Why does UPS suck so bad? -or- Does anyone else hate UPS?

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andrewgd
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Why does UPS suck so bad? -or- Does anyone else hate UPS?

Post by andrewgd » Feb 8th 2003, 12:24 am

I have never EVER had good luck with UPS. And I can't stand it because I love shopping online, but every site ships through UPS, and they SUCK!!!

I have had so many boxes ripped apart, bent, etc, that I can't count anymore. I've successfully managed to get a $600 insurance claim for one of the boxes, but it was seriously like pulling teeth to get it.

Today I was supposed to get a new hard drive, because my new 60 gig died, and the one I'm using now sounds really sick (*click*click*click*). The UPS website specifically said I was guaranteed delivery today.

But it snowed.

We got about 4 inches, and schools were closed. BUT PEOPLE STILL WENT TO WORK!! My mom works at a school, and she said that FedEx delivered, as well as the USPS.

I check the tracking and it says "Package missed, rescheduled delivery Monday." So it looks like the dumbass driver just misplaced the box. Idiot. So I call them up, and ask what is going on with my box, and the girl could only tell me what I found out for myself online. But I file a complaint with her about the service.

A few hours later I get a call from the regional manager. (It was nice that he called within a few hours, but...) He says that because of the weather thousands of packages weren't delivered. WTF? Now, I would be less mad if the tracking said it was because of the weather. But it says the package was "missed". Now I'm either led to beleive the guy on the phone is flat out lying to me, or the driver was making an excuse for not wanting to drive in the snow.

I asked how I could get my money back, and he says I can't, because weather voids their guarantee. Besides, I'd have to go through the company I ordered from to get my refund, and we all know how easy that is....

Why does UPS service suck so bad?

Rant done...share your thoughts:
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GaryEA
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Post by GaryEA » Feb 8th 2003, 2:42 pm

When a message like that is posted by UPS, it usually means that the truck could not reach its destination on the originally scheduled date, or that the box required a signature to be delivered and that could not be obtained (i.e. no one is home, so the box can't be left at the door).

I don't think the guy was lying to you. I think the company put out a blanket comment on the tracking pages and rescheduled the deliveries. I agree that it should simply have ether been rescheduled or rescheduled with a note stating "DUE TO WEATHER".

Sorry you've had so much trouble. I hope you get your stuff A.S.A.P.

Gary

p.s. One last thing; I would contact the company you bought the item from and get it on record that the service you paid for was not to your liking. Having it on record will help just in case any further issues arise.

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Post by fnordboy » Feb 8th 2003, 5:37 pm

I hate UPS as well and consistently have problems with them. My girlfriend has had to stop getting packages sent to her house because they would ring the door bell and if you didnt get to the bell in 30 secs they were gone already. It's an apartment building how can they expect you to get to the door from the second floor in under 30 secs?? The best part was when i called and complained they said it was their policy to ring a few times. What this dumbass driver does is ring it liek 3 times in a row and then leaves. I have also had damaged boxes from them. Not surprising since the people I know from high school that went to work at UPS were the biggest morons.

Though I still like UPS better than Airbourne Express...they suck.

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Natasha (candygirl)
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Feb 8th 2003, 9:23 pm

What I really dislike about UPS is that they are so inconsistent about conforming with their own policies. As I stated before, the MSCL DVDS required a signature but my set arrived when no one was home. The box was left on the trunk of my car (not at my front door) while I was out of town.

When my DVD player arrived yesterday, again no signature (which isn't as much of an issue since companies can ship without requiring a signature) but I thought it was highly amusing/stupid that they would leave a huge box on the front porch all day (I guess I should just be glad that I didn't have to go pick it up from their UPS site).

Extra points to Best Buy for deciding that the DVD packaging used at the store was good enough to shipping. They literally slapped a packing list on the box and shipped it out, so there was a big box with a picture of my DVD player sitting in front of the door waiting for me. Thank goodness I live in a safe neighborhood so no one stole it. To follow up on what andrew said, the box was completely dented in and mangled. I have Cyber Home to thank for their secure packaging though - love styrafoam right now.

The one thing I do like about UPS is their online tracking system (granted that is only useful when the vendor bothers to email you with the tracking number - Amazon, I'm talking to you!), but it is really lame that some of the reported status is vague or misleading.

It isn't just UPS that sucks though - Fed Ex totally sucks too. My professor was home sick for a few days so he asked me to Fed Ex some material him so that he could work from home (he lives about an hour from work so no way I was driving down there). He called to ask where the heck the package was, so I tracked it online where I was told that they had "attempted delivery" which was a total lie because he was home all day waiting for it. When I called Fex Ex, they gave me the run around and said that they couldn't attempt another delivery until the next day.

One of my pet peeves when purchasing stuff online is that they don't always give you an option of which carrier to use. A few times Amazon shipped my stuff USPS so I couldn't track it. :x
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Post by fnordboy » Feb 9th 2003, 5:10 am

I can't believe that BEst Buy didn't even wrap the package :? , makes no sense to me. Though in all fairness, when I ordered my JVC region free from JVBDigital.com they didn't pack the box in another box, they just wrapped the outside of it in brown paper (which in reality is enough because the styrofoam and packing materials are enough in the original box, think about it Dell doesnt pack the box of your computer in another box. Stupid though for them not to wrap your DVD, that would have been snatched up in a second here (hell i probably would have been the one to do it ;) )

With FedEx I have to disagree, I have never had a problem with them, they even went out of their way for me when i got my JVC delivered. I had it shipped 2 day to my office and when I went to track it the day it was supposed to come I found out that they said they attempted delivery but couldnt find the location. When I called to find out what the hell happened they told me it the comp-any didnt put the suite number on the address so they couldnt find it in my building with just my name. They then put a call out to the driver told him the suite and he came back and redelivered within 15 mins. Granted they probably thought it was important docs since it was for a business, but I still thought it was pretty damn cool of them and they earned a few points in my mind.

candygirl wrote:What I really dislike about UPS is that they are so inconsistent about conforming with their own policies. As I stated before, the MSCL DVDS required a signature but my set arrived when no one was home. The box was left on the trunk of my car (not at my front door) while I was out of town.

When my DVD player arrived yesterday, again no signature (which isn't as much of an issue since companies can ship without requiring a signature) but I thought it was highly amusing/stupid that they would leave a huge box on the front porch all day (I guess I should just be glad that I didn't have to go pick it up from their UPS site).

Extra points to Best Buy for deciding that the DVD packaging used at the store was good enough to shipping. They literally slapped a packing list on the box and shipped it out, so there was a big box with a picture of my DVD player sitting in front of the door waiting for me. Thank goodness I live in a safe neighborhood so no one stole it. To follow up on what andrew said, the box was completely dented in and mangled. I have Cyber Home to thank for their secure packaging though - love styrafoam right now.

The one thing I do like about UPS is their online tracking system (granted that is only useful when the vendor bothers to email you with the tracking number - Amazon, I'm talking to you!), but it is really lame that some of the reported status is vague or misleading.

It isn't just UPS that sucks though - Fed Ex totally sucks too. My professor was home sick for a few days so he asked me to Fed Ex some material him so that he could work from home (he lives about an hour from work so no way I was driving down there). He called to ask where the heck the package was, so I tracked it online where I was told that they had "attempted delivery" which was a total lie because he was home all day waiting for it. When I called Fex Ex, they gave me the run around and said that they couldn't attempt another delivery until the next day.

One of my pet peeves when purchasing stuff online is that they don't always give you an option of which carrier to use. A few times Amazon shipped my stuff USPS so I couldn't track it. :x

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Natasha (candygirl)
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Feb 9th 2003, 5:36 am

I would have appreciated the brown paper wrapping too, but apparently Best Buy assumes that we all have honest neighbors who would never steal from us. Considering that they didn't require a signature for their UPS delivery, you would THINK that Best Buy might want to make the contents a little less obvious.
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Post by K-man » Feb 10th 2003, 2:18 pm

My two cents:
Last year I worked at a job where I had to receive on a daily basis packages from UPS, FedEx and Airbourne Express. And while I would say that I did develop a freindship with the driver from each co. I would give the highest rating to FedEx. In fact it was no contest. If I had any problems whatsoever, such as I got a box that wasn't mine, or wrong parts shipped, FedEx would take the box back no questions asked. With UPS it was a whole different story. Fill out forms/ time limits/ signatures/ extra charges/ etc. etc. etc. Personally I feel it is due to the fact that FedEx are non-union drivers. They are much easier to deal with when it comes to problems. If I had something that "had to be there overnight" I would definitely use FedEx. Just my personal experience.
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UPS

Post by lance » Feb 10th 2003, 2:55 pm

Hey all,

In the interest of full disclosure let me say that my dad does advertising for FedEx.

Now that's out of the way.

Locally the problem with UPS has been drivers that don't give you five seconds to get to the door before they zoom off with your package. Mek, myself and others have been forced to go to their downtown office to pick our packages. The last package I sent was when we were in Houston for Christmas. We paid something like $40.00 to get UPS 3 day to be delivered on 1/3.

The wife tells me that the guy rang the bell. While she was scrambling to the door he just took off :evil: So UPS won't send the guy back out so I have to go their HQ down on the river.

Now I am certain that not all UPS deliveries are fraut with problems but this was my experience.

Best,

Lance Man

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Post by andrewgd » Dec 22nd 2003, 5:15 pm

Hahaha, my most recent escapade with UPS is quite amusing.

Apparently their guarantee doesn't apply when they "need directions" to a location. The address was in Spokane, WA, something like the 4rth largest city in the state. I was told that it was a remote location, and they "needed directions" to the location, and thats why it wasn't delivered on time.

Since when can a delivery company need directions to a home address? Isn't that a little silly? I told the UPS guy that, and he said it wasn't silly when its a remote address. Which it wasn't.

Anyways, the myUPS store guy refunded the money to me, but UPS corporate wasn't going to take responsibility for it. So now I can laugh at how stupid they sound, instead of being upset that I didn't get my money back. Hahaha!
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Post by sirhansirhan » Dec 22nd 2003, 11:01 pm

Ooh ooh, this is enough to jostle me out of my sulking.

Man, I hate UPS. When I lived with my mom, they would always (always!) deliver packages to her to a school that was across the street. I don't know why. Eventually I moved into my own apartment, and more than once they sent the package back to the sender saying it was "undeliverable," on account of the fact that my apartment building is locked and had no doorbell. Granted, that does make things difficult, but there were times when they left a note on my door, and I went and picked it up myself. This worked just fine.

On the other hand, I've never had a problem with FedEx, or USPS, for that matter.

I was an inventory manager at a Borders for three years; over this time becoming friendly with the drivers, I found out that FedExers get paid absolute crap (my driver said that she made $7 something an hour, all lifting heavy boxes all day), while UPS workers get paid out the ass, as most everyone knows.

Weird.

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Post by TomSpeed » Dec 23rd 2003, 12:24 pm

I've been getting US Postal Service packages very quickly when I've ordered stuff from Amazon. You have to like fast free shipping. The only problem I've had has been when I have preordered stuff. Those orders seem to take longer. I think it might have more to do with the available dates changing vs. shipping though.

I've heard that UPS drivers are well paid. I didn't know about FedEx drivers getting much less. I can comment on the physical beauty of FedEx and UPS female drivers. The ones I've seen have been very hot. I haven't seen any female USPS drivers.
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Post by fnordboy » Dec 23rd 2003, 12:46 pm

TomSpeed wrote: I can comment on the physical beauty of FedEx and UPS female drivers. The ones I've seen have been very hot. I haven't seen any female USPS drivers.
What is up with this countries fascination with the delivery person as a sex object? Personally I have not seen any female FedEx or UPS workers, so I can not comment. USPS on the other hand...usually nothing to write home about.

I have never heard a woman say anything bad about a UPS guy though, is it something about the uniform? Or is there some weird american fetishizing of the color brown? Should I put more brown in my wardrobe? ;)

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Post by Nothingman » Dec 23rd 2003, 1:21 pm

Next time you sign for package and a beautiful senorita delivers it. Instead of signing your name, write your phone number on her computerized tablet, it would be very Rico Suave of you. 8) :wink:
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Post by sirhansirhan » Dec 23rd 2003, 4:07 pm

TomSpeed wrote:I've heard that UPS drivers are well paid. I didn't know about FedEx drivers getting much less. I can comment on the physical beauty of FedEx and UPS female drivers. The ones I've seen have been very hot. I haven't seen any female USPS drivers.
Dude, my old FedEx driver was way surly. Ecchh.

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Post by Nostradamus » Dec 24th 2003, 1:57 am

Well, there was that episode of Drew Carey where the male leads did a delivery-guy themed strip tease, complete with spinning "packages" and set to You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

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