this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
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Mildly Infuriating

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By the way, that's the cost to send one piece of paper from the US to the UK. Unfortunately, I need to send it quickly and that's the quickest I can get it there with the reasonable options I have available to me.

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[–] eddanja 2 points 1 hour ago

FedEx is a dogshit company. Their service is dogshit. They are dogshit.

[–] kerrigan778 7 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Wait, it's a piece of paper, they can't send it through first class mail rather than using a shipping service? Can it not be folded to put in an envelope? USPS does this for $1.65 Even if it can't be folded, USPS does this for less than like $10

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

USPS does it for less than $10 if you aren't in a hurry.

[–] kerrigan778 1 points 2 hours ago

First class mail is usually much faster than FedEx Economy. It is sometimes faster than many priority mail FedEx options (FedEx sucks)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Did you check at a FedEx store to see if they had other unlisted rates? Web sites often cater to the lazy for the profits. That being said, I seem to recall an overnight FedEx document envelope across the US costing around $60, so it might not have any advantage.

[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I did not. I just used the website. Thanks for letting me know that though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Missed a great opportunity to call it "shiparrr" but still cool

[–] 11111one11111 11 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Its based on the delivery location. It's like Alaska, some shit is cheaper to pay for air freight than ground service because the ground service is basically non-existent. Their shit is based on algorithms calculating tons of shop from and ship to locations calculating what hubs they pass thru and what means they're shipping via. This shit isn't designed to come out fucky but there are always going to be anomalies.

[–] mipadaitu 7 points 10 hours ago

"This shit isn’t designed to come out fucky"
- 11111one11111, 2024

[–] [email protected] 56 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It's made exceptionally worse because it's heading toward Christmas. Most likely the plane on the 17th was already sold and filled, they're now sending a second plane which is not full and there's a premium to put stuff on it because it costs them more to fly it than your sheet of paper accounts for.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

I agree that that's likely something like the underlying factor -- they have two services, they named them in such a way that lower cost normally maps to the slower service, and in this unusual case that relationship doesn't hold.

However, OP's got a legit point that from a consumer standpoint, where someone only cares about time/money tradeoff, not internal FedEx operations, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It'd probably make sense for the "low end" option to just automatically map to the faster service in this case.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Also to OP's credit they could just eat the price of that one shipment the name of providing a stable end reasonably priced service. The cost of all shipments would cover the cost of the average shipment plus a profit margin.

It's kind of absurd to consider that there are hundreds of planes making that trip everyday, many thousands of passengers, and the best option we have is sending a letter via cargo plane.

[–] subtext 6 points 6 hours ago

Airlines do in fact use excess cargo space to ship things for shipping companies / postal services. I’ve also heard before (I can’t verify though), that airlines are more than happy to leave your luggage behind if it means they can squeeze on one more piece of cargo since the cargo makes them much more money than they otherwise would have to pay you for delaying your luggage.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/air-freight1.htm

[–] TrickDacy 5 points 15 hours ago

I think it makes the most sense to name it a little more abstractly rather than use words that have an important meaning that they can't always live up to. It's different but it reminds me of the TurboTax product called "free" that literally was in no way free and only told you that at the end, as if free didn't have a strong meaning for a product you would normally expect to pay something for. And they were required by the government to provide an actual free option, which they literally hid from search engines and didn't link to it anywhere on their website.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

When Canada Post was still alive, this used to happen a lot when using their parcel service.

I would check all available options, because the ones you'd expect to be cheap often ended up being more expensive and take longer to get to the destination, and the cheap options don't give you perks like free parcel insurance.

OP, I also love how much you save by letting them deliver just a few hours later!

[–] FlyingSquid 4 points 10 hours ago

Yeah. Unfortunately, I want to get it to them as quickly as possible because I want them to get all this done before they're closed for Christmas, so I paid extra.

[–] JiveTurkey 29 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It's 2024 and we still need to ship a piece of paper. Fuckin embarrassing.

[–] FlyingSquid 10 points 15 hours ago
[–] logicbomb 21 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

It could, theoretically, be like this on purpose, not only due to things like cargo space on specific planes, but also because this sort of pricing can have a psychological effect.

People don't really know what shipping is supposed to cost, so the way they decide whether a price is good is by comparing it to other prices.

90 seems like a lot, but if it's cheaper than the "economy" rate, people might be more inclined to purchase it and feel like they got a good deal.

[–] FlyingSquid 13 points 14 hours ago

I agree. And the cost itself is outrageous for all of their prices. I'm literally sending two pieces of paper. Thin paper. Not even normal A4 weight. The cost in fuel would be negligible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

Not like there is a good way of measuring transportation and shipping fees if you arent an insider that knows how much it actually costs.
I usually expect to pay between 15-20€ if I buy <2-3kg items from the US/CA and some for stuff like JP and CN

[–] [email protected] 19 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Seems like it would be cheaper to just email them a recipe for LSD so they can make their own.

[–] FlyingSquid 10 points 14 hours ago

But it probably would make them forget about sending the passport when they start tripping.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

In the age of cryptography

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

The US passport service wants to drill its own holes through it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I actually just had to send someone a passport recently and had the 12p or the 3p (15h) options. I picked the more expensive 12p and the fucking thing didn’t even show up until 2:38p anyway. Very annoying since it was around $130

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I thought I wouldn't be able to get it to them by Monday, so if it gets there at some point on Friday... they won't even send me info about it until a week from now at least. I'm trying to get my passport by the inauguration, but that may not be doable. And they now have my US passport. In theory, I can get emergency travel documents.

They keep telling me to send another document and don't tell me to send it the previous time. So fucked up. Just let me send it all at once.

I'm told this is all due to the Tories.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Well I doubt the worlds going to end if you can't leave right away. Have patience as trying to speed run the system never works. Things take time to go through. Panic is rarely your friend.

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The issue is I am applying for jobs because I want one when I get there, meaning I have to give a firm date and I already have.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Oh, well that's a little tough

[–] dhork 12 points 16 hours ago

I bet there is a hidden lower bound to the size of packages their Economy rate, so you are essentially paying the same rate for this Economy letter as you would for a small box. While the First Class rates have separate rates for letters vs. small boxes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FlyingSquid 24 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

If you mean why didn't I send a fax or a PDF, it's because the passport office wants original documents.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

I hope not?

Nah, they'll drill a couple of holes in it to invalidate it and send it back to you. That's what they did to all mine anyway.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Did you check DHL? I had to sent papers recently and DHL was a lot cheaper and it was the same delivery timing

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

DHL is like a 2-hour drive away and I don’t have the time to do that, unfortunately. But thank you for the suggestion. Living in Indiana sucks. This town’s metro area has about 100,000 people, but DHL doesn’t think it’s worth having a depot here and Target has decided we’re too poor.

[–] franklin 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

damn, they don't even have a drop point?

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 13 hours ago

Not one with envelopes.

[–] glimse 2 points 14 hours ago

On the bright side of living there, Adrianne Lenker has a great song named after your state!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

And this is before they hit you with the ol' surprise brokerage fees.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

I think they get it very well, it's economically advantageous for them that you pay more on your shipping.

[–] atrielienz 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I feel like this is what fax is for. Maybe I'm mistaken. Send it by fax and then send it by snail mail.

[–] FlyingSquid 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

They need the original documents and the USPS is slower. Wouldn’t it be nice if they had some kind of “embassy” or “consulate” that you could just send all these documents to in the US and get a passport? Alas.

[–] atrielienz 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah. I made my comment before I looked at the rest of the comments and got more context. But in theory you should be able to do that at an embassy. So I dunno.

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

In theory, but not any more apparently. Only emergency travel documents, not official passports.

[–] atrielienz 2 points 4 hours ago

That's just fucked up. This country sucks.