Wednesday, March 16, 2011

FUCK You, UPS

The dumbing down of the American consumer continues. We have computers who treat us like we're stupid. We have TV programmers who really believe that quality programming includes nude teenagers. We have corporations that tell us what we really want, er, need and just have to buy.

Now UPS has gone the same way. They will deliver your package where they think it should go, regardless of what address you put on the label.

I LOVE my locally owned and operated The UPS Store - those people deserve medals for doing business the way it should be done. But in light of recent events, I will never use UPS to ship so much as a birthday card, and if UPS is the only option for any item being shipped to me, I pass.

So here's the deal. I knew that going with Priority Mail from the Post Office would be cheaper, and maybe a tad faster, but I've been doing business with my locally owned and operated The UPS Store for several years renting my box and various miscellany, that I decided to spend the extra bucks and have them ship a little box from Indiana to Florida. All-in-all, it came out almost twice as much, but I bought their box and they packed it for me. (Don't forget- priority mailers are FREE) We filled in all the paperwork and I walked out with my receipt, confident that the package I sent on March 8 would arrive on March 11 -- I got it in writing, even. Silly me.

The package didn't arrive on Friday, and they called to "correct" the address. I gave them the same address as before, and the very nice man at The UPS Store confirmed that was what he had on his paperwork too. I looked up the tracking online and sure enough, it said address correction was needed. This happened several times. If I or the locally owned and operated The UPS Store had made a mistake, I could *almost* understand. But no; here's what happened:

*The driver decided he couldn't find the house - not apartment, lot, cardboard box, or alleyway - HOUSE. On a main street. Off a very main intersection.

*The driver then decided that "the customer" must not be right and I must have put an erroneous address on the package.

*The driver then pulled out a phone book from 2003 and looked up the name of the recipient, copied down an address at which the recipient has not lived for around 6 years, and put THAT address on the box.

*The driver then attempted to deliver the box to the "correct" address.

*Whoops! Fortunately for me, the recipient and UPS, no one accepted the box there. (Had someone else signed for that package, this would already be in court instead of this blog)

*I called The UPS Store, who advised me the driver was attempting to deliver to a different address - POW. I just went from annoyed to highly pissed off.

(The actual source of the "corrected" address is unknown to me at the time of this writing, but somehow, somewhere, the driver got outdated information from a faulty source without consulting the customer -me- or the originating office.)

*whew* You'd think things would get caught up at that point, right?

Again, NOO!

Then it went to a city over an hour away - for.... who knows why? I mean really, WTF? Another day wasted.

What's in the box? A few things, including a very important tool that I and the recipient needed to continue a business venture. Now we have lost five days of productivity.

I called customer service and the feces hit the fan. UPS (the corporation) put all the blame, responsibility, accountability, etc. on my locally owned and operated The UPS Store - even though they did not do anything wrong at all. I asked for a discount or a refund and was told that since they didn't receive any money "from me" they do not refund money to me - I would have to get it from my locally owned and operated The UPS Store - again, they did nothing wrong. I do not want a cent of their commission. I want a refund for the amount UPS (the corporation) was paid on my behalf, to do a service on my behalf, which they failed to do. I also want an explanation of how they feel they can disrespect their customers enough that when I tried to get an answer about how a driver gets "corrected" information, the CSA hung up on me, claiming that I would not let him speak, when I could not get a word in edgewise.

WHEN IS UPS (the Corporation) ACCOUNTABLE FOR ITS ACTIONS AND BAD PRACTICES? Who's the IDIOT who authorized a driver to consult an outdated database? Why do they have a customer service center that does not provide answers or service?

Up to this point, I have not cussed, addressed any CSA personally or called into question anyone's character or intelligence (well, I did say that it was a stupid move to change the address on the package without consulting the customer) but I'm sick of bending over and taking it up the ass without even a drop of lube.

FUCK YOU UPS!

I am not the only one having problems with UPS.

A commercial account I know very well has been having problems with UPS saying they are unable to deliver to addresses they don't find on their route, even though the addresses show up in their own shipping labels, AND they have delivered to those addresses before.

Another friend shipped a package that went to a different city based on someone at UPS (the corporation) re-routing it.

I've seen several complaints about UPS on Twitter, blogs and in chat.

What the fuck is UP? I want a REAL officer of UPS (the corporation) to listen to the recordings of my customer service calls and apologize for the lack of knowledge and help on the part of the CSAs - the call center is full of useless drivel on flow charts. No one there is authorized to really do or say anything except, "Call your local store." BULLSHIT. I want to talk to UPS THE CORPORFUCKINGATION!