Sometimes technical, sometimes not, never a kitty

The talk goes something like this:

FedEx--"When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight."

UPS--"Moving at the speed of business."

I have 300+ identical packages to ship next week.  No flipping way amd I making the labels one at a time via a website.  I know both UPS and FedEx have PC-based shipping software for their accounts, so I decided to acquire such.

I started with FedEx.  I registered online, complete with FedEx account number.  In order to obtain the software, you have to call your account rep.  Not knowing who that was, I called the general support number, spoke to a nice rep, explained what I needed.  The support rep sent a message to my account sales contact.  This was about 8:30 pm on 12/5, and I didn't leave with a warm feeling anything was going to happen.  The next day I realized I gave the nice rep my wrong extension, called back, spoke to yet another nice rep, and gave my correct extension.  Another message was sent to my acocunt sales contact.  Even with the wrong extension, the main number on the account is correct.

So, my Plan B was UPS.  I registered at www.ups.com, complete with account number, and filled out the online request form.  This was right arount 3:00 pm on 12/6.  At 1:00 pm on 12/7, I had WorldShip 8 in my hands.  22 hours from request to delivery.  Still nothing from my FedEx guy nearly 40 hours later.  Looks like 300+ packages are going UPS.  On a personal note, I'm a little torn by this.  I grew up in Louisville, where UPS is based.  But I now live near Pittsburgh, where FedEx Ground is based.  Either one is a home-team to me.

Small businesses have weird needs.  Sometimes (as in this case) we have huge shipments all at once.  Business owners  are pretty much 24/7 living their business.  This phone tag stuff is so '80s.  Hard to believe it's so tough to give your business to a company sometimes.