Continued Poor Service and Unexplained Delays from UPS

The day after Thanksgiving (Friday), basically the very beginning of
the busy package delivery season, I took a package to the local UPS
Store to have them ship it 800 miles via ground. The guy told me they
would ship it out Monday. I said, "Monday?" and he said, "Monday." So
my package is going to sit in a small UPS Store with very little
security or fire prevention for more than 72 hours? No one is working
on Friday evenings or Saturdays? Since when does UPS act like the US
Postal Service. I thought private was supposed to be better? Thank
goodness we have other options. FedEx anyone?

DEC-2008----NO CUSTOMER SERVICE OR SATISFACTION!!!

Next Day charges $92.39...got there 3 days later which was after
Christmas. Called UPS they stated they won't honor Next Day delivery
between Dec 22 through Dec 26. Would have been nice if UPS or driver
would have made us aware of this. They will NOT give us any kind of
credit. We are a small business, you would think they'd want to keep
our business. Fed Ex....here we come!!!

Deborah

I see that your article is dated June 2007. Now it's January 2009 and
UPS is showing that nothing is fixed by stockpiling 20 container loads
of packages in the Seattle area and getting weeks behind in
deliveries. As I write this I'm still waiting for parcels shipped in
mid-December. I'm so ticked off that I too posted a blog on my
experience (johnstechjournal.com).

Let's hope more people switch to other carriers until UPS fixes some
structural problems.

Here is my latest UPS experience. I ordered crabcakes from Harry and
David. It was shipped using 2nd Day Air and left on Dec 19 2008.
Well, Christmas came and no package.

UPS site showed a 'Destination Scan' on 12/24/2008 at 12pm. The next
line showed on 12/26/2008 at 6.40pm:
THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY / FORWARDED TO THE FACILITY IN
THE DESTINATION CITY. It now has a 'rescheduled delivery' of
12/29/2008. I called Harry and David, who said it was supposed to be
2nd day delivery. That's UPS. Sucks.

UPS fail to inform their customers of brokerage fees outstanding on
their shipments even when these shipments are from one family member
to another. They also lied to me (1) about the price of shipment (2)
about it having ben delivered (they actually put false information in
their tracking system) (3) about refunding me additional costs that
they failed to inform me about in advance (which is obviously their
duty). Never ever assume that shipping your parcel cost what UPS is
telling you. At least not when you ship abroad. Multiply their price
by 2 to get the final cost. UPS is not competitive, it simply lies to
its customers.

Okay, so some people dislike UPS, others FedEx and yet others DHL.

The problem with this letter is that it really doesn't focus on one
issue or actively try to get anything resolved. It is only a simple
vent, which on its own, doesn't seem to persuade anyone of anything.

By the way, the quote "Believe me if I have a choice I usually insist
on anything BUT UPS. I gambled and once again I lost. Not gonna happen
again." sounds a lot like George Bush Sr. Any relation?

without a doubt. Kick your box, stomp on it, leave it in their
personal garage for two days (drivers are not Fed Ex employees); talk
about not knowing where your box is. I had a manager plead with me to
open a badly damaged box, once it was retrieved from a driver's
possession.

As far as UPS - I had a problem with damaged boxes in the 80's. I
started using them again in 1992, and have had no trouble at all
since. I love their tracking system. I find their counter people and
drivers to be friendly and helpful. Sorry yours is not the same.

I have had personal bad experiences with UPS - I actually had a UPS
manager tell me to lie to the shipper - of course, I told the shipper
that UPS told me to lie. Unfortunately, most of us are at the mercy
of what vendors use ...when I have a choice I pick Fed Ex.

My company uses UPS - we've had packages that are addressed to NY and
they wind up in Canada (and then get caught up in customs); and then
we send packages that are delayed for some unknown reason and when you
call UPS, they can't tell you where the package is. Yes, we get a
credit, but it was more important that our package arrived!

actually, I take it back - DHL is the worst (their real name is
Delivered How Late)

UPS is our company's national carrier too and I have had a few
problems, but nothing so bad that I would swear them off.

The truth of the matter is that this was largely a matter of
miscommunication. The vendor never should ahve promised it could be
shipped to arrive "by tomorrow" unless he was shipping the item via
next day service.

The way UPS ships its items is they load the trucks with all the
Urgent/Critical and Next Day items first. Any additional room on that
shipment goes to the ground items. Sometimes you get lucky. Maybe
there isn't a lot of packages in Next Day and they can put your items
on a truck to you, right away. But if you don't pay for the upgraded
shipping, you kind of take your chances when they can/will get them to
you, but they have up to 5 business days.

I live in Cleveland and I used to sell for a party plan that was based
out of Cincinnati. Now, most times, my orders would arrive the day
after I placed them via ground. It's only a 5 hour drive away. But
if I needed to be guaranteed to have it in hand because I had a
customer waiting, I would pay the extra for the next day to make sure
it would arrive. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of the carrier.

Shipping is always a dicey thing - there are so many factors that can
impact whether your shipment gets to you when you need it by and while
I sympathize with your frustration at not getting your new laptop when
it was promised to you, in the future, you might want to consider
waiting to write a letter of complaint to a company until you've
calmed down because it seriously clouds your ability to remain
rational and stick to the facts.

If you and/or the vendor just assumed that because the locations were
so close that you could send it Ground and expect it to be there the
next day, then you were both mistaken. Without knowing how the item
was shipped, it's kind of difficult to tell if you have a valid
complaint or not.

I can't stand UPS either, but unfortunately, our company has a
national contract with them, so we're stuck.

That being said, I am curious as to how it was shipped. If it was Next
Day Air, then yes, UPS needs to be responsible for the problem, as
this is a guaranteed delivery method. They owe the vendor a credit for
the item shipped and the company who you bought the computer from
needs to return your shipping fees.

If it was anything other than Next Day Air, then you are at the mercy
of UPS. Not to mention that residential deliveries are delivered last
on their route.

I think the part of the blame should go to the shipper for promising
that the package would be delivered "tomorrow." Even if you live only
40 miles away, unless you specifically ask for next day service, UPS
cannot (and will not) guarantee the package will be there the next
day. I agree it's a pain, but it is what it is with UPS.

On the whole, UPS has been reliable for me. However, I much prefer
FedEx and try to use them whenever possible.

In addition to writing this letter to UPS, it might not be a bad idea
to contact the shippers when you have a bad experience. If they get
enough customer complaints, they may change their carrier or provide
other options.

Good luck!

Boy do I feel your pain!

You would be better off having your laptop come to you via a donkey,
then through UPS. Their customer service reps cannot keep their
stories straight and delays are the norm. I have had far too many
problems with them to name them all.

Best of luck to you, and hopefully more companies will be offering
other alternatives to UPS.

I have to agree with you in regards to UPS. The company I previously
worked for used USPS for most of their packages. This seemed to be a
wise choice because even the postal service seemed to be more reliable
that UPS. You could pretty much guarantee that the package would
arrive, it might take a few days, but it would arrive. With UPS we
had our packages lost a few times and it was rediculous what you had
to go through in order to either get them to find your package, or
have them refund you the insurance amount. In fact most of the time we
didn't bother going after the insured amount because they required so
much information it usually wasn't worth it. FedEx while more
expensive seems to me to be the most reliable when it comes to getting
packages to their destinations quickly without error.