14 votes

Rant: Problems with UPS delivery going on for weeks now

This is going to be a rant with a question at the end, asking how to end this infinite loop of nondelivery?

So my friend bought a new laptop from Lenovo back in December. It was supposed to be delivered by UPS but of course they were going to attempt to deliver it while my friend is at work.

He attempted to have it delivered to a relay point and the website agreed to this. The relay point never received it. When we called customer support, they said they can’t deliver it to a relay point. Despite the site letting us reprogram it to one.

Next, I chatted with Lenovo and they were like the agent cannot talk to UPS directly. There is an internal department that handles this, according to them. It will take three to five days for the investigation. No news after five days.

We called UPS again and they said they would deliver it on Monday. And then eventually on Wednesday before 1PM. My friend took half day off in the morning for this. The delivery guy called my friend at 3PM to deliver it. He asked to reprogram it to Friday. The deliveryman agreed. And now we are waiting.

If this package still doesn’t arrive, two weeks later, I am going to lose my mind!

This is even the abridged version. There was one point where the customer service person told us to go get it at the relay point when the website clearly said it wasn’t there.

I don’t understand how delivery companies like UPS fuck this up and insist on delivering during the workday.

What or how do you manage this endless circus of customer service representatives not being accountable for contradictions? Has someone cracked the code and figured out how to get it delivered at a proper time?

9 comments

  1. [2]
    Weldawadyathink
    Link
    I used to handle shipping wine to people in almost every US state. We often needed the deliveries to happen within a short time window. Alcohol has to be signed for by someone over 21 (except when...
    • Exemplary

    I used to handle shipping wine to people in almost every US state. We often needed the deliveries to happen within a short time window. Alcohol has to be signed for by someone over 21 (except when they just don't bother, which is quite often). We shipped probably 80% UPS, 15% FedEx, and the rest GLS. I spent hours on the phone with all three delivery companies trying to get packages delivered. I think I am uniquely qualified to offer some advice.

    First and most important, there are no strict rules. I mentioned earlier that alcohol has to be signed for in person. That is a legal requirement for every single state. Regardless, I have had dozens of packages left on people's doorsteps with no signature. Of course your laptop isn't alcohol; this is just to show that I can't tell you anything definitively. Assume everything I say is a "maybe", and depends on specific people and policies at your local UPS locations.

    There are relatively few things that are possible for the shipper to do. I am not surprised that Lenovo doesn't allow their call center employees to call the delivery services. As the shipper, if the delivery has not been attempted yet, I can redirect it to be delivered to another location. Usually this was a local UPS shop, but it could be anywhere. This has a decently large fee attached to it which is billed back to the original shipping contract. Once the package was already delivered once, there was very little I could do. I could sometimes get UPS to delay the delivery for a few days (until the person got back home), but that was about it. For Lenovo, it would cost their call center employee 20-30 minutes or more, and the redelivery fee. So just not worth it for them to do.

    As the receiver, there is a lot more you can do, once the first delivery is attempted. Until that first attempt, there is absolutely nothing you can do. But you have already had the first delivery attempt, so you should be good to go there. Call UPS, deal with their phone tree, and ask the customer service person to redirect the package to a local place to pick it up (or your workplace). They should be able to do it without too much hassle. If requested by the recipient, I think they don't charge a redirect fee. Even if they do, it may be worth it to you. This is probably your best bet. Don't bother trying to do it online.

    As a bonus, here is my recent delivery rant. I can't remember if it was Fedex or UPS, but I think it was UPS. I am at school here in France and needed to buy a set of running shoes. I had to buy them online since I couldn't find a local store that had the ones I wanted. The school has extremely limited reception hours. Even when they are open, you have to badge the gate open, so a delivery driver would have to call reception. Also mapping applications don't direct you to the gate you need to enter through, just the section on the main road. I think I included this info in the delivery instructions, but the drivers don't read those. So they failed to deliver it twice. I called some customer service person in the UK and they redirected it to a local pickup store. It was still a good bit out of the way for me, so I was planning on running there, putting on my new shoes, and running back. When I checked the tracking before I ran, it said that they couldn't deliver it to their own facility because nobody was there. I just can't fathom the organizational incompetence. So I had to call them back and have them redirect it to a new place. I had to rent a bike to get out there, but once I finally did, it was just somebody's home. I guess they have their employees use their own homes as pickup points. At least I finally got my shoes.

    13 votes
    1. Promonk
      Link Parent
      I used to work for a company that did on-site warranty repairs for Lenovo under contract. The number of times we straight-up cancelled repair tickets for minor shipping problems with parts was...

      For Lenovo, it would cost their call center employee 20-30 minutes or more, and the redelivery fee. So just not worth it for them to do.

      I used to work for a company that did on-site warranty repairs for Lenovo under contract. The number of times we straight-up cancelled repair tickets for minor shipping problems with parts was appalling, and we always used express overnight handling. You'd think that the fastest, most expensive shipping option would ensure a little extra effort was put in, but no. The sheer volume saw to it that some percentage of shipments experienced some fuck-up or other.

      The solution was to start over from scratch with every shipment that had the slightest mishap, precisely for the reason you say. Thankfully, I was empowered to authorize relaunches in many cases, so the customer didn't have to go through the entire ordeal again.

      3 votes
  2. Promonk
    Link
    If you have a high ticket item that you need to ensure is delivered directly into the hands of a human being, my advice is to either have it delivered to your workplace, or to a local shipping...

    If you have a high ticket item that you need to ensure is delivered directly into the hands of a human being, my advice is to either have it delivered to your workplace, or to a local shipping center like a UPS Store or FedEx. Doing hold for pickup is especially handy, because the people behind the counter are familiar with the idiosyncracies of their corporate customer service, and will often be happy to help you navigate them should that prove necessary.

    ETA: hold for pickup is also handy in that you can do the pickup when you're actually available, as I know that FedEx at least will hold onto HPU packages for a week before returning for failure to deliver.

    6 votes
  3. [4]
    Protected
    Link
    Concerning, as we near the end of my second day waiting for UPS and they still haven't deigned to drop by. It really gets me how these assholes are paid to deliver packages but find it perfectly...

    Concerning, as we near the end of my second day waiting for UPS and they still haven't deigned to drop by.

    It really gets me how these assholes are paid to deliver packages but find it perfectly normal to cost cut until entire days of people's lives are wasted on a regular basis, and no one is ever accountable. If any politicians wanted to work on creating real penalties for this behavior they might get my vote.

    Also, why is it always electronics? Cheap crap always arrives quickly.

    5 votes
    1. [3]
      Promonk
      Link Parent
      "Lithium ion batteries" is the answer to your question. They can only be shipped ground if they aren't within a device, and if they are, there are special handling exceptions that need to be...

      Also, why is it always electronics? Cheap crap always arrives quickly.

      "Lithium ion batteries" is the answer to your question. They can only be shipped ground if they aren't within a device, and if they are, there are special handling exceptions that need to be applied, especially as regards droppage and temperature. It's not such a big deal if you're shipping a single unit–if you're shipping a computer to Lenovo's depot, say–but if you're a big supplier there are extra hoops to jump through.

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        terr
        Link Parent
        While it's true that there are extra hoops to jump through, it's not all that bad as long as you know what you're dealing with. The real pain is understanding the rules enough to come up with a...

        While it's true that there are extra hoops to jump through, it's not all that bad as long as you know what you're dealing with. The real pain is understanding the rules enough to come up with a flowchart of how different scenarios need to be handled. How many batteries or cells in each box? What's the lithium content of each battery? What's the total lithium content of the box? Etc.

        1 vote
        1. Promonk
          Link Parent
          That's not how a company like Lenovo looks at it though. They don't really look at individual shipments and determine the correct handling for the contents, they just go with the most strict...

          That's not how a company like Lenovo looks at it though. They don't really look at individual shipments and determine the correct handling for the contents, they just go with the most strict handling regime for the product type and apply it to everything (edit: within that product category), regardless if it's warranted for that specific parcel.

          More than that, the handling and labeling is governed by the contracts they agree to for the high-volume rates. They can't tailor handling instructions to individual parcels because it would break their contract, and everyone involved is terrified of being the one to break the terms for fear of leaving their company holding the bag.

          2 votes
  4. JXM
    Link
    Call Lenovo and cancel the order. If they tell you they can’t cancel it until it’s delivers, tell them that’s why you’re cancelling - because they can’t deliver it. If they still complain, ask to...

    Call Lenovo and cancel the order. If they tell you they can’t cancel it until it’s delivers, tell them that’s why you’re cancelling - because they can’t deliver it. If they still complain, ask to speak to a manager. If they say no, tell them that you will issue a chargeback request with your bank.

    I’d say you’ve got a 50/50 chance of success.

    The threat of chargebacks works pretty well against small companies, since they are closely monitored by payment processors and they’ll ban a company if they get too many. But a big company like Lenovo probably doesn’t care.

    Whatever you do, just remember that the customer service person you’re talking to probably has no power and is hamstrung by stupid corporate rules and limitations. So be kind to them, even if you get frustrated.

    4 votes
  5. ChingShih
    Link
    I've had the same thing happen recently and I had paid for the UPS My Choice membership to specifically avoid playing musical chairs with my delivery date and parcel. In the end I was forced to...

    I've had the same thing happen recently and I had paid for the UPS My Choice membership to specifically avoid playing musical chairs with my delivery date and parcel. In the end I was forced to have a retired neighbor sign for my parcel.

    All I can say for your friend's current situation is that they or another signee needs to be there when the delivery arrives. That's it. UPS doesn't negotiate via the website and I don't know that a phone call to their customer service will yield different results (a long time ago it was the only way to reroute a parcel). Something about the wording on the website doesn't explain the full situation or expectations even for UPS My Choice customers.

    Here's my hypothesis on what's going on, largely reflecting what Weldawadyathink just posted; maybe this will help others make decisions that don't put them in this situation:

    UPS allows shippers to choose to have a parcel shipped uninsured, insured[1], signature required, or adult signature required. Some of these options are mutually exclusive and some might be mutually inclusive based on other factors. Importantly, high dollar-value as claimed by the originator opts-in to the signature required option unless it's opted out by the originator (I've seen Amazon shipments be opted-out for customer convenience).

    If your parcel ships uninsured, it gets there whenever, the originator and/or recipient can request a change of delivery date, put deliveries on hold for weeks, and upgrade/reroute to another address or delivery point by recipient[2] request. UPS account, or My Choice account, may be required.

    If your parcel ships insured, same deal but only if there isn't a signature required.

    If your low-value parcel ships uninsured or insured and signature required, you probably qualify for changes to delivery date, holds, changes to the delivery location, and maybe pre-signing for a package (so it's left at your address with your permission).

    If your parcel ships insured and adult signature required, you cannot do almost any of the above. I think the reason is actually that someone 18/21[3] or over has to physically take possession of the parcel. That's why it can't be at a delivery point or something like that. But that doesn't explain why a hold can't be put on some of these parcels. Also, the UPS website doesn't tell you that specifically, it just doesn't allow users to select options to that effect or pre-sign after a parcel has been shipped. (<-- OP's friend is here.)

    If your high-value parcel ships insured and (adult) signature required, only the shipping originator seems to have control over re-routing the package (to a point, see Weldawadyathink's post). If your parcel is also adult signature required then the recipient seemingly has no control over it. A recent change is that for private-party shippers with parcels over $1000 the parcel must be delivered to a UPS Store in certain cases and the recipient can't be a business address.

    None of this is adequately described on the UPS site when making a shipment and it's definitely not something that's explained to customers at the time of purchase at online retailers. I don't even think UPS has their own explanations correct on their website because via UPS My Choice I've been able to request delivery changes only to have the system later email me that I can't have selected that, so my request was denied.

    [1] This is not actual insurance btw, but it's better than nothing. Also, insurance does not cover anything that happens to your parcel after it's delivered (such as sitting on your porch).

    [2] UPS has two customers at any given time, which puts them in a pickle. Their primary customer is the originator of the parcel, especially if they've paid for insurance. My understanding is that insurance claims must be filed by the originator.

    [3] I'd have to look it up, but the ages on signature required are either 16 or 18 years old. The adult signature required might be 21 in some areas because there are things that can be delivered you'd have to be 21 years old to take possession of (alcohol, firearm paraphernalia perhaps). But again, if it's the adult signature required they will never leave it at your address without actually signing for it in person.

    3 votes