Rant: UPS is killing me

My son sold his Xbox One on May 20th. We shipped it UPS ground to Kansas on May 21st. It was supposed to arrive on May 29th. I got a delivery confirmation (I didn't ask for a signature though) on the 29th. 15 minutes later the buyer said that the package wasn't delivered to her house and that she was home at the time. I thought we got ripped off by the buyer. I filed a claim with UPS though on the slim chance that it was legit. On June 1st UPS informed me that they found the package and it was out for delivery. I also got an email that I was being billed for another $17. I thought that was strange. Then I got an email with a notice that the package was being delivered to TEXAS. What the berkeley? It turns out UPS had the buyer's old address (her parents' house) in their database so they thought that would be a good place to ship it. Sure enough her Dad received the package. I spent 2-3 hours trying to reopen my claim. I tried call every number I could find, but they are all automated and my problem didn't fit into their logic tree. Next I fired off a nasty note on their FB page. I got a reply that someone would contact me. Sure enough I got an email and a call from a young lady and she apologized profusely and told me that they would pick up the package and refund the extra shipping. 2 weeks later they still hadn't picked it up so I sent the buyer a UPS shipping label and her dad dropped it off at The UPS Store on June 22nd. It's been 9 days and once again the package has been lost. I'm truly flabbergasted at this point. I cannot believe how inept they have been. Their complete lack of customer service is disgusting. At this point I don't know what the berkeley to do. Any suggestions?

I shipped a stereo receiver from NC to CA for a rebuild.  Shipped it June 5th.  It arrived yesterday, July 1.  Ws not happy about it.  Apparently it was stuck in Chicago for at east 2 weeks because of the protestors.

I know from talking with the drivers and knowing people who worked there, the place sounds like a berkin hellhole.  The drivers can do no right and management isn't doing their job if the drivers dont hate the managers.  This week my driver at work left a pool of dirty motor oil on our white concrete parking lot. I tell him hes leaking a lot, he says yeah, he complained about it but they wouldnt do anything.   One of the drivers we had was a guy i went to school with, good guy, hard worker, good delivery driver. He showed up kinda pissed one day. Mentions he cant talk much because his manager was stalking him. Sure enough, he had a shadow. I saw it a few more times too. The managers will be in their personal cars just following the drivers around to harass them. 
 

it must be completely miserable to work there, no surprise they are having issues.  We switched to fedex a year or so ago for our regular service, mostly due to the issues brought on by the UPS office. So far fedex has been better. Drivers are happier, less probs with billing. 

One of my casuals works as a manager at UPS.  Truly a "know it all" kind of guy who is miserable to work with.  

There are no fat UPS drivers. These guys hump hard all day long. The place is run with a boot camp military mentality every day. 

The drivers are Teamsters. Hasn't the union got their backs?

I've been just as happy with the USPS lately, Amazon is honked.... I think a lot of it is the increased demand on delivery services in general- and the guys up the ladder get bonuses

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :

I have it on good authority from a few of my customers that Fedex is quietly offering rates which seriously undercut current UPS prices in a bid to regain a lot of the market that they abandoned. Might want to check with them to see if they can do better rate wise.

It also appears that Fedex's API isn't the equivalent of an on fire herpes infested garbage truck any longer, so we could be convinced to build a native integration to it.

I don't have much good to say about UPS either.  Bought a sway bar a while back and needed to exchange it - vendor's fault.  A UPS driver showed up unannounced to pick up the old one and said they'd try twice more since I didn't have it packed.  Left it outside with a big UPS sign and they never came to get it.  Then a woman shows up at my door with a box about the size of a sway bar.  Asked me who I was and then handed it to me, telling me she found it in the middle of the street a couple of blocks over.  The new bar arrived by pure luck.

If this were a one time thing, I'd excuse it, but I could go on...

FedEx isn't much better.  They rode around with my SunBasket shipment a couple of weeks ago for 4 days (fresh food - 3 dinners for two) before returning it to the sender.  After that long I really didn't want to see/smell the salmon anyway.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

The drivers are Teamsters. Hasn't the union got their backs?

My opinion is that the Union is probably a source of the problem.  Because UPS drivers are so well paid, management is going to grind them.  Same thing with the USPS.  

I'd also point out that a lot of fedex drivers don't work for fedex, they are all employed by small trucking companies so the atmosphere may be different than ups or usps. 

John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:

There are no fat UPS drivers. These guys hump hard all day long. The place is run with a boot camp military mentality every day. 

I saw my first UPS driver in my aunt and uncle's South Georgia country store in the late 1960s.  These guys were in and out of the store in less than 1 minute.  Everybody less would hang out and drink a soda.  My aunt explained to me that they had a tight schedule to keep and wasted 0 time.  It's gotten a lot worse since then.  

I have soooo much stuff I'd like to sell, but between buyers and shipping hassles, junk ends up collecting in my house instead. 

chandler said:

I'd also point out that a lot of fedex drivers don't work for fedex, they are all employed by small trucking companies so the atmosphere may be different than ups or usps. 

FedEx Express and FedEx Ground operate as independent companies; Express drivers are FedEx employees while Ground drivers are independent contractors (you can usually see an "operated by x trucking company" sticker on the truck). Express drivers definitely seem happier and have a lot less turnover, and the service seems better than Ground or UPS. 

newrider3 said:

chandler said:

I'd also point out that a lot of fedex drivers don't work for fedex, they are all employed by small trucking companies so the atmosphere may be different than ups or usps. 

FedEx Express and FedEx Ground operate as independent companies; Express drivers are FedEx employees while Ground drivers are independent contractors (you can usually see an "operated by x trucking company" sticker on the truck). Express drivers definitely seem happier and have a lot less turnover, and the service seems better than Ground or UPS. 

My uncle Greg was a federal express (FedEx) employee for something like 30 years. He just retired last November at like 60 years old. I talked to him a ton about it over the years, and he never had a bad thing to say about the company in that time frame. He kept trying to convince me to do it. 

I ship some little stuff via USPS.  The rates offered through ebay are attractive with the discount, and I figure since I'm paying some of the charges via my taxes, what the heck, I'll ship USPS.  

They may be losing money on every package, but with the American taxpayer holding them up, they do a fine job.  Go USPS!

I UPS'ed some fittings to a customer who refused delivery. He called me and told me he would never allow UPS on his property again due to some previous cock up. Apparently he chewed the poor driver a new ass to boot. So it was returned to me and I sent it Canada Post