What is Up with UPS???

[andyzee]

I agree with you to a point, Riv. But when a consumer pays for a service and is told that the goods will be delivered by a certain date, and it comes two days late with no warning, or in the case of my other order two weeks later, that is unacceptable. People aren't shipping things by the pony express anymore.

I agree. In my case although deliveries were a bit slow over the holidays, I always recieved on date that it was due, according to UPSs tracking site.

 

[o3jeff]

I'd say Fed Ex is probably the worst, especially when a signature is required. we have a home office and once watched the truck pull up, the guy run to the door and stick the "missed delivery" label to my door without the package in his hand and run back to the truck. I ended up going out and running out and stopping him to get the package. This was not the first time this has happened and I am not home for the 3 days he comes buy I usually end up having to drive to Windsor to get my packages.

 

[wa-loaf]

I haven't seen anyone mention yet the big storms they were having out west over the holidays and into the new year. California getting pounded by rain and snow and Colorado having to close interstates. If you ordered anything by ground that's coming from the west it's likely to have been effected by it. That said, I ordered from Steep and Cheap a week ago and my delivery was on time.

 

[deadheadskier]

Is anyone else having any problems with UPS lately or are they just picking on me?

I ordered my camera from B&H photo and selected three day UPS shipping. It took one week. I was told that it was because they took NY Eve off.... :blink: Seems odd considering that whenever anything I have ordered before has moved along pretty quickly...and has at least been moved during the weekends.

The very next day (Friday Dec. 28th) I ordered something from Patagonia...and it is scheduled to get here this coming Friday...that's two WHOLE weeks. I selected the same standard UPS shipping.

Are the workers on strike or has the service really gotten this terrible???

UPS Ground is notoriously bad around the holidays. I had shipped product to a few customers this season that fell in the one day delivery zone. Only one of the three shipments arrived the next day like it was supposed to. All three were for Friday deliveries. The other two showed up on Tuesday - not good when you're dealing with perishable products. Feel bad for the poor fellas that opened their boxes to find rank chicken or pork. I obviously offer a full refund and replace the product, but its a gamble you have to take as the price difference is huge between Ground and Air. The rest of the year, no problems EVER. It's purely a volume issue. UPS also offered a reasonable settlement in both of these cases though.

As for your Patagonia gear, that sounds more like an issue with the retailer than UPS. The longest UPS ground should take by their guaranteed ground deliveries is six business days.

 

[thetrailboss]

I think you're spot on, deadhead. It was the holidays that interfered I'm afraid....UPS probably hired a lot of temp help for the holiday rush and dumped them just as I was ordering...so I might have caught them when they were readjusting...

 

[Hawkshot99]

I ordered skis on the 23. Email said they shipped on the 28. Still have nothing. I realy need them too. I pulled the exact model off the shelf and mounted them up:lol:, and need to replace them, so I can sell them.

Well they arrived today.......

 

[billski]

What I'm seeing here in this thread is a debate about mis-set expectations. These carriers work on a level-of-service (Service Level Agreement, or SLA) model. You want it faster or guaranteed delivery date, you pay more. "ground" service has a wider range of delivery dates than overnight business morning, for example. I'm sure you all know this.

But before you go flaming, check to see who set the expectation - the vendor or the carrier. Often I see a vendor say they "shipped" something, when in fact, it was just the paperwork sent to the carrier, but the carrier hasn't actually picked it up. This can add a day or two in that alone.

I track most of my packages and I've noticed a distinct change in the past year. Nowadays, if it's ground and it says 5 to 7 business days, it's more apt to arrive on day seven, even though it's already in your carrier's nearby distribution center. They don't want to be "giving away" a higher level of service.

About 3 or 4 years ago, one Christmas time, UPS and Fedex began delivering household packages as fast as they could. I could sometimes pay for Fedex ground and have it arrive overnight. It didn't take long for clever people to realize they didn't have to pay for overnight service. That lasted one season. It's not 2003 anymore...

Depending on the volume from the vendor, the carrier may provider more/better pickup service. For billski widget company, they may only come to my office once per day. For Sears, they may pickup every two hours or the vendor may be so small it has to hand carry to a pickup center. A vendor may have submitted pickup paperwork to the carrier, but may not have made the package available for pickup, . Choose your vendor wisely.

Another issue as noted is this issue with regard to delivery signatures. I've signed carte-blanche waivers with my carriers allowing them to leave packages at my door without signature. I have also been careful to read the delivery rules for a particular merchant or vendor - some require signatures and this overrides the waiver I signed. PITA, yes, but again, not the carrier's fault.

Remember also that deliveries are also by class of service - business in the AM, residential in the afternoon.

I drive past the Chelmsford regional distribution center for UPS twice each work day. First, 6-7am I see them stream by the dozens - it looks like an Army troop maneuver heading out onto the roadways. I drive by again at end of day, usually between 6 and 8pm and I always seen lots of straggler UPS delivery trucks just finishing their days.


For me, the carriers have always lived up to the letter of the SLA for which I have ascribed. I have no beef with any of them. Merchants/Vendors, that's a different story.

 

[riverc0il]

But before you go flaming, check to see who set the expectation - the vendor or the carrier. Often I see a vendor say they "shipped" something, when in fact, it was just the paperwork sent to the carrier, but the carrier hasn't actually picked it up. This can add a day or two in that alone.

With UPS WorldShip, the information is transmited and tracking information can be sent by email (Quantum) that UPS has "received the information" or some such. That just means the vendor performed "End of Day" which usually means that UPS made the pickup but not always, especially if it was performed on a weekend or holiday for some reason.

I track most of my packages and I've noticed a distinct change in the past year. Nowadays, if it's ground and it says 5 to 7 business days, it's more apt to arrive on day seven, even though it's already in your carrier's nearby distribution center. They don't want to be "giving away" a higher level of service.

I have not noticed UPS doing this but have had Fedex verify that they do this. I once tracked a package to the local distribution center and it sat their for two days. On day three I called and was informed it wasn't "due" yet, and I would get it the next day. That is just poor service because it irritates the customer. We ship UPS in New England and the package arrives next day almost always, especially if we ship same state.

Depending on the volume from the vendor, the carrier may provider more/better pickup service. For billski widget company, they may only come to my office once per day. For Sears, they may pickup every two hours or the vendor may be so small it has to hand carry to a pickup center. A vendor may have submitted pickup paperwork to the carrier, but may not have made the package available for pickup, . Choose your vendor wisely.

Yup, our business does enough volume to receive deliveries in the morning and pickups before we close but I have worked at smaller locations that only received pick and delivery in the morning. Larger locations have the advantage of processing orders all day long while smaller locations probably won't ship your order for at least 24 hours unless you placed the order the night before and they get to it before the pickup/delivery time.

Another issue as noted is this issue with regard to delivery signatures. I've signed carte-blanche waivers with my carriers allowing them to leave packages at my door without signature. I have also been careful to read the delivery rules for a particular merchant or vendor - some require signatures and this overrides the waiver I signed. PITA, yes, but again, not the carrier's fault.

This is an issue I never fully understand as it seems different at every house/business I have ever been with. Some places, drivers never require a signature even without me having signed a waiver. Other locations the driver insists every package must be signed for. In a business environment, I have found UPS very good about getting signatures, Fedex sometimes forgets if they are busy, and other carriers like DHL etc. need to be practically ran down to get them to do things right. This is mostly an issue for business deliveries. Most home deliveries I get more annoyed when they require a signature because I am not home when they deliver.

Finally, a note on tracking. Tracking systems are starting to predict the next move of the package before it actually happens. I have seen some weird jumps and often times the package is not actually in the place that tracking says it is depending upon when the last time it was scanned and the scanner was synced up. Tracking info should really only be used as a rough estimate and based on location of tracking you need to leave at least one extra day relative to where tracking says a package is as it might have already left or not even be there yet.

 

[bvibert]

I have not noticed UPS doing this but have had Fedex verify that they do this. I once tracked a package to the local distribution center and it sat their for two days. On day three I called and was informed it wasn't "due" yet, and I would get it the next day. That is just poor service because it irritates the customer. We ship UPS in New England and the package arrives next day almost always, especially if we ship same state.

UPS most certainly does this. I've seen packages I've been tracking sit in a distribution center for a couple of days before finally being delivered.

I don't know that it's bad business practice, presumably they are out taking care of the customers that paid extra for a speedy delivery while your package sits...

 

[thetrailboss]

Well I think they just redeemed themselves. Ordered something from Amazon yesterday at 1pm. Had it overnighted. Paid a bit to do it...but had to be done and honestly it was not much more than standard it seems.

Love Amazon by the way....

Anyhow, I was a bit concerned because it had not gone out at all last night. Well, UPS picked it up in Kentucky at 10pm last night, and it was in the air at 4:45am this morning to NH. Landed in Manchester (saw the "adverse weather conditions" warning, but they got it to the truck on time). At 7:30 it was off to VT. Was delivered at 11am this morning.

Nice job boys. :wink: :beer:

Will give credit when it is due.

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

UPS is great, its most likely the vendor not shipping it right away...we have Daily UPS pick up and they are dead on..today we have some delayed shipments incoming due to weather, product is in KY still,,,,not UPSs fault by any means, they dont control the weather...