By all rights, I should be zooming along on the internet using my snazzy new cable modem that was being sent FedEx. Instead, I am still on dial up.
The modem was supposed to be here on Friday, but on Thursday there was a note on my door that FedEx tried to deliver it but no one was at home. The cable company will not allow the package to be left on the doorstep. They require a signature.
Fair enough. A day early. So far so good.
They were to deliver it again Friday.
Someone was home all day. No package. By four, I called and they assured me “it is on the truck and will be delivered today.”
At five I called and was again assured they will deliver it as “it is on the truck”.
I call at six and they tell me they deliver up until eight, don’t worry, “it is on the truck.”
So Friday comes and goes. No modem.
I call Saturday, great apolgies, no they do not deliver ground rate packages on Saturday, but for sure Monday it will be on the truck.
I go to the grocery store, come back and…there on the door is yet another note from FedEx. They tried to deliver it, on Saturday, while I was away from the house for half an hour, despite the phone call I had 20 minutes earlier with FedEx.
So I call back and am told now it is too late for a re-deliver.
How can they not know that the package would be re-delivered today?
Isn’t the whole point of tracking a package to find out where the hell the package is?
Ah, but you missed the part where the driver lurked around the corner for two hours until he saw you leave the house and then tried to deliver the package.
Seriously, sometimes it seems like the business plan of ALL the private-duty carriers is to actually deliver as few items as they possibly can.
A few weeks back I ordered something. Then it snowed. Even though I shoveled a pathway, my driveway is very steep and I was concerned about the driver. I called Fed-Ex and asked them to hold the package, I would pick it up.
They delivered it, but put it in a bag and tied it to a pole at the top of the driveway - where anyone could have driven by and stolen it. Heck, I didn’t even get out of my car to pick it up.
Early last year, I started a new job. I was supposed to receive the info packets in the mail, fill them out, and return them. HR didn’t really have a timetable on which I’d get the forms, just that I should keep an eye out for them.
Two weeks later, I still hadn’t received them. The company HR called me up and asked if I’d sent them back, and I explained that I’d not seen them. So they sent the forms again.
I got it in a day or so from FedEx, filled everything out, and returned the packet.
Fastforward to this last October. I got a new job in another state, and started packing up the house. One of the last things we packed was the front-door welcome mat- and, sure enough, when we picked it up, there was the original packet! It had been there all that time. :rolleyes:
FedEx had hidden the envelope underneath the welcome mat, with none of it visible, and hadn’t even bothered to let us know that it was there.
I’m glad it wasn’t, you know, important or anything.
I tried to do that once with a monitor I ordered. The lady told me “We don’t do that on Monday.” Their rationale? They get a lot of packages on Monday and can’t be bothered to search for yours. I argued with her for ten minutes before I left.
Ha! Fed Ex recently charged me for a package that I never sent!
I had been researching prices for the shipping of a package to England and Fed Ex will only show you a price if you pretend you might be shipping a package. I go through the motions, get the price, and cancel the order. (I got confirmation of the cancelling- printouts and stuff.)
A month later, yes a month, I see a mysterious charge in my online bank statement from Fed Ex. I have no idea what it is as I haven’t sent any packages. I check my Fed Ex account for the heck of it and find out that they have charged me for the package that I cancelled. Now, they have no record of ever having picked up the package or anyone receiving it, but they still felt the need to charge me over $60 for it. Makes a lot of sense.
Thankfully, they allow you to easily dispute the charges and I got my money back in a few days. But still, I didn’t get any notice of the charge- they just decided over a month later to take money from me without even checking to see if there was actually anything sent. Great way to do business.
I believe it is (or was) FedEx policy to never knock on the door to let you know they were there. Several times I had been eagerly awaiting packages, sitting in my living room (slow day) waiting for a knock.
I would hear soft footsteps coming up the stairs to my apartment. Thinking it could still be the people in the apartment next to mine, I stayed seated, waiting for the scratching of the key in their lock.
I never heard it.
I would go to the door and open it.
I would find one of two things.
My package, sitting under the doormat (which is simply ludicrous when its a box).
A note saying “We Tried to Deliver, but Alas You Were Not Home”.
I learned to leap to the door as soon as I heard the footsteps. Twice I have caught the delivery driver running away from the building as soon as he/she quietly made it down the steps.
In the instance where they bothered to leave the package, I let it go without further action.
The other time I shouted for them to stop (not knowing their name, I yelled “Hey! FedEx!”). The guy turned around, and sheepishly told me he knocked, but there was no answer. He then went and got my package out of his truck and I signed for it. Why he didn’y bother to bring it with him the first trip to my door I do not know.
For the longest time I was convinced they were intentionally fucking with me.
My most recent packaging experience came when UPS was to deliver several boxes for me. I called them on a fine Thursday night, to see if saturday delivery was a possibility(it wasn’t) and to tell them not to come by on Friday AM as i would be at work and no one could let them in. They still said that they would come by and that they would also attempt a delivery on Monday.
What’s the point of mail order if I have to go pick it up?
I was expecting a package on Friday. The tracking page says it was “On FedEx vehicle for delivery” 4:25 AM Friday morning. I still haven’t seen it. Not even a note on my door. My apartment office usually signs for and stores the package for me if I’m not home, but they don’t have it either. The package weighs 100 lb so I’m not going to go pick it up.
OK…it is Monday. Get a message on my answering machine at home that my package will be delivered tomorrow (Tuesday).
So, I call to ask why not today.
First person listens to my story and says, “let me transfer you to ground services.”
Ground services hears my story and she says, “Oh, we don’t deliver ground services on Monday.”
“But they promised they would, and even said they would deliver after 6:30.”
“Oh they say a lot of things, but we don’t deliver ground services on Monday, and we certainly can’t say what time the delivery will be.”
“So nothing until tomorrow?”
“Nope.”
“And you can’t guarantee after 6:30?”
“Nope.”
“And if I am not home?”
“That will be third attempt and then the package goes back to sender.”
So I call Cox Cable and now I am going to pick up a modem from their offices today after work. I have no idea if they are going to charge me double, or if I am going to have to leave my car as a deposit. The damn modem only costs $35 and I have been jumping through hoops for the past 5 days!
Maybe I should just go back to writing letters, putting a stamp on it and then going to the post office…hmm…going to post office and dealing with them…nah. I’ll try my luck at the cable company tonight. Hopefully, the next post I make here will be on my snazzy new cable modem! Any bets?