Uhm...FedEX?

[Dreamstalker]

We Is Toys uses "UPS Mail Innovations". It seems like the package (bearing a UPS label) actually gets delivered locally via USPS. It's annoying to see the UPS scan stop at the depot three towns over, only to have the envelope show up via USPS a few days later. Sometimes I'd get a UPS attempt slip yet when I call them I find out it's actually at the post office.

[MoonCat]

We once had a box delivered back to our house instead of to the address it was supposed to go to. Duh.

[Aethian]

We Is Toys uses "UPS Mail Innovations". It seems like the package (bearing a UPS label) actually gets delivered locally via USPS. It's annoying to see the UPS scan stop at the depot three towns over, only to have the envelope show up via USPS a few days later. Sometimes I'd get a UPS attempt slip yet when I call them I find out it's actually at the post office.

Ahhhh the beauty of drop shipments. I have a whole rant on those but will not be posting it.

[Mytical]

What ever happened to getting a signature? I've had more then a few packages end up sitting on the porch for the weather, anybody to take, etc for my taste. One was practically hidden! There is somebody here at all times..heck I've heard them drop the package and open the door and the vehicle they drive is already in motion!

[Dasota]

We put up 2 signs in our front area. The first is on the door saying "The doorbell is next to the mail box" The other has a hole cut in it where the doorbell is and says "the doorbell. It does work"


Fuckers still just drop shit by the door and run.

[PepperElf]

UPS still does that.

at the old apt the USP driver did something similar. He was actually pretty good (scottish too!, seriously he sounded like Dr Beckett from SGA) ... but back on track ... if i wasn't there he would put up a note that the package was "behind the closet door"

actually that freaked me out a little cos at first i thought they meant they'd somehow come into the apartment. but no... it turned out to mean the storage area.

right next to my apartment was another door that lead to a small hallway full of storage closets - one per apartment. he left the box in that hallway. which... that's good. it meant it was out of sight. granted no one really came up my stairs unless they had to but... the package was out of sight which made me happy.


Now granted the UPS guy knocked instead of ringing the doorbell but really everyone did that. the doorbell was kinda quiet. but a good knock was heard well in the apt.

[Argus]

We Is Toys uses "UPS Mail Innovations". It seems like the package (bearing a UPS label) actually gets delivered locally via USPS.

That's it exactly. I received a package that way last month (an Amazon purchase that was actually fulfilled by someone else).

It's annoying to see the UPS scan stop at the depot three towns over, only to have the envelope show up via USPS a few days later.

The tracking on mine showed UPS up through the handoff to USPS, and then USPS tracking from there to delivery. The FAQ on the website suggests that USPS tracking is an added-cost option for the shipper.

[Mystic]

I worked for UPS this winter and, wow, I have a whole new outlook on the whole situation as a customer and as a driver.

As a driver:
During the busy season, your package will be left at the door unless you or the shipper has paid the fee to have it signed for. This includes your new VAIO laptop. In fact, the only company I found that required signature with consistency was Dell. There were times a signature request would come up but would be overridden because, for one, it was not required in order to release the package, and two, we needed to be expedient because of the amount of packages we had to deliver.

If you're not home and the package doesn't have a "do not leave unless released to live person" clause, then it will be left at your door. We did try to make sure packages were well hidden but in the route that someone would have noticed it when walking to their door, but in the case of apartment buildings, if there is nothing around to put the package in, then it's pretty much SOL. We have to leave it at the door, out in the open. The bad thing here is that one driver I was with actually told me there are people out there, especially in cities, who do their holiday shopping by following shippers around and picking up left packages. Unfortunately there is only so much we can do. The more packages we have to take back to the distro with us, the more we have to deliver the next day which leads to further backups since 90% of the houses delivered to had no one to release the package to home. We do mark where we left the package on the diad though so when you look up the tracking number, it should say "left on back porch" or something along those lines.

A little hint for those of you in apartments though: put a box/chest or something outside your door and get to know your delivery people (or leave notes) that they can leave deliveries inside the box/chest. This can help minimize theft provided your driver doesn't change every week. One of my drivers knew a lot of the people and exactly where they wanted deliveries made so they were not seen by passer-bys and the person knew exactly where they would be.

As a customer:
I will never have anything shipped during the Christmas season. There is so much crap being moved around, tossed, and crushed simply by the weight of all the packages in the distro that quite a few were destroyed. Fortunately (or unfortunately), this is not caused by workers just being careless, but by the amount of crap being shipped at this time of year. When you have pallets stacked to the roof with loads of boxes, you can pretty much count on the bottom ones being obliterated.

I was out in a box truck a few days that was rented because there wasn't enough UPS trucks to deliver everything. We had boxes shifting and crashing down at every turn. No doubt glass pieces were in shards by the time they were delivered unless they were packed really well (which a lot of things weren't). However, in that situation, we did what we could to protect everything, but there is only so much you can do when everyone wants their stuff all at once or there will be hell to pay.

Also, in the Christmas season, if you get a lot of deliveries to your place, be nice and give your driver some cookies or something. It's a very stressful time and little treats here and there are very welcome. I don't work for UPS anymore since the season is over so I can say that.

[Crossbow]

There's a reason that any deliveries I need get shipped to my office. Not that I don't trust the delivery drivers. I don't really trust all my neighbors. Thankfully, I have an office where I can do that. Not everyone can.

[Andara Bledin]

Other options for those without proper places to leave packages and who won't be home for delivery:

* Have the item held at the local hub. Sure, it's not as convenient as being dropped at your door, but it'll be there for you to pick up at your convenience and it won't have a chance to be stolen.

* Rent a delivery box at a local UPS Store, Boxes Etc, whatever that you can have your deliveries sent to so they'll be held until you go to pick them up. Slightly more convenient than being held at the freight carrier's location, but will cost money.

And here's another story of carrier abuse.

We had a package that was delivered in which the item was destroyed by the time it reached it's destination, which was another business. They filed a claim and UPS denied it.

Even after they provided video camera surveillance of their delivery driver kicking the package from the back of the truck all the way up to the building.

Neither the customer nor my company was willing to accept their refusal of the claim, and after a week of both of us being insistent that we were owed the cost of the item and the shipping fees, they finally capitulated.

Bosslady isn't an SC, but she won't let go on issues that are patently unacceptable, either.

^-.-^

[Chromatix]

Makes me appreciate the national mail services of Western and Northern Europe, then.

Amazon.co.uk uses Royal Mail for their cheapest (often free) shipping option. Finland is, thankfully, now covered by their free shipping offer, so in recent months I've ordered a few things from them. There's no tracking, but it simply gets handed over to the Finnish postal service at the border, and they do a respectably efficient job - I'll either get a ring of the doorbell and be able to pick it out of the arms of the postman, or I'll find a postcard explaining that the package is at the local post office (maybe a quarter mile away) and can be picked up.

I've never had a package damaged by the national postal services. Never.

Contrast that with the palaver I went through to get something delivered by UPS. Knowing that (unlike the postman) UPS don't get a key for the building, I left a note in the delivery instructions explaining that the back door had a keypad and what the code for it was. This note was completely ignored, and it took several days after the package had arrived in Finland before I actually received it. And yes, it did say "Delivered" at one point before it had even been released from Customs. But at least it arrived intact.

Accordingly, I would always use a national postal service to send something, never an international courier.

Amusingly though, the miniature keyboard I just picked up caused the wrong name to be put on the postcard. My name is not Johanna. The label on the box was correct.

[Mystic]

Amazon.co.uk uses Royal Mail for their cheapest (often free) shipping option.

I just put my purchase in there for Season 3 of Merlin DVD set and their shipping cost was £2 to import to the US. That is cheaper than I pay Amazon here in the US to ship items sometimes.

[Ree]

"The doorbell is next to the mail box"
<snip>
"the doorbell. It does work"

Maybe try a less passive aggressive approach?
Just put up a sign that says, "Please ring bell for deliveries!"

[Midnight12]

If I recall correctly with either Fed-ex or UPS their labels both say with signature required in small but still legible print that a fee may apply. Not badmouthing either business or shipping companies but I also recall when fee's weren't applied to stuff that should be required security measures.
kind of miss that stylus pen on their scanning device. i looked like a mini comp

[blas]

I had to get a new modem (not that mine didn't work but supposedly after the first of the year, their older modems wouldn't work anymore.....I call BS because I still haven't installed the new one yet), the cable company would provide me with a free new one, and they'd send it by standard UPS shipping. So I imagined that would take anywhere from a week to a week and a half.

Because I work at night and sleep during the day, unless I am expecting someone or someone calls to warn me, I won't answer the door for anyone if I am laying in bed and I hear that damn bell.

I didn't know that they were just leaving packages outside doors now. Before that package, I had always had to sign for it. I even had to sign for a freaking box of cookies that the car dealership had sent me. If I didn't answer the door, I'd always gotten a "Sorry we missed you" tag.