I do a fair amount (the hubby would say a LOT) of Internet shopping. It's easy, it's convenient, I have no time to actually go shopping and I hate trying on clothes in fitting rooms (I think it's those lights).
The stumbling block is that Internet shopping means, of course, that everything is shipped. And the preferred shipper of online business seems to be UPS.
From my observation, UPS must be the most inefficient company ever in operation.
Consider their system:
1. They will NOT let you specify a time when you will be home to actually receive the package. Instead they stop by arbitrarily at some point during the day. They do this for 3 days in a row, usually (judging by the slips they leave) coming by at the SAME TIME EACH DAY, even though it's pretty clear you're not home at that time. (Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?) I let them do this because sometimes: a) a neighbor will sign for the package, b) one of the 3 days will fall on my compressed day off and I'll actually be home, or c) UPS will let me sign the slip and leave that on the door so they can just leave the package.
However, when all this fails, we move to:
2. After the 3 days, the package goes back to the warehouse where you now have 7 business days to retrieve it. The warehouse is typically located someplace ridiculously inconvenient and open limited hours. Considering that most people have things shipped because THEY DON'T HAVE TIME to go get it themselves, finding the time to retrieve whatever it is at the UPS warehouse is, shall we say, challenging. (The other reason people have things shipped is because whatever it is is HEAVY and so even if you can get to the warehouse sans car, getting the package home again is a whole other challenge.) After 7 days, the item is sent back to the manufacturer and so, if you really wanted whatever it was, you need to contact them to re-send it and start the whole dance all over again.
2a. In the lovely 6th borough, UPS has made a nod to the fact that most Hobokenites don't have a car and therefore cannot get to their warehouse in East Jabip. So, they've worked out this ingenious (not) system where you call an answering machine and leave your name and address and then allegedly your package is put on the UPS truck which is parked near the PATH station from 5pm to 8pm and you have 3 business days to retrieve it. I am not making this up...you actually have to go meet a truck on the corner. And the saddest part of this is that I have done this twice so far and both times they've failed to actually have my package on the truck (one time being yesterday when the hubby trudged through the snowstorm on my behalf on what turned out to be a fruitless errand).
In this day and age where every other news article is about fossil fuels and climate change, I'm beginning to think it's literally criminal for a company to waste so much money driving around packages to people who would clearly tell you they won't be home if only you'd let them.
Imagine how much waste fuel, time, energy, and money could be saved if they actually scheduled their deliveries. Why has this never occurred to a delivery company????????????
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The way they make money is being able to deliver the most packages in the least amount of time.
Most of the packages get delivered to the people(businesses) the day they try and deliver them. The most efficient way for this to work is to do the same routes, and because they have so much repeat business and the majority isn't you,they are doing what works for them.
It is very frustrating when you and your(mine) needs fall outside the existing box!
I feel your pain but at least they are not the Postal Service,now you want to talk about crazy!!!!!
Is it so outside the box to have 2 procedures--one for businesses and one for individuals? I actually would be interested in knowing what the stats are on this split. I have a feeling that e-commerce is tipping that scale.
And, actually, in regard to package delivery, the Post Office makes much more sense: if it's small enough, they deliver it with the mail; if it's big, they leave you a slip so you can go get it. They are conveniently located (as compared with UPS) and open on Saturdays.
Post office is a quasi public corp,which means they are the govt when it's good for them and not when it isn't! The workers can not strike and they have mandatory overtime as in they can tell you to stay late 2 hrs before your shift is over.
So if you get done by 3:30 as long as they tell you by 1:30 you have to stay and having to pick up your kids from school/daycare is not a reason to leave your normal time.
They also harm the environment way more the UPS by subsidizing bulk mail so all that paper and crap is sent because it is sooooo cheap.
I have friends that work for ups and when they are done at the end of the day their trucks are mostly empty.
I still agree it is a pain in the ass.
I'm afraid i don't share your strong feelings about UPS. They are a lot more reliable than USPS. In addition if you ever tried to get insurance paid for a damaged package from the postal service, you would probably curse them too.
And also let me ask you what your proposition is for UPS successfully delivering packages to you? Because here's what you have just told us: I am never home and I cannot make it to their p/u center.
I think it's nice of them to accommodate people by creating a pick-up-on-wheels. I can't comment on why your packages were not there, but i bet a lot of other people were able to get their stuff.
I was also fortunate to have great UPS guys at every place i've lived and they all made everything humanly possible to get the packages to the customers.
Oh, and here's another option: get stuff delivered to work.
UPS is the lesser evil.
No, what I said was I'm not home when they come in the middle of the day. They actually deliver up until 9pm at night. If they would let me, I'd tell them to come between 7pm and 9pm.
And we're not allowed to get anything non-govt-related delivered to work, so that option is out.
I agree with Jen on this. UPS has the stay at home mom mentality.... meaning they are always expect someone to be home.
We are in an era where both heads of the household usually have to work. Of course no one will ever be home when they stop by.
Tash and I were lucky in our old place as we knew our UPS man and he gave us his cell number to call him on the slip when we got home.
Reliability wise UPS is the best of the parcel companies such as FedEx and DHL.
The volume USPS handles is insane and they do quite well. What most people probably do not know is that our USPS mail moves around the country on UPS planes. Some commercial too, but they are moving away from that more and more.
Now…. Of course it would make a ton of sense for UPS to deliver home packages at night between 6-10 pm.
However UPS employees are UNION employees and I am not sure there is anyway they would ever approve having their day jobs taken away.
FedEx employees... especially ground service.... are not part of a powerful union and some are basically classified as contractors (if this is moral or not is another debate, the IRS is some areas thinks not) have a service which you can call and schedule a time for delivery.
DHL just sucks!!!! Be happy they still have the package and are attemping to deliver it.
It not a question of powerful union or not,if most of their customers needs are being met by doing what they are doing,why would they even consider changing?
Simple solution is to have it delivered to your mother-in laws house. Tony is home all day and I'm sure my sister wouldn't mind.:-) Of course they would do this for you.
kvgoz, Thanks for your support! I was beginning to feel a bit besieged here.
anonymous - Aha! You have now outed yourself! Very practical suggestion--that way I could pick up all my packages on Christmas Eve. I don't know how you can say "most of their customer needs are being met." Maybe they are, but I'd really love to see some hard data on this.
to all - who knew this would be such a comment-getting post?
UPS would save tons of time and money by creating a different system. This system would be called an afternoon to night time shift.
The bottom line is most of their customers needs are not being met if we live in a society where everyone in the home works. The public will switch to FedEx and many of my customers have switched away from UPS due to their high costs and bad customer service.
The union I am sure prefers several attempts as it is work. Whether the work is efficient or not does not matter to them. As long as their members are "working" and getting paid that is all that matters to them.
The environment and saving the company money are no concerns of the union.
UPS is not customer oriented at all.
I deal with UPS, DHL, USPS and FedEx all day long so I am an expert on these parcel companies. If they had their own path train I would be able to bet you one would be coming in the next 15 minutes.
Also if you think UPS is satisfying their customers you can just google the two words “ups sucks.” You can then flip through the 270,000 page of results. Once you finish that research you can post on this topic again ;)
If UPS wasn't satisfying it's customers they would be out of business. Remember there already was a parcel company that has government subsidies doesn't have to show a profit and can raise revenues anytime it needs to. Has a union where the workers can't strike(it's against the law, I could give you the names of many of the fired postal workers that tried).
Again I'm not saying that ups is great but if it sucks so bad why is it kicking all the completions asses in revenue and business?
I stand by my original post,the trucks come back pretty empty which,when the start full means they are meeting most of the customers needs.
Love you all,have a great V-Day
I'll be up in May for my Birthday Month
UPS is not going to go out of business because they are not satisfying their customers. With a 76 billion market cap it is highly unlikely.
However their are two customers for every shipment.
The shipper and the consignee.
In this case UPS sees that they are not satisfying their customers in Hoboken so they set up this truck by the path.
This way they can F!@K their customers a fourth time! 3 attempted deliveries and a wild goose chase pick up.
FedEx was nto even blinked at as a UPS competitor a few years back. Thsi has now changed as they have become a serious threat to their profits.
They were the only company who did ground service up until a few years back when FedEx got into the business.
UPS was the only parcel choice traceable for a very long time. They had a decades long head start.
Their market cap is 76 billion.
UPS started in 1907.
FedEx started in 1971.
FedEx's cap is 28 billion.
UPS had a 64 year head start. How could they not have a larger market share?
The point is their market share should be even larger with that kind of head start.
In 2007 UPS revenue was 49 billion and FedEx was 35 billion. This data alone shows FedEx has gained way too much on them.
That stat is unreal when you consider FedEx ground and home delivery began in 2000.
I think I agree with everything the author has said here. "N has something to say" had said that get your stuff delivered at work. Most companies do NOT like when this happens. This includes mine. I'm a scientist and I work for a research institute, which has a total of 8000+ employees and they specifically say that we are not allowed to have stuff delivered to work.
I think UPS should have a mechanism that they can deliver it to UPS stores and trucks, and do it more efficiently so people are encouraged to use their services. I'm not saying Fedex is any better.. but UPS really has to customize their services to help out working individuals.
Over the years, I have specifically asked some companies about what postal service they would be using,and when they confirm it's UPS.. I cancel my order. They have actually asked me why, and I have explained that UPS is not a good service as it is extremely inconvenient for people who work, and don't have a car.
UPS destroyed Christmas for my family last year (we shipped way in advance). UPS just destroyed our Halloween by losing our costumes. I could give you all the details but it reads exactly like all the other stories anyone here has read about UPS. Mistakes are made (frequently when it comes to UPS), but how a company helps it's customers is the subject of this gripe.
Lugubrious: UPS North American Call Center at noon October 31st 2009: After getting through the automated call process and reaching a human, I found myself tempted to ask the customer representative to put me back into the automated call network (the robot was more polite and helpful). In an effort to find someone with more information than the website, I was placed on hold for 8 minutes (with high hopes) and got Claude, the "supervisor in-charge". Claude had to ask for my information all over again even though the previous representative had all the shipping information in front of her. Claude dismissed my complaint as confusion on my part, which was a confusing conversation to have with someone allegedly trained in customer service, supervising a customer call center. Apparently, the UPS bigwigs don't work weekends (neither do the people who show up at their facilities and clock in). Claude was as high up the "chain" as I could get, so the chain is both short and weak. UPS might consider closing their call center completely since they look at the same web screen I see at home. I urge everyone to boycott online retailers that use UPS. By it from the store, or insist it goes by some other freight forwarder....unless you want to spend your halloween afternoon looking for last minute costumes in the trashed left over racks at a strip mall. I HATE UPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The reason you can't set a time for delivery is because each driver usually has more then a thousand pkgs a day on his truck, if everyone that was stupid like you and had them addressed to there home address which they are never at then all called and said i want it between 5-6 they would need 500 drivers for one route in order to satisfy the demand. how do solve this use ur head when odering something and either get it addressed to a business or to a location where someone would be available to accept it for you. Find something that's worth complaining about or you know what do something to make things better and stop wasting time sitting writing about blogs that you have put no thought into.
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