Have you ever gone to your local UPS store or Fedex/Kinko’s store to send your package by overnight mail. This can truly be a shocking experience. Yesterday I needed to overnight an insurance payment from San Diego to Cleveland. My first stop was Fedex since it was the closest location. I placed the check in a standard overnight envelope and did not request an early morning delivery time. I handed the envelope to the person at the counter and after about a minute he said the cost would be $43. I didn’t want to overreact so I just asked for my package back.
This must have been a mistake, so I thought I would walk down the block to the UPS store and send my package there. After filling out their shipping form, I walked up and handed them my overnight envelope. I waited about another minute and was quoted $47. Now I realized that I was making the mistake. How could these companies demand so much money for such a small envelope? Does it really cost them that much to ship a two ounce envelope?
Desperate to get my package sent and running out of time, I tried one last place, my local post office. I am not a big fan of the post office since there always seems to be a line. Now I know why. After filling out the form one last time and waiting about 5 minutes to get to the counter, I was greeted by a grumpy postal employee. I handed her my package and about a minute later she said the package will arrive by 12:00 p.m. tomorrow and the cost will be $17.00. I was so excited I said “Sold”.
In the future I will be more than happy to wait a couple of extra minutes in the post office line to avoid being ripped-off.
Related Reading:
4 Comments
Hi. I once sent an important package via the USPS. Later, I realized that there would be no tracking ability for the package. I suppose it depends how important the item to be mailed is…
Thanks for the tip though.
I happen to work for FedEx Express and yes it cost a lot of money to send the package. A multi-hundred million dollar airplane, jet fuel, labor, technology. If you think about it FedEx Express will yield somewhere around $8.00 to $10.00 a package. You may think to yourself “well that is a lot of money” but look at it this way. Net profit in any business of 8% to 10% would be tough to survive long term. There is added value with sending it overnight and I can promise you when I need something there overnight I’ll rely on FedEx Express and not USPS.
After reading through the article, I just feel that I need more info. Can you share some resources ?
Your post Overnight Shipping Costs don’t get ripped-off! | Save364 Blog was very interesting when I found it over google on Sunday by my search for fed ex kinko 39 s. I have your blog now in my bookmarks and I visit your blog again, soon. Take care.