Plaidophile: UPS is made of stupid

February 3, 2010

UPS is made of stupid (customer experience, rant)

by fluffy at 11:15 AM

I ordered a bunch of music gear. It came in two shipments, both shipped on the same day, and both actually made it to San Francisco on the same day. The same name was on both of them. The same street address was on both of them. Presumably either the same company name or the same floor number were on both of them. AND YET, UPS knew what to do with one package (that arrived this morning) but the other one (which was as far as I can tell in the same truck with the same driver) was rejected because of an "incorrect suite number."

My office doesn't have a suite number, just a street address and "4th floor." Usually, shippers can figure this out. But every now and then, UPS, in its infinite wisdom, decides they need a suite number to continue. And so my stuff gets delayed.

Unfortunately, a lot of merchants don't seem to realize that both company name AND floor number are necessary for packages to get to me, but in this case UPS should have been able to figure it out anyway, simply because there was another package for me in the same batch of packages which actually made it to me.

And of course, whenever I call UPS under situations like this, they claim that they need to hear from the shipper, not from the recipient, because nothing makes things go faster than extra, unnecessary layers of bureaucracy and buck-passing.

Comments

#12836

02/04/2010 02:24 am

Just say "Suite 400" next time?

#12837

02/04/2010 07:58 am

Yumiko is looking into getting us an actual suite number, because she's getting a bit annoyed at always receiving crap meant for the neighbors too.

#12838

02/04/2010 08:22 am

Can we get an actual professional-looking [company] sign, while we're at it? File that, too, under "things even [previous company] had".

#12839

02/04/2010 11:13 am

New update: UPS decided that rather than try to GET THE ACTUAL ADDRESS, they immediately - after less than one day - RETURNED TO SENDER.

So I called UPS on the phone and they said that this was UPS policy, and no I couldn't correct the package destination, it's the SENDER who has to do that, because of "UPS policy."

I explained how stupid that policy is and the customer service agent said she would pass that along to customer service. I also ranted for a bit about how annoying it is that this happens with increasing frequency and how I choose non-UPS shipping options WHENEVER POSSIBLE now, because this is getting goddamn RIDICULOUS.

#12840

02/04/2010 11:25 am

and now I'm on permahold with Musician's Friend because THEY have bureaucracy too.

#12841

02/04/2010 11:30 am

So Musician's Friend, as a matter of policy, couldn't just send out a reroute to UPS, because they track it as a "return," but they've just sent me another duplicate order with 2-day shipping instead. So I still won't see it until next week but in theory I'll actually SEE it, so there's that. (Too bad UPS will probably fuck it up again.)

They were also wondering WTF because they made absolutely sure that my complete address (company name, floor, etc.) was on the shipping label, so the driver must just be a goddamn moron. Which he probably is, because UPS.

#12842 02/05/2010 01:19 pm

wow, that's even dumber than most ups shenanigans.
-bill

#12847

02/09/2010 08:46 am

I mean, god damn, look how stupid this is!

At least Musician's Friend's replacement shipment should be arriving today. We'll see. Sigh.

#12848

02/09/2010 10:37 am

Okay, so I just received the UPS package. And guess what: Musician's Friend DID NOT put the company name on the mailing label, even though they INSISTED that they did.

Sadly, a lot of places are like that. If we actually get an office suite number, that will help a lot.

And still, there is NO excuse for UPS to immediately return-to-sender the original package, especially considering there was another package for me on the VERY SAME TRUCK.

#12925 03/08/2010 10:46 pm

Here's another good UPS story, fluffy. For a long time, our address, being a new house, was not listed in the USPS database. This caused UPS do think that it did not exist, so whenever a package came for us, they wouldn't even try to deliver it. Instead, they would send a postcard, using the exact same address, through the US Mail, to alert us to the fact that a package was waiting for us down at the UPS office. Assuming that our address, indeed, did not exist, how did they expect this to work? Fortunately for us, our address does exist, and we would get the card and go pick up the package.

I have talked to two letter carriers about this. One is furious that UPS uses them as a locator service, and refuses to deliver the cards. The other is proud that the post office can find you even when UPS can't and uses this as an opportunity to market the Post Office's superiority to his customer, delivering the cards by hand whenever possible.

#12926

03/09/2010 07:59 am

I like the second mail carrier better.

#12936 Harmonycat (unregistered) 03/11/2010 02:54 pm UPS policies and procedures SUCK / UPS sending postcards

The first letter carrier is going to get himelf or herself FIRED. Carriers cannot refuse to deliver mail that has been paid for by the sender (UPS). Most companies that ship goods use the USPS address system and they and UPS pay to use that database.

Now, MY rant:
UPS walks up my driveway and because my garage is right there (and the front door is a bit farther) they put parcels IN FRONT of my garage door. According to UPS, this is a legitimate drop point because they assume the customer is at work during the day. (Honestly, that's what he said!!) I only work three days each week, so you know what happens next. I am so SICK of running over the packages and cleaning up the mess or trying to fish the smaller boxes out from under my car. If dropping a parcel in front of a garage door is good policy, why not just leave it out in the street so all my neighbors can run it over, too?????

Spud:

Here's another good UPS story, fluffy. For a long time, our address, being a new house, was not listed in the USPS database. This caused UPS do think that it did not exist, so whenever a package came for us, they wouldn't even try to deliver it. Instead, they would send a postcard, using the exact same address, through the US Mail, to alert us to the fact that a package was waiting for us down at the UPS office. Assuming that our address, indeed, did not exist, how did they expect this to work? Fortunately for us, our address does exist, and we would get the card and go pick up the package.

I have talked to two letter carriers about this. One is furious that UPS uses them as a locator service, and refuses to deliver the cards. The other is proud that the post office can find you even when UPS can't and uses this as an opportunity to market the Post Office's superiority to his customer, delivering the cards by hand whenever possible.

#12937

03/11/2010 02:59 pm

Wow, and they don't even ring the doorbell? That sounds pretty typical for UPS, but, yeesh.