AtmaWeapon
10-19-2007, 11:31 PM
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?
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?