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Article sounds condescending. Did the "management gurus" compare that alleged accuracy to FedEx's and USPS's? A person who you know takes a low-value article a

by psranga 18y ago

Article sounds condescending. Did the "management gurus" compare that alleged accuracy to FedEx's and USPS's? A person who you know takes a low-value article and coordinates with approx 10 others to deliver it within a few miles by sheparding it on a commuter train. Wow, brilliant! Compare this to Fedex and USPS where hundreds of random strangers cooperate to safely deliver very high value goods through bureaucratic hurdles like customs across countries reliably. Or the systems the USPS has to prevent theft of high-value articles like DVDs, million+ of which are mailed every day.

davidw 18y ago
> Compare this to Fedex and USPS where hundreds of random strangers cooperate to safely deliver very high value goods through bureaucratic hurdles like customs across countries reliably. Having dealt with Fedex and UPS in Italy, I think I'd willing to take a chance with the Indian guys. True story: my dad sent me my birth certificate via Fedex, and after a week it still hasn't arrived. Finally, I get a call from Fedex, telling me it's been held in customs until I agree to pay the import duties. "Import duties, WTF?!" was esentially my reaction. It turns out my dad had declared a value of $40 for the shipment, which was, in effect, the replacement value of the document if it had been lost. After a bit of hemming and hawing, the Fedex guy admitted that the resale value of the birth certificate was zero and shouldn't be taxed, and it showed up a day or two later. It bears repeating that I was not talking with an Italian customs official, but Fedex, who are supposed to, as you say, "cooperate to deliver goods through bureaucratic hurdles".
- ars 18y ago
  And? He wrote $40, so that's what they believed. You explained it was paper and they delivered it. Sounds like a success story to me.
  - davidw 18y ago
    The contents were clearly labeled, and it took more than a week to deliver something that was sent via Fedex's express service - it should have been there in a matter of days, so I didn't get what I paid for in any case. I had to argue with them (it actually took more than one phone call) that there was no resale value. I've used Fedex a lot in the US, and here in Austria, too. Compared to their usual service, this was no success story.

by psranga 18y ago

davidw 18y ago

> Compare this to Fedex and USPS where hundreds of random strangers cooperate to safely deliver very high value goods through bureaucratic hurdles like customs across countries reliably. Having dealt with Fedex and UPS in Italy, I think I'd willing to take a chance with the Indian guys. True story: my dad sent me my birth certificate via Fedex, and after a week it still hasn't arrived. Finally, I get a call from Fedex, telling me it's been held in customs until I agree to pay the import duties. "Import duties, WTF?!" was esentially my reaction. It turns out my dad had declared a value of $40 for the shipment, which was, in effect, the replacement value of the document if it had been lost. After a bit of hemming and hawing, the Fedex guy admitted that the resale value of the birth certificate was zero and shouldn't be taxed, and it showed up a day or two later. It bears repeating that I was not talking with an Italian customs official, but Fedex, who are supposed to, as you say, "cooperate to deliver goods through bureaucratic hurdles".

ars 18y ago
And? He wrote $40, so that's what they believed. You explained it was paper and they delivered it. Sounds like a success story to me.
- davidw 18y ago
  The contents were clearly labeled, and it took more than a week to deliver something that was sent via Fedex's express service - it should have been there in a matter of days, so I didn't get what I paid for in any case. I had to argue with them (it actually took more than one phone call) that there was no resale value. I've used Fedex a lot in the US, and here in Austria, too. Compared to their usual service, this was no success story.