Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

It cost me $2 more to drop off the return items at the post office than to take it to their preferred vendor, but that preferred vendor is in Sparks, which means it would cost me more than I saved to do so.

While at the post office, I asked them if there is something about UniUni that means the USPS can't accept shipments from them. The clerk said that they accept shipments from anyone; the shippers don't have to have specific agreements with the USPS. She agreed with my theory that there are individual drivers for UniUni who bring things to 315 E Main Street in Fernley, see that it is a post office, and on their own initiative decide that they can't deliver, it, mark it undeliverable, and take it back. Alternatively, they arrive outside of the post office business hours and again mark it as undeliverable.

I bought some stuff for Kayla and, as is our usual practice, shipped it to the physical version of our PO Box, which is the street address of the Fernley post office with a #242 (the box number) appended to it. I don't know if all USPS office do this, but ours is one where you can do this, and they'll deliver it to your box. UPS, FedEx, and DHL have no problem with it. There is one thing about it, which is that most stuff takes one extra day to arrive, because it gets delivered to the PO and then they don't put it in the box until the next day. However, it does mean that stuff is secure, rather than being left out on our porch, or worse. My mortgage company saw fit to send me a small refund check ($1.50! It cost more to send than the amount of the refund) by FedEx and for some reason FedEx tossed it over the back fence instead of at least leaving it on the front porch. It was days before we even noticed it was there.

So the order for Kayla was split into two shipments. The first shipment arrived at the PO Box without a problem. The second shipment did not. Eventually I found that the shipping service was UniUni, a cut-rate shipping service. I don't know how they work, but it appears to me that sometimes their drivers go to the address, see that it's a US Post Office, and decide that they don't deliver there, so they send the package back to to the warehouse.

I spent half an hour on the phone trying to get through to them. Their online service doesn't work. Service tickets are never answered. The "chatbot" they talk about on their website and on their hold messages doesn't exist. Even when I called at 7 AM PT sharp (if you call before then, they'll reject the call because they don't open before 7 AM), they picked up and then hung up. The next two attempts similarly ended up with a dropped call. Finally on the fourth try I got through to an agent, who insisted that they don't deliver to post offices, only to home addresses. I gave them my home address and they say that they'll eventually get the package to me.

The issue here is that all of the other more reputable package delivery services can handle that address. If I had known that they were going to use UniUni, I would have given my home address, as reluctant as I am to do so. Or maybe I would have found another seller, even though Kayla likes their clothes. (Pretty soon, she's going to maybe have to start trying to shop in brick-and-mortar stores.)

As it happens, the vendor responded to my complaint, saying that they will consider showing what shipping service they will use for a given order. I'll believe it when I see it.

Free shipping is not much of a bargain if they don't actually deliver the package!