UPS, You Fail

I order a lot online, but oddly, I haven’t had anything shipped via UPS in a long time. Usually, it’s FedEx and deliveries are without incident. This time, though, my package went UPS, and my sanity with it.

Delivery was scheduled for today. What a joke. Here’s a play by play:

5:50 AM - The package is marked “Out for Delivery”. No timeline, but that’s pretty standard.

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM - I track the package periodically, checking for updates. Still “Out for Delivery”.

6:00 PM - I call UPS to try to get more information about the status of my delivery. They know nothing more than it’s “Out for Delivery”. My apartment complex office is now closed, so I verify that an attempt will be made to my door. I’m assured that that’s the case. I’m told that deliveries will be made up to 7:00 PM.

7:00 PM - I call UPS again, to let them know that it’s now 7 PM and no delivery has been made. I’m told that deliveries are sometimes later than 7 PM. I’m assured by the representative that the delivery will be made even past 7 PM. The local UPS office is now closed.

8:00 PM - I call UPS yet again, telling them that my package has still not arrived. This time, the representative tells me that it could be as late as 12 AM before my package is delivered. 12 AM? Yes, I’m told. After the 7 PM deadline, the next deadline is 12 AM.

9:00 PM - I track the package again. To my utter shock and intense rage, I see that it has now been marked as “1st Delivery Attempt Made”. WTF?! I have been literally held hostage in my home, fearing that the minute I went anywhere would be the minute the God-forsaken UPS driver would decide to show up. No delivery attempt was made. No note on my door.

9:05 PM - After I finish reciting cuss words. I call UPS one more time. I tell them what happened: that no delivery attempt was made and that there’s no note on my door. The driver simply decided he/she was done for the day and scanned my package as an attempted deliver. The response: “We’re sorry. Unfortunately, the local office is now closed, so we cannot contact them until the morning.” Seriously? I hang up and recite a few more cuss words.

So, basically, whether your package is delivered, in UPS’s alternative reality, is at the total whim of the delivery driver. If they just don’t feel like working, if they just want to go home and watch primetime TV, if they just want to take a nap on the side of the road or hire a hooker, they can just say they tried to deliver and you weren’t there.

Your options? Bend over, spread wide, and lube up.

This is totally unacceptable customer service. I’m going to write the merchant, inform them of what happened, and maybe they’ll stop using UPS. More likely, I’ll be ignored. I set the package for pickup, so I don’t have to repeat the whole damn thing again tomorrow. I’ll probably chew some ass. Maybe, I’ll file a complaint against the driver. The results? I’ll likely expel CO2, needlessly, and waste a piece of paper. The bitter truth is that there’s really no recourse for the end user.

What can Brown do for you? Make you bleed from the rectum, that’s all.

Tags: complaints, shipping, ups

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zain 9 months ago 1 point
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A little overdramatic, don't you think?

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Chris Pratt 8 months ago 1 point
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@zain: Not really. It's not that my package didn't arrive when it was supposed to. That's only a minor inconvenience, and complaining about that, true, would be overdramatic. However, my true complaint is with UPS customer service (or lack thereof) and their seemingly complete inability to have any effective control over their own employees.

Now, perhaps my wording goes at bit over the top, but it's the result of the sum total of all my frustration. It it nothing less than insanity that huge corporations run their businesses with virtually no internal oversite, commitment to quality or concept of customer service. They survive and thrive solely on the basis that their customers generally have little choice but to do business with them. I've seen the same behavior from Wal-Mart, Verizon, AT&T;, and so on. And, we, the people who line their pockets with money have no recourse or avenue for our dissatisfaction. The only thing that could effectively remind them that the customer is what matters is for their customers to unitedly turn away, but they've all positioned themselves such that that would never and probably could never occur.

The result is that all you can do is take it with a smile, so no, I don't think it's overdramatic to say that I feel a little sore in the posterial region.

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Treyvoni Fox 7 months ago 1 point
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Speaking as a former UPS employee, you are completely right. Drivers are not required to deliver all the packages. As union employees, they work their shifts and leave what wasn't done for the next day/shift. I happened to work for a hub, thus it was open 24/5 (I worked the night shift no less...unloading semis and sorting packages by destination.) However, local outbound stations, your 'local' UPS delivery places, don't generally have night shifts and close about 10 pm.

That they claimed a first delivery is troubling. I would definitely report that to UPS if I were you. The driver should be written up for that. Although note that being written up is basically a slap on the wrist with words! Ha!

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kenneth Elsey 2 months ago 1 point
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Wow, Sounds word to word what I have now experienced three time. First time the driver claimed he/she could not deliver over safety concerns. I live across the street from our police station. We ended up driving 30 miles when gas was 4.35 a gallon. cost to us including original shipping and handling, 21.00 dollars on a 7.00 item.Second time, Hub pulled package back claiming security issue? Material is educational material for our homeschooled daughter. This time they did deliver the next day. Third time is yesterday/today. The driver claimed that no one was available to sign for package. My wife was frying chicken in the kitchen with the door open to eliminate smoke at the exact time the driver claimed no one at home, 6:10pm Once again the run around with the customer Disservice department at ups. I think that i will be filing a complaint with BBB and with whoever regulates Parcel deliveries in the USA. We're just not going to take it anymore.

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