F---ing FedEx (again)

[Jenise]

A four bottle shipment of champagnes is missing. I placed the order on Dec 30th with instructions to hold a week due to subzero temps.

Per the Tracking #, it was supposedly on a truck for delivery last Saturday the 9th. Later that day a new entry shows it "returned to station for inspection". At 2 a.m. Sunday it was supposedly back on another truck for delivery the following Tuesday. (The station is about 50 miles from my home.) It was not delivered on Tuesday. Tracking details still show it "out for delivery" but ETA "Delayed". Early Wednesday I contacted the shipper and they supposedly put a tracer on it. Late Wednesday no word, so I called FedEx to bring the matter to their attention myself. They did not find a tracer BUT told me that the reason it "the truck was too full so they had to take your box off and apparently forgot it". She assured me that it was being put back on the truck and would be delivered yesterday.

Of course, it was not, and there isn't an updated delivery promise, just "Delayed". BUT now the back details prior to January 9th have filled in and guess what: it was shipped on Dec 31st and has been at the local station since January 3rd. So the shipper screwed up, but so has FedEx--big time. I'm just blown away by how bad FedEx Customer Service is. They must have a list of lies they can tell customers when the truthful answer is they have no idea where your stuff is.

I just contacted the shipper and required them to send a new shipment; this one likely froze and then exploded when it thawed. But why can't they just say that?

[David M. Bueker]

I got really lucky earlier this week. First Bottle shipped in ridiculously cold weather. A case of Champagne arrived on a day with a high temp of 10 degrees F. Thankfully it was not frozen, but I really wanted to open some on the spot, as it was already chilled! Sadly it was 11 AM on a Tuesday.

Recent delivery weirdness isn't limited to FedEx. I got email from UPS last week saying that a package from Amazon was scheduled for delivery on Thursday. Thursday morning I got a notice that it was out for delivery. Then another email saying there would be a delay and I would get further notification later. Then I got an email saying it was on a truck for delivery. It didn't arrive. That's the last I heard about it. When I looked up the status of the shipping number at the UPS website, it said that the request for delivery had been filed but the package hadn't been picked up yet.

The package arrived on Friday, which was the original estimated day from Amazon. It came via Amazon's own delivery system (but I'm not a Prime member). Some clerical mistake at UPS, perhaps?

-Paul W.

I have some shipments on hold (on my decision) due to cold weather right now - hope they are in temperature controlled warehouses!

I had a six-pack of grower Champagne due for delivery from First Bottle by FedEx on last Thur. Nothing with "pending" next on website. Then to be delivered on Mon. but at 10 PM Sat. nite was in NM so I was skeptical. Now (on Sun.)see delivery for Tue but same screen states in is in Chilocothe (20 mi. away) to be delivered on Mon. Who knows?

[Jenise]

Everything coming from UPS lately has been on time, as promised. At least 50% of FedEx packages are delayed or extremely problematic, like this one.

I called FedEx again on Friday. At least this time I didn't get a liar, this one admitted they didn't know the whereabouts of the package and should declare it lost. Keying off the previous promise date of the 9th, she said it hadn't met the 7-day test wherein they could declare it lost. I reminded her that it had been at the local station since the 3rd and in their possession even longer, so it being the 14th yes the 7-day criteria had indeed been met. They agreed, and irrespective of that the shipper is sending a replacement package.

[Jenise]

So, the saga continues: last week the shipper of the lost/missing package agreed to send a replacement due me today the 21st per FedEx. But as of Wednesday, the shipper had not yet sent it, they did not ship it until yesterday. Best case, it's generally a three day trip here from California's Bay area on Ground status. It goes to Sacramento first, then one day to Troutdale Oregon, another day to get to the station in Burlington 50 miles south of me to get put on a truck, and "out for delivery" on the third (and often fourth) day. Current weather conditions have been ideal: fair and 50F. This shipper has the most ridiculous habit of shipping on Thursdays which for the life of me I don't understand.

So today I checked on the status of my package. The FedEx scan history shows that it hasn't yet been clocked in at Troutdale. Yet here's the status at the top of the Tracking page:

ON TIME
Scheduled delivery:
Friday, 1/21/2022 by end of day

When in fact it's actually two days behind. Weather's fine so it won't get harmed on the way, but the fact that we don't know when it's coming makes being here to provide that adult signature a true PITA.

Something seems to have gone wrong with the exception handling procedures at both FedEx and UPS. I recently ran out of thick soy sauce and ordered some through Amazon.* I got an email from Amazon saying it had shipped, along with a UPS tracking number. A couple of days later I got an automated email from UPS saying it was out for delivery. It never arrived. The next time I checked my email there was a notice from UPS that delivery of the package was delayed and I'd be notified when it was rescheduled. I checked the tracking number at the UPS site and it said that the shipping paperwork had been cut and the shipper's local UPS office was awaiting delivery of the package. Two days later the package arrived--by USPS. Apparently the shipper had arranged to ship via UPS, then changed their mind and shipped via the Post Office instead. But apparently they never told UPS about this. The automated emails I got were describing what normally would have happened if the package were on schedule. The UPS website tracking page was reflecting reality, but the emails were not.

-Paul W.

* Normally I'd have driven into Boston's Chinatown to buy this, but given the state of the pandemic in New England I'm not going anywhere near Boston right now.

[Jenise]

It's so aggravating! Under the most-likely-useless-impression that Fed Ex may keep track of complaints, I called yesterday to bitch. How can it say delivery today if it's two days behind? He didn't know, but he promised to arrange for delivery today. I've heard that before. The people in Burlington don't give a damn what some guy in South America, with no power over the physical reality, promised. And you pay for the service which is built into your cost no matter what. You'll never get that refunded to you--they're impermeable. However bad they are, we're stuck with it.

Our driver told me the other day that he's leaving for a new job south of here. He used to get paid by the week. Now he's being paid by the stop, and they cut his route in half. He's moving to a more lucrative route near Seattle. It's only going to get worse.

Back almost 20 years ago my parents were snowbirds who lived in Groton Long Point on the Connecticut shore in the spring and summer but spent the winter in their Naples, Florida condominium. I used to visit them in Florida every Christmas. One year there was an occultation of the Pleiades* by the Moon due to take place in the week I'd be visiting them. I didn't want to miss this so I packed a telescope and tripod in one Pelican case and shipped via FedEx 2nd day air that case and the Pelican case containing my eyepieces from New Hampshire to my parent's place in Naples, to arrive the day after I flew down.

All went well, and I shipped the two Pelican cases back the day before I flew back, via 2nd day air, and to be held at the FedEx facility at Manchester NH Airport so I could pick them up after I de-planed. The eyepiece case was missing when I visited the facility. The counter clerk said not to worry, they'd put out a trace on it. I got a call the next morning saying that they'd found the case and I could pick it up at my convenience. The case had mistakenly been put in the 3rd day air bin at the Manchester Airport sorting office. I told the clerk that I expected a refund of the difference between the 2nd day delivery I'd paid for and the 3rd day delivery I got. She said, "No, we're putting a full refund on your credit card. We screwed up and didn't deliver the service you paid for, so it's all free of charge."

How the mighty have fallen.

-Paul W.

* An astronomical occultation is when the Moon or a planet passes directly in front of a more distant celestial object, thus blocking it from view. A solar eclipse is technically an occultation of the Sun by the Moon. They are pretty rare events. In this case the Moon was passing in front of the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus (also called the Seven Sisters).

[Jenise]

Paul, you're the only person I know who ever got compensated for a shipping issue from any of the shippers, congratulations on that!

Oh the update on the pkg I'm waiting for? It got to Burlington but it's "Pending", no ETA. NATCH.