RyanHarne.com

Year after year, I have been very impressed with the stealth and efficient performance of the big3 shippers: the USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Each has its place in our lives (for instance, UPS takes forever in/out of Blacksburg, but first-class mail is overnight for me within a 700ish mile radius using a basic USPS stamp) but, during our rigorous holiday routines, we demand perfection and speed. Both USPS and UPS estimate that December 19th will be their highest volume day, while FedEx projects the 17th will push them to their limit. However, they have other problems to deal with that will continue far beyond the scope of the brief holiday fevers.

eBay is the virus that the big3 must contend with. Once there was a time when two people sent each other care packages, possibly even in the holiday spirit; an unfortunate event would cause one of those packages to disappear in the intermediate handling of the mail carrier; the one friend who never received the package eventually become so bold as to question the other, who would affirm having sent it; consolations would be granted from the one friend to the other and the friendship would reach reconciliation. The entire ordeal would be handled between the two, save occasions when valuable objects were passed around in the mail. The USPS could conceal itself and hold its tongue during the unpleasantness, hoping to go unnoticed, and would resurface with its regular service as if nothing ever happened.

Now, two people who make a transaction on eBay rely on the mailing service completely, putting all liability at the throat of the FedEx deliverer. What’s worse is that most eBay sales take place in an auction setting, a competitive environment where someone emerges having conquered a slew of other bidders. Losing the winnings while in transport is just as much of a personal loss for an eBayer as would a pirate’s booty having been ransacked on the voyage home, after a wild battle to win that treasure in the first place caused so much distress. If UPS messes up, they’ll walk the plank, arrr.

Fortunately, to cover their own backs, each of the big3 has a user-friendly and easily accessible claims portion to their website (just search “claims” at any of the sites and it’s the first or second hit). Even still, providing the legal barrier, with the pages of terms & conditions throughout, doesn’t alleviate the bitterness and wrath that otherwise simmers in the stomachs of anyone who has lost a package from an eBay victory.

In August, UPS lost a package of mine, just a small, inexpensive box from Amazon. Two weeks later, I received a deposit (from Amazon) to the account from which I had paid for the item. No email, no contact, just reimbursement. But, if this was an eBay item, the seller wouldn’t have dared reimburse me for a lost item. And I, now charged with the task of filing a claim, would be at the mercy of the seller who hopefully had insured the item and had kept all of that paper documentation. The ideal situation would never happen when dealing with most eBay members; what actually would occur would be akin to an Oreo-binge-induced nightmare.

The transportation and organization methods of these 3 shippers have improved by leaps & bounds in the last decade as internet commerce took off, increasing their throughput exponentially. Residential deliveries have never been this common or frequent and they aren’t likely to slow their asymptotic acceleration. What’s more, eBay will only grow and inexperienced users (maybe even the impatient kind) will create accounts, creating more and more terrible people for the big3 to handle on a one-on-one basis.

Godspeed, you 3. Just don’t mess with me.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 5:26 pm and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.