GRRR!!! UPS FAIL...again!

[SittingElf]

So, on the 20th, I ordered a pair of Parf Dogs and a pair of Small Dogs (You're welcome Peter) from Lee Valley & Veritas. They shipped same day via UPS ground and sent me a confirmation and tracking number.

I'm on the UPS "My Choice" system which means that I get emails of pending deliveries from UPS with expected delivery dates.  They sent me an email to expect delivery on Friday the 28th.  On Thursday, I get an email from UPS that says I have an expected delivery of the product "tomorrow".

"Tomorrow" shows up and no delivery.  I get on UPS to track, and where it had previously stated Friday delivery, it now said "Scheduled delivery information is not available at this time. Please check back later."  This is somewhat disturbing because the full tracking shows that the product arrived in Jacksonville, Florida on the 25th (Tuesday), and that is the last sorting location prior to getting out for delivery in Melbourne, Florida where I live. Should have been IN Melbourne awaiting delivery by Wednesday.

I called UPS this AM, and after spending close to 20 minutes going through the automated tracking system and trying to get a representative, I finally succeeded in talking to a live person.  She put me on hold for nearly 15 minutes while "investigating".  When she came back, she haltingly told me that the truck on which my products were being shipped was robbed on TUESDAY afternoon.

The BIG fail on this is that I received no notification from UPS that I wasn't going to get my delivery due to the robbery, and their online tracking system continued to show expected delivery on Friday, right up until it clearly WASN'T going to be delivered. The rep told me I needed to call the shipper to reorder. Grrrr!

I called Lee Valley and explained the situation which they quickly confirmed. They were ticked off as well, because UPS is supposed to call them immediately following a lost shipment for any reason. 

To Lee Valley's credit, they immediately re-initiated my order and are sending UPS RED. They can't ship until Monday (It's Saturday here), but I'll get the dogs on Wednesday (Barring another robbery), two days before I go back to the misery of six weeks in Nigeria.

UPS - BAD! [mad]  Lee Valley - GOOD! [tongue]

Never have these issues with FedEx. Many with UPS. Wish all shippers would notice.

Cheers,

Frank

 

[duburban]

I think the invention of online package tracking has made us all a little loco about the process. I watch those things like nuts but often reality and the tracking info are on completely different schedules. Better luck next time.

 

[rljatl]

FWIW, I much prefer UPS over FedEx.  Probably depends on the area and/or driver.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Yeah, all their fault getting robbed and all. 

 

[andvari]

FWIW, I much prefer UPS over FedEx.  Probably depends on the area and/or driver.

Depends if it's by air or ground. FedEx ground is a bunch of independent contractors who vary in quality.

FedEx Air is a whole different ballgame. They will take responsibility for stuff that UPS won't dream of touching. Transplant organs, radioactive isotopes, Category A infectious samples (for example suspected Ebola samples) etc.

 

[SittingElf]

Yeah, all their fault getting robbed and all.

I don't fault them getting robbed.

I fault them for NOT advising me three days prior to my expected delivery that they were robbed, and didn't let me know at all until I called them to find out what the delay was. Additionally, had you fully read my original post, you would have also seen that the shipper (Lee Valley) was also ticked off that they weren't informed as is UPS policy.  Four days after the robbery, and the web tracking system still said delivery on Friday.

Had they properly notified me and the shipper, I could have had my product in hand today at the latest...now it's Wednesday, five days from now.

My feelings about UPS are also caused by watching a delivery guy in front of my house THROW a box from the back to the front that contained a new Apple 27" iMac some months ago. Threw it!

Most damage I've had on shipments is from UPS deliveries. FedEx Ground is far better in my opinion.

 

[anthonyz]

Agreed, Hate UPS. They threw my new TS55 From the back to the front of the truck, I watched out my window as I approached my front door. Shattering the insert tray, Luckily not damaging the saw. Had a TS75 which they broke the systainer on. UPS also puts the packages on my front porch with the Festool logo like a banner facing the street when I am not home. The fed ex guy hides my packages on the side of the house and leaves me a little note. So prefer to get my stuff via Fed ex.

 

[atomicmike]

I don't fault them getting robbed.

I fault them for NOT advising me three days prior to my expected delivery that they were robbed, and didn't let me know at all until I called them to find out what the delay was. Additionally, had you fully read my original post, you would have also seen that the shipper (Lee Valley) was also ticked off that they weren't informed as is UPS policy.  Four days after the robbery, and the web tracking system still said delivery on Friday.

Consider that the robbery was likely of a tractor-trailer truck that contained an awful lot of packages, and was probably robbed while the driver had stopped for a break. They can either unload the entire truck at that point to figure out which packages are gone, or just keep driving it until it reaches the destination sort facility so that most deliveries still get made on time.

That obviously doesn't explain why they didn't notify the shipper of the theft once the truck had been unloaded. But if I had to guess, sorting out all the paperwork from a truck robbery probably takes some time. We are so spoiled by immediate results that it's easy to forget that exceptions to the rule often take a lot longer to sort out. It wasn't that long ago that tracking wasn't even available for ground shipments.

 

[teocaf]

geez, what happened to:  I'm thankful that i don't have ebola, i'm thankful that i was not the one getting robbed at gunpoint, i'm thankful that i have a good paying job to indulge in expensive toys, i'm thankful that i was not in the middle of a woodworking project that necessitated the equipment in transit, i'm thankful that i have a forum where i can constantly complain about the minutia of my life...

 

[SittingElf]

Look guys.....

Here's what showed up right up until 2200 hrs on Friday from the tracking site:

[attachimg=1]

You will notice that the package arrived in Jacksonville after which it was robbed on the 25th.  I was not able to determine the loss until SATURDAY the 30th, and that was only by going through a process to talk to a live person, so speculation that they didn't know what was on the truck is specious at best. They KNEW, and admitted so once I called. Yes, they said they knew what tracking numbers were on the truck IMMEDIATELY after it was robbed!

At this point, I'm amazed that some of you stick up for extremely poor customer service from UPS regarding this.  I'm done. Speculate all you want, but this is NOT the first failure from UPS...and what my capability to buy product, or my ability to "indulge" in expensive toys is totally mute. How dare you think that I should be more thankful that I don't have ebola or been robbed than to expect to have companies provide the services they state. Are you kidding me?

Done... Lock it up mods. This has gotten ridiculous.  Geez!    [blink]

 

[teocaf]

oh, i don't think that it's a MOOT point to address the issue of thankfulness at this particular time of the year.  it was a positive post if you look at it in the right light. 

and you're really setting yourself up for disappointment if you expect a company to run perfectly at an extremely busy time of the year under extreme circumstances such as robbery.  or that complaining on a forum will result in an unequivocal agreement from all.

be of good cheer!

 

[bkharman]

You are aware that major storms impact ALL logistic companies right? 

I never have understood the griping about pushed delivery dates. You aren't taking delivery of a heart or a liver?!?!

If it is something vital and you absolutely need it before you leave the country, pay for that kind of shipping. Case closed. If you got "robbed" of them before, then plan some other way of getting them.

To be honest, I often have to step away from the FOG because there is a lot of airing of grievances sometimes about minor crap and it gets old... Fast.

No offense Frank but this is most definitely a "first world problem". This time of year I am more Thankful than anything else.

Good luck. Bryan.

 

[copcarcollector]

For every person unhappy with UPS, there is another person unhappy with FedEx, or the USPS, or ABF, or DHL or Some drivers are great, some suck and should be fired, or 're-trained'. All of these companies are so huge now that any personal service went out the window years ago. Its all about volume, sometimes details, like updating your tracking, go by the wayside. I had freight delayed due to a train derailment, though if I recall, the tracking was updated quickly.

Yeah, its annoying that your tracking was not updated and you have to wait a few extra days for delivery.

By the way, it is really easy to bypass the UPS automatic prompts on the phone by just calling and saying "AGENT" twice, gets you right through to an actual person.

Sounds like Lee Valley is handling your re shipment quite well, typical of their top notch service.

 

[Stephen B]

[size=14pt]Well Frank it seams to me that following some of the responses here, and on a rescent post of mine regarding poor customer service, that some people only expect or get the service they deserve!  [eek]

However, I think that there are some exceptional circumstances here for UPS, and LeeValley are certainly responding very well.  [smile]

 

[wow]

Guys, I find it a little disturbing that so many people are 'piling on' Frank about this? Yes, he's voicing his frustration over some very poor customer service. That's his right.  Just because he's been fortunate enough to be fulfilling a life long dream doesn't make anyone 'bigger' by insinuating that he deserves some bad luck. And he probably expected a little more support from this forum, of all places?

I don't see him making a wholesale condemnation of the company, but rather pointing out that they DISAPPOINTED HIM with their failure to deliver as promised. More importantly, they flat-out LIED TO HIM.

Some people seem to think that it's no big deal because his schedule gives him some flexibility AT TIMES that we might not have - but would it be any different if he had taken a day off of work to be there when his item was to be delivered only to find out that UPS knew DAYS BEFORE that it wasn't going to happen? I don't think so.

Would UPS compensate him for staying home and missing work when they new FULL WELL that they weren't going to deliver the package when they said they would? No.

Would they even apologize to him for not keeping him informed - or worse, LYING TO HIM about the delivery? Not likely.

Someone said its not an organ transplant. Frank didn't say it was.

Someone else said he should have paid for premium delivery if he wanted it. Well, I contend that paying for premium delivery would have made ZERO difference in this case. If UPS is gonna lie about the delivery on a ground item, in what world would you think that they wouldn't ALSO lie about the delivery on a premium item?

And did you catch the part where Lee Valley says they are supposed to be notified by UPS when something like this happens so they can take action to make sure their customers aren't left with a bad taste in their mouth? UPS FAILED to do that also.

Now, to be fair, I get LOTS of UPS deliveries and the vast majority of them are fine. But it's problems like this that caused me to NEVER ship with them again.

This was the crappiest of service, and I think UPS needs to called out on it. NOT about the fact that the truck was robbed - that's beyond their control. But their gazillion dollar automated system and thousands of customer service people could and should have been used to manage customer expectations - and THAT was well within their control.

I've never met nor even spoken to Frank. And I am not intentionally trying to 'shame' or embarrass anyone, but I hope I've opened some eyes as to how posts can come off as insensitive even if they weren't meant that way. I'm sure I am guilty of it even though I try very hard not to be?!

I'm with Frank here. At the very least in this case...

UPS FAILED MISERABLY.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Who stays home waiting for ups?

Yeah, i think he has poor attitude over some stupid parf dogs not showing up on an expected delivery date.

Maybe they were dealing with figuring out their losses and trying to get stuff updated. 

Common theme here, complaining over trivial things and then getting pissy when people don't sympathize with you ie. mods lock it down.....

Plus, its not like he was actually going to use them for something.

 

[Sparktrician]

Guess I've been very fortunate with both UPS and FedEx here in NoVa.  The one that gripes me is Lasership that sometimes delivers for Amazon.  They left a brand new monitor out in the rain without even bothering to bag it, and to make matters worse, they left it at the wrong house where it was not anticipated.  The end result was that it sat out in the rain for three days before the neighbor happened to look out on her steps and found it.  UPS has never done something that stupid here that I'm aware of. 

 

[sandalot]

Shopping stress......LOL

[ Edited - Please do not type around the word filter - Shane ]

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

This thread is quickly degrading into personal attacks. For that reason, some posts were removed and the thread is being locked.

Please review our forum rules, the most important of which is to keep it nice or don't post.

Thank you,
Shane