UPS, or, Useless Package Shufflers

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ve been waiting for a package from a mail order music service I deal with a lot. They normally ship by Priority Mail, and the packages usually arrive very quickly, even though they’re coming from the opposite coast. I was wondering why this one had taken nine days so far. I came home today to find the dreaded UPS notice on my door.

UPS refuses to leave packages at my apartment building without an in-person* signature. Just signing the slip and leaving it on the door won’t do. The post office can leave packages at my door when I’m not home, but UPS will NOT. So normally I go online and have the package redelivered to my work address. Well, surprise surprise! Something new has been added! After entering my redelivery info, I got a screen informing me that the “accessory charge” for changing the delivery address is $4.00, and what credit card would I like to put this on???

Called up UPS. Said “customer service” to the robot enough times to get a live person on the line. “Mike” told me that yes, the charge to change a delivery address is $6.00. ($6.00? It was $4.00 just a few minutes ago!) Couldn’t I just sign for it, sez I, and they could just leave it at my door on Monday? After all, if I sign the slip, I’m agreeing that UPS is not liable if some keen-eyed thief schleps upstairs to swipe my package of avant-garde music CDs that no one else would want anyway. No dice, sez the alleged human on the other end of the line.

Finally “Mike” let it slip that the sender could change the delivery address. So I’ve e-mailed the owner of the music service and asked him to do so (or to have a minion do it). Keeping fingers crossed that this will work.

Meanwhile, UP yourS, UPS!!!

2

UPS sucks.

3

You just found out what brown can do for you.

4

New development. The shipper got back to me, and agreed to change the delivery address, but he did have to pay to do it. Evidently what “Mike” was trying to communicate to me was that having the shipper change the address was free to me–not to the shipper!

Bunch of fucking weasels.

5

You know, I gotta admit that UPS is hardly at the top of my list of corporate villains right now. I hope this $2 controversy blows over and you are able to move on without too much distress.

6

They’ll be charging the shipper $10.00 for that address change. I have invoices to prove it.

7

Great. So I’ve not only inadvertently fucked over a good guy (the shipper, who is cutting me slack because I’m a good customer), I’ve put extra money in the brown pockets.

8

Might we worth your money to send $10 to the shipper, along with a written letter of the incident. This could convince him to not use UPS anymore, costing UPS quite a bit in the long run.

9

The Postal Service did a better job and was more user-friendly than a private service?! That’s unpossible! It’s an article of Amurrrrican faith that the gubmint can’t do anything right and private enterprise is superior in every way! :rolleyes:

Seriously, I had a similar experience with UPS once. I live in a mid-sized condo (40 units, more or less) with the mail boxes in the unlocked outer lobby and a table in the locked inner lobby. Almost every day, there are packages on the table, so either some resident lets the mailman, UPS man, etc. into the inner lobby or (more likely) they leave the packages in the outer lobby and a resident takes them inside.

But when I ordered a pair of shoes (less than $50 so we’re not talking a prime theft target) they were sent recipient’s signature only. (Yes, this was at least partially the merchant’s fault, not all UPS’s doing.) I do a funny little thing called work on weekdays, and UPS doesn’t deliver on Saturdays (while the Postal Service does; go figure). :smack: They tried two times to deliver it, and twice I wasn’t home, but at least they left sticky notes informing me that if the third try was unsuccessful, the package would be returned to sender.

I ended up leaving work early on the third day so I could go home and drive several miles to the UPS depot to pick up my shoes before their little parcel pick-up office closed for the day. I would have just gone to a store to buy the shoes had I known the delivery service wouldn’t, umm, deliver them and I’d have to pick them up. That, peculiarly enough, would have been more convenient. :rolleyes:

10

UPS gladly leaves my purchases on my apt doorstep. Sorry you had this hassle but sorry in the scheme of things UPS ain’t that bad.

11

They all suck. UPS beat the crap out of my shit and refused to pay for it, despite me having spent the money on the insurance.

USPS loves to just leave the note that they tried to deliver packages in my mailbox while I’m at home all day. They don’t even bother to try.

And finally FedEx managed to attempt delivery to 15 S Laird instead of 15 N Laird three days in a row. Then they let me pick up the package for the guy who lived a block away. Luckily for him I was able to deliver it, free of service charges.

12

Amusement for you on the other end of the spectrum:

As some of you may be aware, up until May 2009 we were living in a mobile home, on which a tree fell, totaling it. Since it was rented, we were entitled to nothing but good wishes, though our landlady’s insurance reimbursed her for its fair market value. Also on the same multi-acre lot were our landlady’s home and a small building adapted to be the standalone equivalent of an efficiency aartment (the “little house” was our landlady’s term for it). We ended up co-renting with one of Barb’s cow-orkers until we found this place. The mobile home was hauled away as junk, and the ground it had sat on resodded.

Our DSL modem bit the dust while we were at the cow-orker’s. We’d agreed to provide phone and Internet service there as part of our share of expenses, and had our service transferred there, including physical and billing addresses. They agreed to expedited shipment by UPS, which I confirmed would be to our new address.

Five days later, still no modem. I call to find out where it is. “Oh, it was delivered half an hour ago,” I’m told. Since I’ve been there consistently, as has the cow-orker’s son, who has been in and out, and neither of us have seen a UPS truck, I debate this. She reads off “delivered 12:23 at _____” (our old address). Clearly some “helpful” person at AT&T has decided to “correct” our address to the one they had on file, the old one.

So we drive over. The only sign there had ever been a dwelling place there is the old yard light. I ask the landlady; she hasn’t seen it. She suggests we check with the guy now renting the little house, who comes out of his place as we exit hers, carrying a box. It’s our modem, which had been dropped on the porch of the property next door to the grassy sward formerly the site of the Polycarp residence by UPS. We collect it, thank all present, and go home.

All’s well that ends well, I guess. But having a parcel delivered to someone we’d never met who had moved in next door to somewhere we used to live which is not even there any longer, when we had specified delivery to our new address – doesn’t quite match up with “we need you to sign for it.”

13

For those with dislike for UPS, maybe the circumstances/location/population congestion is a factor?

In my neighborhood, UPS works very well. My driver knows me personally, will leave anything on the porch as I wish, will even take it across the street to a friend if an adult sig is absolutely required, and will wait around for a minute if I suspect damage to a package and want to open it. We have two regular drivers and they have never mis-delivered a package. The only notices I get on the door are from some Fedex drivers who aren’t from “around here.”

Not only do I have no complaints, but I think they deserve kudos for excellent performance. And no, I never worked for UPS (although I did apply for a job with them during college years, and got turned down).

14

It’s also possible that the carrier has a key or keycard to the locked innter lobby. I’ve lived in buildings where that was the case.

15

I think that the difference is the DRIVERS. One time I happened to be working in the yard, sort of off to the side, when I saw a driver scamper up to my door and slap a notice on it and head back to his truck. No doorbell ringing. When I confronted him, he didn’t even have my package in his truck, and I told him that he could either come back later today with my package, or I’d be on the phone with the supervisor in a few minutes. I told him that I’d be home all day, and that in the future, I expected him to ring my doorbell and WAIT for a bit before concluding that I wasn’t home.

I did get my package later that evening, and also a glare that could strip paint.

16

Funny, that’s exactly my experience with UPS, but the Post Office actually does their job and delivers packages to my door.

17

I stopped using UPS after they let me sign for a package without confirming it was for me. I just walked up to the driver and asked him if he was delivering to apartment 2298, he says yes, I say that’s me and he gave me the package. The package was for my wife but the driver had no way of knowing that. He didn’t see me coming out of the apartment, I approached him when he was on the opposite side of the building.

18

I have always suspected this, but never caught them in the act. For what possible reason would they stop at my house if they don’t have the package? Why take the time to leave a note? I don’t get it.

19

Most people work day shift, M-F, which is when most delivery services deliver. If a lazy delivery person DOESN’T load the heavy packages into the truck, but just sticks a note on the door saying “Attempted delivery” without ringing the bell, that saves the person the time and backache. Most of the time, the recipient will assume that an honest delivery attempt was made. Now, maybe the package will be on tomorrow’s truck, and s/he’ll actually attempt the delivery, because the recipient might be on the lookout for it. Even if s/he has the package in the truck, just sticking the note on the door without ringing or knocking will save the time and backache of wrestling the package out of the truck, going to the door, waiting for half a minute, and then wrestling the package back into the truck. The hope is that by not knocking or ringing, YOU will take time off of work and go down to the delivery office and pick up your package yourself.

This was not USPS, by the way, but another delivery service. And I doubt that most of the delivery people use this method, I just had a lazy guy on my route, who was really, really pissed off at getting caught.

Honestly, though, even the ones who bother to bring the package to the door either tap once at the door and bolt, or just drop the package and leave. I usually sleep during the day, or I’m in the back of the house and it takes me half a minute to get to the door. I can understand that they want to get their route done, but surely most people are not waiting just at their front doors, ready to open them for delivery people.

20

USPS is the way to go for everything but the stuff they refuse to ship. Even then, if you can get away with it, hide it and send it via the post. UPS will break your shit, and FedEx is happy to deliver your stuff to you late or not at all at twice the cost.