OK, but the recipient is communicating about the same thing the sender would. Does it matter who is doing the talking, if it’s about the same fuckup that will eventually cost them money to rectify?
They ought to be regarded as potential customers. If UPS wants my business when I’m shipping, they ought to pay some fucking attention to me when I’m receiving, too.
Fortunately, we live in a very safe area and our front porch is not visible from the road. Heck, you have to be halfway up the driveway to see anything near the door. So deliveries are just left for us, and it works out.
One day, I got a recorded message from UPS saying our package would be delivered that day and a signature by someone over 21 would be required. Guess it was lucky I’d decided to take the day off. Why did they need a sig? What was the amazingly valuable item that couldn’t be left on the doorstep?
A pocketknife.
There was a bandsaw blade in the same box, and that could have been left without problem, but the knife with the 2.5" blade had to transfer under an adult’s signature. Whatever.
So, your argument in this thread has gone from “UPS generally does a good job” to “Why the hell should UPS do a good job?”
(Former) UPS driver checking in. (Disclaimer: this info is from my experiences in the mid-70’s)
During the Christmas shipping season (roughly the whole month of December) there is immense pressure on drivers to empty their trucks. Although it wasn’t codified in any company manual I saw, the message was clear that packages should make one trip through the center (not be returned and re-handled) during the holiday season. When I (as a newbie) was having trouble meeting the required “throughput”, I was sent out with a more experienced supervisor who taught me how to make lots of different looking signatures so that it appeared someone had signed for the packages. He also informed me (once we were alone in the truck) that if I didn’t “get with the program”, I’d end up with one of the really shitty routes (since we were unionized, with fixed pay-scales, crappy delivery routes were the only thing they could hold over us).
An example of a typical day leading up to Xmas (if you’re still reading):
7:00 am: Leave UPS center with a rented Ryder bobtail truck FULL of packages for the mall.
10:00 am: Return empty rental truck and pick up my regular UPS truck (they call 'em Package Cars) also FULL; and start my normal route.
9:30 pm: Return my truck and pick up packages the black* drivers couldn’t deliver
9:30-10:30 Deliver packages
10:30 Return my truck (finally) to be washed and reloaded (UPS washes all of 'em every night).
*A lot of packages (back then) were COD, and couldn’t be just left out on the porch. In that part of the South, lots of people wouldn’t open their door to a black man after dark. Hence the packages had to be delivered later by a white person.
The sender doesn’t always complain, though. Heck, in my experience at the UPS store, senders only ever bothered to track their packages if they were Next Day. We would track all the packages that we sent from the store, and get refunds on all the late ones. Of course, we’d only pay those refunds to the original customer if they called us. [Hey, I didn’t run the business… that’s a whole 'nother rant thread in itself] Hardly ever did someone come it to get a refund for a late ground package.
…look guys, I’m not defending UPS, here. But this is the pit right? Doesn’t it usually go like this? Person A: Rant, rant. Person B: Your rant is stupid!
I just think it’s a dumb rant. Of course UPS isn’t going provide tons of help to someone they have no obligations to.
UPS leaves packages at my house all the time–car parts for my dad’s classic car. I don’t know how much they’re worth, but they’re damn important to him. Of course, they drop the package off by having a guy run up to the door, drop the box in front of it, knock loudly and then run back to the truck as if my house were about to explode.
I’m sure that makes the people missing their insulin feel better.
This is important; when you’re fucking your customers up the ass dry, it’s considered curteous to at least offer a reacharound.
In uniform? Holy shit.
A buddy of mine had a courier lose a package this way. What was in it? A rifle.
This kind of crap is why there we have government regulation of certain industries, and why we need it in the package delivery industry. Clearly, no delivery service with the resources to cover as much ground as UPS/FedEx/etc is willing to step up to the plate and offer a better alternative, so it is completely impossible to send a package in the United States and be certain that the person on the other end is ever going to get it. There is no invisible hand. Sure, there are those who say, “Vote with your money!”, but in the case of package delivery, it appears that the only alternative to UPS is another UPS with a different name.
Somebody needs to regulate the USPS first. People are constantly amazed that it sometimes takes 1 to 2 weeks to deliver a first-class letter, and as I mentioned before, “Delivery Confirmation” just confirms the package made it to the recipient’s post office.
UPS offers insurance and it’s not a whole lot of money. So does the USPS, but from experience it takes a LOT longer to actually collect on it.
When I place an internet order and pay for delivery I AM the sender as well as the recipient.
No, you’re not. The site/company you’re ordering from is the sender. They register the package with UPS, they print out the shipping labels, they package the item and put the label on it, and they give it to UPS. And they pay UPS. You’re paying the site/company, not UPS.
When we send something by insured UPS that is damaged, we have to make the claim, not the customer. However, the weak part of the whole thing is that UPS asks for the recipient’s cooperation in documenting the damage so that we can collect the insurance on it. Trouble is, there’s not a lot of incentive for the customer/recipient to do so, but they have so far.
I’m a receptionist and I literally print out labels and box proposals and plans to be sent to other offices. I slap the addy on the box and watch the FedEx guy pick it up.
The actual sender is the person requesting the item be sent.
Maybe to you, but to UPS the sender is the person paying them and giving them the package.
(emphasis mine)
Sure you can, just not with the big three. Hell, I’ll do it for you! I’m a notary public, so I’m trained to identify people. Just give me the cost for airfare and car rental, plus $500 for my time, and I’ll come back with your recipient’s notarized signature, and a pic of him with the box!