So...UPS is basically useless?

[Koshchei]

I have a UPS delivery scheduled for today.

Yesterday, they informed me that they would deliver between 12:00 and 3:00PM. Fine; we have a previous commitment around 5:45PM. No problem.

Today, when I can no longer change delivery options, UPS informs me that delivery will occur before 7PM. Oops.

I try to contact a human being. Not possible. AI is 100% dysfunctional. No information on options there.

I sign up for My UPS. But wait; when I select Change Delivery Options while signed in to My UPS, the website just asks me to join My UPS again. Try different devices, new login etc. Same result.

I guess this company is now wholly unaccountable with no human interface, a completely dysfunctional web site, and just lets their drivers / schedulers change delivery at their convenience.

I can see why previous posters have gone to Will-Call only. Maybe the web site will let me do that after a failed delivery.

Clearly, UPS sees the shipper as the customer, and the recipient as something beneath dirt, and to be ignored.

I get it that humans cost money. But, one might expect just a little bit more from the web site programming. Pathetic. My grandfather would have referred to them as "no-accounts."

Edit: the saddest part is that both I and the delivery folks are losers in the picture; because the delivery folks may now have to make other arrangements, which means costing UPS more resource time to deliver the same thing. The only winner is some highly paid jerk sitting in an office in a high rise who just doesn’t want to be bothered to figure it out.

It's always been a rotten idea to put technology in charge of humans -- rather than playing to the strengths of a human:technology arrangement, which acts as a force multiplier on productive work, it plays to absolute weakness: uncontrolled unaccountable activity at industrial scale directed by algorithmic metrics being poorly executed by fallible humans.

 

[steveinohio]

All parcel services are terrible these days. When possible I have it sent to a hub (FedEx Store, UPS Store) because it’s quicker and doesn’t waste my time.

 

[sleddogn]

The good news is that they are extremely well compensated and with the new collective bargaining agreement they will be making as much as 4 school teachers.

I’m a nurse, I work hard too. Albeit it’s not packages. My wife is a teacher, she works even harder.

Work is hard. Still have to do it well.

Yep, as they move towards 170k a year, i want my package before 3 on the day promised dang'it

 

[Nightsprinter]

These ridiculous automated phone trees with submenus are a growing trend of pain. It's been difficult to even get a hold of a human via phone @ my local CVS. Auto attendants = Boo.

 

[Stranger Danger]

Yep, as they move towards 170k a year, i want my package before 3 on the day promised dang'it

It’s really one of the last jobs in America where you can make a really great living without a formal education

 

[Thumpin6string]

AI the new norm. It should be called AS, Artificial Stupidity. A lot of search engines have gone to AI and now you can't find anything.

 

[Gorilla Monsoon]

I gladly welcome UPS over FraudEx any day.

 

[scott sinner]

I get UPS deliveries reliably...from several neighbors who get them misdelivered and bring them by to me.

When UPS delivers directly to my house, they also usually block my front door, which has steps, such that, if I open the door it would knock over the boxes. Fortunately I have a back door.

 

[BassTank84]

UPS is best for me personally. Fedex has had a few issues. I get big items shipped to my work. The commercial delivery service is way better on delivering about the same time every day, same driver usually as well. With the delivery times, they usually say estimated, so not like it is set in stone. If you are that picky about time schedule, really need to set it up to be picked up at the local terminal instead of delivered to your door.

 

[el murdoque]

Funny how things can be different around the world. Here in Germany, UPS is the premium carrier for brown cardboard boxes of all sizes. Their delivery drivers are not only able to carry a parcel from A to B and have a driver's licence, they are also more competent in all other regards - one gets the impression that their pay grade is much higher than that of the other companies, so they get the best delivery people available.
Also, when I get an email from UPS it's along the lines of
"Your parcel will be delivered tomorrow between 2:41 and 2:47" and if it's delivered at 2:49, then chances are your watch is running fast.

 

[jglunt]

All parcel services are terrible these days. When possible I have it sent to a hub (FedEx Store, UPS Store) because it’s quicker and doesn’t waste my time.

This is true. I recently shipped a bass via FedEx. It was scheduled to deliver Monday and tracking said it reached a major FedEx hub about 40 miles away from my customer on Friday night. Lookin' good, right? Wrong! On Monday evening, it was still sitting at that hub, and tracking said "No updated delivery date is available." C'mon, you moved it 2,000 miles in three days. Why is it taking you three more to get it that last 40? That's the question I would have asked if I could have contacted a human.

 

[60bass]

AI quickly has become the modern day equivalent of the endless "on hold" button for far too many companies nowadays.

You are instantly connected to a useless and exceedingly dumb AI interaction. Thereby assuring that you have zero chance of getting anything resolved.

If you actually do get in touch with a human, which is rare and you complain they always say I'm sorry it must have been a problem with our AI.

When I run into that issue dealing with CS at any company my answer when they say that is. Well, it is called artificial intelligence and that means it has to be programmed by a human. So what you are trying to tell me? That the humans in your company are incapable of independent thinking and unable to resolve an issue I may have? I'm sorry, but if you can't solve my issue please connect me to an actual human being who can.

 

[Knavery]

As big as UPS is, they do a pretty good job. I think the whole 'not being able to contact a human' is a problem with most big companies these days I'm afraid. Every time I've had to do it, I have to take half the day off from work.

 

[Jxff]

In the near future we will all have our own delivery drone. Can't decide if I want mine to be Storm Trooper white or Jolly Roger black.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

The good news is that they are extremely well compensated and with the new collective bargaining agreement they will be making as much as 4 school teachers.

I’m a nurse, I work hard too. Albeit it’s not packages. My wife is a teacher, she works even harder.

Work is hard. Still have to do it well.

yep

 

[WG Plum]

I try to stick with USPS, they're consistently the best where I am, with FedEx second (they've even delivered a day early multiple times recently), with UPS being dead last in reliability and package care.

 

[Obese Chess]

as others have alluded to, I think it's regional. I've never had any problems with UPS, ever. FedEx has consistently been an utter nightmare for me, and I will pay extra to ship via other carriers when given the option while shopping online.

 

[pcake]

our UPS deliveries always say they'll be here at some earlier time, but we've always had them show arount 7 to 7:30, so i never expect them any earlier. makes me wonder why they bother to claim those earlier times since never in the 10 years since we lived here, has UPS showed up earlier than 5:30.

 

[White Beard]

You're never going to get everything you want, that's just basic Economics. Opportunity Cost (and I'm not going to get into explicit and implicit costs or any of the fine points -- just basic elementary school level understanding) says that if I want something, I have to give something else up. Money, time, opportunity -- whatever. When I was a chef, I used to say, "good, fast, cheap... Pick two." Start looking at your shipping options and don't be too upset when your free and fast shipping is pretty terrible.

In order to get free shipping, places like Sam Ash, GC, MF, AMS, etc. tend to share warehouses and cram as much stuff into a semi-trailer as possible with little regard for what happens to your items next.

The United States Postal Service is in the US Constitution. USPS is legally and constitutionally bound to serve every single address in the United States. Your mountain hamlet might have a cluster box at the end of a dirt road at the base of the mountain, but the USPS is bound to serve where private shipping businesses can deny that service. Also, the USPS is bound by Congress to be self-sufficient. No tax payer money is used to fund the post office... But government appointees run the top echelons of the USPS. The current Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, runs the Postal Service strictly to enrich his personal private business endeavors (I encourage you all to do research on him). He was appointed by the former President, but can only be removed from office by the USPS Board of Governors, who are also political appointees by the President.

 

[bdplaid]

Ordered, thru Amazon, delivered (late) by UPS.