What happened to the UPS I used to know?

[brainpicker]

Is it just me or has UPS really gone downhill since becoming a public company a few years back? This week is an all-time low for me. First, a driver decides on his own not to deliver a package Monday because he can't find my house. Now if there weren't only TWO houses on my street I could understand, but when the box says 12345 and the other house is 12344 you would think he would try the only other house on the street next door. After two days of calls with promised return calls that went unmade I finally was able to get my box by standing in the street and waving a sign when I saw a UPS truck. Then the driver is almost in tears as he explains the pressure put on the drivers NOT to make deliveries! He said they are told to throw the box back on the truck for delivery back to the sender if ANY thought is involved in the delivery process. Next there's the laptop from Lenovo whch was shipped express on Friday with a scheduled delivery of Tuesday. Well, UPS sorted it wrong and shipped it (get this) back to Alaska... I live in Florida. As of today there is no package and UPS really don't have a frim grasp of exactly WHERE the box is or when it might arrive. Lastly there's the box that was shipped to me on Thursday from Arkansas. The hurricane didn't even hit until Sunday but UPS still hasn't gotten the box out of the area. It's on a truck (they think) waiting for a road to re-open. The funny thing is that I shipped a box TO the same person on Thursday and he received it Tuesday. No issues shipping INTO the storm area, but shipping OUT of the area three days before the storm even hit is a problem for UPS. Two more promised calls were never received. I'm told none of UPS's shipping centers have phones!!! They can only be communicated with through e-mail. Holy crap are they technologically impaired or what? And like I said they didn't really even know where the last two boxes are right now... just a good guess for both. All this in 3 days and I'm just one customer. If I were a shipping department supervisor I would be transfering all my business elsewhere. Is this typical or am I just a freak of nature?

Yak

[pphilipko]

Don't trust UPS. Type in "UPS" an "terrible" on Google and I'm sure you'll find a plethora of results.

[brainpicker]

I know. Any company that HIDES their phone number for corporate officies has to be scum. Today I was told more lies. The Jacksonville facility that was supposidly closed for 4 days due to a "natural disaster" never was closed! And my package that was supposidly at that facility was "on a truck waiting for roads to reopen" yesterday... and "on a train where the tracks are destroyed" today. In other words... they still don't know. The Lenovo box that was shipped from China to Louisville to Alaska... I'm supposed to receive a call within an hour to let me know where it's at. Since I never received any of the other five calls I was promised over the past three days I'm not holding my breath. I did finally find a phone number for Customer Resolutions at the corporate office, but that lady is the most stubborn, useless peice of "brown" (I'll use the company's motto) I've ever dealt with. Peter Principle at work there!!! As only one small customer I'm powerless, but I will never ship with UPS again, nor will I purchase from any company that can't offer me an alternative. That means no more Thinkpads from Lenovo. I'll have to find a reseller that will ship by other means.

Yak

[leoblob]

My expriences with UPS are nowhere near as bad as yours, but they're still rather annoying. When they leave a package, they REFUSE to ring the doorbell. Even though my wife and I work full time at home, we never hear them knock on the door or ring the bell on our front door, because they DON'T do it.

I've called & complained but it makes no difference. Furthermore, instead of leaving the package right near our front door where it's fairly well protected from the elements, they leave it perched on a ledge near the front door, where a gust of wind can easily blow it off there, for a nine foot drop directly onto our concrete driveway.

[mrdeucie]

UPS seems pretty reliable in my area, but shipping packages USPS I sometimes have trouble with. I've never have problems with Fedex and sometimes they even deliver their packages early.

[Bob Collins]

UPS has gone down the hill. A friend of mine, nearly 25 years, has worked that entire time with UPS. He has noted that from within the company is going south. Seems they have a lot of shake n bake management who never loaded a truck, drove one, nor helped deliver during the Christmas rushes.

Management no longer accepts input from the "lower class" as to new technologies, methods, etc.

And they are feeling momentum and not worried so much that DHL, FedEx, and others are moving in on the turf. In momentum, I mean, they are fat and happy, and sort of don't care. Much like Microsoft, they are big and think therefore are invulnerable.

[bhtooefr]

My school has bingo on the weekends, to help raise money. Anyway, today, they were going to do a poker tournament to raise even more money, and not just for themselves.

So, they order the poker supplies. Wednesday, the package came. The funny thing is, the box looked like it had taken minor damage, and there was lots of clear tape all over it. It was also light enough that my X21 could crush it.

However, the shipping label said "7 LBS". Hmm...

The box was empty, except for a magazine, and a reciept!

So, the school calls the poker supply place, and they find out that the clear tape was UPS's tape. So, the place ships out another box. It doesn't get there in time for the tournament, so it's been delayed.

How screwed up is that?

(OTOH, the shipment of the 1842-SLU that I'm configuring for a friend went without a hitch, and it was UPS as well...)

[verktyg]

UPS quality of service seems to depend a lot on your geographical location and the ship to point.

Business to Business shipments usually get a higher priority than residential addresses. UPS adds a surcharge to residential shipments.

We have 6 branch locations and we ship and receive thousands of packages monthly, mostly via UPS. Most shipments - incoming and outgoing - are billed to our California headquarter's account which gives a lot of clout with the local UPS representatives. We don't always get the same kind of support at our locations in other states. That's when we go over the local manager's heads.

When UPS went on strike in 1997 or 98 we switched over to FedX which at the time ended up being much better than UPS. Several years ago we had a lot of problems in the Phoenix area and switched to FedX which was even worse!

Eventually FedX service dropped in overall quality so we went back to UPS throughout the company.

I had occasion several times to go into the main UPS office in Atlanta to pick up or drop off packages. The clerks were rude, arrogant, stupid and lazy - worse than USPS! It was as if they couldn't be fired or didn't care if they were fired!

Much of the quality of UPS service depends on the local managers.