Saturday, August 02, 2008
I hate UPS
Can anyone please explain to me why this company is so big and why they have so many shipping contracts with major companies? They are unreliable, they lie about attempted deliveries and what they call Customer Service surely falls foul of the British Trade Descriptions Act, which unfortunately has no American parallel. People answer the phone and talk, but what percentage of calls ever end with the customer getting what they wanted? I really hate dealing with them. And after yesterday, I hate them even more.
Hannah, my daughter, is going on a trip to England on Monday. She asked me to order a camera for her, as I have Amazon Prime and get free 2-day shipping. I shall be emailing Amazon about their choice of shipping company, but that’s off the point.
Her camera was due to arrive on Friday and she stayed home most of the day. At 6:40pm, 20 minutes before the end of the official UPS work day, I called customer service to try to find out the status. I was supposed to meet both of my kids for dinner and the non-delivery of the package was ruining our plans. I had no doubts as to what I would be told but hadn’t anticipated speaking with a representative who wouldn’t have a job if they recorded calls.
“The last time a package hadn’t come by this time, no attempt was ever made, and the next day the website showed that there was an attempted delivery at 7:35, but that was a lie.”
“That was then and this is now.”
“Can you please try to find out whether there is a chance of this being delivered today?”
“It will be delivered today.”
“Well I absolutely don’t believe that and have good reason not to.”
“That was then and this is now, sir. It will be delivered before 7 o’clock.”
“It will be delivered in the next 13 minutes?”
“Yes, sir, it will.”
“And if it isn’t, can I get it delivered tomorrow?”
“It will be delivered today, sir.”
His tone was mocking.
“Can I speak with a supervisor, because you can’t help me.”
“There’s nothing a supervisor can do. Your package will be delivered.”
At which point, I started telling him again why I wasn’t so confident, and he started whistling! Sounds funny in the telling, but this arsehole is supposed to be providing customer service.
Naturally, I got angry with his attitude and he repeated his one line. So I asked if he would put me through to a supervisor again and at first he repeated his answer to that earlier question.
“So you’re not going to put me through to a supervisor then!”
“Oh, I’ll put you through.”
And he transferred me to a Spanish language phone queue which took 10 minutes to pick up, as opposed to a few seconds for the English language number – seems like a possible discrimination court case there if that is usual. I decided to wait, just to prove a point.
When the phone was finally answered, in Spanish, I told the woman, who fortunately spoke perfect English, what had transpired in my previous conversation and asked if there was any way for her to tell who has ‘helped’ a customer track a package. No, there is no way of doing that. Can a delivery be made on Saturday? Not for 2-day delivery. Not even if UPS don’t deliver when they are supposed to? An emergency message could be sent through then and someone would call me by 10am Saturday. But! The driver must attempt delivery according to the rules, so there is no official end time for them. A delivery could be made after 8pm and she can do nothing for me until the driver returns to the depot with an undelivered package.
So Hannah came out to dinner, leaving her boyfriend waiting until after 8:30 for UPS, who of course never showed up. When I got home and waited for her confirmation that there was no attempted delivery notice, I checked online and was surprised that there was was nothing in the system saying that an attempt had been made, and I made the call to get the delivery re-scheduled.
This guy told me that a 2-day package cannot be delivered on Saturday, even if UPS screwed up. I asked if the package could be picked up and he said that the depot would be closed all weekend. This was actually a change from his initial story and I didn’t believe him. I asked him to send a message to the depot that the delivery on Monday must be made before 2pm, as my daughter will be leaving then. He put me on hold and came back saying he’d sent a message. When I asked him if he put the reason why it must be delivered by that time on the message, he insisted that the reason was not necessary. I disagreed, but as the customer is always wrong, he refused to send another message, insisting it would accomplish nothing, and told me someone would call me by 10am Monday.
I already know that when they call me, they will say that the package is already out on the truck and there’s nothing that can be done to change the route – it will get there when it gets there.
Hannah actually called them up today and was told that until an attempted delivery is made, a package cannot be picked up from the depot – even if delivery was supposed to have been made.
Exactly how bad is this company! I think they used to be better, but now they have rules for everything and none of them favour their customers. I can only hope that they get what they deserve and start losing major contracts. It is one company I would be happy to see go under, as that is the fate they deserve.
Viagra Online
Hannah, my daughter, is going on a trip to England on Monday. She asked me to order a camera for her, as I have Amazon Prime and get free 2-day shipping. I shall be emailing Amazon about their choice of shipping company, but that’s off the point.
Her camera was due to arrive on Friday and she stayed home most of the day. At 6:40pm, 20 minutes before the end of the official UPS work day, I called customer service to try to find out the status. I was supposed to meet both of my kids for dinner and the non-delivery of the package was ruining our plans. I had no doubts as to what I would be told but hadn’t anticipated speaking with a representative who wouldn’t have a job if they recorded calls.
“The last time a package hadn’t come by this time, no attempt was ever made, and the next day the website showed that there was an attempted delivery at 7:35, but that was a lie.”
“That was then and this is now.”
“Can you please try to find out whether there is a chance of this being delivered today?”
“It will be delivered today.”
“Well I absolutely don’t believe that and have good reason not to.”
“That was then and this is now, sir. It will be delivered before 7 o’clock.”
“It will be delivered in the next 13 minutes?”
“Yes, sir, it will.”
“And if it isn’t, can I get it delivered tomorrow?”
“It will be delivered today, sir.”
His tone was mocking.
“Can I speak with a supervisor, because you can’t help me.”
“There’s nothing a supervisor can do. Your package will be delivered.”
At which point, I started telling him again why I wasn’t so confident, and he started whistling! Sounds funny in the telling, but this arsehole is supposed to be providing customer service.
Naturally, I got angry with his attitude and he repeated his one line. So I asked if he would put me through to a supervisor again and at first he repeated his answer to that earlier question.
“So you’re not going to put me through to a supervisor then!”
“Oh, I’ll put you through.”
And he transferred me to a Spanish language phone queue which took 10 minutes to pick up, as opposed to a few seconds for the English language number – seems like a possible discrimination court case there if that is usual. I decided to wait, just to prove a point.
When the phone was finally answered, in Spanish, I told the woman, who fortunately spoke perfect English, what had transpired in my previous conversation and asked if there was any way for her to tell who has ‘helped’ a customer track a package. No, there is no way of doing that. Can a delivery be made on Saturday? Not for 2-day delivery. Not even if UPS don’t deliver when they are supposed to? An emergency message could be sent through then and someone would call me by 10am Saturday. But! The driver must attempt delivery according to the rules, so there is no official end time for them. A delivery could be made after 8pm and she can do nothing for me until the driver returns to the depot with an undelivered package.
So Hannah came out to dinner, leaving her boyfriend waiting until after 8:30 for UPS, who of course never showed up. When I got home and waited for her confirmation that there was no attempted delivery notice, I checked online and was surprised that there was was nothing in the system saying that an attempt had been made, and I made the call to get the delivery re-scheduled.
This guy told me that a 2-day package cannot be delivered on Saturday, even if UPS screwed up. I asked if the package could be picked up and he said that the depot would be closed all weekend. This was actually a change from his initial story and I didn’t believe him. I asked him to send a message to the depot that the delivery on Monday must be made before 2pm, as my daughter will be leaving then. He put me on hold and came back saying he’d sent a message. When I asked him if he put the reason why it must be delivered by that time on the message, he insisted that the reason was not necessary. I disagreed, but as the customer is always wrong, he refused to send another message, insisting it would accomplish nothing, and told me someone would call me by 10am Monday.
I already know that when they call me, they will say that the package is already out on the truck and there’s nothing that can be done to change the route – it will get there when it gets there.
Hannah actually called them up today and was told that until an attempted delivery is made, a package cannot be picked up from the depot – even if delivery was supposed to have been made.
Exactly how bad is this company! I think they used to be better, but now they have rules for everything and none of them favour their customers. I can only hope that they get what they deserve and start losing major contracts. It is one company I would be happy to see go under, as that is the fate they deserve.
