UPS

In general, I like UPS. They are an efficient model business that moves millions of parcels around the entire world on a daily basis with few screw-ups. However, I have to share my current issue.

My wife and I ordered a replacement TiVo drive from Weaknees.com, a company I have dealt with and is a good resource for people using the TiVo DVR. However, it turned out that the problem was not our hard drive and whatever the problem was caused the hard drive to become corrupt. So we needed to return the product. I got the RMA information from them and followed it. We found a drop-off location in Calais, ME and took it there.

On Friday (April 5) I noticed that the person entering the address had miss-keyed it. The address we were sending to had four nines in it (9999) but they had only keyed three (999). So, on Friday, I first called our UPS drop-off location to see if they could do anything about that from their end. The nice lady tried, but she could not change the address. I then went to UPS.com and tried myself. I could see that the package had left Rhode Island at 3:39 am ET on Wednesday, heading for California. This was Friday, yet there was no update or new arrival information. The link to update the address on the web site was a loop: it would say click here to change the destination, ask me to log in, then say click here to change the destination. I broke the loop and looked up the UPS phone number.

(Aside: The UPS web site "helpfully" looked at my computer's IP address and gave me Canadian phone numbers and information. I wound up having to call the Canadian phone number, explain the problem, tell them where I shipped it from (USA) and have their customer support give me the correct phone number for US domestic customer support. Many web sites think they are being helpful by reading your IP and giving you country-/location-specific information. I find it is rarely true, rarely helpful, and often makes it very difficult to get what you want.)

I called the UPS line and spoke with a woman named Mike. She said that, because the package had not reached a destination yet and was considered "in transit" she could not update the address. She said to call back the next day, as it should arrive at the Los Angeles distribution hub by then and they could update the package's address. Saturday the package still was listed as in transit, but I called anyway. Same deal from the UPS customer service representative (male, don't remember his name): call back tomorrow, it should arrive by then.

On Sunday I called back and spoke to Nate. It is still listed as in transit. But then, when I explained what the other two had said, Nate explained how the package was on a physical truck, was being driven across the country going from distribution center to distribution center dropping off packages and that was why it was still "in transit." I don't necessarily believe that, as it seems like a very inefficient way of moving a package the company knows is destined for CA from the east coast, but whatever. He also said what the other two said, that he could not update the address until it showed as arrived at a distribution center. He then said the thing that irritated me: that it was going by ground and that the package would definitely not arrive prior to Monday in Los Angeles because trucks don't make stops during the weekend, so there was "no way" it would arrive until Monday. Really? Didn't you a) just tell me that the truck was stopping at distribution centers along the way as it drove across country, and that was why it was taking it so long to reach CA and b) why didn't the other two people explain this to me? I asked him about the latter, and he told me they should have known that and not told me to call back during the weekend.

Now, I'm getting a little angry. Nate is saying that I have been both lied to by other UPS personnel and wasting my time trying to track this package and call about the address update. He says what he's told me is common policy and that the others should definitely know this and have shared this with me. This does not help me much and irritates me further; not only have I been lied to, but I have been lied to by people who are either improperly trained in UPS "common policy," are incredibly forgetful, or are idiots. Twice.

This morning, I see that the package did, indeed, finally arrive first in Vernon and then in Los Angeles, CA, which lends credence to what Nate told me. I now must wait for 8 am PT in order to call the LA distribution center and get the address updated so it goes to the right location. This better go smoothly or whomever I speak with will get an earful from me. I do not like being given the run-around or wasting my time like this. Hopefully four times is the charm.