Which courier do you prefer?


My favorite domestic courier is "USPS Priority".

It is not very expensive but deliver within 2 days on Conus.

But I am being puzzled by Fedex.

One of my audio parts was supposed to arrive at my home on 14th Thursday after shipping from Chicago on 8th, Friday.

But it was delayed by snow storm.

I could understand that.

But after arriving Burlington WA (8 miles from my home) on 15th Friday, it is missing in action.

When I checked tracking, it showed "delivery pending" for 5 days.

Do you also have bad experience with Fedex?


  • Wednesday , 2/20/20197:26 amBURLINGTON, WAIn transit
  • Tuesday , 2/19/20199:25 amBURLINGTON, WAIn transit
  • Monday , 2/18/20199:24 pmBURLINGTON, WAIn transit
  • 9:24 amBURLINGTON, WAIn transit
  • Sunday , 2/17/20199:24 pmBURLINGTON, WAIn transit
  • 9:23 amBURLINGTON, WAIn transit
  • Saturday , 2/16/20199:23 pmBURLINGTON, WAIn transit
  • Friday , 2/15/201910:21 pmBURLINGTON, WAIn transit

128x128shkong78
FedEx for me by a country mile. Never lost or damaged one and I love that they deliver on Saturday without having to pay extra ( shame on you UPS!). This is for larger more expensive and heavy items. Prices is always way lower than ups.

Next would be usps both first class and priority but they have lost too many of my smaller items for me to want to bother much with them. Customer service is terrible, I was told by our local postmaster when I complained of a package I had received that had been obviously ripped open and contents stolen, “ oh I can show you a room full of parcels like that”. Seriously? This is normal and you are ok with it???


And last by a very long stretch is ups. Slow delivery, much more expensive than fedex and very likely to break or lose my packages.

of course this all can be location and depot dependent.

Just my experience in my area.
I've shipped many musical instruments (violins and guitars mostly) and I prefer USPS.  I find them reliable and mostly prompt.  FedEx second, UPS third.  USPS keeps it moving cross-country on holidays and weekends (no holiday delivery, though).
So far more than two thirds of the opinion favor USPS.

Good for them.

But there may be lot of differences depending on region.

I myself had not much problem with all three of them until recent delay by Fedex.
And only USPS delivers to PO BOX, I guess.
Pack especially well for UPS and FedEx and then double it. They can be very rough with packages.
USPS has been very reliable to me as both a buyer and seller. I have an excellent post office with their current staff, so that always helps.

Fed Ex is very reliable but often slower than expected. Never trust their tracking estimates (in my experience); it takes 4-5 days to move through Connecticut for some reason, but they will clear the entire midwest in a day or 2 (I realize the latter may be air travel, but Connecticut can be traveled through in a couple of hours on land and a stop at a distribution center shouldn't take multiple days). They also have a nice staff at the center near me.

UPS I've mainly shipped through for returns to major companies and it seems to work well. Their staff is nice at the center near me as well. They deliver without issue here, but I've rarely had interactions with receiving things from them outside of major companies.
Luckily I have a safe neighborhood, so packages are never stolen and if something is delivered to the wrong address the neighbor will hand it to me in person.