I am expecting a package via UPS (I did not have an option to choose another method of delivery). The package arrived at San Pablo, CA yesterday morning, which under the worst sort of rush hour driving is maybe 2 hours away from where I live. The package was scheduled to be delivered tomorrow (which is already a day later than it should have been, see above).
Now the package has been delayed for a day, until Friday. The reason given? “Severe weather conditions.” In San Pablo, or between there and here? It is a quiet, calm evening, partly cloudy, more of the same all day today, and all day tomorrow.
Something has happened to the package, mark my words, there will be delays on delays until they admit something like the truth. I can feel it in my bones. Most likely they’ve just lost it, or someone stole it. I hate UPS.
ETA: Also, as someone who lives in Canada and sometimes orders items from the US, UPS is so notorious for extortionate “customs brokerage fees” that I now just refuse to order anything that is going to be shipped cross-border via UPS. I’m fine with any other courier, or just express mail – most things just breeze through with no customs duties at all, let alone “brokerage fees”.
I love that you have to pay extra for Saturday delivery. I sent something UPS recently, because I was sending it the week before the election, and I thought the USPS might be slightly overburdened that week. The package arrived in the destination city on Friday, but sat in a warehouse all weekend, to be delivered on Monday, because I didn’t cough up the extra $6 for Saturday delivery. And it had arrived at 4:24am Friday morning, but they couldn’t put it on a delivery truck the same day.
We Canadians get hosed when we order from the US. Whether it’s duties, GST, or brokerage fees, we pay through the nose. I once ordered some books from a US vendor (total value CAD $90), and had to pay CAD$60 in shipping. Well, it is what it is. Thankfully, I had opted for shipping via USPS/Canada Post, so shipping was an inexpensive as possible. I received the books, via Canada Post, in good order.
Maybe 15 days after I received my books, I got a bill from UPS: $30 for “customs brokerage” fees. What the hell? I called UPS.
Me: I never asked you to ship anything. Why are you sending me a bill?
UPS: Well, sir, your package went through our customs brokers. So you owe us brokerage fees.
Me: I never contracted with you. My contract is with XYZ Vendor, USPS, and Canada Post.
UPS: Well, we look after some things for Canada Post.
Me: That’s fine, but I was not informed of this.
UPS: Well, you still owe us.
Me. I’m unsure how. I never made a deal with you; you were never even a part of the conversation as regards shipping. Shipping was to be done through USPS and Canada Post.
UPS: Um …
Me: And I did not give my agreement to UPS handling my package at any stage, right? I asked for USPS/Canada Post handling and delivery, did I not?
UPS: Um …
Me: So you’re not getting your “brokerage fees.”
And I hung up the phone. And I never heard from UPS again.
Just because UPS charges extra for Saturday delivery is no reason to assume the workers get paid extra. There are lots of jobs where people who work Saturday and/or Sunday aren’t paid extra - they just have a schedule where they are off one or two days between Mon - Friday.
I hope you’re wrong, because in my experience with package carriers (and a lot of other services), it’s part and parcel (snicker) of a popular and abhorrent business practice. Per your note, it was already late, they’re busy, and they are doing their ‘current’ work. You’re already late, and you’re going to be pissed off. From a service POV, they can prioritize your business, but you’re still unhappy, and what if they make someone else’s package delayed? Now they have 2 pissed off customers…
So they put yours off until they have a slowdown. Sure, you get more pissed off, but they don’t create any new pissed off customers, so they’re ahead, right? This has happened to me with several services, both postal and otherwise, where they were fundamentally doing triage. The absolute worst offender was a particular HVAC company that admitted it, although they put the best face on it was unfair to the currently scheduled customers to bump them in order to make my call (at that point 2 weeks (!!!) late) a priority.
So, yeah, I’m betting their policy is similar, they’ll get to it . . . eventually, and of course, there’s going to be a list of excuses a mile long, most of which, as you correctly pointed out, are easily falsifiable but are just designed to give them an out.
Fed Ex will get you, too. For me it’s USPS/Canada Post or I do without. ETA: I have had good luck with DHL with packages from England and Germany. Not sure if that is their policy or just dumb luck on my part.
The proposal, raised in recent contract negotiations, calls for creating a “hybrid driver” position that would earn as little as $15 an hour and top out at an hourly wage of $30. These employees’ regular schedule would be Sunday to Thursday or Tuesday to Saturday, avoiding costly overtime.
According to this and this, UPS and the Teamsters seem to have come to an agreement that allows for a new job classification with lower wages and with weekends as part of the regular work schedule.
I believe that means that some drivers don’t get paid more to drive on the weekends, and some do. Which means that UPS still legitimately has a higher cost structure for weekend deliveries.
Last week I had a package shipped from Texas with UPS. Everything seemed fine, the package showed as being in Colorado, and expected delivery tomorrow. No package. Then it said expected delivery the new tomorrow (like the “all beer free tomorrow” joke signs?). Still no delivery. Then it said nothing.
Then all the information about being in Colorado vanished, and it said the package was stuck in Dallas the whole time because of the weather. After that shipping and delivery proceeded as normal.
I buy a lot of stuff from international vendors, and I’ve also had very good luck with DHL. I’ve always had the same delivery guy (when I see him), and he’s pleasant and friendly. That counts, too!
I feel I should present another side of UPS that I like: Amazon handles returns through UPS, and all I have to do is go to one of their many little shops where there is usually not a line, hand them the package, say “Amazon return,” and wait a few seconds to get my receipt. It doesn’t happen often, but when I need to return something I got from Amazon, I appreciate that it is so easy.
There’s even a drop box near my house. If the package I need to return isn’t large, I dump it there and then don’t have to worry about it. That’s certainly a plus for UPS.
That really has nothing to do with UPS. The only time I’ve done an Amazon return was some years ago, and it was equally simple via Canada Post. They emailed me a prepaid address label, I stuck it on the box, and dropped it off at the post office. Done.
Today around here they use their own Amazon delivery service, so I don’t know how returns are done, but it’s probably still equally simple.
A number of years ago we moved from the UK to Canada. Part of the move required some very important paperwork from South Africa.
This was requested through normal channels and, of course, never showed up.
And then it got dire; get paperwork or face consequences. So we arranged for a family member to go to the appropriate SA office and physically receive the paperwork and hand it off to a DHL courier for express delivery (like 48hours) It cost a fucking lot - like in the hundreds of dollars.
And crickets. We followed the trail of the envelope for and it finally showed ‘delivery complete’ at Gatwick Airport in the UK after three or four days. The ever so lovely “customer service” person at DHL insisted that was where we had requested it be sent. Really? Oh, and in order for further delivery to be made to us we would have to pony up another couple hundred $. Ever more irate phone calls finally had them agreeing that perhaps Gatwick was not the agreed upon destination and that they would deliver it to us without further charge.
More crickets.
We live on the east coast of Canada in a place called Albert County. Our envelope was then sent to somewhere in Alberta.
Finally, a month after the original contract and many more phone calls, the envelope arrived. Fortunately, the official types that needed the paperwork were understanding and didn’t revoke my husband’s license to practice.
And DHL refunded us the $$ in the end. But just the mention of DHL makes steam rise from both of our ears.
Yeah, DHL sucks. The thing is they are all the same. It’s like cable companies - they all suck. All you can hope for is the one you have to deal with sucks less than the others.
