UPS Woes

[Dave1982]

I'm currently in the midst of a difference of opinion with UPS. Specifically, they are of the opinion that 2 packages were delivered to me today, whereas I have bupkis.

However, that's an on-going and as-yet-unresolved issue, so I'm not going to get into the specifics yet. But it did remind me of a different problem my mother had with UPS a couple years ago.

Now, let me explain that the garage is part of the house, and standing in my driveway looking at the garage it's garage door on the left, people door in the middle, and garage door on the right, both flanked by stone retaining walls.

Usually, when a package is being drop shipped, they either leave it tucked up against the middle "people" door, or nestled up in the corner of the house and retaining wall on the right side (where the curve of the driveway neatly hides the package from being visible from the street).

Then one day, UPS dropped a package on the driveway without bothering to come to the door (two people were up at the time and no one heard a knock or the doorbell), up against the right garage door, and it just so happened that he aligned it perfectly with the left wheels of the SUV inside.

I think you can guess the resulting mishap.

Luckily, it was only a ball of yarn, which just squished and popped back out the other side unharmed, but that's beside the point. It should never have been left there in the first place.

So my mother called UPS to complain, and they actually patched in the driver on the call, who proceeded to say "Well where else could I have put it?!"

Hmm....how about in front of the PEOPLE door? Or tucked out of plain sight in the corner like the more shrewd delivery guys do? Or maybe go to the front door and knock? Or even leave it on the front steps. Any of those rather obvious things would have been better than putting it where it might get run over.

To their credit, they realized that driver was a doofus and made him apologize to my mother.

[thehuckster]

UPS and FedEx did that to my parents all the time, and it's a wonder they've always been able to catch it before they ran over the item. Plus, like you, there were dozens of better places to put the package, but they put it in the most precarious place either out of idiocy or laziness, not sure which.

[Spork4pedro]

We had similar issues with our Fed-Ex driver. He would toss (yes, toss. We saw him do it last time) our packages, no matter what was in it/how big it was, onto the driveway like a newspaper and drive off. No knocking on the door or doorbell ditching to let us know he delivered to us. Nothing. Up until the last time (when we saw him toss it) there was luckily nothing breakable but the last time happened to be my brand new laptop. We called and complained and haven't had that issue since! (and another new laptop!)

But what is with this growing trend of drop the package and run? I know that drivers aren't on a set schedule and get to go home when the last package is done (or so I've been told) so I get the urgency but c'mon at least knock/ring the bell once and see if someone's home!

[Andara Bledin]

We had a UPS package where the customer caught the driver kicking the package up the path to the customer on film. And UPS tried to claim that if it had been packed properly it wouldn't have been damaged.

Yeah, they ended up paying off on that.

^-.-^

[radiocerk]

Some of it's a matter of over-work. I used to work for Brown, and around the holidays, it was not uncommon for my drivers to go out with somewhere between 300 and 350 stops. And management was always insisting that the work needed to be done within a time range.

At least with UPS, you can request that your shipments be "driver release" which means they would require a signature, or request to pick them up at the UPS hub.

[Dave1982]

Well, my current issue with UPS was just resolved.

What happened was I placed an order on Amazon (including a birthday present for my mother) that ended up being shipped from two different warehouses. Both of the packages were due to arrive together and sure enough, tracking had indicated they were delivered at 3:32PM, left at front door.

They were not at the front door......or the back door.....or the garage.

Two people were home at the time UPS allegedly delivered them, and no one came to the door at that time.

So I called UPS, explained that I was missing two packages that indicated they'd been delivered, and gave them the trackign numbers.

UPS: Sir, according to our system both were delivered at 3:32PM and were left at the front door.

*sigh*

Me: I understand that, but as I explained, the problem is that I do NOT in fact have those packages. They were NOT delivered.

So the guy verified the shipping address (they had it right) and then abruptly told me to talk to Amazon, and then before I knew it the call had ended, with me kinda staring at the phone wondering what had happened.

Of course, as Lupo pointed out in chat, techincally I'm the third-party, since UPS had been paid by Amazon to deliver the goods.

So I called Amazon....or rather....had Amazon call me. They have a system where you type in your phone number and they call you.

Amazon was - to put it mildly - infintely more helpful than UPS was.

I explained what the issue was, and apologized for having to bother them since it clearly wasn't their fault. The woman I spoke with put me on hold and called UPS right then and there and they told her the same thing, so she had them open an investigation and told me that if they couldn't locate the packages in 48 hours, then they'd replace my order.

Turns out that they'd delivered the packages to our neighbor's house across the street, where they weren't noticed until this morning (they hadn't been expecting anything). Luckily, our neighbors are honest and they brought them over to us.

I just called Amazon back to tell them they could cancel the investigation and to make sure they didn't send out a replacement order that wasn't needed. I think the guy I spoke to this time was kinda shocked because he actually stammered a bit when he thanked me for following up.

[dragon_wings]

I'm glad everything was cleared up.
When I was living with my ex we had issues with UPS, FedEx, *and* USPS. One time our roommate ordered a custom made shirt from an artist and he tracked it all the way. Well it was declared 'delivered' but none of us knew where it was (I worked full time, roomie went to school full time, and my ex stayed home all day). Well roomie spent a week trying to track it down before we found out it was delivered to xxx apt c when we were yyy apt c. He eventually got it but that was just *one* issue we had.

[Sparky]

Oddly, I've never had a problem with stuff not being delivered to me. I've had problems with stuff being delivered to me when it belonged somewhere else.

One Christmas Eve we came home after dark after being away all day to find a package on our door. Correct house number, but not the right street. Because it was Christmas Eve, I drove it to where it belonged, which was a few streets away. The guy I gave it to was very surprised.

Another time I had a huge package on my porch. According to the label, it was a bumper for a truck. I called UPS. More than once. This was shortly after they'd been on strike, so they were a bit backed up. I would have called the recipient, but I couldn't find a firm by that name and I don't think the address existed. I would have driven it back to UPS myself, but I could not lift it! It was on my porch a couple of weeks. Made me angry every time I looked at it.

[sirwired]

Dave,

At least you understand that you aren't UPS'es customer, and accepted the handoff of responsibility to Amazon, and Amazon picked up the ball, just like they should have. This is an unfortunate source of many SCs for shipping companies, and, as an added bonus, there are lots of brain-dead shippers that don't want to deal with it.

[Captain Trips]

Dave,

At least you understand that you aren't UPS'es customer, and accepted the handoff of responsibility to Amazon, and Amazon picked up the ball, just like they should have. This is an unfortunate source of many SCs for shipping companies, and, as an added bonus, there are lots of brain-dead shippers that don't want to deal with it.

Yes, but the UPS CSR could have been nicer about it - maybe something like, "Sir, since this was a shipment paid for by Amazon, I'm afraid you'll have to work with them on this." Much better than, "Call Amazon <click>" - and only five seconds longer to say. NO QA agent would hold that against him/her.

[Brandy]

We had an issue with either UPS or FedEx, I forget which. My parents really like the wine from a certain company near where I live, but their state does not allow wine to be shipped across state lines. Sometimes what my mother will do is order wine, have it delivered to me and then I get it to her the next time we see each other.

The last time she had wine delivered to my apartment, the delivery driver asked a random stranger to sign for it! I didn't know this person from Adam, and she did not even live on my floor. I had no idea the wine had been delivered until she came knocking on my door. Thank god she was honest, since I would have had no way of knowing where the wine was otherwise. This was a case of wine, over $100, so not exactly cheap either.

I told my parents they should complain, but have no idea if they did or not.