When
we began providing printing services for our customers (in order to
provide
full publishing services), little did we realize that so many people
would
get so upset and negligent in providing us with a simple UPS address
to
ship their order to them. Therefore, I hope this report helps.
UPS
is short for United Parcel Service. They are a separate company from
the
United Postal Service and for some reason or another _ cannot reach an
agreement
to deliver mail to a post office box address. This makes it hard
for
all of us in mail order, but there is a way around that: Provide a UPS
shipping
address when you place a large order.
What
is your UPS shipping address? Your STREET address or anything other
than
a post office box. Everybody has a UPS shipping address. My mother
lives
in a town of 300 people and all her mail goes to a post office box.
It's
required for every citizen in Dante, Virginia to have a post office
box
and to use it as their address. However, her UPS shipping address is:
Third
House on Rte 1420. Yes! Bizarre as it seems _ everyone has a
UPS
shipping address. If you don't know yours, simply call your local
United
Parcel Service and find out what it is.
Why
don't mail order dealers just ship your printing or product orders by
Parcel
Post or 3rd class through the post office? Several reasons _ and
good
ones:
1. Most mail order dealers have a UPS account.
This means the
UPS truck comes right to their door every
day and picks up packages.
They don't have to haul heavy packages in
the car, drive to the
post office and stand in line to pay a
clerk. Besides _ the cost is
only $5 per week for anybody to open up a
UPS account and if you are
shipping packages several times per week _
the $5 cost is certainly
justified!
2. The customer saves a lot of money when a
dealer ships their package
by UPS. Shipping 1,000 envelopes (13.7 lbs)
would cost around $6.00
at the post office but only $2.60 by UPS.
3. The customer will get their order quicker. If
a dealer mailed the same
package to you through the post office it
could take from 2-3 WEEKS for
you to receive. UPS only takes 2-3 DAYS in
most cases!
4. The customer's order is automatically insured
for up to $100 by UPS.
If the dealer mailed the same package
through the post office, he or
she would have to pay an additional charge
for insurance.
You
should now be able to see "why" providing your printer or mail order
company
with a UPS shipping address is as important to you as it is to them!
However,
some people don't want anything shipped directly to their home
because
they might not be there or a family member might get the package
instead. UPS has a bad reputation for leaving packages
inside a screen
door
if no one is home _ opening up the opportunity for theft.
Therefore,
you have 4 choices: (1) You can have the package delivered to
your
employer's address (or wherever you might be during the day); (2) to
a
friend or neighbor's address (who is home most of the time); (3) leave a
note
on your door to NOT leave any UPS packages and pick them up yourself;
or,
(4) pay an additional postage charge for the dealer to ship your order
to
your post office box address.
The
best rule of thumb for determining additional cost in sending to your
post
office box address would be about 40% ADDED on to the total amount of
your
order. Why 40%? Isn't that too much for shipping charges? You must
remember:
not only does the dealer (or printer) have to pay the additional
postage
charges but they have to haul it to the post office themselves
during
office hours, take time away from their daily business, stand in
line
holding a heavy package and drive back home. For our printer, this
is
a 18 mile round trip. (Not everybody visits the post office everyday,
even
though they are in mail order.)
Just
recently we received a rude comment from a customer who refused to
provide
us with his UPS address and demanded we ship to his post office
box.
He said: "I'm not in the UPS business and I'm not in the phone
business
_ I'm in the mail order business!" (He didn't want to place a
call
to our office to talk to us about this so we didn't have a chance to
educate
him on how this situation is out of our control.)
However,
the United Parcel Service IS part of the mail order business,
and
calling people IS part of the mail order business too.
So
the next time you place an order that you know will be sent back to
you
in a box (like printing), take the time to make sure you provide the
company
with your UPS shipping address OR send extra money!
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