UPS, DHL, I wish you'd both go to hell.

I ordered a new fuel pump rom FCP groton after it died (about 1/3 the price of other quotes I've received). I needed it Friday so I could do the work this weekend without having to deal with driving 3 people to work, etc. I bought the 2-day airmail package to be sure it got here on time for me. What did UPS do? They misrouted it to another city, noticed their problem at 6 AM friday... and did nothing until 9:30 friday night. Now, I won't receive my package until Monday, I'll have to miss work to install it, and I will have to delay my replacement of my In-tank pump (probably caused the main to fail). Now, my $37 mail is as efficient as the default 7.95 a 5-day delivery would have cost and it will get here at the same time. What a good use of money.

Two months ago, I ordered another package from FCP Groton. It never showed up. Not at my house, not near my house, nowhere that I could find. I called FCP to make sure that I had ordered it, as I either deleted or didn't receive any tracking confirmation. FCP willingly sent me another identical order (totaling $14 - thanks), this time by DHL. Guess what happened with the DHL order? It never showed up!

So, now, nearly two months have passed since my initial order and my wheel bearing replacement was delayed until I could remove the hubs to be sure the bearings hadn't damaged the spindle or anything else was the problem. I called and complained to both, was told I would receive calls from the drivers the next day, and ..didn't hear from either. Three days after my call to DHL, I received a phone call from an automated service stating my package had been delivered. On the way home, I found the package left leaning on a phone pole .9 miles from my house. There is a dirt road to my house, but it's not impassable (a ford Aerostar and a 740 make it fine at any speed). Rather than drive down the road, they dropped it off and reported it left at the front door. That phone pole even has a printed address sign and an arrow pointing down the dirt road.

Friday, I posted a sign with instructions to drive down the road, etc. And a few hours later I found out that it had been misrouted.

*sigh* I'm happier now that I had that rant. Has anyone else had this sort of problem with UPS or DHL or am I just special?

-Will
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1990 740 Turbo, on its way to stock specs, maybe beyond

We also live out 'in the sticks', and have had problems from all three delivery companies, UPS, Fed-Ex and DHL. Fed-Ex being the worst here.

Each company seems to chew through many drivers. As soon as a driver gets to know the route, and you get to know them, they are never seen again, and a clueless nube takes over.

Believe it or not, the best service here in rural Va is USPS. Miss Ida ( our carrier) is as reliable as the sun, and we have never had a problem in almost 20 years. They have never lost a package, she brings it down the long ,steep gravel drive to the house, even though thier regs say she can just dump it at the box on the street,and the service from the west coast is much faster than UPS.
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Gary Gilliam Sumerduck VA, '94 940 Regina '86 240gl

I've had problems with all of them. UPS is worst around here ( at least i finally got a decent driver about a year ago.....I went in to her terminal and told her boss not to let her go on vacation without warning me because everytime she takes a day off , the replacement driver screws something up )

My old ups driver was a real winner, aside from taking all turns at 40mph assuring that all pachages got thrown around in the van real good, I orders a set of snow tires , watched the online tracking, saw they were on the truck for delivery, waited all day, around 5:00pm, called UPS, they assured me it was on the way, 7:00 called again, they try to tell me they've been delivered. I raise cain. next morning first thing I'm at the local terminal, the managet tells me that the driver said they were still on the truck, but were behind some things and he'd deliver them later. 10 minutes later I'm at home working on a brick in the driveway and a neighbor from up the road drives up and asks " did you order a set of tires?" He had found them the night before behind his garage, in the morning he figured that i would be the only one around here ordering snow tires so he came by. Never heard from the driver.

Then next year i orderd a set for my other car ( paid for 3 day shipping$$$ for a set of tires Fedex ground this time) so we could make a trip up north( combination buisness and pleasure, had to go on schedule), they should have got here with 2 days before leaving.
Same thing, tracking sais out on truck, 5:00 rolls around I call, same story, 7:00 no sign of tires, so I call regional fedex ground terminal and start really raising cain and tell the clown that i am going to be down there in an hour to get my tires ( which they had not yet located ), I drag my 2 young children out in the middle of the night and went there and waited till they found them. They had to call in three off duty managers and they were steping and fetching till they finally found them ...in a storage trailer that was backed up to the employee parking lot ( gee, I wonder what someone was planning to do ???)

This stuff happens all the time. Last time my regular UPS driver took a vacation, I had ordered an exhaust pipe for a mercedes i was working on , from Mercedes, it never got here, but showed up delivered. Finally found the replacement driver saw a car part and just decided to drop it at a Dodge dealer ( on the other side of town )and to top it off, the morons at the dodge dealer tried to put the thing in stock intheir parts dept ( huge piece of exhaust pipe completely wrapped in MERCEDES BENZ wrapping material ) I had to spend three days getting that piece back from them.

I spent a lot of years on the other end of the delivery business driving big trucks, a few years of which was spent in a single axel tractor with a 28' pup trailer delivering all kinds of truck freight to business and homes/farms way out in the hills ( many times the tree branches lower than the hood, just had to slowly push through ) and never did I get anything to the wrong place. There just isn't any excuse for it.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '86 740 GLE turbo diesel, '92 Ford F350 diesel dually

UPS has delayed my shipments on more than one occasion, and each time, I call up the reseller and ask them to file a claim against UPS for me and to refund my shipping cost. All my resellers have agreed so far.

UPS has a guaranteed shipment date for each of the services. If they miss the date barring any sort of disaster (Hurricane Katrina, for example), they owe you (or rather the reseller) a refund, period.
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Ken
1990 Volvo 740 base sedan (B230F)
My Volvo 'Project'
Click here for the 700/900 FAQ

Since I have had the same experiences, maybe I can help you improve the situation.

Although internet shopping has been a boon to rural life, delivering to backwoods residences is the bane of the delivery industry. Just like the post office, utilities (phone, electric), any attempt to price across the board results in dense city locations subsidising places like yours.

The bother extends to the drivers too, because they are given no-excuse efficiency goals or the length of shifts depend on getting all the deliveries done.

You can complain to the companies that you are not getting what you paid for, but remember, you're not among their prized customers - they would really hope you just went away.

The better approach is to chat up and get to know your delivery personnel - make them enjoy calling on you. It may take a while, seeing how difficult it is to meet them, but with a little effort you'll gain a new neighbor. And what I found out: make sure you provide a decent place to turn that truck around and keep the overhanging branches well clear along that mile-long dirt path.

Good advice...although I live in an urban area, the UPS guy has been to our place so many times on parts deliveries alone I'm thinking of inviting him to our wedding! Our guy actually parked the truck and got out to talk to me while I was replacing the failed plastic intake manifold on my Mustang GT, then proceeded to launch into a tirade about "those cheap Ford bastards" and the reasons why nobody buys domestic anymore. Couldn't have been good for productivity but nevertheless, we forged a bond for good that day. Getting to know your local DHL, UPS, Fedex guys couldn't hurt, and might possibly improve your situation considerably. Sorry to hear about your troubles...

Greg