I “lost” a new monitor from Amazon in exactly that fashion. Discovered a hastily emptied box. But I give Amazon credit for being pretty good about it - they refunded the price without even asking for a corroborating police report.
I generally just try to pick up stuff at the local UPS customer center these days for just that reason. Still not a great option, because at the local one the hours are 2-6 p.m. M-F. How fucked up is that?
Anyway, you have my sympathies. I’m not such a huge fan of UPS these days either.
Wanting to send a valuable parcel to someone another state, I was told by UPS that the option to require a signature for delivery was not available “unless it’s a business.”
Now I think I remember her saying “unless it’s to a business”, but I’m not certain about that detail. This was 10-15 years ago.
At that time I was in fact running a small business, but the parcel in question obviously must have been going to a residence.
.
I have all packages sent to my work address after too many similar hassles with UPS and FedEx. More of a pain to get larger items home (I take the train) but its easier than dealing with the home delivery headaches.
In my recent dealings with UPS they just leave the things on my doorstep. They don’t even bother to knock, even when I am in, and waiting for them. I don’t mind when its just a book or something, but recently it was my new laptop and I was right there. I heard someone outside, but no knock, and by the time I had the door open he was driving off and the laptop box was on the doorstep where all the street could see it.
I buy so much stuff from Amazon and online sites in general that two years ago I started paying $12/month for a mailbox at one of those “Mailbox Etc” joints. There’s always someone there till 530 and they hold all of my packages. I can pick them up on Saturday (they have Saturday hours) or sneak in right before closing.
The address is like “Lindsay Bluth, 345 Tall Timbers Road, #918, Pittsburgh” so that it 1) looks like a real address and 2) since it’s not a PO box, which only accepts USPS deliveries, all deliveries can be made for it and all deliveries are signed for.
$12-15/month is less than you’d spend in gas/time going to Target or wherever every week for all your stuff. Plus it’s insurance on your stuff as well: no sitting in the rain, no driving to pick it up, no package left outside your door for someone to steal.
Boy, after reading these horror stories, I’m glad I live in a high rise building where the receptionist receives and signs for all packages from the various delivery companies and also holds packages for me.
You know, I told UPS I was fine without a signature being required, they told me Target had to decide, I told Target I was fine without a signature, and they told me UPS had to decide. How about this, dickweeds: Since I’ve already told both of you that I’m fine without a signature, can’t you agree that whoever it is up to, you’re covered?
My old building was the shit in that regard. I used to be miffed that the front office wasn’t open on weekends, and that it closed at 5:00pm on weekdays, meaning if I went to happy hour (which was often) I could forget about picking up my stuff, but now I long for days past. At the very least, I know my stuff was there and I don’t have to go more than two flights of stairs down to get them. Anyway, I found some sweet bedding at a real store that I could look at, touch and smell face-to-face, so this isn’t an issue anymore.
I used to do that and loved it. Unfortunately they jacked up rates ($150/month for parking and I don’t live in a top most populated 15 city in the US) and the rent. Not many high-rises in Pittsburgh have those services, either. $12/month is a nice in-between.
They had some sort of strike in the 90’s. Before that I never had a problem with them. After that, they’ve just gotten worse and worse. Take from that what you will.
My “favorite” UPS moment was the time they didn’t even TRY to deliver something and instead just stuck the “dur we tried but you didn’t answer” tag on my mailbox. At least walk up to the fucking door and ring the bell/knock. I was home, I heard your truck pull up, but you were gone before I could even get the front door open. Assholes.
Ah. Well in that case, feel free to send all my shit there.
So anyway, I think I already mentioned that I said fuck it all and have moved on to bedding from another (real life) store, but I also ordered some other stuff at around the same time, and it’s starting to seem like it’s impossible to shop online if you have a job. I keep getting this jazz about UPS (damn you, Overstock.com for using UPS, too!) them only being able to deliver M-F when I’m at my damn job like a normal person. From now on, I’m sending anything I buy over the interwebs to my job, unless of course, it’s a freaking dining room set like I ordered last week. :smack:
I didn’t like my old apartment at all, but I sure as hell am missing having an apartment office right about now!
I guess I’ve been lucky, since UPS in my neighborhood will leave just about any package on my porch, which is protected from rain and not visible from the street (which doesn’t have a lot of traffic anyway). On the few occasions I’ve had to pick something up, their distribution center is not far away and has convenient hours.
FedEx, on the other hand, sucks balls, which is why I can’t buy wine from woot anymore.
UPS left an unguarded package sitting on my doorstep for hours. In the rain. There is no awning on my porch. And it’s a neighborhood, with people. A HUGE BOX with amazon.com on the side is a prime theft target, no?
Fortunately, it was boxed with that plastic bubble crap so it didn’t get wet, and nobody stole it, but jesus fucking christ what the hell, UPS? I’m wondering if this is SOP for them?
Yes, it is SOP. They also have no compunctions about delivering a package meant for a business - a large veterinary clinic standing out in the middle of a field with a big sign, not hard to find - to the house farther down the driveway instead, leaving it propped against the fence behind the garbage cans because there are dogs. With a package shipped overnight, from one business to another, signature required, generously labeled with things like “REFRIGERATE” and “FRAGILE”.
Once in the days before all their tracking and stuff was on-line, I accused them of faking a delivery attempt. They sent me the record showing a delivery attempt.
Since it was a xerox of a hand-written sheet, I could see the deliveries made before and after my “attempt”. They were in 2 adjacent buildings nowhere near my neighborhood…I advanced the theory to UPS that the driver forgot about my package and logged in a delivery attempt at the time he “found” it in his truck. I felt I had good evidence as the time lag between the 3 deliveries was short and the driver wouldn’t have had time to drive to my house from 500 Broadway and back to 504 Broadway in the time shown on the delivery sheets.
When I attempted to discuss it with UPS though I was hit with all kinds of stupid, mostly since I wasn’t supposed to have received the records for the deliveries that weren’t mine it was like those records didn’t exist and “policy” wouldn’t allow them to discuss deliveries that weren’t mine.
I did still have the interesting document, though and I sent copies to the shipper. They DID deliver the boxes the next day but I was royally pissed.
Another time I got a nicer manager who it think realized they screwed up even though he wouldn’t admit it, he dropped of the package to me in his personal vehicle on his way home.
