DHL officially dead for DCBS (how is UPS doing?)

Wood · Post by **Wood** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:17 am

HassanT wrote:
Wood wrote:I'm VERY disappointed. DHL got me my books on Friday every shipment, yet UPS has my first delivery scheduled for Monday. VERY disappointing.
Is this week you are referring to? or last week's shipment? If it is this week, it is because of Thanksgiving. I got my first two UPS shipments on Friday (same as I did with DHL). This week, the estimated delivery date is Monday, probably because of Thanksgiving (same as DHL).

Ah...hopefully you're right Hassan. I get my stuff bi-weekly, so maybe the Monday thing is related more to Turkey Day. Hope so!

Post by **JohnMayo** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 11:10 am

Trev wrote:My first UPS shipment arrived the same day as my DHL shipments did -- Monday.

Same here...

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 11:55 am

I received my 1st UPS box yesterday (Tuesday), so same as DHL.

My next one is scheduled to arrive THURSDAY! I know it's Thanksgiving this week, but I never had DHL slip me by 2 days. We'll see when I actually get it next week, I'm out of town all week anyway, so it won't really affect me, I'll get the comics when I get home Friday evening one way or the other.

HassanT · Post by **HassanT** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:26 am

Wood wrote:
HassanT wrote:
Wood wrote:I'm VERY disappointed. DHL got me my books on Friday every shipment, yet UPS has my first delivery scheduled for Monday. VERY disappointing.
Is this week you are referring to? or last week's shipment? If it is this week, it is because of Thanksgiving. I got my first two UPS shipments on Friday (same as I did with DHL). This week, the estimated delivery date is Monday, probably because of Thanksgiving (same as DHL).
Ah...hopefully you're right Hassan. I get my stuff bi-weekly, so maybe the Monday thing is related more to Turkey Day. Hope so!

Well, one problem with UPS is the estimated ship date is always wrong. The estimated ship date is based on when the shipping label is created not when they expect to pick up the shipment. Once they pick up the shipment from DCBS, they will update the estimated delivery date. For example, for the first two weeks, I had an estimated delivery date of Thursday. Once UPS picked up the package, it was changed to Friday (which was the same day I normally got my DHL packages). So the rule of thumb is to add one day for every day the shipping label is created before actual pick-up day.

Now this week, the original estimated delivery date was Monday, but the updated date is now Tuesday. This is one day later that I would normally get my DHL package around Thanksgiving. It is a bit annoying, but there isn't much difference to me between Monday and Tuesday. There is a big difference between Friday and Monday, but I can live with that too during the holidays.

As long as I get my packages on a regular basis on the same day that I used to get my DHL package, then I will be happy. But with the holidays upon us, packages could get delayed as well.

I had no patience to wait for Batman 681 and picked it up at a LCS after lunch with the family yesterday.

Wood · Post by **Wood** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:52 am

That's some (bleep), delivery is now scheduled for Tuesday

HassanT · Post by **HassanT** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:35 pm

Wood wrote:That's some (bleep), delivery is now scheduled for Tuesday

Yeah. It is. DHL, at least, was better in that aspect. I went online to UPS and found this:

http://www.compass.ups.com/article/article.aspx?id=2289

Friday, Nov. 28
Delivery of UPS air and international packages only. No UPS Ground pickups or deliveries today. Pickup service provided for air and international shipments via UPS On-Call Pickup® service, at all UPS Drop Boxes or if prearranged by Wednesday, Nov. 26.

So, it looks like the reason that it is taking a day extra is that it looks like UPS Ground delivery is closed on both Thursday and Friday. If you look at the map for ground delivery, it should only take two days to get to where you and I live.

http://www.ups.com/maps

I think we might have the same problem at Christmas and New Year's, although comics tend to have weird schedules during those times as well.

Frank Castle · Post by **Frank Castle** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:45 pm

I'm a monthly DCBS order guy and usually got it the following Wednesday. My first UPS box is set to be delivered next Thursday. Like Bob pointed out, its because of the holiday, so I'm guessing nothing will change for me.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 12:51 pm

No sign of my shipment arriving today...

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:26 pm

JohnMayo wrote:No sign of my shipment arriving today...

Mine was pushed back to Wed. No doubt because there was no ground delivery thursday or friday last week.

Sigh . . . well, I guess on the bright side I'll make some progress against my 'to read' pile.

Alec Burkhardt · Post by **Alec Burkhardt** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:38 pm

Despite the billing information being sent last Wednesday, my DCBS shipment wasn't picked up by UPS until today. Luckily I'm currently in Iowa for work, so it will only take 2 days to reach me rather than the normal 4 it takes to get to Tucson, but still sucks.

Thankfully, Heroes Corner uses Fed Ex, so that package arrived today!

Frank Castle · Post by **Frank Castle** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 6:44 pm

I'm in the same boat Alec. Mine was scanned Wed but didn't ship until today and not scheduled to hit the West Coast until Friday. I wait a month, whats another couple days...

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:31 pm

Alec Burkhardt wrote:Thankfully, Heroes Corner uses Fed Ex, so that packaged arrived today!

hmmm . . .interesting. anybody have an idea how much fedex differs from ups for ground shipping? might be worth trying for a month.

Alec Burkhardt · Post by **Alec Burkhardt** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:06 pm

Trev wrote:
Alec Burkhardt wrote:Thankfully, Heroes Corner uses Fed Ex, so that packaged arrived today!
hmmm . . .interesting. anybody have an idea how much fedex differs from ups for ground shipping? might be worth trying for a month.

Currently DCBS doesn't offer Fed Ex, and with DHL gone, the only option at the moment is UPS.

Heroes Corner charges $5.95 for once a month shipping, unless you order $75 or more - then shipping is free. I order enough (just barely) to split my order between DCBS & HC and still get the free shipping from HC. I'd never advise someone to switch to a new company for just a month - not with there always being late items which you'd then likely be waiting extra months for. That said, I've been using both for the past 7 months (well, 7 months of orders, only 5 of deliveries) as a comparison (been with DCBS for a couple of years and plenty of others before that), and find HC to be every bit the equal of DCBS. Head to head, HC has actually been cheaper 5 of the 7 orders, but doing both has been cheaper than either for 4 of the months, plus there have been things only available from one or the other that I would have missed out on just using one.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:45 pm

Alec Burkhardt wrote:
Trev wrote:
Alec Burkhardt wrote:Thankfully, Heroes Corner uses Fed Ex, so that packaged arrived today!
hmmm . . .interesting. anybody have an idea how much fedex differs from ups for ground shipping? might be worth trying for a month.
there have been things only available from one or the other that I would have missed out on just using one.

Like what?

Frank Castle · Post by **Frank Castle** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 1:37 pm

Trev wrote:
Alec Burkhardt wrote:
Trev wrote: hmmm . . .interesting. anybody have an idea how much fedex differs from ups for ground shipping? might be worth trying for a month.
there have been things only available from one or the other that I would have missed out on just using one.
Like what?

Variant issues for one thing. I have not seen any variants listed with HC but DCBS has them all up at a fair price.