 FedUp with FedEx?
Before you eBay sellers and online shops foist their 'signature required service" think about your customer. Please. The package I ordered was delivered on the 16th, but I wasn't home. (you see, I have a job, hence my ability to shop online and pay for things...) It's now the 26th, and no package! Oh, I've tried calling the "helpful" customer service many times, getting different stories with each rep (if you're calling them and want to talk to a person, instead of listening through their entire directory options, just say "Rep" and you'll get to a person quicker.... not that it will be much help.) Now that I have my tracking number memorized (ahh, repetition...) I tried to explain to the rep that I cannot get my package "home delivered". I told her that another rep promised me that my package would be delivered yesterday, monday, after 5 pm. Was it a big surprise when my parcel failed to materialize? Not really. The rep today put me through to my local terminal, where I got an answering machine, which disconnected me before I could leave all the info about my sitch.
After calling "customer service" again, giving my tracking # for what seems like the hundredth time, "Mr. Wright, it looks like we tried to deliver...." Yes. I know. Dammit. Finally I was put through to a real person at the local terminal, ordeal nearly over, right? Ha! Allot you know. It seems that having my parcel delivered when I would actually be home is just slightly more difficult than cloning a real live weasel from playdough. It was explained to me, that they cannot arrange to have a package delivered for any specific time period, but that a mysterious computer in Pittsburgh computes driver routes. This is a computer that apparently cannot be dealt with by mere humans. I'm not sure if anyone has really ever laid eyes on the machine, my terminal rep hadn't personally ever seen the computer, but she seems convinced that it is not a monkey spinning random route wheels with an intern recording the results and sending them to the terminals. No, she didn't know how she would be able to tell the difference. When told about the promise from "customer service" of a monday evening delivery, she said that was impossible, they do not deliver on mondays. She said that discrepancies like this originate from the fact that all terminals operate on their own individual rules, and that the CS rep would not be aware of them for that specific location. When I asker to at least agree that all of this sounded ridiculous I was met with only silence. My options were: 1. To wait another week to get it sent to me on a saturday (whatever happened to speedy delivery?) 2. Come to the terminal to pick it up (!) which would defeat the 'home delivery' brand promise they are apparently trying to get suckers to buy into. ( I would go to the mall and shop if I wanted to drive around to get things I want... I shop online to get things SENT to me.) 3. Wait for a call, to let me know of a two hour window of opportunity, when the driver might be in my neighborhood, so I can leave my office to wait around for this so called FedEx delivery driver. (Who are, according to my terminal rep, not employees at all, but contractors who you personally cannot contact, but can communicate wishes for late deliveries through surly terminal reps like her. Good luck!)
If you think I am kidding, exaggerating or smoking crack about this, call 'em up and ask them about this yourself. 1-800-463-3339 (or Go-FedEx... I wish they would go!) So I told her to put my package back in the queue and call me when the route is determined and when I should leave my job so I can go wait for this mysterious contractor, this should impress my boss when I explain why I have to disappear for a few hours... nice! Thanks FedEx! From now on, of course, I'll pay closer attention to the shipping method from sellers and shops online and avoid buying from those who use this. This has been a problem before and I had to end up picking up my package at the "conveniently" located terminal everytime, hey? Who is in the package delivery business here anyway? I suggest you pay attention to, although the seller I bought this from was very vague about delivery services used. Do I have to ask specifically everytime I buy something from now on? Man, I hope not. I have never had a problem like this at all from the USPS or UPS, two organizations that don't appear threatened with going out of business from the like of FedEx. So sellers, think about your customers happiness with a purchase from you, think about how they'll get the package and open it up and be very pleased with the business experience they had with you. And then think about this account, I know you'll do the right thing, thanks in advance from all your customers.
Jeffery Wright |
