putting the knit in shizknitz

What the heck is going on with UPS? They used to be known for their ground service which was TERRIFIC. If you’ve got a differentiator that works, stick with it. Not only have I had nothing but problems with ground service, its gotten so horrible lately that I’ve had a problem with every package delivery since… well since last fall. Here’s a run down:

1. Oct 17, 05 - my Matt and Nat Order - what a disaster. I can’t remember all the details but it was a ground package that got lost, accidentally shipped back halfway across the US to Ohio, then sent back where I received it about 2 weeks late, then when I received it the box was so banged up the purse came half folded up.
2. Christmas season - I did most of my shopping through Amazon this last season, and of course most of them shipped via UPS. Not only was I not receiving InfoNotice “we missed you” slips on days they claim to have “attempted delivery” some of my packages got re-routed to my neighbor’s work. What a shock I had when I realized that my package had been “delivered” and upon calling was delivered to an address I had never heard of before to a name I’ve never heard of before. They had a contact number which coincidentally belonged to our neighbor who we happened to know (we do live in LA, most of us don’t know each other even if we are neighbors) because they have a dog as well (with the exception of dog owners who run into each other frequently due to walking the dog).
3. All the other issues I’ve run into such as late deliveries and what not that I can’t remember. A few years ago I had one incident where a package that was being shipped with computer parts had been lost, and a lady called a few months later from their sorting facility and mentioned that she found our box hidden behind the sorter machine.
4. But this time, my Franklin Covey order definitely takes the cake.

I ordered a design your own calendar set from the FC site which gave me an estimated printing time of about 15 business days, so imagine the joy when I got their confirmation within the week that it had shipped. Because of my upcoming travels, I had upgraded the shipping to two-day UPS service. BIG MISTAKE.

Last weekend I look to see that it shipped and would be arriving on Tues April 4th. Perfect. I would be around most of the day to wait for the UPS driver. However, that was the worst storm day we had seen all year. UPS driver never arrived. Miffed, I continued to check the online status, but it looked like it hadn’t left the central LA UPS station all day. The next day I was at school all day and again by the late afternoon the package still hadn’t left the central LA UPS station. I called them, to see what the situation was - and they said the package had been lost (there had been no movement in the last 24 hours) and thus I should have the shipper put a tracer on the package. I called Franklin Covey where I spoke to the NICEST rep who not only took care of the tracer, but said that they would re-print my calendar and have it shipped overnight. Now, THAT’s CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I get home to find an InfoNotice from the original order. Shoot, the driver had decided to deliver - so I immediately put through a location redirect to T’s workplace since I knew I wouldn’t be home for the rest of the week. I went online - voila and done, done. Or so I thought.

The next day, Thursday - T runs into the UPS driver inside the complex who only had a package for our apartment manager. Nothing for us, and no InfoNotices etc. In the meantime I’m at school delighted at the fact Franklin Covey wasn’t messing around - not only did it ship overnight, but they shipped it yesterday, which was supposed to arrive today! Except - I get home to find neither package and the strangest activity on their tracking.

That was from the overnighter package - supposidly they made 3 delivery attempts today - except T ran into him and he didn’t have a package for us. The original order - also had:

Again, apparently a delivery attempt was made to a mystery person since T was at home. There were no packages awaiting him at work, either. I called UPS and spoke to a very kind customer service rep who confirmed that my second package was also redirected to the same address as the first - which for future reference will always happen as long as you have one package on redirection. She also said that she would have someone from that office contact me by 10 AM Friday morning to explain the situation and to confirm that it would be delivered.

Friday - no phone call, and no packages, anywhere. They must have dissapeared. By evening they had traveled from Los Angeles to another place in Los Angeles, the other to Gardena.

*sigh* So I called UPS again - the lady was bewildered at what she was seeing on her screen. She again confirmed that the packaged should arrive on Monday to T’s work - and put in another request for someone to call.

I’m in the midst of Finals, I’m stressed, not sleeping, need to knit booties for a friend’s new baby and intolerant of incapable companies like UPS. Why don’t they concentrate on their delivery rather than trying to compete with Fedex/Kinkos with the whole copy service stuff? You have to keep your current customers happy before you can garner new ones.

Now if there’s some way I can avoid using UPS……