Amazon/UPS customer service - what fucking incompetence.....

The BBQ Pit
1

So like everyone else, I shopped on Black Friday. Ordered some Blurays and games from Amazon and a couple days later got a tracking # from UPS. Last Thursday it was marked as out for delivery, and I come home from work and wait for the order. It’s 8pm and they still haven’t come, so I check the tracking info again, and it said it was delivered at 2PM and signed for at the front desk…except, my building doesn’t even HAVE a front desk. It’s a locked, private entrance. UPS is incapable of delivering to my home unless I am here to answer the door, unless they want to leave a package on the sidewalk. So I call up UPS, get left on hold for 15 minutes, and ask what the story is. They insist it was delivered, and that any claim must be made through Amazon as they have their own dept to handle this.

So I get onto Amazon’s live chat and tell them the same thing, and they say that UPS screws up with that all the time, and it might still be processing for delivery, and to check back next week.

So Tuesday comes, still no package from UPS. I contact Amazon again and tell them I still haven’t gotten it and UPS must have delivered to the wrong address, so they immediately place a new order with overnight shipping. Great! All but 2 items get delivered the next day by Fedex and USPS! Great again! However, the last two are two separate UPS tracking #'s, and for the SECOND TIME, one gets marked as delivered at 3:19PM, the same time I was actually home waiting for the delivery, even though they never showed up, rang my bell, or anything. The other UPS order is listed as being delivered today.

I don’t waste any time, I contact Amazon again and let them know that once again UPS failed to deliver my package. I am not happy that I had to do this a second time, and once again they said they would send out that order again - I insist that they NOT use UPS since they don’t seem capable of finding my home, but they say that’s out of their control. I also tell the representative that I have a feeling this third UPS package won’t get delivered, and he GUARANTEES that it WILL be delivered to me today. So a half hour ago I check this last tracking number, and once again it says delivered, and this time “Met Customer Lady” signed for it. That sounds like some bad translation from a Japanese video game…

I’m now officially fed up. I get on Amazon chat again and tell them that I don’t appreciate being lied to or jerked around and that if they are incapable of delivering a package to me, or keeping UPS in line, then they will no longer receive any of my business. They don’t seem to give a crap (why should they, they get millions of orders a day) and say they’ll forward my complaint on.

What a bureaucratic nightmare. If UPS would actually accept responsibility for their carelessness, then they could actually check with the delivery person and see where he keeps dropping off my packages. But they seem to have some agreement with Amazon where they accept all of the blame, and then keep making the same mistake over and over again.

Now, where can I go for discounted blurays and books in the future? Is Barnes & Noble still around?

2

The other options for delivery may not be much better. I ordered something from Amazon, to be delivered by the post office. My own mailman had it sent back because he said he couldn’t find my address. I suspect he didn’t want to have to drive up my long, steep driveway (mailboxes are clustered at the bottom of it). I did get a prompt and courteous refund, though.

3

I used to have fairly good luck with UPS, but their customer service really does seem to suck. Recently they were supposed to deliver an Amazon order and instead left a package addressed to my neighbor - I hoped that the packages were just swapped mistakenly, but mine was nowhere to be found. Called UPS and spoke to someone who was as unctuously sycophantic as he was utterly unhelpful (I really don’t need to have my hackles massaged with scripted shit like “I understand how important it is to you that you receive your package!”) and who informed me that sadly, it was absolutely impossible to contact the delivery driver, aka the only one on God’s green Earth who might have an inkling where my package was. The computer screen was telling him “DELIVERED”— probably blinking, with a pink smiley face— so their job was done and it was Amazon’s problem. Amazon seems willing to bear the brunt of their fuckups, and the carriers take advantage of that fact as a matter of course.

Turns out it the neighbor had it after all, so job well done, I guess. At least they got it to the right street. Alternatives are pretty grim, anyway… like LaserShip, who will happily deliver your package a day late, faintly reeking of pot smoke, dropped off by some t-shirted mook in a beat-up station wagon.

4

Let me add too that UPS has delivered to my address plenty of times in the past. In fact, UPS delivered my Legend of Zelda Strategy Guide Boxset from Amazon just 2 weeks ago. Something very screwy is going on there this week. But I really don’t like being jerked around like that, and if Amazon (who handles claims on behalf of UPS through some agreement) is incapable of getting my orders to me, and can’t even provide customer service powered by human logic, then I no longer want to do business with them.

5

What’s going on is they’re crazy-slammed with tons of holiday shipments and their (probably temporary for the season) workers are lost/confused/slacking/hitting the wrong buttons/whatever.

6

Well I sure hope whoever just received 3 separate packages of The Last Of Us got the hint today that those packages weren’t meant for them and hopefully live close enough by that they’ll drop them off…or more likely put them up on craigslist…

7

Since UPS insists that the packages were signed for, they should be able to show you the signatures. Have you tried asking them for that?

8

Just today, I chased down my UPS guy in my car to ask where my package from Nike was delivered, because it wasn’t to my house at 2:55 pm yesterday like the tracking said, and customer service was a joke. He thinks he left it the neighbor’s house and said he’d track it down. I suggest lyng in wait for your driver.

9

USPS isn’t much better. I ordered something from Amazon on Friday with two-day Prime shipping, I was supposed to get it delivered to my work address on Monday. I follow the tracking numbers, says it’s out for delivery at 11:35am. The day goes by, still says out for delivery, then I get a text from Amazon saying they tried to deliver at 6:00pm but the business was closed so they left a notice slip on the door. Uh, I’m sitting in the business and we are open Mon-Fri til 8pm (which it says on the door). No one came by and there is nothing on the door. I figure they went to the wrong address so go online to fill out their redelivery info and schedule it for the next day. I make sure the address is correct.

Next day, no tracking update until 5:45pm when AGAIN it says they tried to deliver, the business was closed, and they left a notice. All three of which were complete lies. I then call USPS, wait 40mins on hold before finally getting through to someone, who says they will open up a case report about it, and someone will call me back, but she can’t help as to when I will actually get the item. Wednesday I’m sitting at work and finally someone from USPS comes by with my package and when I ask her what the deal was, she says she has no idea, she wasn’t the courier the first two times. :rolleyes:

Never got a call back from them either.

10

When a crisis hits, none of the delivery companies have very good methods of making things better.

Expect things to get worse with Amazon. They’ve been so desperate to keep shipping costs to a minimum that they’ve employed some real wild cards to make their deliveries. The ones who just use regular cars and ring your doorbell at 10:30 at night are a real prize (no uniforms, either). They’ve rotated through all the big ones and discarded them, and may have even helped kill DHL in the US.

11

The problem is UPS isn’t in a contract with the recipient, because of this they will not offer things like proof of delivery to the recipient on request. Any such requests have to come from the sender. This creates problems like the OP is having. The recipient has no ability to influence or correct issues with UPS, they have to depend on the sender to do so.

It’s a giant pain in the ass when the sender is incompetent or unwilling to help in resolving issues with the shipper. They will sit back and tell the recipient it’s a problem with the shipper and they need to contact the shipper even though the recipient has no ability or authority to deal with shipping issues. Shippers only work for the one that cuts the checks, not the one that indirectly pays for them.

12

I had the same thing, UPS marking things delivered that were never delivered. I called my local office and told them that anything that was not signed for by ME (and no one else) would be reported to the sender as not delivered and I’d demand a refund.

I also actively refuse to buy from any company that ships UPS and send them feedback to let them know. I bought once from a company that shipped USPS and for some reason I ended up with a UPS tracking number. I refused the shipment and demanded a refund and let them know which competitor I’d bought the replacement from.

13

We seem to have a lot of UPS/FedEx/USPS wars on this board. I love UPS. Never head any problems. In the last 2 months I’ve had probably 20 packages come via UPS from Amazon. But I’ve got, right now, two packages stuck in transit. One of them was sent FedEx. It was sent Two Day, it was sent on Tuesday. It’s been in Nashville since Wednesday (today is Saturday). I called FedEx and all they could tell me is that they didn’t know where it was. I called Amazon and they sent out a new one overnight (yesterday). It’s supposed to be here today, but looking at the tracking I don’t think it’s going to make it.

The other package that’s stuck is USPS, ignoring the sender’s incompetence, it’s been sitting in one location for over a week now and the tracking finally showed movement again. It just moved from MO (I’m in Wisconsin) to GA (nowhere near me). So it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting that anytime soon. Even if it doesn’t stop moving, it’ll end up being 3 weeks from the time I ordered it until the time it shows up.

Yeah, I like UPS.

14

Out of UPS, USPS, and FedEx, I’ve had the worst luck with FedEx, at least at my last apartment.

I remember one case where I witnessed the ultimate in laziness. The day my package was to arrive, I checked the tracking and it said it was out for delivery. I was working from home, and the apartment manager didn’t show up due to the snow and ice (it was close to Christmas), so I was alert waiting for the FedEx truck to drive up. From my third-floor balcony and the window next to my desk I could see the parking lot and the front door of our building. So I see the truck come up into the parking lot and stop about 15 feet from the front door. The driver gets out, opens the back of the truck, and disappears into it. After about five minutes, I wonder what’s taking so long, so I step out onto my balcony to see. The driver then gets out, walks to our front door, then walks back to the truck and leaves. I immediately go down and see that the driver left one of those attempted delivery notes on the door for me. Of course, I think that’s weird, so I call the FedEx office which is just a couple of miles away, explain what happened, and the lady ignores my story and just says my package will be there that evening.

So, an hour before they close, I go to the office, go into the warehouse where packages were to be picked up, and see a woman who was dressed and shaped exactly like the driver sans hat. After giving my attempted delivery note to the guy there, I explain to the woman that I was watching as she left a note on my door without even attempting to call me on the buzzer. I then asked why she did that, and she turned bright red, mumbled something, and disappeared into the warehouse. Why she chose not to deliver my package, which was just a small box, is anyone’s guess. One thing I’ll never forget is the look on her face.

15

On the 10th, I ordered a bunch of DVDs from Amazon for Christmas presents. They were sent Priorty Mail and the tracking number says they were delivered at 3:48 yesterday afternoon. I work from home and we received no mail yesterday!

I’m hoping the package was left at the property manager’s office. Won’t know until Monday.

16

Somebody rang our doorbell 15 minutes ago and the package that was supposedly delivered yesterday was outside the door.

17

That’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve read in a long time. Thanks for the laugh.

18

Little surprised. In my experience, UPS and FedEx are the same thing, and your service depends on where you’re sending your delivery. FedEx has the slight advantage because you can have you package rerouted to any FedEx/Kinko’s easy peasy if you’re having issues, whereas UPS will redeliver to nowhere except their warehouse which is always located in East Bumblefuck, Nowhere. USPS is usually legit because they will deliver to whatever shithole you live in, rain or shine, rural or urban, weekday or weekend, doesn’t matter if your apt building doesn’t have a doorman. But try calling their customer service, and yeah, laugh your dick off at how useless your efforts are.

What’s surprising to me is Amazon. I’ve contacted Amazon customer service so few times I can count on one hand in the decade+ I’ve been dealing with them, always regarding delivery issues, and they always have just fixed whatever the fuck I needed. “I didn’t get my package.” “Okay, we’ll send another one.” Or “UPS is kind of sucking asshole.” “Okay, we’ll mail it.”

Then again, that was like four years ago. It’s possible they’ve gone to shit since then. But yeah, I don’t even try to have things delivered to my home anymore that ship via UPS or FedEx; I send that shit to work only. If I must have it sent home, I find out how they deliver first, and won’t even go there if they won’t send through the Post Office. Make fun of the Post Office all you want because last time you went there the line was too long or whatever, but they will actually deliver your goddamn packages without any hassle.

19

I’ve heard it said that some Australia Post delivery contractors often fill out their “missed delivery” cards before leaving on their rounds. Then just drive around stuffing those in letterboxes, leaving the packages at the depot.

20

FedEx, not a fan. They’ve been known to leave the “Sorry we missed you” on the side of my house. Not on the door, not on a breezeway window, on the side of the house.

The only issue I’ve had lately with UPS is one driver will leave packages in the breezeway, another will leave them on the front stoop, and another has left stuff in front of my garage door. Make up your mind, guys.