Posted on 02/05/2010 6:19:59 PM PST by dangus
So I'm trying to get a dear present delivered, and I call UPS. It's supposed to be delivered Tuesday, but supposedly there's an accident in Jacksonville, FL, so it's late. It doesn't show up on Wednesday. UPS tells me that it missed its shipment, so it didn't make it... even though it had a whole extra day to get it there. Thursday, it "didn't leave Richmond fast enough." So, Friday (today, when it absolutely had to be here) I was nervous about the arriving snowstorm.
At 1 o'clock: "No problem, it's on the truck, and it'll get delivered."
At 6 o'clock: "We'll get it to you; It'll be there by 7."
At 7 o'clock: "With the weather, maybe some of the trucks are a little slow, but it'll get there." Are you sure? Maybe the storm is preventing it? "No, if we were having weather troubles, we'd have scanned it and reported it; it's coming. The trucks won't come back until they've made all their deliveries" (The snow is just starting to stick.)
At 8:30, my wife spots that the delivery has been updated to "emergency status." They can't tell me why it can't be delivered, because yup, all their contact centers closed at 7... when I called them and they said there was no problem. So now, I'm waiting until Monday to find out where it was.
Mind you, UPS delivers air mail on Saturdays. And the package has already arrived at their local center. But because I didn't pay for Saturday delivery, they won't deliver it on Saturday. Even though I paid to have it delivered LAST Tuesday.
What about all those ads you see promising about being able to track your package? Well, turns out they can't tell me anything about where it is. What they really mean is that if you don't get your package on time, you can call them or go on line to find out that your package is late. It doesn't mean you can find out what "Emergency" means. Gosh, that's helpful. I have to wait until Monday to find out where it is. I'm presuming I'll be told that they can't deliver it because of all the snow on the ground, though.
From UPS, a private enterprise grown so fat and bloated and mismanaged that it might as well be a government enterprise.
If this helps you by letting you know to avoid UPS at all costs, great. If it doesn't, sorry, but I promised them I'd tell everyone I could about the incompetence, disdain for their customers, and horrible service. I keep my promises, unlike UPS.
Most of the drivers are. Not all though. I hear they are dropping the axe on a ton of management. It's a beautiful thing.
The problem with socialism is that competition forces improvement. USPS has certainly improved dramatically in the face of competition. It took them longer than a private outfit would have survived, but in all honesty, my encounters with them have been far better... until I moved. If I’m not there to sign for a package, I can’t have them leave it with the complex’s office, and it goes to a service center, which has amazingly poor hours. (I’d’ve thought that hours would be standardized across all post offices.)
“Surely, you can think of another delivery company.”
Oh yeah, USPS is the last one on my list.
OK, but I’m in a pretty big city.
Bullshit!
Yep, a few yrs ago my husband ordered a home theatre system and we had an ice storm. He could track the package to our local depot, about 5 miles away and they wouldn’t let him pick it up. It nearly drove him insane.
I needed the package, and I implored them to keep their promise. They just shrugged and said: “too bad, so sad.” I could have done murder...
I feel badly about your experience but we remember that one bad one and forget about the 100 good ones.
UPS is a company in transition though :( starting to be led by mba beancounters instead of those who came up through the rank and file.
No, I dont work for UPS but I happen to know lots of UPS and FedEx employees!
dangus, please bear with me. In my post I explained the inequities presented to the Postal Service, v. private delivery companies.
The only reason you would have to sign for a package is if the sender requested “signature confirmation” or return receipt. Parcels are left at residents’ doors at the Carriers peril. Carriers are responsible for every piece of mail they recieve. It should be delivered to the mail box, or the customers hand. If it dosn’t fit, or nobody is home, you should recieve a USPS form 3849. (It’s a peach colored slip) It will tell you what time, and day (sometimes the same day) you can pick up your parcel at your local Post Office (I can’t say in my 20 years with the Post Office, that I have ever heard of a “service center”). It will also give you info on how to have it redelivered.
Some postal related discussion.
You so funny! I laugh at you face. HAHAHAHA!
Thank the Teamsters Union
The USPS has had to be in cahoots with FedEx, and UPS, be cause of the airlines. If an aircraft was overloaded the first thing on the tarmac was the mail. FedEx and UPS has their own dedicated fleet. For the use of the aircraft UPS gets deliveries via SmartPost (USPS), and FedEx get drop boxes outside of many Post Offices.
I shipped an RMA for a PC video card from the east coast to Baldwin Park CA about a month ago, from a UPS Store. Almost 2 weeks later I received a call from the receiving vendor stating that it couldn't be replaced under warranty because a DVI connector on the end of the card was damaged. They sent me pictures of damage, the box it came in (before opening), and the inside of the box after opening. Evidently this is a common problem?
Problem is, the video card was FINE when I sent it, and the box they sent me pictures of was absolutely NOT the box I shipped it in. My original box was smaller, shallower, and had print on the outside (prior mail order box), so I'd wrapped it in thick brown paper and put my own from-to label on it. The box in the pictures was larger, my label & wrapping paper were gone, and the UPS label on the outside was different than the one the UPS Store had applied when I sent it. Furthermore, the box in the picture was miraculously undamaged, whereas a closeup of the DVI connector on the video card showed obvious gouging by a heavy, sharp metal object.
In short, somewhere in the UPS shipping process my original box was severely damaged, along with the contents, and someone had repackaged it and applied a new label. Straight up criminality.
I've gone back and forth with the vendor & my local UPS Store, who eventually filed a claim on my behalf, since I wasted money on insuring the box. My claim was rejected today, on the grounds that I hadn't provided "proper padding" for the contents, which is supposed to provide a 2-inch barrier for all internal material. Problem is, the pictures which they were provided by the receiving PC vendor showed NO puncture from the outside, and no damage to the box.
Today I got the local UPS Store to repeal the insurance claim rejection. Not optimistic. Next will be an email to the UPS Fraud report line, assuming another rejection. Not optimistic there either, since you'll find if you go to their web site that there's almost NO way to contact them (computer only phone line w/no way to file a claim or contact a human), and customers that use UPS Stores are unable to enter their own claims. And apparently they have crooks working in their shipping lines and they cover for them.
BEWARE of UPS! If they damage your material, your insurance is a waste of money & they'll screw you!!
Colleen, thank you! I recently retired after delivering for 32 yrs. I took pride in serving my customers each and every day and they appreciated it. UPS handles millions of packages and hires hundreds of thousands of employees so if under 1% fails to do their job it results in thousands of unsatisfied customers.
Also, in my experience, many of the complaints people have are self imposed. Inadequate packaging, wrong zip code, incomplete address, etc.
USPS employees are dumber and lazier than either UPS or FedEx. And that's saying something!
I’ve never had a bad experience with UPS.
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