Fed Ex Doesn't HAVE To Ring Your Bell

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This was something I didn’t know. I ordered something from JC Penny, and the total was $250.00

So today I see it’s being shipped to me FedEx.

So I was tracking this package and at 11am it says “To be delivered.” Then I check at 11:30am and it says “Package delivered left at front door.”

So I go out to the front of my apartment of flats with over 40 apartments, and there’s no package. I went to the manager no package. So it’s gone.

I called Fed-Ex and they said, “No the driver doesn’t have to attempt to ring your bell. Since you’re package wasn’t “signature required” all he has to do is drop it off at the front of the door.”

I said, “Well you know because you’re driver couldn’t take two seconds to ring a bell, someone stole this.” She said "Then the sender should’ve sent it “signature required”

I called JC Penny and they said they’d put in a credit for the package. Hopefully that’ll be the end of that.

But I didn’t realize this, I realize it’s the holidays and drivers are trying to save time, but still, he couldn’t have just dropped the package, rung the bell and left?

I’m glad I found this out now, I guess it’s a way of getting a few extra bucks for sig confirmation

2

UPS has done that at my house, after dark, recently. I live out in the country, so it’s not like anything is going to get stolen, but I’m home, sitting in either my living room or the computer room, got lights on, so it looks like someone is home, and I clearly hear the unmistakable sound of a big ass delivery truck in my driveway. By the time I get to the door, the truck is already leaving. No bell ring, no nothing. If you aren’t going to wait for a response, at least knock on the door or ring the bell.

3

Just like everything else, I bet the drivers are overloaded with packages and have to meet some insane delivery time table.

Our garbage collectors are like this. They don’t have time to pick up things that fall out of cans, or even to set the cans back properly. They are hurry hurry hurry up the street, and I bet corporate bottom line is the reason.

4

Well as long as I see the credit on my credit card, I don’t care that someone in my building got a $250.00 Christmas present, but still, I think it’d be good to point this out that the driver doesn’t have to make any attempt to contact you.

This alone would make me want to use a signature requried service. Then again, I wonder what’s to stop the driver from just taking it, though I’m sure JC Penny will follow up with Fed Ex and if “packages go missing” too often he’ll cop his job for the suspicion.

Still I learned something today. If I order online again, I’m gonna make sure I ask someone if I can get the “sig required” option, even if I have to pay for it.

Dropping a package and hitting a buzzer takes no longer than dropping it and leaving, assumming he doesn’t just slow down the truck and whip it out as he drives past :smiley:

5

Last December, FedEx left two $800 laptops at my house porch, no signature required. They were gone in minutes. It was the sender’s choice to send it that way. It took them several weeks to process the paperwork and I had to file a police report by phone. People follow the trucks around, wait for a home that looks quiet, and run up and grab the packages. A neighbor caught someone (same person?) doing it to them on his security camera and posted it on Youtube, but the person’s face wasn’t visible and her van was not uniquely identifiable.

6

It sounds like they pretty much are trying to make you pay for the higher service by instructing their workers to make it nearly impossible for you to get your item otherwise.

I wouldn’t respond by paying them extra–I’d respond by using a different service. I generally find the USPS to be sufficient. But even UPS will knock on my door, even if they deliver to the wrong house half the time. (Fortunately, I live in a much more honest neighborhood.)

7

I had a similar issue last year, but with the post office. The box wouldn’t fit in my mailbox so she put it on top, but I had been home all day. Surprise surprise somebody stole it.

I called to complain and the helpful idiot on the line patiently explained that it couldn’t be stolen because stealing from the mail is a federal crime. No matter how I explained it had been stolen she was insistent that it was illegal. Finally I manged to convince her to transfer me to someone in the ‘it was stolen’ division. The crime guy then explained to me that nothing should ever be left on top of a mailbox, particularly in my neighborhood. I did not disagree. He then said that since in wasn’t insured there was nothing he could do but take a report, and tell my mailwoman I had complained about her.

So 2 hours on phone, no package or recompense, and my mailwoman hates me still.

8

What pisses me off the most is when the delivery drivers hit the bell/knock then freakin’ disappear before I can get the door open. Even if I’m standing less than 10 feet away from the door in the living room, they must just slap that “delivery attempted” notice up, >bong<, and flee. It’s even more annoying when my disabled husband has to hobble to the door, just no chance he’ll get there in time.

9

When I get a package from UPS the driver rings my bell and then leaves the package on my front porch. Apparently nothing has to be signed for any more, because by the time I get to the door the driver is gone. So far nothing has ever been stolen, although that may be because I’ve always been home so I can bring the package inside right away.

The Post Office also leaves packages on my porch if they don’t fit in my mailbox. As far as I can tell they don’t bother to ring the bell, though, which is why I’ve occasionally gone out to check the mail and almost tripped over a box.

10

I would love to have my fedex, USPS and UPS guys cloned for you all … they all know I am a gimp and actually wait for me to get to my door. Well except my USPS guy is a lady =) I live out in the country and so far even if I am not home, nothing has gotten kipped. Although I am thinking of building a flip open bench on the front porch next to the door to hold packages in case of rain.

11

What keeps a dishonest person from ordering an expensive item and then simply claiming it never arrived?

I suppose that’s the kind of thing you can get away with once; after that it may be a different story.

12

Today is the busiest shipping day of the year. Last year around this time I saw my UPS driver sprinting up my driveway to deliver a package.

He left before I could even give him a box of buckeyes (chocolate/peanut butter confections) that I’d made for him, upon the advice of my friend, the UPS driver. Lots of days they don’t even stop to eat.

13

Sounds like there’s an unexploited market for self locking drop boxes.

Approx the size of a trunk.

You leave it open when you’re expecting a delivery. The delivery person drops it in the box, closes the box to lock it. No time wasted and no lost packages.

Or is that too simplistic?

14

SHHHHH!!! Lisa, you should know better than to use that word around here.

15

So, wait. “Signature required” actually just means “ring the doorbell” now?

16

I’m sorry, Marxxx. I had a package stolen from my building’s lobby last December, too. My stuff was only about $140, and when I told Sierra Trading Post about it, they shipped a replacement immediately for no charge. They’re great! But it was because the driver left the package out in the vestibule where people use the telecom system to get buzzed in by residents. The drivers are supposed to call the building manager so she lets them in and they can leave packages by the resident mailboxes, not as available for passers-by to steal. This guy didn’t do that, and so bye-bye package.

I switched to getting everything delivered to work where I know my stuff is safe. I just have to lug it home.

IME, there is no extra fee for “signature required”, you just have to remember to request it whenever you place an order. I’m really surprised that an item over $200 wasn’t shipped that way anyway.

One more fun one - at work, I often order controlled drugs. They are shipped with a distinctive green sticker on the box that clearly states “adult signature required”, and when I got a box of buprenorphine last week the “temp” driver just handed it to the woman who answered the door and left. Little did he know that he handed it to the only other person in the building besides me who would know what exactly was in that box and that her signature should have been mandatory. She told me about it, I tracked the package (the sig line stated “gave to adult woman” instead of her name like it should have) and the shipper is pissed. UPS is in a bit of hot water now. The shipper is a huge company that UPS would generally not want to make mad, it’s a gigantic account!

17

I thought FedEx required a signature for everything? I don’t think I’ve ever received a FedEx shipment without having to sign for something.

If at all possible get things shipped to work or request a signature. There are a lot of thieving assholes that follow delivery trucks around, or just cruise neighborhoods and look for packages.

18

Huh. Everything I’ve gotten via UPS and FedEx recently has been Signature Required. They’ve pressed the intercom and waited for me to come to the lobby. The items have been things ranging from a pair of printer cartridges to a $3000 computer. Fortunately, I’ve been home a lot. The only things that I got a notice for were items from Canada Post that wouldn’t fit in the mailbox; I had to go to the post office across the road for them.

19

This is why I like my neighborhood. I live in a subdivision close to a mid-size city (Richmond, VA) and always have the delivery drivers just leave the package on my front porch. I have never had anything stolen, including one occasion where I was unexpectedly out of town for over 3 weeks and the package (a brand new Computer) just sat on my front porch for those 3 weeks. Computer worked just fine.

20

Oddly enough I got another items from Borders coming so I tracked that. Now this is signature required, but the tracking said "Item has been sent to the USPS at Robert Clement Station. This may require an additional two days to deliver.

I am wondering if this item will require my signtuare or not, because FedEx put it off to the post office.

What surprised me a bit is how co-operative JC Penny was. The clerk conversation went

Me) I had a package that the tracking said was left at my door and it isn’t there. It must’ve been stolen.

JC Penny) Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll go ahead and credit that right away and report the package as stolen to Fed Ex. Would you like to place a re-order.

Me) No, it’ll just get stolen again, I’ll buy it from another store.

JC Penny) OK well have a happy holiday and thing else I can do for you today.

Now I can’t complain about the service, provided I do see this credit, but it was like the Customer Service Clerk didn’t even care or that it was common place, she didn’t even seem to be surprised. And she wasn’t the least bit bothered I told her that I’d buy the items elsewhere. Maybe it was a call center and she didn’t work for Penny’s at all? But then how would she have my credit card info? Hmm. Oh well as I said, as long as I don’t get billed I don’t care.

I wonder if Fed Ex and retailers have some sort of agreement or whatever so they cover a loss like this. I guess if it happens enough then FedEx or UPS or whatever will look into it as maybe colusion on the driver’s part.

When I had Dell deliver my laptop UPS called me the night before, then they rang the bell and I came down and signed for it. But since I only have a bell, no intercom, I have to go to the door. But no one asked me for ID or anything, I just signed for an $800 laptop. I could’ve been anyone who got to the door first.

Makes me wonder if these losses happen so infrequently the companies or FedEx, UPS, etc can just eat the losses