So I just moved a few weeks ago from St. Louis to Savannah, but like the retard I can be, I forgot to change my address with Apple before ordering the new iPod. Now it’s been shipped and is scheduled for delivery on Wednesday of next week. I called Apple, who referred me to FedEx, who said there’s nothing I can do until after the first delivery attempt.
The place I moved from was a rental and probably has a new person living there. So my concern is that if someone is there and is at home when the package is delivered, they’ll just sign for it and I’ll be completely screwed. FedEx agreed this was the case.
I told them I could prove a) that I ordered and paid for the package, b) that I lived at the old address and c) that I now live at the new one. FedEx said it didn’t matter, there was nothing they could do.
I asked if they could just return the package to the shipper. They said not until after the first delivery attempt.
I asked if they could make sure the driver verified that the signature was mine and not somebody else’s. They said no.
I find it difficult to believe the world’s largest shipping company has as few options as they claim, but apparently there’s nothing they can do. After and only after the first delivery attempt, then everything suddenly becomes possible.
So my question is, what if any recourse do I have should the package be accepted by the new tenant short of driving 1500 miles and breaking into my old house?
Oh, I missed the part where you said you tried that already. Sorry. I wonder if their policy has changed–they did this for me once, under a similar circumstance.
I, too, have run up against the same “not until the first delivery attempt” brick wall in a number of different situations. However, at some point I got the Holy Grail of this kind of thing – the phone number of the local fedex office/center. When you’re talking to an actual, reasonable person (as opposed to a giant call-center automaton) all things become possible right away. ISTR it happened like this:
I’d tracked a package sent to me from like 1 hour away from where I live and found it was sitting at the local FedEx center a couple blocks away from my office. Unfortunately, because it was sent Ground or whatever, it wasn’t scheduled to be delivered for like 3 more days (ridiculous!). I called the 800 number and was told over and over again that I couldn’t have it held until they’d try at least 1 delivery attempt. What would make things worse is that even if I were patient and waited, I certainly wouldn’t be at home when they tried the first delivery and no one would sign for it. At some point I go the idea to try just walking in there and asking for my package. Lo and behold, they just gave it to me!
I explained the ridiculous situation to the counter person and she was suprised that they wouldn’t hold it for me. She gave me the (non-800) number for that paricular center and said that in the future I should use this number and they’d make the tracking change easily. Since then, that number has been more valuable to me in getting things done than I could possilby have imagined.
Not sure how this refers to your situation, but I’ll bet if you could somehow get a hold of that local branch’s number, you’d get satisfaction.
I’d say dispatch your local friend to the local fedex facility and try to get that number. Then call it an explain your predicament.
The other thing is that I don’t think it’d be too hard to get your iPod from the new residents that might sign for it. It might take a couple threatening letters, though. If FedEx confirms that someone at that address signed for it, they’d have a pretty tough time explaining themselves in a lawsuit. That’d be a hassle though.
In addition to sending a friend over to the local FedEx shop (do you even know where it is?) call the local Kinko’s (They’re part of FedEx now) and see if they’ll divulge the number.
I’ve done this when I knew there was no way I would be home and they wouldn’t accept a signed slip to leave the package. Luckily FedEx is open until 6 PM so I can go after work and pick it up. I think I showed ID but that was it.
I’m not remembering how I knew for sure that that was the office it was at. The 800-number may have given me the address.
If all else fails, the manager of the rental property might be able to help you out.
I recently had a problem like this (though it was in town). I ended up mailing a letter to the address that got it, and was able to drive by and pick up my stuff.
I had exactly this problem with UPS the other day. I even got the holy grail, and even went in person to the office where my parcel was waiting, with ID and proof of address. But still, they said after first delivery only. Luckily nobody signed for it - though the idiot driver gave it to my neighbors instead, with no signature. Thankfully they’re honest. And thankfully for UPS, so am I.
I’ve never been able to get them to switch an address, but I do know for a fact that you can call and have a package marked ‘hold for pickup’. I know you have moved and it’s of limitted utility, but it’s better than having a stranger sign for and keep the ipod.
It’s just possible you can get them to move the hold location to someplace closer.
Especially if you document how many times you tried to explain to them that it was the wrong address. But this raises an interesting question, why don’t delivery people ask for ID?
Call FedEx back and tell them of the urgency of your package and the mistake and that the contents are medications. I did this once and they bent over backwards to ensure that I could pick up my package at the station, prior to the first delivery attempt. When calling, just say “change” when the voice prompts start and you should be well on your way.
Well, they know it’s from Apple, one of FedEx’s biggest customers, and they know Apple doesn’t ship meds. In fact, it’s coming from Shanghai in a big crate full of iPods, and that apparently is what’s making the brick wall even thicker in my case: the fact that the ship-from site is not domestic. Hence the local FedEx refers me to the international shipping department.
What’s troubling to me is that every time I ask “what happens if someone signs and accepts it on the first delivery attempt?” they invariably respond with silence. When I ask if that means I’m out of luck they’re pretty quick to affirm that it does. (Next time I’ll ask if that means I can sue FedEx.) All this tracking tech and you’d think it’s the Pony Express for all their helplessness. I’d be really pissed off at them if it the real cause wasn’t my own stupidity. :smack:
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Seems to me that the world’s largest shipping company does a mindblowing job of getting things from point A to point B all over the world in incredible times, trackable to anyone to a good level of detail – it doesn’t suprise me that they might give up some flexibility to make that happen.
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True, true…but I am only trying to tell them that their Point B is incorrect. It’s not exactly an incidental detail. It’s not like I’m asking for the thing to be carried on a bed of sandalwood-scented goose-down-stuffed pillows or something. You’d think they’d be able to change Point B with a week’s notice, particularly given that the shipper can vouch for me, or at least cancel the delivery. How hard can it be?