Entropy

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billshurv
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Re: Entropy

Post by billshurv »

New drier arrived today and they took the old one away to recycle. The new one I am willing to be has all the same parts in as the old but is quieter and gets hotter quicker. Wife is happy. This gains me more lab time over the weekend so money well spend :)
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

billshurv wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2020 4:03 pm New drier arrived today and they took the old one away to recycle. The new one I am willing to be has all the same parts in as the old but is quieter and gets hotter quicker. Wife is happy. This gains me more lab time over the weekend so money well spend :)
I hear that a happy wife is a good thing.... :lol:

JR
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Now almost 2 weeks later my sump pump is still out of service (and crawl space still flooded). Today the second discharge hose adapter fitting arrived and it was the wrong size... I clearly ordered a 1.25" diameter fitting, but they sent me a 1.5" diameter fitting. arghhhh

This is probably $0.20 worth of plastic that I gladly paid $7 for to get my sump pump working again. I pinged the vendor and they replied don't measure it with a tape measure, and try it on the pump... DOH..... I tried it on the pump before I measured it with a machinist scale (metal ruler).

Now for some extra nonsense instead of just discarding this $0.20 worth of plastic, amazon has issued a UPS pick up ticket to pickup this wrong size connector. I expect even with the hugely profitable $7 retail price, even Amazon will not profit from this order, and I still do not have the correct adapter yet.

I figure there is a 50/50 chance I get the wrong part again. :roll:

JR
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billshurv
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Re: Entropy

Post by billshurv »

Isn't that the sort of thing that the local home despot keep? (assuming they still exist)
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

billshurv wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 5:19 pm Isn't that the sort of thing that the local home despot keep? (assuming they still exist)
my closest home depot is 60+ miles away (Jackson)....

The main problem is they shipped me the wrong f'n part....

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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Home Despot is still in business and going strong.

We've cut back on ordering much online if its shipped by Fedex.
Fedex have institutionalized driver theft to the point about 1 in 10 shipments get stolen by the driver.

It's amazing watching a Fedex truck stop at your house and witness the package being scanned with real-time tracking and then see the driver leave with it. This has happened to us twice in the last three months. http://fedex-sucks.net/ is full of stories like mine.

Once its scanned as delivered by these ass-wipes and stolen the recipient has no ability to claim loss.

Fedex has been offered video of this and have refused.
Fedex has no interest in solving driver theft since they have no loss.

Fortunately both shippers, who see this phenomenon themselves, replaced the items.

Amazon may be delivering with a different carrier but if I were buying something expensive and my only option was Fedex I might drive 60 miles for a repair part.

With Fedex f*cking their customers over left and right I see a return to brick and mortar.

Good luck getting your right adapter.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

mediatechnology wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 5:07 am Home Despot is still in business and going strong.
Not strong enough to be close to me. I think they had a store in Meridian, only 20 miles away, but closed it years ago. That may just be smart business.
We've cut back on ordering much online if its shipped by Fedex.
Fedex have institutionalized driver theft to the point about 1 in 10 shipments get stolen by the driver.
over the decades I have had good and bad experiences with multiple last mile delivery services. The USPS makes me angrier for their refusal to recognize the existence of my physical street address.
It's amazing watching a Fedex truck stop at your house and witness the package being scanned with real-time tracking and then see the driver leave with it. This has happened to us twice in the last three months. http://fedex-sucks.net/ is full of stories like mine.

Once its scanned as delivered by these ass-wipes and stolen the recipient has no ability to claim loss.
I think amazon is experimenting with inside the house delivery using smart door locks, and video tracking everything making driver theft more difficult to conceal.
Fedex has been offered video of this and have refused.
Fedex has no interest in solving driver theft since they have no loss.
I have had a number of items disappear somewhere upstream in the delivery process...

In one case there were three different items in an order. One arrived and the other two did not... I still have not received satisfaction for that.
Fortunately both shippers, who see this phenomenon themselves, replaced the items.
fedex business model involves making delivery people independent contractors, so there is no coherent fedex driver group. UPS drivers are union so more consistent, but there is always variation from driver to driver.
Amazon may be delivering with a different carrier but if I were buying something expensive and my only option was Fedex I might drive 60 miles for a repair part.
Amazon uses different delivery services almost randomly. The wrong adapter was shipped to me using USPS but, return pickup is via UPS.
With Fedex f*cking their customers over left and right I see a return to brick and mortar.
brick and mortar have a role as distributed warehouses for same day or rapid delivery
Good luck getting your right adapter.
My expectation is that the issue was in the Amazon fulfillment center where they picked the wrong part... From a small company I would expect the second attempt to be more accurate, from Amazon who knows? I still find it a little bizarre that somebody (not me) is paying for UPS to pick up the wrong item and deliver it back to Amazon. The original purchase was something like $7 with free delivery. I guess they make it up on volume, since this transaction is already a money loser, and not yet complete. :lol:

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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

over the decades I have had good and bad experiences with multiple last mile delivery services. The USPS makes me angrier for their refusal to recognize the existence of my physical street address.
Which is hilarious considering that the Post Office is across the street. :lol:
Did you not invite them to your late-night parties JR?

USPS has gotten much better recently and as a shipper for low-value items domestically and International in general they are now my first choice.
UPS deserves to be tied with USPS and I use UPS if its domestic and high value.

If the USPS driver steals any mail they have committed a felony.

UPS has a financial incentive to keep their drivers honest.

Fedex has no incentive to perform or keep their contractors honest.
Other than the shipper or recipient who absorbs the loss no one has any standing to charge the driver with criminal theft.
Fedex's reputation has suffered but they don't seem to care about that either.
Any shipper that continues to use them is an idiot and I'll tell them at the time of order not to use Fedex.

Amazon has started taking pictures of their delivered packages.
Knowing that they are likely on another camera keeps them from stealing the packages after they photograph them.
Amazon does a pretty good job but they drive like hell.
I've started using them again some but still prefer to buy elsewhere including brick and mortar.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

mediatechnology wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 10:08 am
over the decades I have had good and bad experiences with multiple last mile delivery services. The USPS makes me angrier for their refusal to recognize the existence of my physical street address.
Which is hilarious considering that the Post Office is across the street. :lol:
Did you not invite them to your late-night parties JR?
I wish it was that easy..... When I first moved here in the mid 80s, I would be able to get my newspaper out of my PO Box, and read the front page with my morning coffee, and still be in my office by 8AM (only 8 miles up the road without a stop sign). Now I am lucky to get mail/packages by 10AM
USPS has gotten much better recently and as a shipper for low-value items domestically and International in general they are now my first choice.
I use their flat rate packages for my business shipping because they are now competitive/cheaper than UPS. Their website for generating labels was a little dodgy at first, but have since worked out most of the bugs. In case you weren't paying close attention they just raised their prices again so something like +16% since I first started using them... Of course the convenience of dropping off pre-labelled packages across the street beats the hell out of UPS.

At the same time it seems like their international shipping rates have become less competitive, but I do not sell enough internationally to worry about that.

UPS deserves to be tied with USPS and I use UPS if its domestic and high value.
I recently ended up using UPS when I shipped a very old (1930s) and very heavy, WE amplifier chassis to NC. For a few tens of pounds, UPS was cheaper than USPS.
If the USPS driver steals any mail they have committed a felony.

UPS has a financial incentive to keep their drivers honest.

Fedex has no incentive to perform or keep their contractors honest.
Other than the shipper or recipient who absorbs the loss no one has any standing to charge the driver with criminal theft.
surely any compelling pattern of loss will rise to become a cost issue and influence shipping decisions.
Fedex's reputation has suffered but they don't seem to care about that either.
Any shipper that continues to use them is an idiot and I'll tell them at the time of order not to use Fedex.
I get lots of west coast stuff (green coffee, beer supplies, etc) shipped very inexpensively via fedex. I do not discern any problem or pattern with those.
Amazon has started taking pictures of their delivered packages.
Knowing that they are likely on another camera keeps them from stealing the packages after they photograph them.
Amazon does a pretty good job but they drive like hell.
I've started using them again some but still prefer to buy elsewhere including brick and mortar.
I prefer bricks and mortar if I can purchase locally during my once weekly food shopping, otherwise web orders with home delivery is very convenient.

JR

PS: my 1000mAh nicads arrived this morning, from amazon wedged into my POB. Already on the charger with one topped off already.

PPS: I just ran into my local appliance repair guy, and he has never seen/worked on a heat pump clothes dryer, he didn't even know that Whirlpool was already shipping one... I don't think this means that they never break, only that premium appliances are rare here in nowhere MS. :lol:
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Forgot to mention that our "regular" Fedex driver admitted a few days after the last package theft that the driver running our route that day had also been fired that day - presumably at the end of his shift.

We also had photos of two packages he'd left at a neighbor who were for recipients that were located miles away.

Despite the driver being fired, the ass-wipes at Fedex denied the claim insisting that the package had been delivered.
Fedex placed their trust in the employee that they had just fired rather than us who have had a shippers account with them since the mid-1980s.
Because it showed delivered Fedex has an out and there isn't any financial loss.

What its going to take is shippers - like Amazon - not renewing their contracts.
I'll never ship with them again.

On the first stolen delivery we had video time-stamped of him never leaving the truck at the same time it showed delivered.
Fedex didn't care.
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