So I ordered a kitchen appliance online and it was shipped by FedEx. I was tracking the package and saw that it should have been delivered yesterday (Thursday). I waited all day for it but finally gave up about 9:00 pm. So this morning I got online to track it again, and guess what? “Delivered: Left at front door 6:48 pm Thursday 3/30/2006”. Bullshit! So I call FedEx customer service this morning and what do they tell me? “We’ll leave a note asking the driver about it; call back on Monday.” Well, FedEx assholes, that’s not fucking good enough. Your driver either left it at the wrong address or didn’t deliver it at all and lied about it. Your ho-hum response is unacceptable.
I had a similar experience with UPS a few days ago. I was having a new computer monitor delivered, and their website said that it was set to arrive on March 22. Well, it rolls around to 7:00pm on the 22nd, so I check the website again. It said “No Answer/Reschedule” or something like that. So I call and explain that we were home and we received not a knock on the door or one of those little note thingies they leave. The shipping supervisor or whatever sounded very uninterested and said, “We’ll talk to the driver and it’ll have to be reshipped tomorrow.”
“But I was home all day. Can’t you bring it now?”
“No, everyone’s going home for the day.”
She wasn’t even going to budge on this. So, I waited around for a second day and it finally came.
My opinion? The UPS guy didn’t want to carry a 50-lb package up three flights of stairs, so he logged it as us not being home and left it for the next poor schlub.
Adam
I paid extra for FedEx to deliver on time for Christmas, and they didn’t come through for me. Amazon.com refunded the extra charges. You might want to go to the company you purchased from and let them fight with FedEx. And you really shouldn’t have to pay for service you didn’t receive. It’s worth a shot.
While online package tracking is pretty awesome, I gotta figure these companies hate it.
The old days, you just got it when you got it. I figure (read: WAG) that these guys get honestly delayed on their routes, but they get judged on their on-time performance so they put down “nobody home” and deliver it the next day.
And the people answering the phones don’t give a shit, naturally. They know what’s going on.
Fed Ex is pretty fucked up. I just yesterday had another issue with them. I agree that online tracking must be the bane of their existence. I log on to check where my shipment is, found that it wasn’t where it was supposed to be and called. Turned out it had gone to San Jose instead of Union City.
Since the package contained meds and I bitched a bit, they hired a private courier to get it to me on time. I’ve not seen them do this before, but while bitching I did mention that I would contact the sender and let them know that the package didn’t arrive on time and that they should request a refund. THEN, the drone provided me with the Courier option. I don’t care how it gets here, just get it here within the timeframe of delivery that was purchased.
In the delivery battles, UPS didn’t do much better than Fed Ex. I was expecting a package from Arkansas to SoCal; the on-line tracking said it was at the local sorting spot, but it didn’t get delivered. Checked the web site to find that they did not deliver due to “bad weather.” From one SoCal city to another 8 miles away. Sun was shining. Bad weather?
A lady ordered items from us that were going to be used for a wedding, and specified they be shipped UPS Blue. We did our part, even got the order out the same day, but 4 or 5 days later the lady calls back pretty upset and says the items never got there. The package was supposed to go to Phoenix. We check the UPS tracking and it got to Phoenix, was out for delivery on the correct day, then next thing you know it’s in California! Apparently the package went on a plane, train, or big truck to CA instead of going in the delivery driver’s truck.
We called UPS about it and got reimbursed for the shipping charges and gave the lady all her money back, but UPS would not reimburse us for the items, which were useless to the lady since they arrived too late for the wedding and useless to us since they were personalized.
Thanks a lot UPS!
In my experience, FedEx fares a bit better than UPS, who I loathe. Maybe it’s just our local drivers. The last time, the FedEx guy told me a trick: he always ended his route through my town at a certain drop-box at 5pm or thereabouts. If I missed a delivery, I could catch him there to get it that day. UPS just doesn’t care.
Yeah, I had somethign similar with my last UPS package: after a week without its arrival, I checked the delivery page to see that it had been delivered the night before at 8 pm. Um, I was home at 8pm the night before. The truck never showed up.
I started an inquiry both with the shipper and with UPS, sending irritated-but-polite emails to both of them to find out how they were going to rectify the situation. The package showed up within hours.
Daniel
Awww… Guess FedEx shouldn’t have invented online tracking.
It could be much, much worse. Your meds or the OP’s appliance could have been shipped by DHL (an acronym for Delay, Hide and Lie or Damages by Hurling and Lobbing, depending on whether your package is late or damaged.
Even though I said otherwise above, I supposed the companies are happy with it. It’s good customer service, but I bet the laborers dislike it. Basically, it keeps tabs on them. What good can come of it from them?
Yeah could you imagine online tracking spread to other businesses:
“Waiter? Yes, I was tracking the progress of my dinner order and it seems that the steak has been done for 5 minutes but apprently it is just sitting in the kitchen.”
These days I ship everything to my work address. I tell the front desk I’m expecting a personal package. They sign for it and then give me a call. FedEx, UPS, and USPS each come by daily, so the local drivers all know the stop. No more hassles for me.
Also, shipping to a business address should be cheaper too, be sure to mention that whenver possible.
The downside is you have to have your work address listed with your credit card company, and it could slow down orders if they are suspicious of you shipping to an address other than your billing address. Computer and electronics stores are worst about that.
My sister’s family down in Texas has a similar problem, not because they’re three flights up but rather their street address is actually the back of their house. Whenever their route gets a new driver (be it mail, UPS, FedEx or whatever), they usually don’t know to bring packages around the block to the front door.
At least with UPS, they’ll let you pick your package up at the local distribution center if you can get them to take the package off the truck.
It can be a problem, but I called my credit card companies and had them list my work address as an alternate. That satisfies most shippers.
Now, where we live, we get to know the guys who deliver. We’re in EastBumScrew Nowhere, so if they find our house, they get a medal. And we chat with them a bit, and they remember us kindly. So far, no troubles! knocks wood
They don’t deliver the packages from one location to the other. All packages are shipped from the drop off point to a central sorting location and then sent out for delivery. In the old days, every single FedEx package went to Memphis first, even if it was to be delivered across the street. Now they have a few regional sorting locations.
Last place I lived, my FedEx guy was worth his weight in gold. They still required signatures for home deliveries, but since I received 4-5 work deliveries a week at home (which is where I work), I had a standing waiver on file. My son ordered a computer, and fortunately there’s was hedge blocking site of the ground near our front door from the street, because the FedEx guy left it when we weren’t home – but an hour later, after we’d got home and recovered from our heart attack at finding it sitting there unattended, stopped by to make sure that we’d gotten it; he was going to let FedEx take the hit if it had been stolen during that time. He was a really good guy. But UPS delivery in that area? Sucked donkey balls.
I’ve had decent luck (knock wood) with both FedEx & UPS so far in our new location, which is good since another company I’m now dealing with insists on sending UPS even though he delivers five hours later than FedEx; their runs are laid out very differently.
It really varies by location, is what it boils down to. Sometimes you get great people, and sometimes you get total turkeys.
Except when it’s not there. I once had a package delivered from Boston to Boston. It never arrived. UPS told me I could pick it up at their DC some 30 miles north. In the same breath they’d tell me they’d delivered it correctly to my office in Foxboro Stadium, some 20 miles south. I didn’t have an office in Foxboro Stadium, or anywhere near there. It was OK, they told me, it was delivered each day and then returned to the DC each night where I could pick it up.
Damn liars.
The guy who finally got it to me, because he worked in Foxboro Stadium but lived on my street, verified that it never left the corner of his office. He had it for three weeks.
So it’s a good thing I never went to the DC.
Damn lucky coincidence that it was delivered to a guy on my street.