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I Hate UPS (A rant with no redeeming value beyond catharsis)

July 7, 2008 12:08 by author

Zoli Erdos has posted a few times on the complete incompetence of UPS. The most recent one entitled "UPS: Tracking and Customer Service Failure" details how several of his packages simply disappeared en route.

Being that this is my first day having to head back to work (e.g. I'm cranky) and being that UPS is the company I'd most like to malign publicly I thought I'd jump on his bandwagon.

Just to be original I'll attack the delivery side of things.

You see, most companies when they are stopping by your house to either deliver something or do something will give you a window of time when they plan to be there. UPS on the other hand doesn't see fit to bother with that.

Not only will they give you no time estimate but their drivers are free to work any hours they like so your UPS package could literally show up anytime during the day or night. There's really only one time it's guaranteed not to show up and that is...the weekend.

Because UPS, striving to show complete disregard for their customers time, will only deliver on weekdays. So essentially, to receive a package from UPS you have to be willing to sit at home all day and all night on a weekday.

But even then they might not come.

One of the dirty little secrets of UPS is that they have absolutely no checking mechanism to see if the driver actually tried to deliver your package. So if your house/apartment is too far out of the driver's way they will often just not attempt to deliver the package at all. All they need do is claim you weren't home to receive it in their log.

Again UPS drivers don't work set hours. They are simply expected to deliver all their packages in a day so they get to leave early if they make no attempt to deliver your package.

Some might think UPS management is just blissfully unaware of these problems. I would advise those people try calling the UPS' customer service hotline. If you do you'll find you are given 4 options and none of them are for Customer Service.

The whole thing uses automated voice prompts and there is no obvious way to get an actual person (though if you say Customer Service repeatedly despite the system's protests it will eventually kick you to a person just to get rid of you). The entire system is one designed to make complaint callers give up.

Bottom line: In every way, UPS sucks!

With that said there is one thing that annoys me even more. That is companies like Amazon who give me no choice as far as which shipping company they use to ship my package. I would happily pay an extra couple dollars to get my packages via FedEx or DHL (I've had much better experiences with both of these companies). UPS' behavior is deplorable but that behavior is largely the fault of the vendors who force their customers to use the service.

Why would UPS care about their customers if they can't lose them?

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July 8. 2008 12:22

You sir are an idiot.

"Not only will they give you no time estimate but their drivers are free to work any hours they like so your UPS package could literally show up anytime during the day or night. There's really only one time it's guaranteed not to show up and that is...the weekend."

You cant make remarks about a company if you do not know what the hell you are talking about. These drivers can not work when they want, they have a certain amount of time they can be out. And yeah your package will probably show up later in the day or mid evening. This is because we deliver to all the business' first. That's the main money maker, not people at home. So after all the business' get their packages then we worry about the residents.

"One of the dirty little secrets of UPS is that they have absolutely no checking mechanism to see if the driver actually tried to deliver your package. So if your house/apartment is too far out of the driver's way they will often just not attempt to deliver the package at all. All they need do is claim you weren't home to receive it in their log."

Wow. This statement is bogus. Here you go again, talking about shit you have not one clue about. We actually do have a system, its call fucking GPS. Have you heard of it? There is a GPS system on each DIAD board. Also, we have another system, where we can see where the driver is from he he leaves the building and comes back. We can see what stops he has done and what stops he has left. Why on earth would a driver not want to deliver a package to you? I mean its going to be on the truck the next day. You sir are a complete idiot and I hope you never use UPS again. Go ahead and ship with DHL or FedEx, we will be just fine without you.

Fucking douche bag.

UPS

July 8. 2008 13:12

Well First let me say that I didn’t just make this up. I have a good UPS driver who is only here half the time so I asked him “why does my service suck when you are gone” and he explained the above to me.

That said, I have to question your credentials here because I know for a fact my UPS driver doesn’t deliver all his business packages before he starts the homes (again, I talked to the guy). Since you didn’t say in what capacity you are I don’t necessarily know if you know what you are talking about.

That said, you didn’t really refute what I said. A GPS is very easy to fool because they are wrong so often. You simply say that it was wrong and that you tried to make the stop and you’re off the hook. The reason someone would do that is to keep their route shorter (as I explained in the post above).

Further, it’s not like I’m the first person to say this. UPS’ customer satisfaction ratings are regularly well below those of both FedEx and DHL (with the exception of one JD Power survey)

Anyway, I am glad you dropped by since its always nice to hear the other side of things. I do wish you’d represented yourself a little better though so people would take you more seriously (as much as you might want to call someone a douche bag and as much as they might deserve it it does nothing but make you look bad)

Tom

July 8. 2008 13:52

Lol it's pretty funny that the first commenter made it clear that he's a UPS employee and then proceeded to publicly bash you. That has the potential to be an amusing black-eye for UPS' PR ;p

Aaron Stannard

July 8. 2008 15:44

Probably why he posted anonymously. At least, I think he did (unless fuckit@gmail.com is his actual address)

You know, now I'm kind of curious to see if fuckit@gmail.com belongs to anyone.

Tom

July 8. 2008 18:36

It probably belongs to an enterprising pornographer /shrug

Aaron Stannard

July 21. 2008 06:53

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About Me

Hi, I’m Tom and I run the IT department for a non-profit agency which provides treatment to special-needs children. Though I will (like any blogger) comment on technology in general my main goal is to detail how I’m trying to use technology to help treat the children we serve and its my hope that blogging will allow me to connect with people who can help in that goal.

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