What Can I Do About UPS?

Factual Questions
1

I ordered a movie from Amazon earlier this month, and since they didn’t have it right away, I had to wait for a few weeks for them to deliver it. On Thursday, since it hadn’t come yet, I looked it up on their website, which indicated it had been delivered on Wednesday to my local UPS branch.

I waited a few more days, and since it hadn’t shown by Friday, I thought I’d give it until Monday just in case UPS was a few days behind what was on Amazon’s books.

So today, I go to look it up on the UPS website (to see where it has gotten to), and they indicate that it was delivered to me last Wednesday and left on the front porch.

Of an apartment house that is never locked.

In late August.

In a college town.

Needless to say, I never saw the package and received no notification that it was delivered. I suppose it’s also obvious that it ISN’T THERE ANYMORE.

So now I find myself looking at a bill for a movie that I didn’t receive because the expletive-deleted UPS driver NEVER DELIVERED IT TO ME. The phone number that I have for them will NOT put me through to a human being. I found another number for a UPS branch in a nearby city that will not put me through (it tells me to call customer service at 1314, and when I do that, I get the same recording).

I’m pretty sure this isn’t Amazon’s fault (although I couldn’t find a number for them, either), since everything else I’ve ordered from them has either been put in my mailbox or brought to my door where I had to sign for it.

THIS package sounds like they just tossed it out the window as they drove by, and left it at that. I was even HOME on Wednesday, so it isn’t like they couldn’t find me.

This isn’t really the forum to describe how I’m feeling right at the moment, but I’d like advice: What can I do here?

2

Complain to Amazon.

3

Try calling Amazon at 1.800.201.7575

4

UPS is Amazon’s vendor. You should address your complaint to them.

Amazon is pretty cool about things like this, too. A while back, I ordered some wooden puzzles for Fang from them, only one arrived. USPS indicated both packages had been delivered, but I only received one. I used their online complaint form, and instructed Amazon to either refund my money or redeliver. They did both.

5

I don’t know if you can reach Amazon by phone, but they do have customer service and you can reach them through the web site. I would tell them that you never received the order (let them get UPS’s story themselves; I wouldn’t volunteer that UPS claims to have left it on the porch). Your story is–you never received the order.

A sender handing off a package to a carrier does not absolve them of further responsibility for delivering an item. I do not know the legal precedents for this sort of thing but I would guess that if they don’t have a signature showing receipt that neither Amazon nor UPS can prove it was ever delivered. I don’t know who bears the risk if a carrier leaves an item of any value in an unsecured area.

Do you know if Amazon insures their shipments? If so then UPS should cover the cost of a stolen package. But that’s between UPS and Amazon–your story is that you never received the order.

6

FYI - in general, UPS insures all shipments to $100. That may only apply to shipping damage, but as CookingWithGas says, if they didn’t get a signature they’ve got no proof they delivered it.

7

Thanks, folks. I’ll give that Amazon number a try.

I hadn’t really dug around Amazon’s site a lot, since I felt this was more UPS’s fault, but since UPS doesn’t seem to want to be reachable, I’ll give Amazon a holler.

(Whee! I grew up on a farm!..no, I really did!)

It wasn’t a ton of money (less than US$15), but it makes me nervous about buying anything else from them. I had things on my list, too.

Not only is Batman: The Animated Series out on DVD, but so is Beast Wars and Beast Machines (the Mainframe CGI versions of Transformers). I wants me some AMAZON, dagnabit!

8

UPS operates to minimize costs so deliveries of lesser value do not require a signature since on average they save money even if they have an ocassional “non-delivery” case.
Cheaper to pay for a replacement than get a lot of signatures and the cost of the time and idle equipment (truck).
Report loss to UPS AND Amazon!

9

Check the yellow pages for UPS. They have an 800 number where you can report the loss.
Amazon has a page where the UPS Pkg. number is listed for tracking of shipments.
UPS operates to minimize costs so deliveries of lesser value do not require a signature since on average they save money even if they have an ocassional “non-delivery” case.
In high risk delivery areas a signature is still mandatory.
Cheaper to pay for a replacement than get a lot of signatures and the cost of the time and idle equipment (truck).
Report loss to UPS AND Amazon!

10

It looks like you can file a claim directly on their website if you have a tracking number:

UPS.com

11

I was involved in a fraud complaint involving Amazon.
Before I reached someone who understood that I was talking about honest-to-God fraud, their representative repeated a half dozen times that all refund requests should go through their web site, as “we’re an online company, we only handle complaints online”. I was calling on behalf of a client who didn’t even own a computer, and as I had my client on the line, he got increasingly annoyed with their line of argument on this.
In your case, I’d strongly reccomend using the web site, not calling.

12

I worked at UPS customer service for 4 years. If you are the receiver you cannot get UPS to do a damn thing. The shipper purchased the insurance when they shipped it. UPS will only let the shipper file a claim. as far as starting a investigation, as the receiver the procedure is to tell you no at first, and then when you insist, to let you do it. However with big shippers like Dell and Amazon that have special contracts with UPS, you cannot even do that.

13

First of all, thanks to everyone who responded. I called the number for Amazon which gotpasswords provided (thank you!), and talked to a woman with the most beautiful telephone voice I’ve ever heard (she didn’t give her name, but I think I’m in love). She indicated that they would replace the movie and ship it out ASAP.

Thus, so far I am content (and rather giddy)…although it remains to be seen whether UPS will deliver this one to me.

I do have a tracking number (per Hampshire’s suggestion), but UPS claims they delivered it. They may have, but they certainly didn’t deliver it to ME. Since I’m the one that’s looking at the bill for this thing, I would kind of like to have it.

I honestly don’t understand why they did this. I’ve had UPS deliver things here at least two or three dozen times since I moved in, and they have ALWAYS either left them in my mailbox or come up to get my signature or left them with a neighbor and a note on my door. This one just vanished with no notification at all. I would love to find out who the delivery person was and hold them accountable, but none of the phone numbers I could dig up for UPS would give me anything other than a recording.

Filing a complaint was not one of the options.

Nor was talking to a human being.

Alas, I’ll wait and see…and finish the story when it finishes. Wishbone Ash, somehow that doesn’t surprise me very much. As long as I get what I paid for, how the rest of them do business is up to them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

14

Next time you order something from Amazon or anywhere else, have it sent via the mail rather than UPS. I’ve never had anything not turn up when sent via the mail, versus a seemingly unending litany of lost and damaged merchandise any time I’ve sent or received anything UPS. I’m well past the point now where if a company refuses to ship via a method other than UPS I won’t do business with the company.

15

That’s actually an idea that I’ve considered (choosing a carrier). I didn’t ask the young lady with the beautiful voice, and I didn’t remember seeing an option to pick a carrier when I put in my order, but I’ll do that from now on if it is an option.

16

Latest episode in the saga:

Couldn’t find anywhere on Amazon to choose a carrier (if anybody knows of a way of doing that, I’d appreciate getting pointed), so when I called them and they offered to send a replacement…

…they shipped it UPS. :rolleyes: So it is supposed to come today. Hope springs eternal.

I also went to the UPS website, but don’t see where to file a complaint. Hampshire, could you point me closer to the page for this (if you know of it)? I not only have a tracking number, but now I have TWO. I didn’t see where to file a complaint, though.

To top it off, yesterday the maintenance guys for my apartment building stole my broom out of the bathroom. That, on top of the people on the third floor plugging and flooding their toilet and deluging my bathtub with raw sewage.

I am SO sick of living around people.

I know: off topic. Sorry. Just pissed in general.

17

You could write their corporate headquarters or call custome service…

Let me be honest…I know you are upset, but complaining to UPS will be a complete waste of your time…trust me you are not the first person to lose a package, you MIGHT get an apology at best. As far as the system setup with Amazon, UPS makes so much money from Amazon, complaining to them is like a fart in the wind.

18

Maybe it’s because my mailing address is a PO Box, but I’ve never had to choose a carrier for Amazon shipments. It’s always been USPS, and my choices are whether I want it shipped priority or “super savings” (or whatever the free shipping with large enough purchase is called).

19

I’ll tell ya, I really really really really really really hate UPS too. Really.

Do a search for threads on UPS and you’ll see we’re not the only ones.

These jokers do all kinds of inane stuff that doesn’t make any sense and just infuriates people. Little known fact: UPS’s tracking system uses what they call “predictive tracking”. Yes, that’s right. When you track it online and it says it’s arrived there, NO it hasn’t been physically scanned in that location like you would expect. They think it’ll be scanned there at that time! What seems to happen to me all the time is that I’ll go online to track my package:

8/12 8:15am Arrived Sort Facility in Podunk, SD
8/12 8:35am Left Sort Facility in Podunk, SD
8/12 2:25pm Arrived Sort Facility in Reno, NV
8/12 2:50pm Left Sort Facility in Reno, NV
8/13 7:50am Arrive UPS Facility Mytown, CA
8/13 8:02am Out on Truck For Delivery Mytown, CA
8/13 4:50pm Arrived Sort Facility Reno, NV
8/13 5:03pm Left Sort Facility Reno, NV

WTF?!?!?! When I see that it’s on the truck for delivery, maybe I leave work a little early in the hopes that I’ll be home when they get there. Of course by the time I get home, I check and see that it appears that my package is moving backwards. I call, and try to figure out what the hell is going on here, and I get the story about “predictive tracking”.
I can confirm (from talking to countless reps and supervisors) that as the receiver you have absolutely no rights. The shipper is the person who PAID and is therefore the UPS customer. You’re nothin’.

20

I’ll do you one better. If you go to one of those places that serves as a UPS drop-off point (where you can ship your packages UPS), the drop-off point is considered the customer. I learned this from bitter experience when I shipped some stuff home from school in Texas through one and UPS destroyed and lost thousands of dollars worth of it. They refused to deal with the owner of the merchandise (me) so I had to try to coordinate everything through this drug store in Texas who couldn’t have cared much less. I literally had nightmares about it.