FedEx ground was added to FedEx by them buying an existing (and bad)
truck freight company. FedEx Air is still good, but ground isn't.
UPS has similarly acquired a freight company for stuff that is
larger, and or heavier than they previously accepted. It helps to
know who you are dealing with.

I've usually had good experiences with both UPS and FedEx and in my
area, if they can't deliver (for some reason) they package is usually
available for pick up at their customer service center, which is open
until 8pm.

On the other paw, my experiences with DHL are less favorable. I used
to work as a messenger and always found DHL in the Washington DC area
to be rude, and not particularly timely. And when my transmission was
shipped by Daryl to me via DHL, they managed to lose it, not once,
but 3 different times. Hard to do with a large box clearly labeled
weighing 150 pounds. And the person that eventually delivered it (not
driving a company vehicle) wasn't apologetic (he wasn't rude either,
just very abrupt.).

On Jun 17, 2007, at 3:45 PM, David Kao wrote:

> Fedex ground is indeed one very bad shipping service.
>
> I once bought a $200 thing on eBay. The seller shipped it from Los
> Angeles
> to me in the Bay Area by Fedex Ground. Within a day or two it
> showed up in
> their tracking system that the shipment was on a Fedex truck out
> for delivery
> to me. 3 weeks later it was still shown the samething but no delivery.