEx because it lags so much.

The thing that is the worst is Mail Innovations (UPS?). It starts with UPS but then enters the USPS mail channels. I've had items ship from NYC that goes to Long Island, NJ, White Plains NY and finally to CT. The USPS delivered it straight up, it'd take 2-3 days. Going through Mail Innovations would take 4-5 days to traverse 60 miles. My wife gets USPS priority from across the country in much less time than that.

I also find it easier to divert shipments to a store/post office with FedEx. UPS is improving, but sometimes I still need to pick it up at the depot level. With the USPS, I just wait for a delivery failure notification and then pick it up from the post office the next morning.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 24, 2015)

Random Orbits said:


> The thing that annoys me most with Amazon is that their warehouses are all over the place. Place one order for multiple items, and it ships in multiple packages and arrive on multiple days. Tracking with USPS is a lot worse than UPS/FedEx because it lags so much.
> 
> The thing that is the worst is Mail Innovations (UPS?). It starts with UPS but then enters the USPS mail channels. I've had items ship from NYC that goes to Long Island, NJ, White Plains NY and finally to CT. The USPS delivered it straight up, it'd take 2-3 days. Going through Mail Innovations would take 4-5 days to traverse 60 miles. My wife gets USPS priority from across the country in much less time than that.
> 
> I also find it easier to divert shipments to a store/post office with FedEx. UPS is improving, but sometimes I still need to pick it up at the depot level. With the USPS, I just wait for a delivery failure notification and then pick it up from the post office the next morning.



Mail Innovations is horrible. I've done the B&H survey, telling them that. My last two orders did not use it, and arrived reasonably quickly.

The trick to Amazon's 2 day delivery is to place warehouses all within 2 days of almost all lower 48 consumers. This means its basically ground delivery at much lower costs for shipping.

I sell on Amazon and when I ship my products to them to use their fulfilled by Amazon service, they tell me how many units to send to each warehouse based on what they estimate sales to be in that region. If a warehouse runs out of stock, they ship from a different one. I try to keep that from happening, and keep stock in all warehouses, but when I let some products sell out at the end of a selling season, I get flooded with automatically generated e-mails reminding me that stock is low.

I do find that the Fulfilled by Amazon sales results in a huge jump in sales due to the Prime shipping.


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## candc (Aug 24, 2015)

I live in the U.S. and I've ordered a camera and lenses from camera Canada. They ship Canada post which gets transferred to usps. No issues but the usps tracking lags a bit behind.


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## Sony (Aug 24, 2015)

USPS is the fastest way of shipping now, and it's cheaper as well. I dont know why B&H adds additional fees when you want items to be shipped with USPS. I did compare the USPS shipping rates between Post Office and B&H, and found out that B&H put hidden fees on top of USPS shipping rates. Maybe they have agreement with UPS then would like to prevent customer from shipping with USPS.
To be learned that USPS does free pick up at any volume.


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## TeT (Aug 24, 2015)

USPS is faster and cheaper, insurance is more though.

Once you get above 4 or 5 lbs, UPS is cheaper.


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## privatebydesign (Aug 24, 2015)

My 11-24 was delivered USPS and it was fine, very fast with excellent and accurate tracking.

I just broke the lens and it has gone off to Canon via USPS, $10 postage and $35 insurance for $2,500 coverage.

I have no concerns about USPS postage.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 24, 2015)

TeT said:


> USPS is faster and cheaper, insurance is more though.
> 
> Once you get above 4 or 5 lbs, UPS is cheaper.



USPS is 2 day to virtually any part of the lower 48 states, 3 day to others. If you compare with UPS two day/three day rates, your story might change.

I get modest discounts on both USPS and UPS shipping, but mail innovations gets huge discounts. 

Mail Innovations takes so long because they actually ship most of the way by UPS ground to the regional USPS sorting center, already bar coded by mail carrier delivery route so that USPS can take it the final few hundred miles. That's why it takes so long. The cost to UPS of delivering those last few miles is very high, but since USPS is good at delivering those final miles, it costs less. It tacks on a average of three days over UPS ground for me, or 8 business days, almost 2 calendar weeks.


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## TeT (Aug 24, 2015)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> TeT said:
> 
> 
> > USPS is faster and cheaper, insurance is more though.
> ...



I stay away from UPS 2 & 3 day services when I can. Its either UPS ground or USPS priority mail. I get better discounts via UPS but on the small stuff I get better rates with USPS (and faster) UPS is slow, but cheap on most of my stuff (40# dimensional weight stuff)


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## NancyP (Aug 24, 2015)

I prefer USPS for the convenience. The onus is on the originating vendor to do proper packing. I have not had any issues with USPS.


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## MARKOE PHOTOE (Aug 25, 2015)

I'll make mine short and to the point: in my area of the San Francisco Bay Area, USPS is totally unreliable. I've always shipped all items to my office which is open Mon-Sat. 

For whatever reason, USPS claims they tried to deliver my order on Sunday, when they know we are a business and never open on Sunday. They state they put my package 'on the porch' of which we do not have a porch. Then they claim they put it 'in the bushes' next to the 'front porch'. They have done this at least four times in the last 5 weeks.

Since when has USPS delivered on Sunday?
My package will usually show up 2 days later and delivered to the front lobby where our daily mail is delivered, never in 'the bushes' or 'on the porch'.

Terribly frustrating and unreliable. Sorry if I've offended any USPS workers, but I don't work 6 days a week to have my expensive order waiting for some passerby pick up at free will after observing 'the drop off'.

Sometimes on orders I don't have an option for delivery method. I ALWAYS have used UPS or Fedex for a tracking number and reliable service.

This has been happening with my Amazon orders and their Amazon delivery service.


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## Hjalmarg1 (Aug 25, 2015)

YuengLinger said:


> I've noticed Amazon in the USA is using the postal service more and more. When the item is a book or bamboo cutting board, no problem...But, just saw that a next-day order for a new lens (about $1,000 in value) is coming USPS. :-*
> 
> Any concerns about this shift? About L series lenses and maybe higher-end bodies being delivered USPS?
> 
> Is anybody going out of their way to avoid certain carriers? On B&H we can choose--if willing to pay. Don't think any such option is available on Amazon...


I have received several packages being shipped using USPS, UPS and FEDEX and I have only had two damaged lenses (70-200/4L IS and 300/4L IS) and in both cases the carrier used was USPS. Situation may be different from one to another and it depends upon whether the item was properly packed or not.


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## mrzero (Aug 25, 2015)

MARKOE PHOTOE said:


> I'll make mine short and to the point: in my area of the San Francisco Bay Area, USPS is totally unreliable. I've always shipped all items to my office which is open Mon-Sat.
> 
> For whatever reason, USPS claims they tried to deliver my order on Sunday, when they know we are a business and never open on Sunday. They state they put my package 'on the porch' of which we do not have a porch. Then they claim they put it 'in the bushes' next to the 'front porch'. They have done this at least four times in the last 5 weeks.
> 
> ...



USPS has started delivering on Sundays as part of its deal with Amazon. They are doing whatever they can to stay relevant and viable (I don't know if they're profitable yet). 

I'm in a different geographic area, but I have the same trouble with office deliveries. The explanation I received from our USPS office is that the "special" deliveries are usually delivered by someone different from your usual daily route, so they aren't familiar with your office's hours or practices. I think that sometimes they leave it just to get rid of it, and they just hope it won't get stolen. I've taken to having things shipped to my home, since I'd rather they sit on my doorstep for a few hours than sit in front of my office building for a day or two.


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## YuengLinger (Aug 25, 2015)

Delivery Report: My one-day shipping package arrived yesterday, courtesy USPS. Left carefully on doorstep, outer package looked 100% fine.

Amazon, however, in my opinion, dropped the ball on inner packaging, with a useless set of three inflated cushions doing nothing to stop the Sigma 50mm Art box from rattling around in the shipping carton. Sigma, btw, ships these lenses in their own lens case, which is heavily padded on one end, and adequately padded on the other.

In fact, in my experience, Amazon routinely packs $1000 and up lenses no better than they pack spatulas, paperbacks, or $10 infants' toys. And they did it again. Grrrr.

Now most of us are aware of the 50mm Art's dodgy AF reputation on Canon bodies, but this one was way, way worse than the first I returned last year, and certainly out of spec with center point sharpness and CA.

That's all I got.


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## MARKOE PHOTOE (Aug 26, 2015)

I'm in a different geographic area, but I have the same trouble with office deliveries. The explanation I received from our USPS office is that the "special" deliveries are usually delivered by someone different from your usual daily route, so they aren't familiar with your office's hours or practices. I think that sometimes they leave it just to get rid of it, and they just hope it won't get stolen. I've taken to having things shipped to my home, since I'd rather they sit on my doorstep for a few hours than sit in front of my office building for a day or two.
[/quote]

_Thanks for that. Delivering to my home might now be the best and safest method for expensive items. Suggesting that my expensive purchase is 'in the bushes' is disturbing. I've always felt too that this was the delivery moron's way of saying, 'oh, I delivered it'. At this point, buying from a brick and mortar, like BestBuy, might be a better method now that Amazon charges for sales tax.

Hello, Amazon, are you listening? Do you really care?_


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