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Ideas/Section-10
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/FEDEX
address to ship their order to them. Therefore, I hope this report
helps.
UPS is short for United Parcel Service.
Fedex is short for Federal Express. They
are both separate companies from the United States Postal Service
must always
deliver to an address where they can obtain a signature, and therefore
cannot
deliver packages 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 many
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!
