You should offer shipping alternatives and let people choose. FedEx is the worst.
FedEx is literally the worst delivery service ever. Your business automatically loses an entire level of respect if you ship with them. They have, in the last couple of months, left a shipment of dog food (I get it, it’s heavy… you have one job) literally under a tree at the road 30 yards from my door, left another in the middle of the yard 20 feet from the door, and another sitting on the back of my parent’s car. And today, they have a “delivery exception” for my proofgrade material because “customer not available or business closed.” Someone has been here literally every second of today. The time stamp was 6:28, and UPS just successfully delivered at 6:39.
You guys are bad enough not keeping your store stocked, so when you finally get something in, I order it immediately. I expect it delivered properly, but you only use FedEx. Disappointed.
That bites that your local FedEx is terrible. You should definitely put in a complaint with them. In many places FedEx is the better option - it really does depend on location 
That’s why we should have the choice.
After using both UPS and FedEx for 6 years, I will take FedEx over UPS and definitely over USPS for anything of value. I have had fewer FedEx shipments damaged than UPS. UPS will also ding and ditch and then I have to go pick up the package from one of their locations as they will not redeliver. FedEx at least will redeliver.
However I have had certain UPS and FedEx drivers pull the same stunt you are reporting. I always call and report them to the customer service line. This feedback lets them know there is a problem.
Note that Proofgrade materials are made and shipped by a contract company, not by Glowforge themselves, so Glowforge has no control over the shipping service.
That’s why we should have the choice.
Not many people know the high majority of FedEx drivers are not employees of FedEx. These drivers work for a company that has a contract with FedEx.
FedEx does have their own drivers but these are the special drivers. Saturday delivery, over night delivery, government and medical shipments., etc.
Have had terrible service from USPS, UPS and FedEx for 2 months. About half my incoming packages have exceptions or other delivery errors. USPS package took 15 days to go 200 miles after departing my post office on a Wednesday. Both UPS and USPS packages have bounced packages back and forth between network centers. Tennessee to North Carolina, to Massachusetts, to NC, to Baltimore, to Pennsylvania, to Baltimore, to WV? Seems a little out of the way. FedEx continually fails to deliver, sometimes for several days, after the package is on the truck and out for delivery. How would I decide which service to use? I will say that my UPS delivery people and local post office folks are great.
Again, all of this points to us needing a choice. How you choose? I have no idea, but just having one is awful. People say “Complain to FedEx”. In this case, that does no good. What do I say? “Give me better service, or I will be forced to use you again!”
My point is…I buy from Glowforge. Whether they contract it out or not, I buy from Glowforge. If I have a problem receiving my shipment, then that is on Glowforge to fix, not me. If I ordered my machine and it never arrived, would Glowforge take my money and say “Hey, take it up with FedEx.” Heck no…they’d be all over it. Why should my ordering materials be any different. I expect them to take care of shipping errors. And I would expect the same thing, even if I had a choice. But if I had a choice, at least I would have some power if I decided to call the delivery company myself, instead of the impotence of a monopoly.
OMG—- I am ROTFLMAO with your comment.
This past Sunday morning at 9:30 —-I received a text from FedEx my package was delivered. Two minutes later my phone is ringing —-my neighbor two doors down is calling me.
My dog food got delivered to her house. What if my neighbor was a thief? Her dogs would be now eating French canine food that cost $42 for a 10 pound bag. This particular delivery had two different types of French canine cuisine —— with tax $86.
Would chewy.com replace the dog food or am now out $86?
To be continued in six weeks because that is when the next delivery will occur.
I agree that it would be nice to have a choice, maybe then I would be able to justify buying 
material if I can get the base shipping costs for a single sheet of under 100$, and thats not including import fees.
But sadly were i live fedex is actually one of the best shippers but i have all my stuff and things shipped to a commercial address because like you have mentioned their home delivery can be a bit lacking at times. Nothing drives me more crazy than taking a day off of work to get an important package, waiting outside and then seeing it updated as the recipient wasn’t home when i was watching the door the whole time. so i end up being out my money for the day and my life is shortened from the rage i feel towards the lazy delivery driver that didn’t even try and marked it down as a failed attempt lol
Maybe have FedEx deliver to UPS, Then have Ups deliver it to you
The ridiculous shipping charges suck too. A new black cable which is around $19 from Glowforge cost me over $49 shipping. Final tally was $93.66 Canadian for a new black cable.
I’m so sorry to hear that FedEx didn’t handle your delivery with care. Thank you for your feedback about your experience with them. We have found that some of these challenges are happening with other shipping companies as well, but we are working hard to find better solutions.
I checked your order and I see that FedEx was able to deliver it today. I’m going to close this thread, but feel free to start a new topic if you have any other questions.