10 Things Your Delivery Service Won't Tell You

At FedEx, the overnight promise doesn't apply to FedEx Ground and Home Delivery services starting 14 calendar days before Christmas. At UPS and Airborne Express, money-back is a no-go on ground deliveries during roughly the same period — and don't forget to add in the surcharges for Saturday deliveries. Your best bet, especially after Dec. 20, is USPS's Express Mail, which keeps its one- or two-day guarantee and will even deliver on Dec. 25.

2. "It's hard to collect on our 'insurance.'"
When Sean McDonald, a small-business owner in Lake Elsinore, Calif., used FedEx to ship 800 individual promotional signs to automobile dealers last summer, 34 of them were cracked on arrival. He wasn't concerned, however, because he had bought coverage on each package for its estimated worth of $300. But after faxing written claims to FedEx within its 15-day deadline, McDonald to date has been compensated for only one sign. FedEx is suing McDonald for nonpayment on his account while McDonald is filing a cross-complaint for unfair business practices and breach of contract.

FedEx won't comment on specific cases, but McDonald's problems aren't unique to him or to FedEx. You may have difficulty getting a delivery service to pay up when a package is damaged — the fine print of terms and conditions protect companies from many incidents that can happen while a package is in transit. Most often, the delivery service can claim that the packaging was insufficient — not enough padding, for example. In fact, FedEx doesn't even call its coverage insurance, but "declared value," referring to its liability in shipping.

The bottom line, though, is you may not ever need to buy coverage when using any of these carriers. With UPS and FedEx, all consumer packages are covered up to $100 automatically. Beyond that amount, and for other services, you likely already have coverage for shipped property under your homeowner's insurance. Just be aware that a high deductible on your policy may diminish any reimbursement you might expect on a lost package.

3. "USPS gives your new address to direct marketers. . . sort of."
It's true that the only surefire way to have your mail forwarded when you move is to fill out the USPS's official change-of-address form. Don't be surprised if some new but all-too-familiar junk mail and direct marketing pitches arrive along with your more familiar bills and magazines. While the USPS says it does not sell your new address information to direct marketers, it does charge a licensing fee of $125,000 per year to third-party companies, which take old direct mailing lists, revise them with new information, and then send them back to direct marketers. "The net effect is the same as if the postal system sold change-of-address lists, but it's a technical loophole," says Rick Merritt, executive director of watchdog group PostalWatch in Virginia Beach, Va.

The USPS says that licensing its National Change of Address database to list cleaners saves the Postal Service money in returned mail and forwarding mail costs. Besides, the official line goes, it's not really up to the post office to differentiate between junk and legitimate mail. "We do this because the customer has told us they want to get their mail . . . at the new address," a spokesperson says.

Fortunately, it's possible to sidestep the NCOA database and still get your mail forwarded, but without the extra junk. Just fill out a temporary change-of-address form indicating that you'll be back at your old address in a year. The postal system forwards first-class mail only up to a year anyway, and "temporary" address changes don't get stored in the NCOA database.

4. "Priority Mail isn't a big priority."
The USPS advertises its Priority Mail as a two-day service, but paying $3.85 to send an important envelope may not be better than slapping on a 37-cent stamp. According to the Postal Rate Commission, an independent agency, 27 percent of packages and letters sent by Priority Mail take more than two days, while regular first-class mail takes one to three days.

A USPS spokesperson says that Priority Mail is a "convenient, reliable and affordable service that does not claim to include a guarantee," adding that, unlike its competitors, the Postal Service doesn't add fuel surcharges or weekend surcharges. Indeed, you'll pay more for private carriers. A package of a pound or less sent from New York City to downtown Philadelphia, for example, via either UPS's or FedEx's two-day service costs about $10 — but both, in most cases, offer a money-back guarantee.

5. "We don't advertise our best deal for shipping."
Media mail — known as "book rate" until 2001 — has been around for years, but few people use it because it isn't well publicized at the local post office. Why not? Because it is primarily used by business customers, according to a Postal Service spokesperson. But you can use it as long as you're mailing books, films, printed music, sound recordings, manuscripts or computer-readable media such as CDs and DVDs. Just be sure that's all that's in the package: It cannot contain advertising or a letter to Mom, and the maximum weight is 70 pounds. Indeed, if a postal clerk is suspicious of a package's contents, he can open it for inspection. While delivery can be pokey — up to nine days — it can also take as little as two. It's a great deal as long as you're not on a deadline to return those Tom Clancy books you borrowed from your brother. Mailing 20 pounds of books using Media Mail from New York to California is $7.84, compared with $26.12 for shipping them standard Parcel Post.