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WHY DO COMPANIES ASK FOR YOUR UPS ADDRESS?
When we began providing printing services for our customers
(in order to
provide full publishing services), little did we realize that
so many people
would get so upset and negligent in providing us with a simple
UPS address
to ship their order to them. Therefore, I hope this report
helps.
UPS is short for United Parcel Service. They are a separate
company from
the United Postal Service and for some reason or another _
cannot reach an
agreement to deliver mail to a post office box address. This
makes it hard
for all of us in mail order, but there is a way around that:
Provide a UPS
shipping address when you place a large order.
What is your UPS shipping address? Your STREET address or
anything other
than a post office box. Everybody has a UPS shipping address.
My mother
lives in a town of 300 people and all her mail goes to a post
office box.
It's required for every citizen in Dante, Virginia to have a
post office
box and to use it as their address. However, her UPS shipping
address is:
Third House on Rte 1420. Yes! Bizarre as it seems _ everyone
has a
UPS shipping address. If you don't know yours, simply call
your local
United Parcel Service and find out what it is.
Why don't mail order dealers just ship your printing or
product orders by
Parcel Post or 3rd class through the post office? Several
reasons _ and
good ones:
- Most mail order dealers have a UPS account. This means the
UPS truck comes right to their door every day and picks up
packages.
They don't have to haul heavy packages in the car, drive to
the
post office and stand in line to pay a clerk. Besides _ the
cost is
only $5 per week for anybody to open up a UPS account and if
you are
shipping packages several times per week _ the $5 cost is
certainly
justified!
- The customer saves a lot of money when a dealer ships their
package
by UPS. Shipping 1,000 envelopes (13.7 lbs) would cost around
$6.00
at the post office but only $2.60 by UPS.
- The customer will get their order quicker. If a dealer
mailed the same
package to you through the post office it could take from 2-3
WEEKS for
you to receive. UPS only takes 2-3 DAYS in most cases!
- The customer's order is automatically insured for up to
$100 by UPS.
If the dealer mailed the same package through the post office,
he or
she would have to pay an additional charge for insurance.
You should now be able to see "why" providing your
printer or mail order
company with a UPS shipping address is as important to you as
it is to them!
However, some people don't want anything shipped directly to
their home
because they might not be there or a family member might get
the package
instead. UPS has a bad reputation for leaving packages inside
a screen
door if no one is home _ opening up the opportunity for theft.
Therefore, you have 4 choices:- You can have the package
delivered to
your employer's address (or wherever you might be during the
day);
- to
a friend or neighbor's address (who is home most of the time);
- leave a
note on your door to NOT leave any UPS packages and pick them
up yourself;
or,
- pay an additional postage charge for the dealer to
ship your order
to your post office box address.
The best rule of thumb for determining additional cost in
sending to your
post office box address would be about 40% ADDED on to the
total amount of
your order. Why 40%? Isn't that too much for shipping charges?
You must
remember: not only does the dealer (or printer) have to pay
the additional
postage charges but they have to haul it to the post office
themselves
during office hours, take time away from their daily business,
stand in
line holding a heavy package and drive back home. For our
printer, this
is a 18 mile round trip. (Not everybody visits the post office
everyday,
even though they are in mail order.)
Just recently we received a rude comment from a customer who
refused to
provide us with his UPS address and demanded we ship to his
post office
box. He said: "I'm not in the UPS business and I'm not in
the phone
business _ I'm in the mail order business!" (He didn't
want to place a
call to our office to talk to us about this so we didn't have
a chance to
educate him on how this situation is out of our control.)
However, the United Parcel Service IS part of the mail order
business,
and calling people IS part of the mail order business too.
So the next time you place an order that you know will be sent
back to
you in a box (like printing), take the time to make sure you
provide the
company with your UPS shipping address OR send extra money!
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