I just got this email announcement today. It may make me dislike UPS a bit less. Finally giving in to what FedEx has already offered for years. I got it having the non-paid level “MyChoice” membership and it implied said membership is required. Though I feel like I’ll be cheating on a long-term relationship with the guys at the hub who go to get my wine the moment I walk in and no longer require I show an ID for my packages…
“Dear David,
We’ve just made it easier for you to have your packages held for convenient pickup at the following locations: The UPS Store® or nearby UPS Access Point™ location.
You can now redirect your packages for no additional charge to The UPS Store or UPS Access Point location!
• For individual packages, choose “Change Delivery” from your UPS My Choice® email alert and choose “Pick up my package at a UPS® location”.
• To automatically send all your packages to The UPS Store or another UPS Access Point location, go to My Settings and set an alternate delivery location.”
I tried to do this a few months ago with the paid version of MyChoice, and the response I got was “we can not redirect wine.” I hope what you’re saing is indeed true and you can now hold wine shipment at the UPS store, but I will believe it when I see it.
You can redirect the shipment to a ups store for your convenience of being held for your pickup. You sign at the local store when you pickup your package.
Even before this I’ve had wine shipments held at my local UPS depot, 15 minutes away, because I can get there first thing in the morning, useful even on those days when I’d be home since the truck usually doesn’t get to my house until late afternoon.
FedEx Ground will only hold at a single location, 48 miles away, but as inconvenient as that is it’s still better than the wines bouncing around all day in a hot truck. Fedex Express will hold at their depot 20 miles away, but I can’t have Ground shipments held at the Express location.
I was a choice member several years ago, until I found out if I redirected something to a UPS store it actually added a day to the delivery.
I learned that the hard way as my choice to redirect made a package slip from Friday delivery to Monday, and guess what, I was on vacation and out of town the entire next week.
My situation is the opposite. Fedex Office is 5 blocks from my house, the UPS depot is miles and miles away. There is also a UPS store near me, if I can actually get packages held there.
I’m supposedly having something sent to my local UPS store tomorrow, so will try it and see how it works. I too am skeptical how it will work, but will give it a try. FedEx is much much easier for me to deal with redirects to their 24/7 pickup location.
FWIW, the UPS store initially told the shipper they wouldn’t do this. Shipper had to get their UPS account manager to get the store to do it. So I can anticipate trouble when trying to pick it up.
But I’d love it if they can really get this working right.
I tried to do something like this about 2 weeks ago (and I am a UPS Choice premium member) and they told me no. Maybe they are testing in a few areas?
BTW I don’t think UPS or Fedex “sucks,” though UPS is unionized (much better for the guys who do the work). I live far from UPS warehouse, so it is indeed very inconvenient. Fedex Ground (different from the others–they call it “Home” or something?) is not even in my city, so if they did not allow pick-up at stores it would be impossible. Used to live nearer UPS, then it was no problem.
In any case, I hope we get this option here in IN as well.
FedEx will redirect wine, same day, to the closest retail location, as long as it isn’t Home going to an Express location. That seems reasonable to me. For UPS to not redirect wine sucks. $5 to change the delivery plus $3 to pick it up at the UPS Store sucks. I’m glad they are fixing the latter, but the former is still a problem.
Well my UPS Store did apparently accept my swill, but cheerfully called up, and is requesting $10 per box to release them to me. This despite both the shipper and UPS account manager saying the UPS Store would handle the delivery without fees. I’ve got a call in to the latter two respectively, so we’ll see. But so far this is seeming like a fairly punitive process. Unfortunately I could not request FedEx or GSO for this but if this works out as I fear it will, it’s going to impair my desire to work with UPS only retailers.
Well the irony there, is that they don’t even seem to follow their own rules. The UPS Store accepted the wine, presumably signed for it from the UPS driver, and then checked ID when the SO picked it up.
So the crazy part of all this: a big part of the value proposition would seem to be exactly taking receipt of things that need signature. Otherwise people (if they live in a safe/secure area) could probably just have their stuff left on the porch/doorstep/courtyard etc. So if they won’t do that, what’s the value again?
My employer makes it difficult to get packages at work. All the mail and packages are opened and inspected, and if they’re not work related, they’ll be questions. So delivery to the office is a no go for me.