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I realize that I pay for the economy shipping but I feel it is something you should be aware of. The whole UPS to USPS thing sucks! The package sits for days at time in locations, what was supposed to be 4-8 days shipping is now on 13 days. This is the second time in recent history this has occurred. Please look into this because whatever these two companies are promising (not to mention charging) they are not delivering and they are making you guys look bad. At the very least you need to change the projected delivery date to accommodate the lousy service being provided by your shippers. Trying to obtain any information on package status from the post office is an exercise in futility at best.
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Im not a paizo employee, but just wanted to make sure you were estimating correctly..... USPS usually counts its shipping in business days, so no Saturday Sunday or martin luther king day... if you ordered anytime after the 18th of Jan, its not actually late with an 8 day estimate until tomorrow (or later if you ordered after the 23rd).... the estimated delivery dates are the ones given by the parcel service for that type of package to 'most of the US' or 'Most of N. America' and usually are not considered late until they are over a week over the estimated delivery date
Customer Carebear
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Your package was shipped on January 24th. Today is the 8th business day in the 4-8 business day estimate so hopefully it will show up soon. Occasionally when packages do go over their estimates, we have found that they show up usually within the next week. If your package hasn't shown up by Friday, February 8th, let us know and we can look into it further.
thanks
sara marie
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Thanks you Sara, Just so you guys are aware the service provided by ups is horrible they basically told me on the phone "we don't know where it is and it's now the post offices problem", when i told them that on their own website the estimated delivery date was Jan 30 and it was now Feb 4 they replied "yeah that happens sometimes" I don't know what kind of deal they are giving but it's not worth it.
You're lucky if you could have shipment by UPS! That's the Brown Guy.. you know... because me, I can only receive by Standadr Postal service or USPS, which is kindof the same thing!?!...
I would have loved to have an UPS service, or even a FEDEX, Purolator, DHL service... I would have received it in less than 5 days! Now, I'm still waiting and am at the 11th day...
I don't understand why Paizo doesn't offer multiple Shipping methods other than Postal Service. I'm in Quebec, Canada, and it really suck to have you're shipment by Postal Service. Other Companies, based on the Pacific Coast, offer UPS, Purolator, Fedex and DHL option. That way, it takes only a week to get our things and sometimes, the pricing is nearly the same as USPS. :\ Even if its 5$ more, at least I would have the option, and would have paid the 5$ more to receive my products before my game. Now i'm still waiting and what is even more frustrating, is that I cannot know where the package is, because USPS as no tracking service or #!
So... I'll wait... and hope they didn't lost my package in Arizona...
Chief Technical Officer
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International pricing on anything other than delivery by the local postal service is shockingly expensive; so much so that we're confident it would almost never get used, so implementing and maintaining a codebase to support it just wouldn't be a good use of our programmers' time.
We do seek new quotes every so often, and if that changes, we're reconsider it.
I know you've looked into it before, Vic. But I ordered a bunch of stuff (comparable to my usual Paizo shipment) from Nobleknightgames a couple of weeks ago. They had a USPS option which was similar to what you guys would charge me but also a DHL option (international express, I think?) which was marginally cheaper but considerably quicker (it took four days from me ordering it to me opening it). It was also trackable, which is a nice feature.
I appreciate that it wasnt worth it last time you considered it, but if you havent examined the various DHL options recently recently, it might be worth another look.
Well... I've made a quick UPS quote.. and from the Paizo address to my address it was 25$ with the standard shipping for a 5 lbs; 5x5x3 box; I'm sure I could have gone a little bigger. Nonetheless, when you add the shipping discount that they usually offer (at my job I have a 30% discount at base and it can go up to 40%), I think it is near you're USPS *Express* who take 6-10 days (wouhoo 1 less day than standard! but a x4 price! and no tracking !) UPS was 4-5 days delivery garanteed with Tracking! I think you should change of broker, because he's really not giving you the right prices! What I found even more not logic in you're statement Vic, is that the UPS option is already implemented in USA shipping!! So I don't believe its not a really BIG deal to implement the option for Canadians!
So for me, I'm now at 12 days...
If you have a tracking #... you know where it is, and can wait. UPS will delivery it one day! or call them. Usually they're good!
Me, I can't even know where my package is in the world... I hope it still in North America...
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Customer Service Manager
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Just to be clear here. The package in question was shipped via our Standard Postal Option which in this case utilized UPS Mail Innovations. UPS MI is not the same thing as UPS.
UPS MI and UPS both fall under the UPS brand, but are separate delivery systems. UPS pick up packages in their familiar brown trucks, and the packages stay with UPS the entire time, delivered on the recipients end by more familiar brown trucks.
With UPS MI, the packages are picked up from us and brought to a sorting facility. They are sorted into general regions and UPS MI trucks them off to their respective regional depots. Further sorting ensues and when the package arrives in the recipients local area, it is handed off to the USPS for any further transportation and local delivery. Because there is that extra step of going between UPS MI and USPS, sometimes the tracking barcodes don't always get scanned properly. Packages still are on their way, they just are doing so without us knowing where they are. It is my understanding that something might be in the works between UPS MI and USPS to help with this issue.
Overall the packages we send through UPS MI arrive intact and on time. We send a lot of packages out this way and problems with the system are rare. When there are issues, we are happy to assist in resolving them, however, often the only tool we have for fixing this is giving the order a bit of extra time to work its way through the postal system.
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Well... I've made a quick UPS quote.. and from the Paizo address to my address it was 25$ with the standard shipping for a 5 lbs; 5x5x3 box; I'm sure I could have gone a little bigger. Nonetheless, when you add the shipping discount that they usually offer (at my job I have a 30% discount at base and it can go up to 40%), I think it is near you're USPS *Express* who take 6-10 days (wouhoo 1 less day than standard! but a x4 price! and no tracking !) UPS was 4-5 days delivery garanteed with Tracking! I think you should change of broker, because he's really not giving you the right prices! What I found even more not logic in you're statement Vic, is that the UPS option is already implemented in USA shipping!! So I don't believe its not a really BIG deal to implement the option for Canadians!
So for me, I'm now at 12 days...
UPS charges a massive brokerage fee on top of the shipping price for any package shipped to Canada. This makes it very expensive to ship, and probably involves a bunch of coding and paperwork on paizo's end to accurately list the brokerage fee in the shipping cost.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I know you've looked into it before, Vic. But I ordered a bunch of stuff (comparable to my usual Paizo shipment) from Nobleknightgames a couple of weeks ago. They had a USPS option which was similar to what you guys would charge me but also a DHL option (international express, I think?) which was marginally cheaper but considerably quicker (it took four days from me ordering it to me opening it). It was also trackable, which is a nice feature.
I appreciate that it wasnt worth it last time you considered it, but if you havent examined the various DHL options recently recently, it might be worth another look.
I suspect you might be talking about a service called "DHL Global Mail," which is pretty much their version of UPS' Mail Innovations (in that "last leg" delivery is done by the local post office). We have looked into that, and while it can actually provide a better rate on some types of parcel, Mail Innovations generally provides a better rate on more of the types of parcels that we typically ship. And because both DHL and UPS factor your overall volume with them when they determine your discounted rate, it doesn't make sense to spilt shipments between the two—you get the best rate if you put all of your volume through one or the other.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Well... I've made a quick UPS quote.. and from the Paizo address to my address it was 25$ with the standard shipping for a 5 lbs; 5x5x3 box; I'm sure I could have gone a little bigger. Nonetheless, when you add the shipping discount that they usually offer (at my job I have a 30% discount at base and it can go up to 40%)...
But even at a 30% discount off retail pricing, that's still almost double the standard shipping rate for that package; again, very few people would select it. (Feel free to look through the customer service forum—you'll find that the number of people asking for more premium shipping rates is tiny, while the number of people asking for lower shipping costs—and are therefore going to select the cheapest option offered—is much, much higher.)
What I found even more not logic in you're statement Vic, is that the UPS option is already implemented in USA shipping!! So I don't believe its not a really BIG deal to implement the option for Canadians!
Every shipping method takes coding effort to execute and maintain because they all have different data standards and methods for determining rates (and they also like to adjust many of those things on pretty much an annual basis). And the difference between domestic and international is *very* significant, as it brings customs reporting into play, which is one of the most complicated parts of the entire shipping codebase. (That's not to say we wouldn't do it if we thought there was a lot of value there—we would!)
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Chief Technical Officer
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Overall the packages we send through UPS MI arrive intact and on time.
The truth is, overall, pretty much every shipper works to maintain pretty similar quality of service. "My package didn't arrive—your shipping service sucks" posts are ignoring the fact that if we had used a different shipping service, maybe *your* parcel would have sped through the system, but some other parcel would have been delayed. The fact is, some shipments get delayed, and some shipments get lost entirely. It totally sucks when it's your package—and it sucks when we have to replace it—but it happens, and when you send out as many packages as we do, it happens to a bunch of people every month, and it always will, no matter what we do.
And because both DHL and UPS factor your overall volume with them when they determine your discounted rate, it doesn't make sense to spilt shipments between the two—you get the best rate if you put all of your volume through one or the other.
Ah, I didn't realise the rates were that nuanced. I'd always implicitly assumed it was just some kind of tiered pricing retail-business-preferred customer or something. A steadily increasing discount based on volume makes much more sense for them, of course.
I'll just have to wait for a horde of time-sensitive, cost-indifferent, vocal, international customers to show up at paizo.com..
I suspect you might be talking about a service called "DHL Global Mail," which is pretty much their version of UPS' Mail Innovations (in that "last leg" delivery is done by the local post office). We have looked into that, and while it can actually provide a better rate on some types of parcel, Mail Innovations generally provides a better rate on more of the types of parcels that we typically ship. And because both DHL and UPS factor your overall volume with them when they determine your discounted rate, it doesn't make sense to spilt shipments between the two—you get the best rate if you put all of your volume through one or the other.I know you've looked into it before, Vic. But I ordered a bunch of stuff (comparable to my usual Paizo shipment) from Nobleknightgames a couple of weeks ago. They had a USPS option which was similar to what you guys would charge me but also a DHL option (international express, I think?) which was marginally cheaper but considerably quicker (it took four days from me ordering it to me opening it). It was also trackable, which is a nice feature.
I appreciate that it wasnt worth it last time you considered it, but if you havent examined the various DHL options recently recently, it might be worth another look.
It doesnt address the value you get from using a single distributor, but FWIW, the service was DHL Express, rather than DHL Global. The package they sent had pretty much the equivalent of a paizo monthly shipment + a couple of boxed sets and a handfull of books (from memory it was around $100 USPS compared to $90 DHL - as I say though, the big plus was the speed and the international tracking option).
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Just to throw it in for FYI information. Most cross country USPS mail is thrown on to either UPS or FedEx anyways airplanes then thrown onto a belt to be sorted automatically by at a USPS facility by either a contractor or said employee of that company.
This occurs for the larger distances, and oversea shipments. If a 5X it was on a UPS plan if FX FedEx plane. Sometimes it won't have a sticker on it like Priority Mail boxes, multiple reasons why, they like the standard sizes of these boxes is its easier for their automatic sorting system to scan and a number of the boxes can fit in a "bag" they have. Not also their sort system is not as effortless as UPS or FedEx as well yet. Requires more human intervention which a lot of times causes the issues.
Well, Vic, I don't want to go on massive arguments with you, but only tell you my experience with UPS. I ship to USA, Arizona exactly, Stainless steel fittings, and all I have to do is provide a Commercial Invoice (so that the duties can know what taxes applicable).
Checking my quote, the duties are near not applicable because its a 50$ box.
Maybe if you start shipping to UK, France, etc, it could be a real pain in the ass, but North America is not so much. We're part of the NAFTA, which make it simpler.
One of the reason I canceled my Adventure Part Susbcription years ago, was that I receive the pdf the first of the month, and the printed copy (a bit torn even if its written not to curve it) near the end of the month. The other reason was that for less, I could buy it to my local store :\ The drawback, I don't have the pdf. :( Most of my Pathfinder books come from Amazon or my local store since they're less than Paizo Store. :\ With the money I save, I can buy the pdf if I really the like book.
Nonetheless, 14th day...
I occasionally order merchandise from a Canadian company, and they don't offer UPS shipping to the US at all because it's too much trouble for them to set it up and, according to them, always more expensive for the consumer then shipping Canada Post/USPS. One thing to remember is that UPS charges more to deliver to a residential address than to a place of business, so most of Paizo's shipments would cost more than a business-to-business shipment, if that's what you're pricing.
Joana, your right. My bad. Its because I always ship to my business and not home.
Today was a great day! I received my paizo package. 15 days, not so bad and now that I know it, I will better time my next order!