If you thought USPS and UPS were bad....

This thread from 2017

So Weds I did some shopping on Amazon for the wife. Expected delivery Friday (today). Get a call from the Amazon driver trying to find out where to deliver the package. Apparently having the name of the business, the address and the location to leave it is not enough. So he keeps asking how to get inside and how the door's locked. I told him he was at the wrong location, reviewed the address, told him to look for ther blue stripe at the top of the building ("no it's red" I know, you're at the wrong building) and he said "OK, I'll leave it at the front desk". Get back from lunch to no package and a notification from Amazon that the driver was unable to deliver because he couldn't get into the building. 

Seriously? We receive THOUSANDS of packages a day here at this location. UPS, Fed Ex and USPS all know where we are. Amazon delivery driver cannot. 

Amazon's own delivery drivers are a bunch of (often new) freelancers who are overworked and underpaid. That's why that lady took a dump in the guy's driveway...to stay on Amazon's schedule that's so demanding, it makes other shipping company schedules seem accomodating in comparison.

Amazon is on the cutting edge of using computers to work manual laborers to the brink of death.

I've had issues with FedEx lately.

1st one, the driver left a package on the ground outside the garage door (attached garage) in the exact track of my left rear tire. Scared the crap outta me when I ran over it. Luckily, it was a pillow that the wife had ordered and it survived just fine.

I suppose it was my fault for just getting in my truck, hitting the opener and backing out instead of opening the door and looking to see if someone had left something there for me to run over. Just glad I hadn't ordered a puppy!

Called and complained, told them not to do that anymore. They apologize and promise never to do that again.

Couple days later, I come home to a package in the same exact spot. Saw it this time. Called again, yada yada yada.

Had a cold, rainy streak a few weeks back, didn't go outside much as it's dark when I go to work and dark when I get home. Found a waterlogged package in the bushes next to the back garage door one Saturday morning. 3 feet away is the French door that is under cover and we would have seen the package the first day, had it been there. Fabric that the wife had ordered, it was wet, but OK.

Finally, I ordered a small biometric gun safe for the bedroom. 3 day delivery they said.

After a week, I started tracking it as it took a tour of the US of A. It's been to more states than I have.

It actually went within sight of my house while traveling between hubs about three days before it finally showed up!

All of these instances were before the Holiday rush, so that's not an excuse.

All of the delivery companies/systems have their shortcomings, but I have had the best luck, by far, with UPS.

Trying out the USPS flat rate boxes right now, we'll see how I feel about them after the 1st of the year. 

FedEx has probably become the second worst next to UPS (they're about equally bad for doing the knock-and-dash). UPS is the worst, but only by a small margin. USPS is actually one of the best in my experience.

Work and personal experience has me turned off USPS. Only "business" that can run at a loss, treat its customers like garbage and be perfectly fine. Our local postmaster for work only loads the totes of samples when they feel like it or they run out of room. That may be a week or two.... and then we get 5k samples in a day instead of the 500-1000 they would typically deliver per day on top of our normal UPS, FedEx and DHL deliveries. 

Yeah, F USPS. I want my tax money back.

GameboyRMH said:

FedEx has probably become the second worst next to UPS (they're about equally bad for doing the knock-and-dash). UPS is the worst, but only by a small margin. USPS is actually one of the best in my experience.

from a personal receiving USPS is decent. From a business perspective they are hands down the worst.

Amazon prime deliveries started with private individuals working for amazon through an app.  It hasn't taken long for small companies to gobble up all the routes and pay people 12-15 and hour to do the same thing that paid much more when doing it directly for amazon.  The routes are in 4 hour blocks so the individual would only need to run one or two routes per day, while the companies are forcing the same people to work 10 hour days and if they miss the pickup for their next route block they probably get fired quickly.

I've had a standing feud going with USPS since moving into my current house last year. Our regular carrier refuses to deliver anything too large to fit in the mailbox, so we end up having to pick up half of our package deliveries at the post office. It's a major pain in the ass, as it is impossible for me and only sometimes possible for SWMBO to make it there during the work week, so most of the time we don't get our packages until Saturday. 

In reply to Furious_E :

Larger mailbox?

In reply to Stampie :

It's already about as large as a standard mailbox comes, but yes, that's probably my eventual solution. I will make it absurdly huge.

In reply to Furious_E :

I'd be an shiny happy person and make one large enough they can walk into it. 

In reply to Stampie :

Spam deleted 

I ship small Japanese diaphragm pumps by UPS fairly often. They are tested and rated for a 60 centimeter drop,  or two feet. UPS breaks four our of every 100 we ship, despite the fragile warnings all over them. They weigh 11 pounds, and are the perfect size for a behind schedule driver to throw it up the steps to the door instead of walking up the steps and placing it. It is quite infuriating, because when the customer plugs it in nothing happens and we get a crappy review. It is bad enough that the factory is redesigning the pump to withstand being thrown, although they never did understand in Japan how this was happening. Packages there are treated with much more reverence.

In reply to bearmtnmartin :

Interesting that the choice is to redesign the pump for a throw and not redesign the packaging for a throw. 

Fragile sign means they throw it underhand.

Bossette where I work loves to cover E36 M3 in fragile stickers.  Like that'll keep it safe.  I've seen a coworker put 3 on every side of a box going out, and her come up and add ONE more.  There, now it's ready!

I convince CFO to wire transfer money to Australia for special motor mounts for heavy equipment.  

They finally ship and get caught in customs - shipper fails to reply 3x and nobody knew how to contact me.  Customs puts them on a plane back to Australia -I’m sick to my stomach.  

Hopefully tonght they will look at my emails and put them back on a plane.  

Not Fedex’s fault but....

Jerry said:

Bossette where I work loves to cover E36 M3 in fragile stickers.  Like that'll keep it safe.  I've seen a coworker put 3 on every side of a box going out, and her come up and add ONE more.  There, now it's ready!

If you're shipping something really fragile, first put it in a cheap cooler, because it's an excellent strong shipping container, and then mark it as a shipment of bull semen

In reply to John Welsh :

The pump sits on four very soft rubber legs to eliminate noise and vibration. When the pump is thrown the legs move enough that a plastic part contacts a steel part and shears off the plastic part. It is not a packaging issue. It is a careless person throwing a box clearly marked fragile, more than the designed in tolerance of two feet.

TurnerX19 said:

Fragile sign means they throw it underhand.

I always thought Fagile was a place in Italy.

bobzilla said:

 

This thread from 2017

So Weds I did some shopping on Amazon for the wife. Expected delivery Friday (today). Get a call from the Amazon driver trying to find out where to deliver the package. Apparently having the name of the business, the address and the location to leave it is not enough. So he keeps asking how to get inside and how the door's locked. I told him he was at the wrong location, reviewed the address, told him to look for ther blue stripe at the top of the building ("no it's red" I know, you're at the wrong building) and he said "OK, I'll leave it at the front desk". Get back from lunch to no package and a notification from Amazon that the driver was unable to deliver because he couldn't get into the building. 

Seriously? We receive THOUSANDS of packages a day here at this location. UPS, Fed Ex and USPS all know where we are. Amazon delivery driver cannot. 

Some times, There may be delays while delivering through USPS. I have been working in USPS from last 2 years. Generally we work hard to deliver products.

In reply to bearmtnmartin :

That's how they deliver to my house. 

Datsun310Guy said:

I convince CFO to wire transfer money to Australia for special motor mounts for heavy equipment.  

They finally ship and get caught in customs - shipper fails to reply 3x and nobody knew how to contact me.  Customs puts them on a plane back to Australia -I’m sick to my stomach.  

Hopefully tonght they will look at my emails and put them back on a plane.  

Not Fedex’s fault but....

The last time I had something shipped from Australia the shipper used DHL.  For whatever it's worth, they have the customs duty thing down.  When it arrived, I got a text message stating the duty amount, I paid it with a credit card, a few minutes later I got a release confirmation. All done on my phone while eating dinner at a restaurant. A few days later the package arrived on my doorstep.  Quick and painless - at least compared to UPS which billed me after the fact for a shipment from England. No experience with FedEx as far as customs go.  

I've had some terrible experiences with Amazon lately. I received a notification that a package was delivered and received a picture. It was my first experience with this and thought "Wow, this is awesome!" This was the picture. This has been common place ever since with any light package that can be tossed out the window when ordering items from Amazon. Packages left in the yard with electronics in them during afternoon rain storms as well. I'm not sure if it's Amazon's strict schedule they keep these drivers on or just pure laziness from the drivers. Either way it's a pathetic excuse for a logistical company. I'd rather wait an extra day or two to get an item from somewhere else than this.