mail order, packages and delivery

[Micky]

I have to give Amazon credit. I've seen it offerred for quite a while, and I put in my cart a ream of nice paper for $5.40, much lower than other places wanted. They said it was lower and it was.

Today the price went up to 11.40, the standard price, but the good thing is they took it out of my cart and put it in the "maybe" section below that. So I wouldn't order it by mistake.

Also, mail delivery is interesting. I'm on Prime for a while, but I'm in no hurry and I told them they could take 4 days. So they had plenty of time to deliver this thing and ended up delivering it on Sunday. From the US post office!! The tracking was accurate and the package was hidden like I wanted, but strangely the computer showed the package delivered to my door in the next zipcode, at least

4 miles away.

The strangest is a package that almost made it to my house. It went to the zipcode next to mine (not the one in the previous paragraph) where packages often go befor they go to mine. But then it went back to a DC suburb, where it had already been. And it's stalled there for

6 days now. This is the first problem with a package in 30 years, so it's interesting, not complainable, but I did tell them about it and they said they would pay me for it, even though it's not insured. Makes sense. Only $17 and not one of a kind. (There's a guy who takes a apparently programmable remotes and makes remote controls for those that are hard to get**. The buttons are in the wrong place but other than that, they work fine. It has all the wierdo buttons that a particular remote has that Universal controls don't have. )

**A replacement for mine was 10 when I first bought the thing, right from the maker, but now only second hand and the price is up to 40.

[rbowman]

Both Staples and Office Depot are barely hanging on but their attempt to merge was shot down on the grounds that it would reduce competition. Oddly the regulators didn't notice that Amazon was eating their lunch.

This is nothing against Amazon. office products is only a drop in their bucket but the brick and mortar stores are not competitive. I have Prime and use it heavily. If I can purchase it locally I usually do, but in most cases I can't. Even if a local store is willing to order the items they won't be on my deck in two days.

[Art Todesco]

I would get it at Sam's but it is far too large a quantity of reams. So, I usually get it at Sam's alter ego, Walmart and price is always low.

[DerbyDad03]

You appear to be surprised by this. Amazon contracted with the USPS for Sunday delivery back 2013.

Just as an additional FYI, the USPS also has a contract with FedEx to be the final delivery service for light weight packages. The service, known as SmartPost, allows shippers to use FedEx as their contracted shipper, but also allows them to ship to every U.S. address, including P.O. boxes and military APO, FPO and DPO destinations, i.e. addresses that FedEx wouldn't normally deliver to.

...snip...

[Percival P. Cassidy]

UPS and DHL have (had, at least) similar arrangements with the USPS. "Free shipping" packages from NewEgg.com often come this way. The only problem I've had was one package that disappeared in between UPS and USPS; perhaps something thought the contents were valuable (they weren't: $11) and took it home; NewEgg shipped another promptly.

Perce

[rbowman]

I go into Walmart once or twice a year and usually leave empty handed.

[rbowman]

Last week I read Amazon bought an air freight company that will give them 25 more dedicated 767 cargo jets.

Going the other way, I used to haul Avon products out of Chicago. Some of the loads would go to local distributors but many times the entire load went to a post office for the last mile delivery. Apparently it was cheaper to go private carrier from Chicago to Cheyenne or Billings.

[rbowman]

Years ago when laptop RAM was several hundred bucks Airborne delivered the package to my neighbor's woodpile. The kids found it a couple of days later and brought it over. Hopefully DHL can introduce a little German efficiency.

[DerbyDad03]

If I'm not mistaken:

FedEx & USPS --> SmartPost UPS & USPS --> SurePost DHL & USPS --> SmartMail USPS --> SnailMail :-)

[Don Y]

We go in once a year -- and leave with 40 pounds of citrus food (fertilizer).

[rbowman]

The USPS tried.... Without all the government interference in favor of the rent seekers Deutsche Post privatized and did very well. They even managed to buy a few things -- like DHL.

[Micky]

Today I renewed a prescription. Not at Walmart. It's not what I renewed. It's not even the same kind of drug. It's an antibiotic I took more than a year ago. Actually I thought the dentist prescribed it but it's got the urologist's name on it. I don't remember him ever prescribing an antibiotic. But more important is that that's not what I renewed. I did call them a month ago to find out what antibiotic I had gotten the previous time, but we agreed I'd need a doctor's prescription to get more. Cipro. Wikipedia says " It is available as a generic medication and not very expensive. Wholesale it costs between 0.03 and 0.13 USD a dose. In the United States it is sold for about 0.40 USD per dose.", but I was charged $10 for 14 pills, 70 cents a pill. And get this, it said the retail price was $60. Frankly, 10 doesn't seem like a lot of money so maybe wikip is wrong???

The prescription was filled today, so it's not likely they refilled the other one too, but I'll go or call tomorrow to check before I request it again. A good thing I didn't wait until the last minute to start on what should have been a simple project.

At the same place over a year ago, I needed an anti-anxiety pill to get through an MRI, because I have claustrophobia. They gave me one twice as strong as prescribed and twice as strong as what was on their label, and I wrecked the right front wheel of my car, and missed the MRI. So I got a second prescription and it too was hex-shaped. There was a mixup so I couldn't have the mri that time either, and that's when I came across the pictures online and learned that my dosage is round, hexagon is twice the dosage. So I was going to save some of the third prescription to show them, but that time they gave me the right thing.

[Tekkie®]

Micky posted for all of us...

What have you learned from this?

[Micky]

I called and the woman who knows me answered. She checked if another prescription was waiting and there was but it was marked Waiting for Shipment. She said they would fill it as soon as more came in, and then she checked and said it was there and 4PM or later was a good time. (I though they would have called me when they couldnt' fill the prescription the previous day, when they said they would, but that's small potatoes compared to their other mistakes.)

That WAS what I had renewed, so the earlier one they just threw in for fun.