I have stupid bad luck with shipping

[AtmaWeapon]

I'll spare you the 3-page version of this story with all of the details. If you are interested visit my blog (http://www.atmaweapon.org/blog) and help me feel like I'm paying for web hosting for a reason.

On Wednesday I ordered a package, and it was pretty important to me that I got some of the materials before the weekend because I needed one of the CDs to prepare for my upcoming wedding. So I paid an extra $6 to get 2-3 day shipping because it promised an arrival date of today in the worst case.

My apartments have this awesome deal where if you aren't there when a package comes they hold the package for you. This is cool because basically troubles with getting things delivered to an apartment have caused me to avoid shopping online if I can avoid it for the past 3 or 4 years. So I cut out of work a little early to make sure I'd get here before the office closed.

Except there was no package. The tracking information claims a delivery was attempted, but there is no label on the door and no one in the office saw a FedEx truck today. There is no evidence that the driver even came to the complex.

I am very agitated because this has happened before. It has happened consistently with almost every order I make in 3 different states over a timespan of about 6 years.

Turns out most people don't complain when this happens. What I hear from previous employees both in real life and the internet is that sticker is the driver's only evidence of "I at least tried", so if he doesn't put the label up he has to explain why he didn't visit the location that day. I had a teacher who worked for UPS that saw a guy get fired for the same thing; turns out he was visiting a lady friend and reporting the packages from that stretch of time as "Recipient not home". I could be hearing wrong, but it motivates me to contact the company when I don't have the label.

I had to pay an extra $6 "rural delivery" surcharge to ship something to my lady the other day. This is ridiculous. She lives 8 miles outside of the city limits. When I "wasn't home" for their deliveries, I always had to go to the UPS distribution center, which is located a convenient 25 miles outside of the city limits. Why do I have to pay a rural delivery charge for houses that are closer to the city than UPS is?

I can't remember the last time I bought something online and haven't had to go through a lot of trouble to receive it. What bothers me is how much I pay to have this stuff delivered, and I have no recourse when they screw it up. When I complain to UPS/FedEx, I never get my money back or even an apology; they just point out the clauses in their terms that basically spell out "We'll ship the package when we feel like it and make you pick it up if we want to; you should feel honored that we chose to serve you." I can't complain to the vendors (Amazon, B&N, etc.) because it's not their fault. I can't choose a more reliable service because few vendors let you choose the shipping method; they let you pick the "speed" of service and pick the guy that's cheapest at the moment.

What hacks me off is I have never had a problem with the USPS. When I ship packages to people, it is cheaper and more convenient than UPS or FedEx. When they screw up my shipping, I get a refund. When people ship stuff to me, I get it. I don't have to guess if the mail carrier came today because there's 100 other people that would notice if today's mail didn't come. Why is it that no one uses a service that is cheaper, handles incidents better, and more reliable?

[Prrkitty]

It's the same thing here... sticker on door and package left at apartment complex office. Although how is someone to know there is a package at the office *IF* the sticker is *NEVER* left?

I'm waiting on a package from Just My Size and I wonder also if USPS or UPS will screw me up over it? <blah>

[MasterSwordUltima]

FedEx has a shift that starts at 2am [which I'm sure UPS does too, I don't work for UPS though, I work for FedEx] inwhich all these tractor-trailers full of boxes are unloaded, go across a huge system of belts and sorted out [by people along the way], and eventually the boxes end up in the correct truck.

Most of the time, we're either rushed like hell, or people are stupid. My new manager is stupid. He's not even from here, yet he tried to tell me how to load my trucks. So for the most part, the loaders gets sick of this, and end up doing a shit job putting the boxes in the correct place on the truck, THEREFORE when the driver gets to stop A, not all the boxes for stop A at where they should be, so s/he has to go back there however many times.

FedEx drivers do an insane amount of work, usually 10-12 hour work days [let alone how long they're out around Christmas time], and are totally under appreciated. My point being, don't blame the drivers all the time. Blame the white collars.

[AtmaWeapon]

The word from FedEx at the moment is that they "contacted the delivery center and advised them of my concerns". I have never made it this far with FedEx support. Perhaps it's because I pointed out that some of my merchandise is important for my wedding preparations, perhaps I finally managed to express the right tone in my email to support. The sad thing is, prior experience with the company leaves me with no expectation of receiving a resolution tomorrow. It's actually very inconvenient, because I have quite a few errands to run tomorrow and I can't be hovering over the phone in case someone actually cares to address my issue. I want my package or I want my shipping costs refunded.

What would solve this problem would be if I could choose my carrier myself, and pay the extra costs if the need be. This was a $60 order that cost me $15 to ship; I'd have paid $25 if I could have shipped USPS or DHL instead.

Keep in mind that I could have ordered this package a week ago and got it on time. But my experiences with shipping have been so consistently bad that I spent that week visiting bookstores and CD stores as far as 50 miles away, sometimes arriving home at 9PM because I am so tired of the hassles of shipping that in my mind the possibility of finding what I needed without having to ship it was worth an infinite amount of effort to avoid it. I'd have paid 200&#37; markup if it could have got me out of having it shipped. I am that disenchanted with this process.

Please don't play entitlement games with me and tell me how hard it is for the driver. I will be forced to belittle and insult at that point and it is taking quite a bit of willpower to avoid the epic troll I want to use. I could understand if the driver showed up and didn't see my package. The trouble is, he was able to indicate at 10:49 AM that I wasn't at my apartment, but did not leave the label that he is required to leave to indicate he was here. No one in the office witnessed a FedEx truck arrive, which is odd since they have to open the gate for him. That's not a misplaced package, that's not doing your job.

I pay FedEx money to ship packages. FedEx pretends to ship packages and ultimately tells me to come and get it myself if I want it so bad. I've seen FedEx employees on the internet go so far as to tell me that this is how I should expect the transaction to go, and I think if you believe that then you have no business with my money.

Sadly, my experience tells me that Monday I will get another "recipient not present" notice, followed by a "final visit, come to this address" notice on Tuesday. I will already have left for the wedding, and I will be unable to pick up the package. Part of me wants to challenge the charge to my card, claiming that I never received the package. Then FedEx has lost money mishandling a package and Amazon has to deal with getting it returned. That's stupid and petty and I still need the package. I just wish for once I could order a package, pay for premium shipping, and get the package without a hitch. FedEx and UPS have never delivered on this promise to me.

If by Santa's magic they deliver this package to me tomorrow in the proper manner, then I will write a sufficiently long article in praise of how they took this mistake and made it right, and I will give them another chance. I cannot let some things go undone this weekend though, and if they aren't going to leave the package with the front office if I'm not here then they aren't trying to make it right. If the truck doesn't even show up, then it's just par for the course.

[Aegix Drakan]

dude...Atma, that sucks for you. It's not funny when stuff doesn't come though.

I hope that somehow you manage to get that stuff you ordered.

[Skulkraken]

Ouch. I've been burned by shipping companies before.

Around here, people hate UPS. With a vengeance. The reason? They charge us international rates, despite the fact that we're part of the US. You have any idea how hard it is to try to bring in merchandise for a retail store when the shipping costs more than the products themselves? I'm talking about shipping that goes to nearly $200.00 here.

Most people here would use USPS instead, except for a different problem. Many times, packages sent through them completely disappear. I mean completely. The package never arrives, and the tracking codes for it stop working. Word on the street is that workers in the post office hold packages on purpose without the knowledge of the person ordering, then snag it for themselves once they're sure the victim has given up. This isn't as bad as in the Philippines, mind you, where postal workers will demand half of the money or goods on the spot (in front of the line of people picking up packages), but it's still really annoying.

[AtmaWeapon]

Well the story has a happy ending but I still dread the next time I'm forced to get something from Amazon.

Amazon responded to my complaint by giving me a partial refund of shipping costs; basically the end result is as if I had paid for standard ground instead of 2-3 day. Which is neat because that's the service I got.

FedEx failed to deliver on their promise to "contact me about resolving the problem", but they did manage to deliver the package today. The door handle notice said "Attempting front desk" as if it was the most ridiculous thing they'd ever heard, which is odd since every apartment I looked at when apartment hunting mentioned a similar service.

Anyway so the prizes from this run through the obstacle course are: Continued confirmation of a negative online shopping experience Partial refund of shipping costs which would encourage me to do business with Amazon again except they will still use FedEx. "Age of Winter" by The Sword is probably the most awesome album I own Goods crucial to wedding plans have been secured I got through chapter 1 of the book and I'm pretty certain this technology is not what my boss is looking for :/Also Skulkraken I must admit that while I find my experiences odd I am sorry that you have worse experiences that can't be solved by a few snooty employees getting replaced.

[MasterSwordUltima]

Amazon responded to my complaint by giving me a partial refund of shipping costs; basically the end result is as if I had paid for standard ground instead of 2-3 day. Which is neat because that's the service I got.


The majority of FedEx drivers are either complete idiots or severely disgruntled. [the two drivers whom I get to load for the next year or two are unbelievably willing to put up with endless incompetent workers] So yeah, a lot of drivers are fucking lazy. I was just trying to hold it out for the underdog drivers who actually do do their job, and stuff just gets in the way.


Hell, I'm still trying to get my projector TV I bought a month ago on eBay back via FedEx...bleh. Glad to hear it all worked out though.