Oh, UPS, there's a reason why I always bitch about you.

[badseed1980]

Fortunately, this time you didn't actually cause trouble for me. Unlike the time when you almost made me have a nervous breakdown on New Year's Eve by not delivering that printer to my old office when my evil, awful boss needed it before the close of business that day. No, this time your incompetence was just amusing.

Now, I'd ordered stuff from Amazon as a present for my father. I got a notification that I had a package at the office. I went up to get it, and there were TWO packages. One was clearly from Amazon. The other was unmarked on the outside except for the UPS label, clearly addressed to me. I opened it up. It was three CDs: a Neil Young CD, a Bon Jovi CD, and a Tesla CD. Um, no. Not mine. Not sent TO me either: there was a shipping insert from Best Buy in there that was clearly addressed to someone else, some dude in Maryland.

I thought: WTF???

I wondered if someplace else had sent me the wrong item or something, somehow. I checked the shipment notification e-mails I'd received from various retailers. Ah, look, here's that tracking number. It's...the stuff I ordered from Amazon. I opened the package I'd gotten from Amazon. It was the stuff I'd ordered. Um. Two packages from two separate shippers, same tracking number.

I called Best Buy. They were like, "WTF? THAT IS SO BIZARRE!" They took down the order number that I read them from the label, so they knew what it was that got mis-shipped. Then they told me to call UPS and have them come back and pick it up again.

I called UPS. They started taking my info to come pick it up. Then I said, "Now, I had to open the package in order to find out that it wasn't actually something for me. Can you still pick it up like that? Or do I need to re-package it?" The representative said, "Oh, we can't pick it up like that and you'd need to pay for shipping if you re-packaged it. Call Best Buy and have them give you this code thingy and then you can re-package it and call us to come pick it up."

By that point, I thought, "You know what? Best Buy knows what shipment it was that didn't arrive in the right place. I am NOT going through the rigamarole of calling Best Buy, waiting on hold, explaining again, getting the code, packaging the stuff, calling UPS, waiting on hold, explaining, and having them come get it." So I gave the Bon Jovi CD to a coworker who wanted it, and put the other two out on the counter in the kitchen with a note saying they were free for the taking.

CRAZY.

Comments

[miss-lisa-ma.livejournal.com]

Oy.
Vey.

[cos]

No shipping company seems to avoid doing stupid things, but in my experience over the past couple of decades, the USPS does much better than the private companies. And FedEx here in Boston (or, whatever area gets served from their Medford location) is just surreal.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

USPS is ALWAYS my first choice for shipping when I can choose how to have something shipped to me. It's surprising to me, but they really do fuck up less often. I've had fewer problems with FedEx than with UPS, myself.

[cos]

I've had one real fuckup from the USPS in the past decade. It was epic, and hilarious when viewed in a certain light, so someday I should post about it. But it was the only one. FedEx pulled a worse one on me, anyway - and FedEx's wasn't a fluke, it was an unavoidable result of some deep flaws in their communications structure. There is, apparently, absolutely no way to relay a question to the driver who delivered one's package and get the answer back, even if they tell you that they know exactly who the driver was and when they delivered the package. I spent weeks before I gave up on that one, and the (mis)communications were comical.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

When I was expecting a package (and saw online it was out for delivery), I watched a FraudEx driver come in to a controlled access building, where you can ring each apartment, spend some time in the lobby (doing what, i couldn't tell, I only saw him enter, received NO call on my phone, and saw the driver leave.

I checked online before the truck left, saw the driver recorded it as delivery attempted, no one to sign.

I ran the truck down with a print out of the screencap, and told the driver to give me my package he just failed to attempt to deliver.

I also had fedex dispatch on the phone at the time, and the driver was on his ptt radio saying he was being harassed.

I told the dispatcher to look it up, and that the driver never made the attempt - and that I was no longer going to use fed ex if i had a choice.

I got my package.

But I have had that problem since then, when I haven't had a choice, where a fedex driver says that they attempted delivery, and I never got a buzz in a controlled access building.

It's why I now have everything delivered to work.

HATE.

[bittercat.livejournal.com]

I hate UPS with a fiery-hot passion.

If I ever have to ship something large and USPS isn't up to the task, I WILL pay more to use Fed Ex.

*HATE*

That IS a pretty amusing story, though.

[etainwilson.livejournal.com]

One time I got the coolest thing that was delivered to me by mistake and it was supposed to go to someone else even though it was addressed to me. Years ago I'd ordered a yule ornament from a company and the huge box arrives. Inside was a lifesize YODA puppet. I mean, how freaking cool is THAT. I never did get the ornament.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Dude, that is SWEET!