crazyjennyblack
Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2008
- Messages
- 391
About a week and a half ago I posted a thread about Midway and their lack of Postal Service shipping options in the last year. I had sent them emails earlier in the fall, and I sent them one just after Christmas, and received no reply. I also had a couple of my friends send emails, and one of them got a response. He forwarded it to me. Here is the text:
"Thanks for your contact with Larry. I’m sorry it’s
taken a while to respond—Larry’s customer contact rate
via email, voice mail and letter consistently runs well more
than 2000 per week. He reads/listens to all his contacts but
obviously can’t respond to them personally. Between
this and his other obligations as CEO, it takes him a while
to respond to customer inquiries. He asked me
to follow up with you.
For years our customers complained that our shipping rates
are too high compared to our
competition. The reason for that is that we
used to roll the cost of shipping into the price of the
products. This meant customers in the Midwest were
subsidizing the shipping cost of customers on the
coasts. The policy we started in May of 2001 charges
our customers their actual cost of shipping (plus a small
charge for packing/insurance/etc.). We do not pad our
product profits to offset "free" or artificially low
shipping costs. The charges you pay are not used to
offset the orders of other customers nor are their orders
used to subsidize yours. You will notice that this
philosophy means our shipping charges are based on the cost
of shipping the order, not on the VALUE of the order.
As a result of that overall shipping philosophy, customers
were confused when comparing our shipping costs to our
competitors, who were able to appear to have lower shipping
prices because they could subsidize those shipping charges
with other product lines and revenue streams. That’s why
we recently adopted the new UPS shipping programs Sure Post
and Mail Innovations. They’re designed to give the lowest
possible shipping prices at the expense of speed, which is
precisely what a large portion of our customers have been
requesting for many years. Those orders are picked up by UPS
but delivered by the Post Office. The Post Office will
deliver the package based on the most effective use of their
delivery schedule and capability. That sometimes
results in short delays of a day or
two. It's a function of being the least
expensive shipping method available. Based on past
experience, we expect our customers to request between a
third to a half of our orders to be shipped via those two
methods of shipping by the end of this year. We realize
those two shipping programs won’t be optimal for some
customers so we retained UPS Ground as an alternative. If
you’d prefer your packages be kept by UPS for final
delivery please remember to select UPS GROUND as your method
of shipping on future orders.
We are gradually working toward a new shipping program which
we hope to implement this spring. The new program is
intended to offer the best value of cost and speed in
processing for the majority of our customers and the orders
they place. My understanding is that our new shipping
program will not be a "select your method of shipping"
program as we've done for many years. Customers will have
the option of choosing "Standard Shipping" OR an expedited
method of shipping e.g. UPS Second Day. Packages MAY ship
via Priority Mail or Flat Rate Mail as part of "Standard
Shipping" when the order is packaged and prepared for
labeling. However, there will be no alternatives within
"Standard Shipping" offered at the time the order is
placed. I appreciate your understanding and apologize
for any inconvenience. "
This was sent by Brian from their Customer Service Department.
Anyway, I'm pleased to see that they may be changing things this spring, and it renews my faith in their Customer Service. I guess they must be swamped if they are getting that many emails, so it's no wonder that some of ours have gotten lost in the shuffle. It seems that by sheer volume we've finally gotten our questions answered. This may dispel rumors and speculation about an exclusive contract with UPS.
"Thanks for your contact with Larry. I’m sorry it’s
taken a while to respond—Larry’s customer contact rate
via email, voice mail and letter consistently runs well more
than 2000 per week. He reads/listens to all his contacts but
obviously can’t respond to them personally. Between
this and his other obligations as CEO, it takes him a while
to respond to customer inquiries. He asked me
to follow up with you.
For years our customers complained that our shipping rates
are too high compared to our
competition. The reason for that is that we
used to roll the cost of shipping into the price of the
products. This meant customers in the Midwest were
subsidizing the shipping cost of customers on the
coasts. The policy we started in May of 2001 charges
our customers their actual cost of shipping (plus a small
charge for packing/insurance/etc.). We do not pad our
product profits to offset "free" or artificially low
shipping costs. The charges you pay are not used to
offset the orders of other customers nor are their orders
used to subsidize yours. You will notice that this
philosophy means our shipping charges are based on the cost
of shipping the order, not on the VALUE of the order.
As a result of that overall shipping philosophy, customers
were confused when comparing our shipping costs to our
competitors, who were able to appear to have lower shipping
prices because they could subsidize those shipping charges
with other product lines and revenue streams. That’s why
we recently adopted the new UPS shipping programs Sure Post
and Mail Innovations. They’re designed to give the lowest
possible shipping prices at the expense of speed, which is
precisely what a large portion of our customers have been
requesting for many years. Those orders are picked up by UPS
but delivered by the Post Office. The Post Office will
deliver the package based on the most effective use of their
delivery schedule and capability. That sometimes
results in short delays of a day or
two. It's a function of being the least
expensive shipping method available. Based on past
experience, we expect our customers to request between a
third to a half of our orders to be shipped via those two
methods of shipping by the end of this year. We realize
those two shipping programs won’t be optimal for some
customers so we retained UPS Ground as an alternative. If
you’d prefer your packages be kept by UPS for final
delivery please remember to select UPS GROUND as your method
of shipping on future orders.
We are gradually working toward a new shipping program which
we hope to implement this spring. The new program is
intended to offer the best value of cost and speed in
processing for the majority of our customers and the orders
they place. My understanding is that our new shipping
program will not be a "select your method of shipping"
program as we've done for many years. Customers will have
the option of choosing "Standard Shipping" OR an expedited
method of shipping e.g. UPS Second Day. Packages MAY ship
via Priority Mail or Flat Rate Mail as part of "Standard
Shipping" when the order is packaged and prepared for
labeling. However, there will be no alternatives within
"Standard Shipping" offered at the time the order is
placed. I appreciate your understanding and apologize
for any inconvenience. "
This was sent by Brian from their Customer Service Department.
Anyway, I'm pleased to see that they may be changing things this spring, and it renews my faith in their Customer Service. I guess they must be swamped if they are getting that many emails, so it's no wonder that some of ours have gotten lost in the shuffle. It seems that by sheer volume we've finally gotten our questions answered. This may dispel rumors and speculation about an exclusive contract with UPS.
