I hate UPS: Chapter 53
It’s no secret. I hate UPS. I don’t understand how a company that runs entirely by computer can’t make it simple enough to allow a "customer service" agent to tag a package while sitting in front of her computer, and then have that tag show up when the driver scans the package.
Since I work during the day, and since my workplace has an official statement that we are not to receive personal packages at work (that they like to consistently remind us of whenever possible), I’ve worked out a system. I have something shipped home. I miss the delivery. I call UPS and fight with them for two days to be able to pick up the package at the local station (which happens to be two blocks from work, luckily). And eventually after three tries, I usually end up with whatever it was I ordered.
Anyway, back to this week’s annoyance. I’m waiting for two packages both coming from UPS. The first was to arrive yesterday. So I called yesterday morning to request that I be able to pick it up and I’m told that I’ll receive a call back within an hour. Four hours later, I call back to request the same thing. Half an hour later, I get a call telling me that it’s already out for delivery (duh, that’s what happens when four hours pass between calls) but I can pick it up in the evening (which I tried to do, but since I was half an hour early, they weren’t even willing to talk to me).
Fast forward to this morning. The second package (which they wouldn’t mark for a hold yesterday when I called since it hadn’t arrived locally; how hard is it to tag it in the system and tell them NOT to put it on the truck??) is supposed to be delivered today. So I call this morning figuring I’ll go through the same thing. Only this time I’m told that since they haven’t tried to deliver it yet, I can’t have it marked for pickup. Despite the fact that I did exactly that yesterday for the other package…."sorry sir, that was a mistake." "No it wasn’t, it saved me a phone call this morning. Do it again." "No sir, I can’t."
This is all very simple. Someone needs to figure out the rules so that I don’t have "customer service" people contradicting one another on a daily basis. Someone needs to figure out how to work the computer system to their (and their customers’) advantage.
I think its about time that I gather up all these customer service complaints and send them to the companies involved. Maybe (just maybe) if they see the exposure they’re getting, it’ll open their eyes. Updates to follow.
Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, UPS, customer service
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It’s not only UPS, I have had similar experiences with FedEx and even documented it on Socially Adept here, http://kevingreen.typepad.com/socially_adept/2006/12/how_fedex_ruine.html. However, now that I see UPS is not better, I may have to purchase a carrier pigieon!
Yeah. I think there is no right answer. Comes back to cell phones. I started to mention when I was writing this that FedEx had always been good to me. Then I remembered posting this.
My average spend at Kinkos is $350 dollars… gotta love that! Anyway, to top it all off for FedEx… they could use some lessons in customer service. Today, I saw a delivery driver whistle at an IBM employee to hold the door open. Sheesh… who whistles at anyone anymore? That’s just rude!
UPS is horrible. Their policy for residences is that you have to wait from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and they can deliver your package anytime they damn well please. I have been waiting since 8 this morning for a perishable item, and now I’m going to be late for work, or the item will rot. Great. And of course there is no way to request any time range of, say, 5 hours to have the package delivered.
Thats nothing. I live in canada and have to pay 55% of the purchase price to UPS for duty and taxes. Fedex atleast sometimes never charges as well as USPS. I HATE UPS. Its a rip off and a scam. They packages arrive a day sooner. But hell if I have to pay $55 dollars for every hundred spent. Its NOT worth it.
I HATE UPS
I’m glad to hear other people hate ups.
I thought I just had some kind of curse that I always got horrible delivery guys.
Their last excuse for not delivering was
"The neighbor said I didn’t live there any more."
Meanwhile I stayed home all day long waiting for the delivery.
It was medications and had to be refigerated so I had to drive for an hour to the next town to pick it up. The town I live in doesn’t have a ups pick up site.
This is just one example of how horrible they are.
I really, really hate them.
I currently work at UPS. Obviously things happen that get people fired up about their packages being late, understandable. There are a few other things though rather than ranting and raving about how the broad company that is UPS. I don’t know, maybe send in thoughts about how they can improve? Try to fix the problem? As for Canada residents…we have a Canada trailer on our belt and what I hear is that Canada is making the money off all of those fees rather than UPS. They have all the shipping fees, etc, blame your country for that.
Ron - You can stop playing “Blame Canada” for this. no it’s not “Canada” making the money. UPS regularly invents charges that other couriers don’t.
UPS has stated that it’s to “sheperd the item through Canada Customs”. It’s strange that FedEx, the USPS, Purolator and others don’t incur the same charges. Only UPS charges the customer extra to do this.
Just another reason why I hate UPS.
“Brown lets me Down”
Ron, I honestly don’t think any positive consumer suggestions are going to change the “whatever” apathetic culture that exists at UPS. Your company’s service just sucks ass and that’s all there is to it. UPS’s track record for delivering my packages as expected is literally about 50% (which is abysmal).
Here’s the breakdown:
The good part> About half of my packages arrive on-time and intact. Oh goody…UPS earned their fees.
The bad part> roughly 25% of my packages are delivered late because the UPS distribution center monkeys put stuff on the wrong plane and initially send parcels to the wrong part of the country or the local driver just takes my packages for a pleasure cruise and doesn’t deliver them when your tracking systems says “out for delivery”. I’ve also heard all the excuses, “customer not home” when I’ve been waiting all day, “address doesn’t exist” can I use that as an excuse not to pay my mortgage? There are some other more creative lies I’ve heard from drivers, but why beat a dead horse? One of my favorites was when one of a package was out for delivery somewhere in Georgia…but I live in California - that driver is gonna be late for dinner.
The pathetic part> roughly 15% of my packages arrive smashed because the UPS distribution center monkeys think they are Olympic shot put & javelin competitors. Why be careful when you can hurl a parcel and impress your co-workers?
The really stupid part> Despite UPS’s claims of having a state-of-the-art tracking system, they just lose the other 10% of my packages, some never to be found again…others mysteriously show up days if not weeks late. And try to get UPS to come by and pick-up a “refused” package! They’ll take the order to come, but you’ll be lucky if they ever show up.
UPS customer service reps never like to hear how “Brown let me Down”…in the face of critique, they just like to quote how big and powerful UPS is when things go sideways. UPS used to be a respected benchmark company in shipping…now they’re just a joke.
Agreed man, UPS and Puralator suck ass and can’t deliver anything!!! Not once have I had a seccessful shipment!!! And all the issues described above I go threw each time I order something that’s shipped UPS!
Agreed man, UPS and Puralator suck ass and can’t deliver anything!!! Not once have I had a seccessful shipment!!! And all the issues described above I go threw each time I order something that’s shipped UPS! MY last package was sent from Edmonton to kentucky, and edmonton to phili three times!!!! (im in Edmonton)
I work at UPS and I’m sorry your service is that way. I know a lot of employees don’t take their jobs as serious as they should. The building I work in hits our goals and with that we still get 1 out of every 4000 wrong. As a supervisor there we do care and it’s great when the reports come back and we were near prefect. I can tell that we are always working and adjusting to improve our service.
Well I was a UPS supervisor up until yesterday, after 6 1/2 years of busting my ass and sacrificing my body they fired my because I took a pair of scissors out of a box of supplies that was sent to us, just because someone else in the building ordered it. All I really have to comment on this issue is UPS internally is trying to cut cost by screwing their hourly employees. Rather than get rid of some of the redundant managers they have (3 different region managers to all do the same thing), they cut loads, make buildings work with less people and more volume, and force the already over-worked employees to do it all in less time. On a daily basis the maintainence guy comes in with packages that were found in gear houseings, underneath belts and all the management does is look at the date on the package and laugh about how long it’s been in there. The only time they have taken care to make sure all packages are handled safely and delicately is when either a corporate person is in building or a higher-up calls to complain, and then it’s back to not caring shortly after they are off the hot-seat. So yea UPS does suck, and they suck more than most customers will ever know. What can brown do for you? Brown can suck my dick thats what they can do for me.
I too work at a major UPS facility and the situation John describes is spot on except they are slashing management jobs as well. Everyday is like a fight to survive in the outbound work areas. Packages back up 50 feet or more along conveyors destroying them. Staffing has been drastically cut while demands to be productive go up and up. Once UPS went public the shareholder became king. Since volume growth in domestic shipping is nill we make money by cost cutting. Calling our employees monkeys is really quite harsh, the people processing your packages are sacrificing their bodies and mental health daily. I see them give 100 percent but its never enough, it is because of greedy stock holders that UPS has become what it is today. On a positive not Package Intercept is now up and running 3 months after we started advertising it so yes if you want to get a package en-route we can finally “tag it” and keep it from being loaded into a feeder unit. Cheers
Quote: “On a positive not Package Intercept is now up and running 3 months after we started advertising it so yes if you want to get a package en-route we can finally “tag it†and keep it from being loaded into a feeder unit. Cheers”
But fail to mention that as u said the employees are sacrificing their mental health so tagging it doesn’t mean that it won’t still progress since the employee still needs to stop the progress of the package.
But that aside it makes me feel better? that what happened to me is not a one off scenario.
That is just awful. I really hate how UPS has ruined so many people’s days and yet are still in business to do so. I know this is an old old post. But if you could help me out by going to this forum and telling your story there, I’d appreciate it.
http://www.boycottbrown.com/news.php
Im a UPS driver and for those of you that dont know, its pretty much a pain in the ass. But my check always clears so I still show up everyday. You guys can complain all you want about this and that, but could you please, if at all possible, learn how to drive?! Maybe use your turn signal before you cut me off. Stop at the stop signs at intersections im pulling through? Give my bumper more than 2 feet of space from yours? Park properly? When your driving down a narrow street with cars parked on both sides not try and slip around me nearly killing yourself if i didnt see you and applied my breaks? I deliver whats on my truck, i help people with their heavy packages that they probably dont need, I pick up even if you havent scheduled it when you ask me if i can take this, and in 15 years ill be walking like an injured duck so you could get some used ugly coffee table from overstock.com and wish you a good day. All companies have shitty employees, odds are a few of you are said employees, but thats life, humans are idiots but could you please, drive like your not trying to kill or get killed. Thanks.
Today a UPS driver broke off my screen door. leaving it dangling with screws and nails exposed and just barely attatched. After several hours and several phone conversations with several different people at UPS. I was told that they would not be able to do anything til Monday.
i am a ups driver. 12 years now. some days it sucks.
im sorry to hear you are having so many bad experiences. if you were on my route, it wouldnt be that way.
my commitment to my customers:
“I serve my customers through a total commitment to service excellence and customer satisfaction”.
it makes my day when my customers bake cookies for me
=jordan=
I have worked for UPS for 30 years. The building i work at processes 60 to 80 Thousand piecses a day in a total of 9 hours between two shifts morning(inbound) and late afternoon(outbound). The package drivers have anywhere between 80 to 140 DELIVERY stops with 25 to 50 pickup stops. most of which are business stops, so home delivery is in the late afternoon to evening. Not every package is going to arrive in the same shape it left the shipper in, but we try.I have friends that work for Fedex and DHL (ohhh) I bet you people that are on your soap don’t know that DHL and the US postal service use our system to move alot of there packages across country so add that volume to the system and maybe just maybe you can understand that some packages will get damaged. So next time maybe instead of complaining try to have a little understanding.
What can brown do for me? Deliver my $*#&! Of the last 12 products I’ve had shipped via UPS, I’ve received 4 within the time period I specifically paid for. USPS and DHL are at 100% on time, or sooner, for EVERY SINGLE DELIVERY. The latest incident happened just today. I paid for 3 Day Select service. My package was sent 11/14 and all week and even all day long it still said on the tracking site the item was on time and would be delivered today, 11/19. It wasn’t until 8:00 PM that the website finally updated. But now-get this- it won’t be delivered until 11/24! Seriously, W-T-F?
It’s a package I needed for a one time event on the 22nd. So now I’m not only out the money I paid for shipping, but the ENTIRE shipment of $1,200 worth of materials!
I understand everyone at UPS works very hard. But you know what? That hard work ain’t worth P!$$ if only one dip$h!t along the route doesn’t know how to pick up a box and put it in the right truck! Simple as that!
My customers rely on my products and when some dip$H!T drops the ball at UPS, it makes me look bad and I lose money because of it.