I am so angry. After Fedex ignored my instructions to ring my doorbell when they had to drop off a return box for my broken laptop and just left it outside my secure building. I finally got it two days later. A neighbor found it and brought the return box to me.
It took me about two minutes to pack it up, tape it up, and stick the included return label on it. If they just rang my doorbell as instructed, I would have wasted a minute or two of the drivers time for that to happen and send it on its way.
I called Fedex to pick it up. Their robot voice told me that the earliest they could pick it up was 3 days from the time I called. My second choice was for them to pick it up at a different time and date. APRIL 18 2019 at 1 PM. I hate trying to reason with a computer.
After another hour I finally got to speak to a real human, but english was clearly not his primary language. I finally got to a supervisor and was told that they can pick up the parcel in 2 days with no guaranteed time and it would still add another day to deliver the package.
I live in a mixed residential/business area of a large city and see Fedex trucks stop across the street from me at least 3 times a day. So I asked if I see one of these trucks can I give it to the driver. The answer was maybe. It depends on the driver, but they are no supposed to do that.
I have in the past walked by a USPS letter carrier doing his or her rounds and simply handed them something to mail without any problems. Same with UPS.
What is wrong with Fedex now? They suck, are inflexible and went from the most reliable delivery company to the worst and are still the most expensive. How can they still be in business with such a change in their business plan?
If this thread is for rants about FedEx, I can chime in. I needed a package delivered yesterday, which was overnighted a couple days ago, but it got held up at a FedEx facility 3 hours from here. I really need it, so I said hey I’ll just drive out there and get it. FedEx said no can do because it’s in a secure area of the facility and they won’t be able to release the package to you. Well, now the time has come and gone and the thing I needed this morning is now useless to me. So yeah, FedEx can go suck eggs.
You have all confirmed my suspicion that FedEx is not what they used to be.
Lets see if they actually pick up my package tomorrow or I will go viral on them. Any ideas on where to post a rant that will get lots of exposure for this sorry excuse for a company?
Please tell more stories, I want this thread to be up there on google hits so everyone knows that FedEx sucks.
I need a document by early tomorrow morning and it was sent 2 day air FedEx (groan) so I was making contingency plans.
By some miracle it showed up on time today.
On multiple occasions people have sent documents from the States to me, in rural Thailand. I plead with them to use regular mail, but “FedEx delivers everywhere in Thailand” and Americans know best.
First time, I eventually get a postcard from FedEx asking me to telephone and arrange delivery of the “urgent” documents. I called and told them to forward via regular post. No: that would violate their covenant with their customer! It took several more days and still was a hassle for them. (They had to drive more than an hour one-way; presumably they had to wait until some other saps were getting FedEx deliveries, or until some friend wanted to visit an ex-girlfriend in my area.) House numbers, or even village numbers, in rural Thailand are neither readily visible nor generally sequential. Stopping every few hundred meters to ask directions is the normal way to find an unfamiliar person. (This becomes somewhat easier when looking for me, the only Farang for miles around.)
At least this was better than DHL which charged about $100 for “customs duties” on some floppy disks delivered to a beach resort. I demanded a customs receipt but what they gave me was obvious fakery. The agent who made the delivery, a local lawyer, openly said her DHL client was criminal.
Things are better now: we’ve had books, etc. delivered from Bangkok, free if the purchase is $40 or so. But these deliveries are by Thai companies, not FedEx et al.
Anyway, when I win the 2018 Mid-term Prediction Contest and you need to mail me my plaque, please use regular post!
I don’t know the details of how FedEx’s system works but they do track every single package. USPS does not do that with first class mail, which is why you can just hand your letter carrier an envelope and he drops it in his bag with all the others. FedEx may have certain procedures in place for tracking that don’t allow for a random person to hand a package to a truck driver.
Really. My old address, the actual street address was at the front of the house, guarded by a locked vehicle gate well away from the house. The other carriers quickly learned to go around the corner where the cars were parked and the kitchen door right there, but not the [censored] FedEx driver(s). The package would be left propped up against the gate, usually on the outside in a janky neighborhood.
It got to the point where if the shipper did not offer a non-FedEx alternative, I’d buy from someone else and leave behind a note, “I really wanted to buy <item> but not if I can use only FedEx.”
If you look at my house, you will see two doors: the front door and the door to the breezeway. Pretty simple. Next to my front door, I have a sign to please put deliveries in the breezeway. UPS and USPS has figured that out.
FedEx, not so much.
Fed Ex has batted 0 for 3 delivering packages to my home. Twice I’ve located the “Sorry we missed you” post-its on the side of my house. Not on either door. On the side of the house. Once they claimed to have left the note, but it was no where to be found. Maybe I should have walked around the back of the house.
In all three instances I ended up having the packages sent for pick up at a FedEx store, as trying to get them to re-deliver was impossible.
When we lived in a not so nice neighborhood, I could swear that the Fedex and UPS guy would hide, waiting for me to leave the house for 15 minutes, then run up and triumphantly place a delivery attempt notice on the door.
We have noticed some creative package placement here lately - mostly UPS but occasionally Amazon Local.
We have the bog-standard 2-story Colonial, with a driveway leading to the too-small garage, and a concrete walkway to the steps at the front door.
Most packages get left right there on the steps.
Occasionally, we’ll find that the delivery person has set it on the ground, behind one of the tall shrubs to either side of the door.
On one memorable occasion, someone had left hte garage door open (I don’t recall whether we were home) - and the delivery person went into the garage and set it on the steps leading into the house :D.
And just the other day: the package (a fat padded mailer) was sitting on the driveway, propped up against the garage door.
I actually kinda liked that one, as that’s how we usually come and go, and it’s too easy to miss a package left by the front door… though the package was light in color, and propped against a cream-colored door, so it’s a good thing nobody drove over it.
My Son just had a very important part delivered FedEx. It was a small flat package and the guy just flung it, frisbee like on his porch. It skittered across and into the bushes on the other side. He waited a day and noticed the tracking said it was delivered and called someone. They actually said that’s what happened. Outrageous.
Courier companies are like cable companies. The grass will always seem greener with the other guys. Drivers can and will make mistakes, it doesn’t matter which company.
That said, I do like when I get stuff from the US with Fedex rather than UPS. IF there is duty to pay, UPS calls me and tells me what it is and that I have to have it on hand when the package is delivered. Fedex, on the other hand, calls and says that the duty will be $X but they pay the duty then bill me after. No need to deal with it when the package is dropped off.
Speaking of package delivery, I’ve had three items from Amazon in the last several months not show up within the two-day Prime window. Most recently, a birthday gift that, on the supposed delivery date, wasn’t even pulled off the shelf at the warehouse yet when they suddenly changed the expected delivery to four days later.
The first time, they gave a free month of Prime. Now they just ¯_(ツ)_/¯ which is a pretty unfulfilling response to why I’m paying $120 for guaranteed two day delivery and getting stuff in 4-7 days if I’m lucky. Needless to say, we won’t be renewing Prime this time around.