Well, I am involved in a fair amount of shipping.

Domestic and intl; express/priority and ground.

I think the local distribution aspect drives a large part of any one persons perception/experience- HOWEVER, my experience with FedEx has been superior to UPS. UPS is great for ground- cheap, regular, predictible, Hight value/ critical/ priority it is FedEx. I use DHL only on rare occasion, typically for international. However if there is significant customs involvement back to Fedex....

When things go poorly, I find fed ex to be much better at trace and customer support: I can always a gain access to the local stations/managers and get a human to fix things. (I am persuasive) Station managers can page or call a driver on a truck to figure stuff out....when are you coming, when will you be back to the station, etc

I mean sorry you turned off the phone and that you slept in, but fedex has zero blame here IMO.



GL

A

PS Ive been known to contact the station for a critical shipment, find out what route the driver is on and when he will be in a certain business park, drive up there and pick it up from him. (ie "so where's he going to be at lunch?") OTOH some stations have a hi value courier that just runs out apple/computers/insured items that are first AM, so finding them can be more of a challenge...

PPS Use the USPS when you really dont want the item.