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Somehow the UPS system fails

Jerry Ziarko

Jerry Ziarko

Feb 23, 2003
2,798
1,203
Rochester, NY
#1
This isn't intended to be a UPS bashing thread. First off, they're a good successful company, but like any big company, issues do pop up from time to time. Secondly, tearing a company apart on the internet does little to solve any issues. With all that said, I'm curious how sometimes there can be a epic failure in communication. I was having a Sadowsky bass shipped to me from across the country. Even though the winter here in western NY has been unseasonably mild, it can change in instant, so predicting the weather 5 business days out in shipping is a coin flip at best. The seller shipped the bass through a UPS retail outlet, and we agreed it would be held at the local UPS hub here with signature required. That way it wouldn't sit unsecured and possibly in out in the bad weather. So today the bass is scheduled to arrive. I go to the UPS hub, and say I'm here to pick up a pkg being held here for me. I give them the tracking number, and I'm told it was delivered to my frot door today at 10 AM. As one could imagine, my head just about exploded. I asked, how could such a failure in communication occur. The clerk replied, if it's not there, come right back. Seriously, that was the best they could do??? So off I go speeding to my home thinking all the while, the pkg would be gone. To my surprise it was still there. Of course it had been sitting n the rain for 6 hours. No one signed even though it was required. Just dumped and gone. Now before everyone jumps on the UPS hate bandwagon, I had almost the EXACT same situation occur with FedX about 5 years ago, only that time the bass was left lying in the middle of my driveway. The driver didn't even lean it against the house. In other words, throw and go. So I guess while venting my frustration, I have to ask, it it a failure that occurs with the info from the UPS retail center? (UPS Store, etc) The person loading the truck? The driver? Of course the package did have a very large sign on it- HOLD AT UPS HUB FOR PICK UP. I know like every company these days, the drivers are expected to do more with less in a shorter amount of time. I get all that. But that sign was right next to the address sticker, and about 10 times as large.:eyebrow: :mad:
 
#2
Someone at UPS stole my girlfriend's ipod that was being returned for warranty. They got the contract from Apple because FedEx was stealing them at a rate of 30%.

The problem is there is little accountability for their actions and they know it. We as the consumer suffer for it.

It is a symptom of the big corporate machine. I work at GE, and there are so many levels of management the miscommunication, abuse of power and complete waste is astounding. But as long as the stocks are making money, no one really cares.
 
#5
I know shipping companies can all do this sort of stuff, but in my own personal experiences UPS is the very, very worst of a bad lot, so much so that I won't buy anything now unless the seller is prepared to use someone else. If a seller or dealer were to insist on using UPS, that would be a dealbreaker for me. No brown vans at my house, thanks.

And there's no reason that there shouldn't be UPS bashing threads on this forum or elsewhere, in my opinion. Every time that I've been unlucky enough to get sucked into the soul sapping cesspool of blithering idiocy and ineptitude that is what UPS laughably call their service, I've experienced nothing but mind numbing aggravation and abject disappointment. I see no good reason at all to refrain from saying so, and I can't see why anybody else with similar experiences would want to, either. UPS still rank as the very worst organisation I have ever encountered in any area of both the private and public sectors. They've gone beyond being worse than nauseatingly useless and transformed their staggering incompetence into some surreal form of abstract performance art. Nobody that I have ever dealt with at UPS would be capable of safely and reliably delivering a stream of urine into a bucket on time and undamaged.
 
#6
bassybill said:
I know shipping companies can all do this sort of stuff, but in my own personal experiences UPS is the very, very worst of a bad lot, so much so that I won't buy anything now unless the seller is prepared to use someone else. If a seller or dealer were to insist on using UPS, that would be a dealbreaker for me. No brown vans at my house, thanks.

And there's no reason that there shouldn't be UPS bashing threads on this forum or elsewhere, in my opinion. Every time that I've been unlucky enough to get sucked into the soul sapping cesspool of blithering idiocy and ineptitude that is what UPS laughably call their service, I've experienced nothing but mind numbing aggravation and abject disappointment. I see no good reason at all to refrain from saying so, and I can't see why anybody else with similar experiences would want to, either. UPS still rank as the very worst organisation I have ever encountered in any area of both the private and public sectors. They've gone beyond being worse than nauseatingly useless and transformed their staggering incompetence into some surreal form of abstract performance art. Nobody that I have ever dealt with at UPS would be capable of safely and reliably delivering a stream of urine into a bucket on time and undamaged.
Click to expand...

No, but how do you really feel? Don't sugar coat it.
 
#8
Seems UPS has other issues right now also. Not only guitars and the screw-ups that continue to frustrate our plans, but prescription meds also. With all the meds being shipped there seems to be an issue of workers shaking the packages- large pills, no problem. Small pills are 50/50 oxy, or equivalent, and some of these seem to disappear into the system.
 
#9
ggunn said:
The only thing worse than UPS is everything else. Ever try "tracking" a package in the USPS system? They can tell you when it was shipped and when it was delivered, nothing else.
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USPS does not offer real time tracking and doesn't advertise theirs as such. Delivery confirmation means just that. It shows if and when a pkg was delivered, nothing more. Their service works as designed.
 
#10
ggunn said:
The only thing worse than UPS is everything else. Ever try "tracking" a package in the USPS system? They can tell you when it was shipped and when it was delivered, nothing else.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is entirely correct. I've recently tracked USPS shipments where I could see it making progress across the country at various stops, just like UPS or FedEx. I'm not claiming their tracking is as complete, but it isn't that bad either. Maybe it depends on origin and destination. I dunno.

EDIT: I do most of the purchasing and receiving for the company I've worked for since 2001. In that 10+ years I've never had to file a damage claim with either UPS or FedEx (or USPS for that matter). We're talking probably an average of 10-15 packages a week. Everything from employee food snacks to PCs, monitors, and network equipment like file servers. No damage. Employees also have their personal online purchases delivered to the business. Never a claim.
 
#11
OldDog52 said:
I don't think this is entirely correct. I've recently tracked USPS shipments where I could see it making progress across the country at various stops, just like UPS or FedEx. I'm not claiming their tracking is as
Click to expand...

As you say sometimes, it's possible, but they don't sell the service as such. If your lucky the info will show as you point out, but del confirmation means only that.
 

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