Has anyone else had problems with WCP shipping? We paid for 2 day shipping instead of the standard 4 day shipping, but it still took 4 days to ship. We need parts for IRI in a couple weeks. I e-mailed them asking for a refund and got nothing back. Or if I asked for 4 day shipping, would it have actually been 6 days? Would like to see other comments. At this point, not sure I want to continue buying from WCP unless actually necessary because I can’t trust their shipping - this is not the first time for us.
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All I can say to this is that we’ve typically not had issues with our shipping from WCP (Canadian team here). That being said, this sounds more like an issue with the shipper than WCP.
Did it take 2 days for your order to be packed, and then 2 days in transit to Michigan? Or is the concern/complaint that it spent 4 days in transit with the courier? Again, the latter sounds like a courier issue, not a WCP issue.
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Well I can’t comment on the support email, but a critical point of understanding:
2 day vs. 4 day shipping should change how rapidly the shipping company takes the box from WCP to your address. It doesn’t change how fast WCP goes from order to sending the full box to the shipping company.
I mean, you can. Personal opinion… it’s a tiny business. Things can only happen as fast as the one or two people in the office can make them happen.
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I believe WCP uses FedEx, and anytime I’ve paid for 2 day shipping it always arrives late.
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Hi Joe,
Looking through your order, here is the information:
Order Placed: June 8th
Order Shipped: June 9th
Oder Shipping method selected: USPS
Order Delivered: June 15th
https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm#1
From USPS site: In most cases, the expected delivery date printed on your receipt or provided at checkout will reflect a delivery time of 1, 2, or 3 business days and is based on origin, destination, and drop-off time. The expected delivery data does not come with a money-back guarantee.
Our shipping policy linked here.
General Notes:
- USPS does not guarantee delivery, I would recommend using FedEx or UPS for anything critical. We offer USPS as an option to mainly save money to our end customers.
- Most (99%) of in stock orders ship same day or next day based on order cutoff time
- Orders that have backordered items are slower than ideal, but we’ve been working on this and expect to reduce this in next few months as we order more items manufactured by WCP.
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Thank you, R.C. The package did arrive today - 4 business days, so even the USPS site was wrong. I chose the premium 2 day USPS vs the base 4 day FedEx Ground that was presented and paid more. So what you are saying is if I had stayed with the 4 day FedEx I would have still gotten it today but saved $20? I guess I would suggest that you note in the order form that the 2 days via USPS are “not guaranteed”. I have seen that wording on other sites. Not many people take the time to read shipping policy.
If USPS is so bad and you risk customer dissatisfaction, why do you even offer them?
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Joe,
I will work on improving the verbiage, our intent is to never mislead customers and always appreciate the feedback. We are doing theme and website updates in the next 2 weeks. Sorry my suggestion wasn’t to use ground vs priority 2 day. It was to use Fedex Express Saver or 2 Day if you need items faster. In our experience we have seen delays in both FedEX ground and USPS. The difference is FedEX will return shipping fees on Express times. FedEX express has been the most robust: express saver, 2 day , overnight.
The site currently says the information in this format:
We offer both options because we get the reversal of customers. We hate FedEX, its terrible and never delivers on time. Or we’d like a cheaper option because we are ordering 1-2 items. The goal is to balance quality, options and service. I’ve personally had great experience with most of the shipping carriers but have had issues with: packages getting origin scanned and coast to coast shipping.
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USPS is really hit or miss. It depends on how far it needs to travel. USPS can’t use the airlines extra cargo room to move mail across the country so ot has to be trucked. because they are still connected to the federal government they cannot own their own planes, and while they have an agreement with fedex for moving some stuff on their planes it is pnly like next day.
As a side note because the Post Office could no longer send mail on passenger planes the airlines had to subsidize that income with charging customers for bagage.
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Huh? USPS absolutely uses air transportation for their packages, and more than just FedEx as you then 180 and say later in your post.
"The USPS continues to contract out airmail flying. It negotiates contracts with commercial airlines to transport mail. This includes passenger carriers. In fact, some early airlines began their commercial career by flying airmail services. United Airlines was one such carrier. Western Airlines was another.
A few years ago, Amazon began quietly transporting cargo on its planes for the USPS, something analysts say may signal greater ambitions for the e-commerce retail giant to take up the competition with other freight operators such as FedEx. Amazon also reportedly has a contract in place with ULCC Sun Country Airlines to move USPS cargo on behalf of Amazon.
…
During the pandemic, some airlines were using entire aircraft to fly cargo as route networks across the country were cut, which meant ample space for mail to, for once, travel in the passenger cabin. Alaska Airlines was one such example. In addition to passenger airlines, the USPS also contracts with cargo airlines like FedEx."
Sidenote, if anyone happens to know where I can get a model of the USPS B727 i am now very interested in getting my hands on one.
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They had to stop using passenger airlines if there were passengers on board a while back and as far as I know they never restored it. We had to close the air mail facility at Detroit metro airport because no mail was being allowed on passenger airplanes. This was quite a few years ago now. The deal the post office had with FedEx turned out to be a really bad deal because Fedex could bump any mail off thier plane if they didn’t have room which was all the time. I hadn’t heard anything about mail being allowed on passenger planes if there were passengers on board. Maybe they changed it during the pandemic but needless to say the post office hasn’t opened up another facility at Detroit Metro.
It probably matters where you live, but personally I have always had better/faster/more reliable delivery from USPS than from either UPS or FedEx. I’ve had such bad experiences with FedEx that they are always my last resort shipping option.
It’s best to think of shipping times as estimates, not as guarantees.
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USPS will also deliver to some places others won’t.
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In the early days of air mail, they had a pretty interesting way to stay on track heading in the right direction. Arrows Across America- concrete arrows
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UPS, USPS, and FedEx are all mass volume shippers. If the package gets tossed in the wrong bin, it will take and extended trip regardless of the service. My experience is they are about the same in the number of screw ups. If you live in an large urban area, they are largely the same in delivery times. In an very rural area you might find one that is consistently quicker.
If you have an commercial address you can ship to verses an residential address, FedEx and UPS will be a little more consistent to the commercial address. Depending on the distance, ground is often as fast as priority shipments for a lot cheaper. Just no guarantees on delivery times.
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Yes, in a different way then you. We ordered a timing belt a few days before our week 2 competition this year with express shipping, it came…two weeks ago (a few months late). We emailed them soon after the competition and they said they were out of stock (we ordered two, one came which must have been the last) but this wasn’t notified to us during purchase. Not the biggest deal in the world anymore, though it may be an issue with the inventory system or something.
I would just like to add to this conversation that I love that WCP offers backordering as an option.
All of the other robot parts vendors that I use don’t offer this. Instead I can add my email to a list and when the item is back in stock, they send an email. I have to return to their website, restart the purchase process, and hope that everyone else on the mailing list didn’t get there ahead of me. Since I work robotics communication through a personal email and not my work email, It can be a day or two after the email is sent before I see it and have an opportunity to respond.
I have also back ordered items from SparkFun (https://www.sparkfun.com). These are usually for side projects, not robot parts.
I just appreciate being able to submit my order and know that the vendor will fulfill it as soon as items return in stock.
Thank you WCP!
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