“Dear Q - Why are you shipping Pre-Sorted Standard?” This was the title of a thread in the Q Did What? Forum; as you can imagine, it’s one of my favorite forums to read because I find out so much. Anyway, after paying a few dollars for shipping, some customers were dismayed at why there was a “USPS Presort Standard Rate” mail label on their package. After all, isn’t this the rate used for catalogs and credit card offers?

Having worked in our outbound delivery areas for many years, I know that we use this type of label in certain cases. But no matter what, QVC keeps its delivery promise of getting your package to you by the estimated delivery date provided when you placed your order - regardless of what parcel shipping carrier is being used. And, we make sure of it while maintaining standard shipping and handling prices across all product categories.

Over the years, I’ve worked on a number of projects with my colleague Andy Quay, our vice president responsible for daily outbound delivery operations. I talked with him about the use of USPS Standard Mail, and he explains it like this: as fuel and other costs rise, using a blend of postal and UPS shipping methods gives us the edge to maintain our overall shipping and handling fees.

In recent months, the Standard Mail ship method wasn’t meeting QVC’s delivery standard in certain areas. Andy’s team addressed the issues immediately to prevent delivery delays in those impacted areas.

Any package – no matter what ship method is used – must meet QVC’s estimated delivery dates. Every week, we check it out. Andy’s team tracks each carrier’s performance in meeting estimated delivery dates. In areas where the delivery service doesn’t meet QVC’s on-time standard 95 percent of the time, we modify the shipping method in that area.

With all that said, we know that any QVC show and our products will cease to dazzle you when deliveries don’t arrive on time. That’s why every day, we strive for service excellence to stay true to our delivery promise.

All the best,
Dan