My vote’s on Fedex as a lasting catch-word.
Quasi
“Brown” is a stupid nickname that the corporation is trying to foist on the public. FedEx is more natural.
Besides, UPS sucks.
Being from close to Memphis, I should be for FED/EX, but I like UPS more for packages. Letters, maybe FED/EX. I do agree that “Brown” is stupid. :o
Dirty Brown around here.
I ordered something last Tuesday. After I placed the order, I realized that the company is like five miles from my apatment. Oh well, why bother cancelling the order? No worries.
But when the package didn’t show up by Thursday I e-mailed the company (they’re impossible to reach on the phone) and they said my order had been shipped UPS. A week after I placed my order I have yet to see the yellow delivery attempt sticker. (Unfortunately I don’t have a tracking number.)
UPS “delivers” during the day when people are at work. They close before most people get home from work. They’re not open weekends. So if I have to use UPS, then I have to burden my company’s mail room with accepting a personal package. Or I have to take the day off, which costs me well over $100 of vacation time.
And then we have drivers who don’t bother to see if you’re home. I’ve been sitting at home, staying off of the telphone waiting for an important delivery only to find a yellow sticker on the front gate. The driver never bothered to come up and knock on my door. This has happened to other people here too.
I’ll tell you, if I had known this latest ordered would go UPS I would have just waited until Saturday to drive to the shop to get it instead of ordering on Tuesday. Or I would have found a company that doesn’t use UPS.
Brown? Shit is brown.
Brown says have another piece of pie.
I agree. When I first saw that commercial that was talking about “Brown”, I thought it was a joke. I actually laughed out loud.
I wonder if the ad wizards intended that.
I am all for the United States Postal Service myself, with FedEx coming in a close second.
Let’s end this “Brown” bullshit…
I have never had anything but trouble with UPS. Their service is so shitty that . . . Hmmm, that’s where they got the nickname!
FedEx lets me pick up from their office the same day they try to deliver it to my empty apartment. “Brown” makes me wait a day. So FedEx wins.
Hmm, weird to see all this UPS bashing. My clients pick the carrier for packages, and most use UPS. I prefer them too, if only because in my backwater town I can call for same-day pickup by noon, or drop a package for pickup at the hardware store by 3. For FedEx, it’s either call by 10 am for same-day pickup or drive 40 miles to the drop box. I find their service to be comparable and very good. Then again, I’m a “regular,” and both UPS and FedEx know they can leave packages on my enclosed front porch (here in the sticks)when I’m not home. Never had a problem.
Airborne Express, on the other hand . . . used to have an absolute moron for a local driver. (He drove his own vehicle with a vanity plate that said WUTEVR, which pretty much summed up his philosophy.) I once sent a complaint letter about Airborne to their local office, clearly labeled as such, in a UPS letter. 
The old idiot must have retired, though, and since then the service has been better. The new driver leaves biscuits for my dogs. 
well, since i had the position of “shipping manager” foisted on me at the end of march, i feel i might have a small contribution to make.
fedex sucks scabby testicle warts. ZERO customer service, COMPLETE reluctance to pay claims (it is seriously a joke! unbeleavable!) CUMBERSOME software for doc. prep. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE!
We swiched to UPS at the end of march and have had ZERO problems, COMPLETELY claim-free (they haven’t busted anything yet! the best claim is the one you don’t have to make!) AWSOMELY easy software for shipping. DELIGHTFUL, DELIGHTFUL, DELIGHTFUL!
there is a hot fedex lady that delivers to us, however. the local Airborne driver is a major tweeker (dispatch acknowledges this, too!) and scares the shit out of me. i see this person tooling round town, head twistin’ nearly all the way round! scary! shouldn’t be on the road…
fedex or brown? its all pink on the inside!
That’s funny! I once was sitting at home when the phone rang. It was Airborne Express advising me that their driver was attempting to deliver a package to my house, but couldn’t get by my dog. The ferocious beast in question was a 13 1/2 year old black lab who was more gray than black, and spent the better part of her day sleeping in the sun, trying to bake the stiffness out of her arthritic joints.
The driver was sitting in his truck on the street in front of my house. Apparently he had called the dispatcher on a cell phone, and the dispatcher called me.
My response to the dispatcher was, “If your driver can’t get by my dog, he isn’t trying very hard!”
I just walked out to the driver’s truck and signed for the package.
To give credit where it’s due, at least he called his dispatcher and waited for instructions. UPS would’ve probably just left.
Labdad, that’s too funny!
We had a similar situation with my regular UPS guy, who always seemed to be afraid of our aging springer spaniel, Emily, who also had her favorite spot in the sun. If she was up to it, she might bark a bit at him (nonthreateningly, just announcing her ownership of her zone), but she was not between him and the door, and she would stay about 20 feet away from him, not approaching him at all. Yet he would look very apprehensive as he came to the house. Once he acted so nervous that I had to go out and take her by the collar (as if she was going anywhere!) before he would give me the package. I chalked it up to (1) understandable nervousness of a deleiveryperson about strange animals, and (2) that he likely didn’t know how to read dogs very well, as any dog person would see that this fat springer was no threat.
Fast-forward to this spring. Emily’s been gone a few years, and we have just acquired our second of two new springers (the older one is now 2) as her successor. We had stopped at the bank before taking the new puppy up to visit my mom. It was a warmish day, so I opened the tailgate of the van and sat with little Dorothy in her crate in the back while Mr. S went in. Here comes the UPS truck, and the driver recognizes me and my van, and waves. On the way out, he notices the puppy and comes over. He tells us that he has had springers for years, and is going to look at some puppies this weekend! He also praises Dottie’s cuteness (well, she IS mighty cute) and intelligent expression.
This totally stumped me, that he would have acted so nervous around an aging springer that he saw on a regular basis, if he had springers of his own! You’d think he would know their temperament, know how to approach, not be afraid, etc. Weird.
gatpescado, my sentiments exactly. I was overcome with sickening capitalist pleasure when I made the switch at my company to use UPS. They are fantastic, friendly, good drivers, great service, incredible software… I can’t sing their praises enough, and I am sure to tell the driver as much all the time. I have no intention of switching in the future.
Fedex is good, too, though I hate seeing “Fedex Express” which tells me that their marketing department must be a subset of the Department of Redundancy Department. But no matter, they ship hazmat without a contract, and their bumpers (in my area, at least) have a keen eye for improper packaging or paperwork, ensuring we stick to IATA regs.
We’ve since hired a, er, tolerably competent person part-time for shipping as my regular job duties became overwhelming. If it weren’t for the ease of UPS I’d still be holding his hand on a computer. (thank god I make decent templates in Word or I’d still be doing all the shipping)
“Brown” is, IMO, a tolerable nickname. The sort that will be the butt of jokes, but be known all the better for it. They still rake in billions, I believe, so they’re crying all the way to the bank, I’m sure.
gatopescado: Maybe it’s different for outgoing packages, or if the package being delivered is going to a business; but for residential customers UPS is useless for anyone who has a job. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could pick up the package the same day (as you can with FedEx and U.S. Postal Service) or even if you could pick up your package on a Saturday; but when they close at six and they put the depot in crappy part of downtown, it’s as if they’re discouraging people from receiving packages.
Johnny, it is possible they do want to discourage residential delivery. If FedEx and USPS already do that well enough I don’t see why they would rush to try to fill a non-demand area. No?
Well, that would be pretty stupid of them to discourage residential delivery, as many many catalog places and online sellers ship via UPS and many of them sell to people who live in residential areas.
Here’s my fun UPS delivery story. I had a package shipped to my parents house, as UPS cannot seem to deliver to my address (there seems to be a forcefield around the building or something) (I try to get everything shipped USPS, but this was something I had need to have shipped UPS 2DA to get in time for Christmas) and the UPS guy knocked once on the door and then immediately walked back to his truck. In the two or three minutes it took my mother to get to the door he was in his truck and pulling out of the driveway. UPS sucks.
Well, at least he knocked. My fun story involves the time I was home all day expecting a UPS package (not that I stayed home specifically for the package; it just happened that way), got no knock and no delivery slip. The delivery slip I got the next day (when I did have to work) said “second attempt,” which means that my delivery guy was a lazy, lying bastard.
Regarding UPS, one of my friends worked for them and reported that there was much tossing, dropping, and drop-kicking ( :eek: ) of packages in the back. SDMB Pit threads (IIRC) report much the same.
FedEx, OTOH, has always done right by me and refunded my shipping fees and paid a $200 insurance claim over the phone in a 5 minute call the one time they didn’t (cracked the case of my TV which, otherwise, was perfectly fine).
And ‘Brown’ just sounds…dull, IMHO.
I’d say from the “Brown” commercials, and some observations above, that “Brown” is more focused on business-to-business customers, who need shipping services and spend the workday on their own business, rather than on that of an employer.
That being the case, I question the wisdom of retail businesses, whether online or by mail, who use UPS and subject their customers to the inconvenience noted above.
One solution is to get a p.o. box. Most privately operated mailing centers have staff there on Saturdays, so you can pick up your deliveries at your convenience. Ours costs $60/qtr, but is well worth it.
CHRIST ON A BISCUIT!!! I HATE UPS!!!
June 18th. I ordered a package, not knowing the store was only a few miles from my home.
June 20th. Where is the package? In response to my query, I get an e-mail saying it was shipped by UPS.
Great. Just great. UPS’s policy is to not deliver when people are home.
June 21st. No notification from UPS.
The 22nd being a Saturday, I could have driven to the shop to pick up my item in person. And I would have had it Saturday.
June 24th. No notification from UPS.
June 25th. Get tracking number. Find out it’s scheduled for delivery that day. Get home. Missed truck by 30 minutes even though I left work early. Called 800-number to re-route the package to my office. I am assured the item will be in my office on the 26th.
June 26th. Called UPS to make sure the package would be delivered. Told that it has to go from the L.A. depot to the Anaheim depot, but the package would be delivered today. Ran into UPS driver. He does not have my package. Called UPS. They said it won’t be delivered until the 27th. I’m out of the office on the 27th. I tell the woman that two UPS employees told me that the package would be delivered today. She said she was sorry. (Sorry is right!) Talked to her supervisor. Supervisor says the two UPS employees who told me my package would arrive today were wrong. She calls the Anaheim depot. They have not even scanned the package in yet.
UPS sucks.
javaman: Good idea, but I don’t think I should have to pay twice for delivery; especially since the U.S. Post Office on the next block does an excellent job delivering packages to me and/or being open when I’m home.