Want to see something really scary? (FedEx content)

[Turnaround]

Ever wonder why shipping is so expensive these days?

 

[mellowgerman]

Danny, sorry to see this. FedEx tried to royally screw me 4 or 5 years ago. Shipping a bass from FL to CA... two weeks later it arrived back at my doorstep with no explanation or discernible reason. I refused to accept delivery a couple of times, until the customer support agent (literally dozens of calls into the ordeal) assured me all would be sorted out, gave me a phone number for another department. He said to accept shipment to avoid damage or the package getting lost and then call that number, at which point he promised they would make it right. I reluctantly accepted and followed his advice, only to be told flat-out that I was out of luck! They refused to refund my $145 or give me any kind of credit. A little further digging (after noticing that there was literally a stack of stickers/blank-labels piled up on the end of the box... revealed that they erroneously dropped the bass off at a Walgreens customer service counter just miles from the recipient in CA, but Walgreens deemed the box too large to hold at that location, so it immediately was routed back to me in FL. Obviously 100% due to their complete incompetency as a shipping company... mistakes happen... but they refused any liability. Luckily my bank had my back and after a bit of a credit card claim process, I got my money back by force. Ever since (regardless of having been a loyal FedEx customer for years) I refuse to do business with FedEx if I have any alternative options, regardless of whether or not I end up paying more for UPS. They literally tried to steal $145 out of my pocket.

 

[Danny O Danny]

UPDATE: The whereabouts of the bass are still a mystery. Did it actually make the journey that the tracking indicates? Or did it never actually leave the originating FedEx facility? No one knows! I have been told both. A crack team has been mobilized at the originating facility to locate the box containing my bass. The nice lady at the FedEx call center in the Philippines has conveyed her sincere apologies to me (in that corporate, read-from-the-script way that is utterly insincere). They have begun asking questions about the make, model and value of the instrument (not a good sign, I presume). They have asked for a few more days to continue their investigation.

Oddly, the FedEx tracking site now shows my bass on the move again. It is traveling eastward once more, from Southern California, through Arizona and New Mexico, and currently in Cisco, Texas, east of Abilene. Is it real, or a phantom? Time will tell.

 

[JenderBazzFass]

They're doing you a big favor, think how much it would have cost to have a bass shipped over that distance!

 

[Relsom]

Hopefully it won't look it, but it'll surely qualify as road-worn by the time you get it!

Yeah, and if it wasn't a vintage instrument when he bought it, it will be by the time he gets it.
Sorry to joke at your expense Danny ... I had my own FedEx excitement too this last week.

 

[Biggbass]

I had a similar experience with an amp shipped via FE. It arrived in DFW then spent over a week bouncing back and forth between FE distribution facilities. Eventually it was delivered, after a few phone calls to FE. FE driver said the bar code on the shipping label had been damaged and their scanners couldn't figure it out so it keep going back to the last FE facility, then forwarded back to the one that had sent it back down the line. After a couple of back and forth exchanges, they finally just went by the address that the sender had written on the box and delivered it. All in all, it took 14 days to get from Florida to Dallas.

 

[OldBlue61]

FedEx - what a joke they are anymore. Oh, the stories I could tell...

 

[BigStringBender]

Courtesy of FedEx, and the shipper didn't insure it and I bought it used, so I get a damaged GK 410 Neo to live with.

 

[nickpc]

Cypress, Texas (which is to the east of me, outside of Houston)

I lived there, for 9 months, while growing up. All I really remember is there were fire ants everywhere (and I mean EVERYWHERE - check the box when you finally get it just to be safe!) and it was an hour bus ride each way to/from school (at least it wasn't uphill both ways, in the snow...).

 

[Dec1975]

I had this happen to me with a classical guitar that was shipped with FedEx. It arrived crushed and cracked. I hope you have a better experience.

 

[Old Blastard]

Yep, all shipping experiences that happen all too often. I had a package ship from Indiana and one from Chile. They arrived the same day; same carrier.

Key point: they arrived! Nowadays that's a win. My wife's prescriptions are still milling about somewhere in North and South Carolina, although we live in Virginia.

 

[lizardking837]

I'm having a bass shipped from Southern California to Austin, Texas (where I live). FedEx tracking shows the bass was picked up at the source last Thursday. Initially the bass was scheduled to be delivered to me on Sunday (signature required). So, of course, I waited around all day Sunday. Sunday night the tracking changed to show the bass would be delivered on Monday. Since then I've watched the tracking change several times, to now show the following:

The bass went from Southern California, through Arizona, to Junction, Texas (which is a little to the southwest of me), then to Cypress, Texas (which is to the east of me, outside of Houston), then to El Paso, Texas (which is way to the west of me), then back westward through Arizona, and back to Southern California.

So far, according to FedEx tracking, my bass has logged 3,061 miles, with another 1500 miles to go on it's hopeful second eastward journey.

The nice lady at the FedEx call center in the Philippines has assured me they'll look into it and get back to me within 24 hours with information about the cause and current location and eta. That was 48 hours ago.

View attachment 5428922 View attachment 5428923 View attachment 5428924

I had something similar happen to a record I ordered from discogs. It was sent from a store in Seattle to me in Connecticut. When it got to Mass they messed up a shipped it BACK to Seattle....

It arrived just fine a few days later than it should have, no harm no foul

 

[Altitude]

I think I've reported on this before... but FedEx has a box of Gatorade Propel packets floating somewhere around the NW in one of their trucks.. going on two years now.

Right next to it is a package containing two pair of Vuori shorts.

 

[J-phatt]

The biggest (for lack of better words) "problem" with stuff coming from California is that you will get a notification "Your package has shipped" and then it just sits there for days or even weeks. Then it goes to a different city in Cali and hangs out there for days.

Once it crosses the border into another state it moves as expected.

I get such notices for most shipments out of any place. It’s not a California problem, it’s a feature of a system of tracking that though designed to alleviate worry about the progress of a package actually gives rise to more questions.

 

[Five or Six]

Here is my surprised look. typical.

 

[J-phatt]

Here is my surprised look. typical.

These roundabout routes for packages are not dissimilar from multi-leg air travel routes between atypical cities. Volume of traffic on certain routes makes longer distances cheaper sometimes. Then there are the screwups like mislabeling, another matter altogether.

 

[GTx2]

To be fair it will already have character and a story to tell from the road by the time it gets to you.....

 

[Winslow]

View attachment 5429505

 

[Thumpin6string]

This seems to be the new normal for all 3 shippers. It appears they all hire completely incompetent employees at their distribution centers. They seem to not be able to get packages on the correct truck. Of the 3, I think FedEx is the worst, but I've had both UPS and USPS do similar things. Maybe all the extra miles are why rates are so much higher.

 

[Turnaround]

Ordered from Vancouver to be shipped to Toronto. It had to go through Windsor twice to get here.