2019, Chapter 10:
**** This Ship!
So, it looks like Schiit may not be shipping with USPS anymore.
Yes.
That USPS. The United States Postal Service.
Why? Because they’ve simply become too unreliable for a business to rely on. Well, at least our post office has. As of this writing, they have not reliably picked up shipments from us for seven weeks. That’s nearly two months. This is despite contacting them, cajoling them, trying to find out what was wrong, trying to figure out how to make it work…and despite literally paying them $23 per day for what they call “scheduled pickup,” which has only worked about 33% of the time.
So what have we done in the meantime? We’ve had employees drive shipments down to the post office. This is a non-ideal solution for many reasons, including the fact that we have to work out a time-off payment for them, and if there’s a traffic incident while they’re driving down to the post office, we could be totally on the hook for that.
We’ve told the USPS this. Like I said, we’ve tried everything, including
paying them, to get reliable pickup.
But here’s the bottom line:
nobody cares at the USPS.
So, it looks like we may have to shut off USPS as a shipping option for Schiit. I think this is a pretty sad day when your national postal service cannot perform at a level needed for a business customer. And no, this is not a political thing. Business is business. We need a reliable shipping partner that picks up our packages (and, as a bonus, is happy to pick up our packages, because, hey, you know, that’s actual business we’re paying for, and, as another bonus, is happy to pick up our packages without any bribes/extortion/payola like the “scheduled pickup fee.”)
FedEx is happy to do this. UPS is happy to do this.
So are we gonna kick USPS to the curb? Well, before I answer that question, why don’t we take a look at shipping in general. Hopefully some start-ups will find this information useful, or at least you’ll find this enlightening.
To begin with, let’s start with skewering my most detested sacred cow….
“Free Shipping” Should Be Banned
Yeah, I get it. The siren call of “free shipping.” Hell, I’ve fallen for it.
But here’s the unadultated truth:
there is no free shipping.
No. Such. Thing.
Period.
Everything has a price.
If you put me in charge, I’d ban the term “Free shipping.” Because it’s a misleading term. It’s not “free shipping.” It’s actually “price inclusive shipping.” And that’s what we should call it.
Seriously, do you think that someone’s gonna truck a Ragnarok from LA to NYC for free?
Of course you don’t. You know
someone is paying for shipping. You just don’t want it to be
you.
And, like I said, I totally understand. But I also understand that what we’re really talking about is “price inclusive shipping,” and that the manufacturer or retailer is paying for it. If this type of shipping is abused too much (like, say, using it as an equipment rental service, especially when coupled with “free returns,”) the whole thing breaks. Hell, even Amazon has made it harder to return things these days, to help stem the tide of rentaholics abusing the system.
I hate the term “free shipping” so much, this is what we should do:
Yes, you see that right. You can choose “standard shipping” for standard price, or “free shipping” and pay more.
Because this accurately reflects what “free shipping” is:
price inclusive shipping. You can have free shipping and pay more, or pay a fair price for shipping and pay less.
Aside: another company that does this is frameiteasy.com. If you’re looking for wall art, and you’re not so deep-pocketed so as to simply hang a ton of Samsung The Frames around your place, these guys are very fairly priced, fast, and have very reasonable shipping prices. No, I don’t own them, nope, I’m not an investor, just a satisfied customer…and happy to see them call out “free shipping” for what it is. They have competitors with free shipping. They cost 50% more—or more.
Hell, we should do this “select your shipping thing” for Black Friday. Call it the Schiit Free Shipping Promo, or something like that. Maybe we can finally one-up Cards Against Humanity.
And, before you get irritated, we can also just refund the difference between “free shipping” and actual shipping, so nobody loses…and maybe some people learn a thing or two.
Okay, free shipping screed over. Let’s talk about how dire shipping is.
Amazon’s Solution: Fire Everyone
Yep. Fire everyone.
Amazon has long had contracts with FedEx and USPS. USPS handled Sunday deliveries. Well, it kinda-sorta still handles them, but…
Wait. Let me just relate a story.
It’s a Monday. We’re 6 weeks into the “USPS ain’t picking up” thing. Alex and I are talking, as usual, and I have to ask:
“So, are we gonna fire USPS?”
Alex shakes his head. “I’m still on the fence.”
“But are they picking up?”
Another head-shake. “Not usually.”
“Not even when paying them?”
“Not even when paying them.” Alex sighs, then continues. “It’s really hard to take them seriously when, you know, yesterday, Sunday, I get a delivery from the Amazon Prime van. I mean, that’s not a surprise, I’m at home. But then I get a notice from the USPS, which was delivering something else from Amazon, saying they couldn’t deliver because they couldn’t find my door. Hell, I was standing thirty feet from the door when that message came in, and they weren’t anywhere around.”
I laughed. “That happens all the time. Amazon delivers, USPS comes on Monday. Maybe.”
“It’s not surprising Amazon did what it did,” Alex said.
“What?” I honestly didn’t know.
Alex looked at me like I had two heads. “They fired everyone. Or they’re in the process of firing everyone. USPS is going out. They’re not renewing their FedEx contract.”
“So what are they doing?” I asked, somewhat incredulous. “Shipping it themselves?”
“Exactly,” Alex said.
“Wait…what?” I said. “They just…started their own shipping company?”
“Not exactly,” Alex explained. “They subsidized cheap Mercedes vans so people could start up their own last-mile delivery services, and take on their routes.”
Holy schiit,I thought. “Those are the Amazon vans you see running around?”
Alex nodded. “Those are them.”
Wow,I thought. Completely vertically integrated, including shipping. Given our pain with the USPS (and, to be honest, we’ve had our moments with FedEx, as well as pain with testing out UPS and DHL), I totally got it. It wasn’t something we could do, but when a retailer decides to
create its own shipping fleet…things must really be ugly. Yes, I know, Amazon is huge…but that’s an amazing amount of liability to take on. Their pain must have been immense.
And here we were, with USPS not picking up…
…so maybe they will have to go.
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
I really don’t want to lose USPS as a shipper. But, unless they improve, we have to do something. Right now, I see our options as:
- Eat it, and just have someone take the packages down every day, and take the disruption and liability that incurs. This is what we’re doing now.
- Do the same, but change our shipping policy so we only ship via USPS two days per week to minimize disruption and liability.
- Add a surcharge to every USPS order so it’s not attractive to use it as a shipping option.
- Raise prices 10-20% across the board and have “free domestic shipping.”
- Turn USPS off.
But, you know, I gotta ask: what are we missing if we drop USPS as a shipping option?
- Does it go anywhere in the USA that isn’t covered by other services?
- Does it have some huge advantage getting into other countries that I’m missing?
- It is insanely less expensive than other options? If so, to where?
- Is there some other advantage I’m missing?
Feel free to let me know in the comments. I’ll be looking at them, and Alex will be as well. I’m genuinely perturbed by this turn of events, and nothing is (yet) set in stone. If USPS doesn’t have some significant advantage that I’m missing, though…why should we continue to engage with a shipping service that doesn’t even care enough to pick up our packages?
As always, thanks for reading, and thanks for your input.
I’m assuming Schiit gets a discount for volume shipping.
