Company information:
UPS
United States
I hate UPS. I hate them with a passion I usually reserve only for spiders and rats.
The first time they pissed me off was Christmas 2002, when my grandmother mailed a down comforter to me in California, specifically through UPS instead of the postal service, because she wanted to ensure it showed up before I left to come back East for the holidays. After several days of waiting, it never arrived and I had to leave. I then spent the next two weeks calling UPS, trying to find the package. Nobody knew where it was or what happened to it. Christmas came and went. My grandmother became very upset. I finally had to start frequently dropping the phrase "call my lawyer" before I finally received anything approximating customer service. I ended up talking to a Vice President of the company, who magically managed to find out that my package had been delivered and signed for by my neighbor (after being so late that I was out of town to receive it myself). How hard was that?
Then they held my bridesmaid's dress hostage. Knowing what they were like this time, and failing to convince the dress company to send it to me any other way, I had the dress shipped to my friend's house because she was a housewife who is always home. One day, while at home with her front door open the entire morning, she goes outside to discover a "failed delivery notice" from UPS on the door. Which is strange since she'd been there the whole time and her doorbell worked so far as we all can tell. She immediately calls the number and is told the driver is still in the area and schedules redelivery...but the dress doesn't show up. By the time I call again that night, it has already been rerouted to return to sender -- all the way back in Florida. For what purpose -- the address information was correct? No amount of screaming or threatening could convince UPS not to send the package all the way back to Florida, which would add at least another week to delivery. Which meant I might be out of town by the time it came back given their poor track record...so I had it rerouted directly to my parents' house in NH to await my arrival...and when I got there, the dress didn't fit so I had a panicked couple of days trying to get it resized in time for the wedding, since UPS had eaten up all my scheduled alterations time.
And then last month I ordered a cat tree for my kitten, the only shipping option UPS. I groaned, did it anyway...tracked it up until the day of delivery, put a handwritten sign at the front of the building directing the driver to my apartment...and lo and behold, it showed up on time without trouble! The driver smiled at me, said he saw my sign, and told me not to worry -- he was in this neighborhood every day and knew where my apartment was. I relaxed... My mistake.
Easter came. My aunt and grandma tried to send me candy from my favorite chocolate shop in CT. The only option was UPS... The candy was promised to arrive by Easter. The shipping time UPS promises from CT to California is 4 days. The tracking info shows package scanned in April 7. No problem -- ought to arrive by April 11, just in time. But it doesn't scan through again until April 12 in Cali. And then on April 13 they claim that there is a problem with the receiver address information. And on April 14, they route it all the way back to CT to get corrected address information. My aunt, meanwhile, has been calling since the morning of the 13th. She checked with the chocolate place, and the address information they recorded is all correct. There is no reason why UPS should not have attempted delivery, much less should be sending it all the way back to CT since there are people calling them to confirm the address information. But they insist on sending it back. And now claim the package will redeliver on April 20. This is for something that had been guaranteed to arrive BEFORE EASTER. And it is chocolate, which means perishable. Which means it will now have criss-crossed the country for two weeks, getting all melty and stale. And all for no reason -- they have the correct address, apparently have a driver who knows where this address is, and have people calling them to confirm everything.
Getting it right 1 time out of 4 is not good service -- especially for a shipping company. I have never once had a problem with either FedEx or the United States Postal Service. Somehow, a GOVERNMENT AGENCY is more efficient and better able to complete timely and accurate delivery than a private business whose services cost more.
So help me out here. I have tried to avoid UPS as much as possible, but until businesses stop using them exclusively to ship their goods, I am going to be stuck with them. So please: do not use UPS whenever you have an alternative. Every time you deal with a company that uses them, complain and try to arrange alternate delivery options. Apparently, FedEx has contracted a new low-cost carrier and is even cheaper than UPS now -- so use FedEx when you can. And please feel free to urge your friends and associates to do the same.
DOWN WITH UPS!!!
