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I've never had UPS driver with no identification use their personal car to deliver a package at 9:00 at night.

mindslight 4y ago
UPS routinely delivers my packages after 9PM. Fedex had a phase of leaving my packages next to the road. The dodgy people in passenger vehicles tend to hang out in my driveway for a while and never seem prepared. Half the carriers stack the packages in front of my door such that it can't be opened. All the services are bad in their own ways, which seem to depend on the "ingenuity" of the individual drivers. I'm sure they're all getting the screws turned on them as much as technically possible. I will say Fedex Express seems to have retained some of its character, in the way that UPS Air has not (some of those >9PM packages have been Next Day Air 10:30AM service). The worst is being unable to reach an actual human. If I'm calling, it's not because I want to listen to a computer voice read out the tracking information. (Although one of their tracking websites has been straight up "unavailable" for months, so maybe it's not a stretch). The reward for worst offense probably goes to UPS, for delivering a crushed box that started off containing 4 gallons of oil paint, very obviously leaking everywhere. That was also at 9PM, so nobody to even try to get ahold of until the next day well after I had been forced to deal with it. I donned disposable gloves and carefully poured them into a 5 gallon bucket and got 3 free gallons of paint and 20% discount on the reship from Home Depot. I guess dealing with the fallout is the real price we pay for goods getting delivered? The sheer wastefulness continues to be obscene to me. We have such abundance that we don't even bother handling goods properly to avoid squandering them. What I really don't get is why none of these companies have tried batching deliveries onto fewer days per week. I get that they they're not in the business of storing packages, but instead of having drivers race around to do one package at each of many houses, they could make fewer stops. If the buffering would take too much room, do ingress policing that requires shippers to only ship to specific destinations on specific days. If we're going for cheapest possible rates, that seems like a straightforward optimization.
- thewebcount 4y ago
  > The worst is being unable to reach an actual human. If I'm calling, it's not because I want to listen to a computer voice read out the tracking information. I’ve had their automated system hang up on me! I semi-regularly have to send a pre-paid box back to Apple to recycle an old device. I go to FedEx’s website to get a pick-up, and it always says that the tracking number isn’t valid. (Apple must send literally millions of these boxes a year - why would the tracking number be invalid?) I then call and the person on the phone fixes it and the package gets picked up as expected. But one day they changed their phone tree and the old options didn’t work. If you asked for a representative or agent, it would just hang up on you! I eventually figured out that you have to follow the prompts that say, “Problem with the web site” and then “something else” after that and then you get a human who can fix the problem or escalate it. But they’re clearly trying to get you to hang up and go away.
rootusrootus 4y ago
These days, the only time Amazon ever does that to me is if I order something with same-day delivery. Otherwise, all regular orders come via the big gray & blue Amazon trucks, just like any other delivery company.
- judge2020 4y ago
  While I've had mid-day Amazon Flex drivers show up with a regular 2-day package, this only happened once during the Christmas season. Otherwise, Flex drivers seem to be dedicated to same-day grocery/Amazon/Whole Foods delivery.
Spooky23 4y ago
At Christmas, I’ve have a UPS manager in a fleece deliver packages from his Toyota Highlander.

UPS routinely delivers my packages after 9PM. Fedex had a phase of leaving my packages next to the road. The dodgy people in passenger vehicles tend to hang out in my driveway for a while and never seem prepared. Half the carriers stack the packages in front of my door such that it can't be opened. All the services are bad in their own ways, which seem to depend on the "ingenuity" of the individual drivers. I'm sure they're all getting the screws turned on them as much as technically possible. I will say Fedex Express seems to have retained some of its character, in the way that UPS Air has not (some of those >9PM packages have been Next Day Air 10:30AM service). The worst is being unable to reach an actual human. If I'm calling, it's not because I want to listen to a computer voice read out the tracking information. (Although one of their tracking websites has been straight up "unavailable" for months, so maybe it's not a stretch). The reward for worst offense probably goes to UPS, for delivering a crushed box that started off containing 4 gallons of oil paint, very obviously leaking everywhere. That was also at 9PM, so nobody to even try to get ahold of until the next day well after I had been forced to deal with it. I donned disposable gloves and carefully poured them into a 5 gallon bucket and got 3 free gallons of paint and 20% discount on the reship from Home Depot. I guess dealing with the fallout is the real price we pay for goods getting delivered? The sheer wastefulness continues to be obscene to me. We have such abundance that we don't even bother handling goods properly to avoid squandering them. What I really don't get is why none of these companies have tried batching deliveries onto fewer days per week. I get that they they're not in the business of storing packages, but instead of having drivers race around to do one package at each of many houses, they could make fewer stops. If the buffering would take too much room, do ingress policing that requires shippers to only ship to specific destinations on specific days. If we're going for cheapest possible rates, that seems like a straightforward optimization.

thewebcount 4y ago
> The worst is being unable to reach an actual human. If I'm calling, it's not because I want to listen to a computer voice read out the tracking information. I’ve had their automated system hang up on me! I semi-regularly have to send a pre-paid box back to Apple to recycle an old device. I go to FedEx’s website to get a pick-up, and it always says that the tracking number isn’t valid. (Apple must send literally millions of these boxes a year - why would the tracking number be invalid?) I then call and the person on the phone fixes it and the package gets picked up as expected. But one day they changed their phone tree and the old options didn’t work. If you asked for a representative or agent, it would just hang up on you! I eventually figured out that you have to follow the prompts that say, “Problem with the web site” and then “something else” after that and then you get a human who can fix the problem or escalate it. But they’re clearly trying to get you to hang up and go away.

rootusrootus 4y ago

These days, the only time Amazon ever does that to me is if I order something with same-day delivery. Otherwise, all regular orders come via the big gray & blue Amazon trucks, just like any other delivery company.

judge2020 4y ago
While I've had mid-day Amazon Flex drivers show up with a regular 2-day package, this only happened once during the Christmas season. Otherwise, Flex drivers seem to be dedicated to same-day grocery/Amazon/Whole Foods delivery.

Spooky23 4y ago

At Christmas, I’ve have a UPS manager in a fleece deliver packages from his Toyota Highlander.