FedEx delivery gone astray

agmantoo · #1 02/02/05, 09:10 PM

FedEx cannot locate my place. Seldom does FedEx have any success on the first attempt. I typically watch the tracking # online and call them after they cannot find my home. Recently I signed a signature waiver due to getting impatient waiting on their poor delivery. I was to receive a package today which did not arrive and now the tracking says the package was delivered. What are my consequences?

Mastiff · #2 02/02/05, 09:55 PM

Ouch... hard to tell where it went without a signature...

Up here there is a FedEx Express guy who lives here and knows pretty much everyone and FedEx ground people who come up from down below. The Ground people can't find anything and never try they usually just leave everything at the little local store. No note or anything at our shop. I request that none of our vendors ship to us by FedEx ground.. It is always screwed up.
The Ground people have also been known to mail stuff to us from down below. UPS Ground no problem as we also know the driver.

Get on the phone and let them know you did not get it.
I would also check to see it they have a local store they leave stuff at if they can not find you.

bare · #3 02/02/05, 10:19 PM

I hate it when folks insist on Fedex. It takes them forever to finally get stuff out here. The last shipment's tracking showed that it rode around on their truck locally for five days before they delivered it!

My coffee supplier switched from UPS to Fedex about six months ago. They are only about 150 miles away and UPS always had my coffee here the next day. Fedex is always a week to ten days. bare without his coffee is not a happy camper!

I've even had Fedex send on their packages via UPS! Figure that one out.

Windy in Kansas · #4 02/02/05, 11:41 PM

Well I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one fed up with Fedex.

I ask for everything to be shipped by USPS. They typically won't leave an item unless it can be placed in the hands of the recipient. UPS and Fedex will leave it anywhere, front door, back door, between the doors, with a neighbor, on the steps, inside of an unlocked vehicle, wherever they think you won't find it for a week it seems.

UPS is my next choice, but never Fedex. What's the new delivery service on the block? HGD or ??????? I saw a few ads for a couple of weeks, but nothing since. Guess they have no presence locally.

Cosmic · #5 02/03/05, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by agmantoo

I was to receive a package today which did not arrive and now the tracking says the package was delivered. What are my consequences?

Welcome to the Club. FedEx is screwed up the World over. Basic problem is they are probably run from the top down and they "Assume a World View" where everything is neat and orderly. If you do not fit that mold, you can be in limbo, days, weeks, months, years.

In Boston, it is typical of modern cities. The metropolian area is really a collection of former small towns absorbed into one massive urban sprawl. Borders are all screwed up between "Neighborhoods" in terms of exactly where your house in relation to ZIP codes, something that fixes you on this Earth and how various people relate to that.

My street is typical. The first two houses on my block are in one ZIP code the rest in another. The postal service rounds it off and makes all houses in my block in the same ZIP, UPS clues into this and recognizes the "Error". FedEX does not. They can not discriminate an error of just two houses, they are pure to "The Map". They will drive for days, never understanding the "error" is for real and the actual address is in the "Wrong" ZIP in a technical sense.

Everyone else years ago adjusted to the actual errors on the ground. Fun to watch the subsitute USPS carriers try to find the things known only to locals. But they have adjusted with a super detailed computer system that actually pinpoints a starting and ending house with a complete physical description in a book that the rookies can use. Again UPS keys into the postal system.

FedEX is really out to chow. They can't find a street in a major urban area, let alone understand all the wierd possible non-standard exceptions a place like Boston will present. They depend on their people knowing how to find their way around the exceptions, problem again, no people repeatability. A Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, compounding and producing the predicatable result.

Old joke.

This Chinese guy (Chen Wong) gets a job with an engineering company, his boss is a guy named Bob Wright. Bob really takes Chen under his wing and shows him the ropes. Chen is super impressed. When he and the wife have their first son, they name him Bob.

Doesn't work out, seems no matter how hard they tried, two Wongs could not make a Wright. :no:

FedEx has is all Wong.

Ken Scharabok · #6 02/03/05, 12:32 AM

Thank you for the heads up on FedEx. I have been using them a bit lately since they are about 2/3rds the cost of UPS. However, didn't realize the 1/3rd savings to my buyers meant far longer delivery times than UPS.

UPS (at least locally) will drop off some of their 'remote location' packages to the Post Office for delivery. They have found it cheaper to pay the local shipping rate to USPS than to have their drivers go to the remote locations. By SWAG is they use the four-digit extender to determine what to delivery and what to have the P.O. deliver.

Cosmic · #7 02/03/05, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Scharabok

Thank you for the heads up on FedEx. I have been using them a bit lately since they are about 2/3rds the cost of UPS. However, didn't realize the 1/3rd savings to my buyers meant far longer delivery times than UPS.

UPS (at least locally) will drop off some of their 'remote location' packages to the Post Office for delivery. They have found it cheaper to pay the local shipping rate to USPS than to have their drivers go to the remote locations. By SWAG is they use the four-digit extender to determine what to delivery and what to have the P.O. deliver.

The fly in the oniment to that fix is some companies use a screwed up system where the ZIP code does not match the actual city name. Example major metropolian areas. They will use the broad area name with the local ZIP.

In some areas that routes it thru a main center distribution that can add 3 - 5 days to delivery. Companies that do this and refuse to change automatically go into my reject bin. The ZIP / City Name must match exactly for quick delivery via the postal system. In major areas that means the neighborhood name, not a general area like Boston.

UPS seems to have fixed the problem if they deliver, they key off the actual street address / ZIP, if it is dropped to the USPS probably going to get routed to the main center in South Boston if the City Name / ZIP is mismatched no matter what the four - digit extender code is.

The address must be exactly what the customer says it is for the system to work in every case.

nostalgia · #8 02/03/05, 01:26 AM

I was not happy with fed-ex either. I shipped an insured package and they ended up delievering it broken. I asked them to return to pick up the package and then they ended up loosing it. It was insured but without the package, they refused to pay for it even though it was insured for 100.00. Then they delievered another one of my packages to another house on our street, but the people claimed they never got it. I believe they did but kept it instead. Luckily they did pay me for that one but it was only worth 12.00. Never had any problems with ups or usps................ so far.

TheBlueOne · #9 02/03/05, 04:33 AM

USPS first, then FedEx any day over UPS. We've cancelled business with several companies because they only ship UPS. UPS costs more and the service is poor to horrible (depends on the day).

Dixielee · #10 02/03/05, 04:40 AM

We live over 2 miles down a dirt road and across 2 creeks, then up the winding dirt driveway. UPS has been pretty good about making it there, but Fedex doesn't even try anymore. We have some good friends who live on the paved road at the top of our dirt one. They are elderly farmers and are almost always home. They offered to accept any packages for us, and that has worked out well for us, and the UPS, Fedex folks. Because we do live so far out in the sticks, we order a good bit online that is shipped to us, so it has been a problem I do think the USPS does a remarkable job considering the huge volume they have to deal with.

BCR · #11 02/03/05, 06:21 AM

Agmantoo, do you have a firemarker? I put the firemarker number/letters in the 'comments on shipping' section on every order. I also name the physical road, as I have a RR address. These two items insure delivery from all of the big three. My UPS driver is excellent, but occassionally cranky, but then he has to drive in all kinds of weather and it is usually the coal trucks, etc. that get to him.. My USPS is excellent and brings packages, etc. up the drive if needed, and honks or puts them on the porch. FedEx never seems worth the cost. I get things from the other two faster and more efficiently. FedEx lost an insured package I ordered overnight when building....the company replaced it, but then 10 months later they delivered the original very beaten up package. Go figure.

My beef always comes with the third party delivery services. They have been inefficient and have a poor record with us. In fact, I haven't even seen their trucks anywhere lately so maybe they have moved on.

Dreams30 · #12 02/03/05, 06:29 AM

We had a fun round with Fedex just the other day. The driver found our place. (They did better than the elect. co. who it took 2 trips to find the place.)

But, the driver got stuck up here in our driveway and had to call a tow truck to get her out. She said that Fedex would no longer deliver to us.

I called her office and spoke with her manager and he stated that they would continue to deliver here after I explained that she is the first person to ever get stuck in our driveway and it took quite a bit on her part to do so.

WanderingOak · #13 02/03/05, 10:46 AM

I have had problems with anybody who uses a computerised maping system to find my place. Part of the problem is that I own two adjacent lots. My house is on one lot, and the driveway is on the other. Apparently the 911 service map has the street address of my driveway as #78, while my house (#100) isn't even on it. The computerised maping systems get their street numbers from the 911 service map. My mailing address is #100, and I have the number posted at the head of my driveway. However, several times I have had drivers call me up, insisting that there is no #100 on their map. One driver even accused me of trying to lure him out to a false address in order to rob him. I've had this happen with FedEx, UPS, DHL, and some shipping companys that I have never even heard of.

COUNTRY WISHES · #14 02/03/05, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBlueOne

USPS first, then FedEx any day over UPS. We've cancelled business with several companies because they only ship UPS. UPS costs more and the service is poor to horrible (depends on the day).

Same here. The first thing I do when ordering something is make sure that it can be delivered via the postal service. If not they do not get my business.

The company that is providing my CPAP accessories only used UPS, said it was their policy. I told them my policy was not to accept anything via UPS and that I would simply find someone who could accomodate me,they changed their tune and sent my package to my P O Box with no problem.

I also do not provide my street address to anyone I do business with this keeps them from getting the urge to reroute my stuff to UPS.

Ken Scharabok · #15 02/03/05, 02:35 PM

Part of FedEx's problems may be they seem to be four separate companies: Home Delivery, Ground, Express and Freight. I guess they wave to each other as they pass as they seem to cover the same territory. With UPS everything comes with Ground (but I've never freighted with them). I can always tell when UPS arrives - sounds like a tank pulling into the yard. They do drive those trucks hard. I also understand the trucks are scrapped and never resold.

I have processed 2-3 claims with UPS and have always been prompty paid with absolutely no hassle. Some rate of breakage/loss is acceptable to them as a cost of expediting shipment.

Read someplace on jobs: One delivery company hires part-time people to do nothing but sit in the passenger's seat so the driver can use the carpool lanes in the morning and evenings. They have determined this is more cost effective to them.

Ken Scharabok

Windy in Kansas · #16 02/03/05, 03:49 PM

With all of the opinions and problems stated in this thread doesn't give Fedex much credibility toward "express" and delivery.

Now Fedex is taking on the driver's license bureau of Tennessee to help them speed service up.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...0799044.htm?1c

You Tennessee folk might want to renew now before you get any help. lol.

agmantoo · #17 02/03/05, 04:17 PM

An update on the lost shipment.
I phoned FedEx. The "astute" individual that I managed to get knew less than I already knew. He was even more confused as some person, unknown to me, had called regarding the package and obviously that person has received it. The FedEx individual had no idea as to what was going to transpire. He did not know if someone from his company was going to pickup the misplaced package or whether I had the package and the person that called was to receive the package! Needless to say , no one has called me to give an update.

sundew · #18 02/03/05, 07:01 PM

A few years ago, they finally found me. Weren't to happy having to back down my driveway(200 ft). The next time they honked at the bottom of drive. Then the very very and definately the very last time. It was winter-Pacific Northwest-rain rain rain. I don't leave very often, perhaps every three weeks- well there it was on the ground. They left my electonics boxes out at the gate of my private drive (gate open). 1/4 mi from cabin. The packages stated it required a signature!Well you can imagine my reaction.

Just wanted to add another service bit the dust to other in remote areas. At least UPS sends it back to their center for me to pick up.
sundew

Kenneth in NC · #19 02/03/05, 07:22 PM

Gee they all find me and I thought we were out in the sticks guess we'll have to move further into the rough :haha:

boren · #20 02/03/05, 07:52 PM

Golly winter cabin fever must be setting in! Never have I heard so much complaining!

I've had problems with fedex, ups, usps, airborne express, etc. I try and use each service at their strength.

I like Fedex does for their air service, UPS I find better for ground. But if I'm going ground why not use USPS it's faster and cheaper, albeit basically no tracking. UPS hub is about 8 miles away, and fedex about 40 miles away. USPS about 1.5 miles.

But geez guys, couriers have trouble finding your place because the map is wrong, don't want to get stuck down a 200' mud driveway after it's been raining for 2 months that they have to back down, etc. My gosh! The horror!

Anyways, sorry to interrupt the complaining, I'll let you get back to it now.