Damn You, FedEx Ground

[rolanni]

I usually tell people not to ship me stuff by FedEx Ground. This is why:

1. The very first thing that was sent to me by FedEx Ground was a Special Gift for Steve -- a key-driven wall clock with Westminster chimes that he had only been lusting after, at that point, for a quarter of a century. FedEx Ground in Lewiston, Maine apportioned it to a driver (they use freelancers in these parts) who Did Not Believe in Waterville. He delayed delivery for more than a week, and when the clock finally did arrive, after I called the vendor to solicit their assistance in getting the delivery finalized, it was smashed into two hundred pieces.

2. The next time, the package was left on some random porch in Albion. No, I don't know why. Happily tney were honest folk at that place, and I was able to recover our goods.

3. The third time, there was a snowstorm and the driver didn't want to drive out a country road in the admittedly risky conditions. Fair enough. But! Instead of letting his manager know that the weather was too bad to continue driving, he logged the item as delivered.

4. Which brings us to today. Two rather large and substantial packages, which I very much desire to have, are reported as "delivered 12:10; left on porch." Which is an Utter Fabrication. I called FedEx Customer Service, who put in a tracing request and a Dispute of Delivery. The manager of the Lewiston facility is supposed to call me, today, tomorrow, whenever. In the meantime, my packages are Ghod Knows Where and I am Just Infuriated.

Die, FedEx Ground. Die!

Edited to add: My packages are at my neighbor's house (over there, see? Right at the top of that long drive? Up on the crest of the hill?), where there's work being done, and a helpful contractor brought them inside. The Mrs. has volunteered Himself to schlepp them down for me when he gets home. Good neighbors.

Die, FedEx Ground. Die!

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I can add the time FedEx left two boxes of books on the exposed back steps in the rain. You've seen our house. Out front, we offer a large deep covered porch, with additional recess for the front door . . .

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Driver was probably a Mainer, who knows nobody ever uses the front door. Dare I ask if he bothered to wrap them in plastic?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Mailbox is on the front porch . . .

Yes, they were wrapped in plastic. Loosely. It leaked.

(Not enough to damage the books inside. Else you would have heard the detonation off in beautiful East Winslow.)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Should add, they've dumped other stuff on the front porch, both before and after. When it isn't raining.

Including leaving $2K of Dell computer system out there next to the sidewalk.

[lagilman]

I hate FedEx with a mad and abiding passion -- even within the confines of New Haven-to-Manhattan they seem unable to complete overnight deliveries in a proper fashion, and rather than telling the customer that it will not be delivered, they merely put it aside for the next day -- despite the customer having paid for overnight delivery (their excuse was that it was the day before a holiday so the lawyer would not be there -- why it was given to them to determine if someone was working or not I don't know... I guess they figure they don't work hard, so nobody else does, either...). And so legal papers were not delivered on time, almost costing me my new home.

Bastids. And no, I never got an apology. Or a refund.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Grrr....

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Try sending with FedEx in the UK. I needed an urgent delivery to the US from the UK, and they were the only ones who said they were willing to do it, so I called them. They asked for, and were given, my credit card details (and the pickup point which was from work). All fine, picked up, delivered, paid for on the credit card I assumed.

Next thing I hear is several months later from a debt collection agency saying "you owe FedEx X pounds" (no other information). I hadn't had any letter from FedEx about it, and I'd actually forgotten about the transaction at all (since I didn't have a receipt I didn't notice that it wasn't on the CC bill). I called the agency, all the information they had from FedEx was "X owes us money", no invoice number or even date. Eventually I got a FedEx nphone number from them (the one in the directory was sales only), got through to FedEx and asked what it was about. "You didn't pay our invoice!" What invoice, when and to where was it sent? And pointed out that they had my CC details anyway and I was expecting it to be taken from there, was ther some problem with the card? "Oh, we only take the CC details as surety." Against what? "So that if you don't pay the invoice we debit your card!" But they didn't debit my card, they went straight to a collection agency. I was so tempted to tell them to take me to court, any judge would have thrown the book at them (not using the backup payment system, not giving any information to the collection agency so it looked like a scam (anyone could just say "you owe me money")...) but couldn't be bothered.

FedEx. Do Not Want.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Small Claims Court will get you the refund, at least of FedEx's charges.

When I worked for a law firm, and they needed to get papers somewhere overnight, they sent three copies: one by FedEx to the office (of the other company or whoever), one by FedEx to the home of someone who worked there, and one by DHL to the office. I was told that never had all three not arrived, but there were times when two didn't.

[ckd]

FedEx Ground doesn't seem to be all that great to work for, either.

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

It must be a regional thing. I've rarely had a problem with any delivery system except USPS.

Beter FedEx than USPS for us

[drammar.livejournal.com]

From my journal of March of last year:

You may recall my big drama posting from this time last week. And you may remember that I had finally gotten the deed putting the house into the trust in my possession and sent it off Priority Mail to the title company.

The title company has never received it. Priority Mail = 2 to 3 business days. Yeah, right.

The Post Office "mis-sent" it. Which means that it will get delivered whenever they remove their thumbs from whatever orifices in which they are currently stuck and get it to where it is supposed to be. Which may be tomorrow, or the day after that, or even next week -- if ever. My tracking information only tells me that it was "mis-sent" but not where it is now, nor when delivery might be expected.

I have called: the Post Office where it was mailed. The distribution center for this area. The distribution center where it should have been sent. The distribution center where it was sent according to the tracking information on the website. No one can tell me anything. To the tune of, variously, "Ma'am the only information we have is what is on the website." "We didn't lose your package. It was just misdirected." 'It will be delivered.' 'When? I don't know Ma'am, I don't have a crystal ball." (yes, someone really said that to me.)

A few weeks later UPS screwed up the delivery of my granddaughter's christening gown (a family heirloom). Seems like no one wants to do their job right any more. *sigh*

Re: Beter FedEx than USPS for us

[sparkylibrarian.livejournal.com]

Our USPS accepted a Priority Mail package containing a pair of Flipside tickets from the Flipside organizers in South Austin (TX). We live in north Austin. Priority nothing, we never saw the thing, and the "delivery confirmation" was useless. We ended up reporting the tickets as lost, and had a new set put on Will Call. So what shows up 3 days before the event-- a full 1.5 months after they were sent?

And yes, I'm pretty sure there is a sorting center in Austin. 10 minutes from our house. The USPS can be such a pile of horse hockey.

I'm sorry to hear about your UPS troubles, in addition! That's too much!

[johnhawkinson.livejournal.com]

Everyone has horror stories from all the carriers.

FedEx Ground is maybe the hardest to deal with, because the delivery drivers are not FedEx employees. They are all contractors, and that means they can be quite variable. (In fact, FedEx Ground used to be RPS. It was bought wholesale several years ago, but really never well-integrated with the rest of the FedEx empire).

No matter who you pick, FedEx, UPS, DHL (now defunct), or USPS, there's something to go wrong and you can get a million horror stories.

DHL was one of the worst. Back when they were in the domestic shipping business and we had a fairly large negotiated discount with them, I used them more than I really ought to've, and for a given package shipped, there was a pretty good chance (maybe 20%) they would fail to make their guaranteed delivery and that would turn into free shipping. And then there was the time they lost a two-hundred pound box and sent it to Albany instead of Boston, and they got as far as having to check the video surveillance of the truck-loading to find it (...)

FedEx is usually considered the most solid. FedEx Ground not so much.

As with UPS, the weakest link in the chain is the last mile, the delivery driver. Some of them are really awesome. Some of them are not so good. And the problems they have vary, and rural areas present different challenges than high-density urban ones. Some of them think they're doing a favor by leaving packages without signatures (and for some people, they are).

A friend had an awesome FedEx driver who would go around to her rear balcony and toss packages up to it, so they could be left without her being home in a secure area.

My experience is the best way to solve these problems is to sit down and talk to your driver. Unfortunately that's basically impossible in many cases, especially if there's no reasonable volume, or, as it sounds like here, your driver never even comes near the destination :(

It sounds like in your case the best you can do is talk to the customer service folks, or possibly the folks at the local depot. How that message will make it down to the driver and whether it'll be a good result or a bad result, that's tough to say.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

If you can get to the distribution depot, UPS staff tends to be fairly careful. (annoyingly careful if you're my mother, but...) And even in a small city, they really do want to have drivers on a fairly regular route. Lets them do QA.

The Post Office is actually quite similar, so if the regular carrier sucks, it's a good idea to let them know. Politely, because it *is* someone's job on the line.

FedEx, I have no idea how the hell you get decent service.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I have similar feelings about UPS, I would rather use the post office because they are a govt agency and they cant help it, a for profit business should be villaified (thats Italian for buried in the footings).

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

I bought a used computer. It was shipped FedEx Grrrrr(ound). It had to get from Chicago to Michigan. I tracked it from Chicago to LA, then to Portland OR then back to Chicago, then Detroit then to my back door. What should have taken 2 days took 10.

At my house, the driver flung it over the back gate at my back door. Luckily there was about 18 " of snow to cushion its fall. No plastic. Front door shoveled but not back -- kind of wonder why someone would slog through snow drifts when a perfectly good arrow had been pointed at the door I use. I also luv FedEx.

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

My dad ordered some piece of computer equipment and got to watch it wander around the country for two weeks. It would go from the East Coast to LA to the midwest back up East, back to the midwest, down to Texes, back up to main .... For over two weeks it did that before it finally got delivered to Northern California.

[seanmoon.livejournal.com]

I think it's a local thing. For us, it's UPS that makes stuff up. They will run up to your door, not ring the bell and leave the "tried to deliver, please come pick up the package in east faraway" stickers if the package weighs more than about 8 oz. I've seen them actually do it.

[deor.livejournal.com]

Have had the USPS do that. "There was no answer to the bell." "That's because no one ever rang it."

[elbales]

It's even more fun if you live in a gated apartment complex. "No one answered the intercom." "Yeah, that's because I was AT MY DESK and the ANSWERING MACHINE picked it up and if your idiot driver had just said, 'Uh, UPS here? Anyone home?' I'd have buzzed him in and I would have warm fuzzies about how UPS is not staffed by complete imbeciles."

I don't appreciate having to drive to east faraway to pick up a package I paid to have delivered. Seriously. Ngg.

[muehe.livejournal.com]

Darn, I feel lucky. My biggest complaint was waiting an extra day.

Ok, they did leave a $300 item right out front. But, no one stole it.

You might try having them deliver it to work. I have done that before. Big ticket item that required a signature. They delivered it to the wrong building, but I was tracking it and just walked over and grabbed it.

Hope your knee is getting better.

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

Ah yes FedEx. Gah, the local delivery driver backed into the parking structure at work and bent the pole about 30 degrees, knocked over the brick wall and damaged the Superintendent's car all in one fell swoop. Thankfully the cement slab that used to be on top of the parking structure had been removed.

And to poor boss he had been delighted to pull a fast one on his secretary and grab her favorite place that morning.

[elbales]

I've had the worst luck with UPS. The drivers in my neck of the woods are, by and large, incompetent. To the best of my ability to judge. Very little gets sent to me FedEx. Will avoid.

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

Long ago some folks in the US Air Force at Wright Aeronautical Labs got curious about forces on objects sent through the USPS (then the US PO). They wired up a box with accelerometers good to three or four gees inside and sent it parcel post... it arrived with the instruments pegged/broken. They tried again, with heavier duty instruments inside, and eventually tracked down that there was chute in Chicago with a drop and collision with other objects, that put NINE gees!!! of force on things that went through it....

[(Anonymous)]

Wow. I'm sorry to hear all the horror stories. I've had nothing but good luck with FedEx and USPS. I've mailed packages to many different places when my sons were in the USMC and have never had a problem sending or receiving. My wonderful postal person even paid fifty cents for an envelope that was overweight so I'd get it on Mother's Day.
Barbara in Texas

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

I've had fairly good luck in SF...generally noone is home at home, so it goes to the distribution center which isn't too inconvenient to get to (UPS) or local PO (nearby)...Fedex/Fedex Ground are similar. And I maintain a PMB at a UPS Store, so most stuff ends up there anyway...and that is very reliable.

So I just don't have any horror stories, but I am also in a very heavily served city with optimum delivery choices.

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

UPS....we decided to design in an 18 ga steel front panel on a piece of test equipment because we knew it was gonna be lugged around by technicians - we forgot about the UPS gorillas. Acutally received to units back with panels bent over 90 degres.
Lorna

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I am not fond of FedEx but I dislike UPS even more. They put unreasonable time restrictions on their drivers, making it almost impossible for them to do their job properly.

I try to have packages sent via USPS to my nice secure box at the post office. If that's not possible, I deal with FedEx and UPS by calling them the afternoon before I expect delivery to give them detailed instructions on how to find my door. If I don't, there's no telling where the packages might end up, if they bother to bring them at all. If customer service has a record of giving the driver detailed instructions, it is harder for the drivers to get away with claiming they thought someplace else was the right place.

fedex ground

[(Anonymous)]

We must remember Fedex Ground drivers ar not employees and therefore do not have a manager. They are presented as employees by the company, but as indepndent contractors the drivers work for themselves.(fedex conceals this relationship, and thats why customers usually recieve bizzare responses from customer service and management)