We all hear these rants from time to time. Lot’s of times you hear “Why did < insert winery or retailer name here > ship < *insert complaint about weather or over the weekend here *>”. What do you do when it’s the shipping companies fault, they lied about it and won’t do anything to correct it? Here’s my story…
I have a tracking number here from WinesTilSoldOut on a couple of bottles of Brunello I ordered. I’ve been following the package inbound from New Jersey since last week when it shipped from the retailer. Saturday it was scanned out onto a FedEx truck to be delivered today. This is fairly common in my area. I’ve seen this routine dozens of times. So I know that today, Monday, I’m stuck in my office waiting until FedEx shows up with the package. They typically show up here like clockwork between 12 noon and 1 PM. So lunch time rolls around and I’m sitting downstairs eating my lunch and at 12:55PM FedEx rolls up out front and parks door side of the truck away from me facing the wrong way up the street half way between my house and the one up the hill. I stand there watching out the window for about a minute and never see him get out of the truck. So I RUN to the front door and I see him sitting in the driver’s seat. I open the door to run out after him and he fires up the engine and drives off. I never saw him get out of the truck. I immediately check my door including surrounding areas and the neighbor’s door for a door tag. NO DOOR TAG ANYWHERE which they are supposedly REQUIRED to leave behind. I then check the tracking number online and sure as < * insert explicative here * > it says “Delivery Exception. Customer not available or business closed.” timestamped 12:57PM. I’m pissed. He lied. I called FedEx immediately and their response is “Sorry. There’s nothing we can do. We do not have radio contact with our drivers.” “What about my package?” “Sorry. There’s nothing we can do.” “SORRY AIN’T GOOD ENOUGH!”
END OF RANT *
Now that I got this off my chest…
I contacted WinesTilSoldOut immediately and told them to request a credit from FedEx for that shipment because they did not attempt to deliver it. They said they would take it up with FedEx. They also said they are going to credit half of my order for my inconvenience. I told them I don’t need or expect a credit but thank them for offer. I just want to make sure they get a credit from FedEx for this. So here’s some PRAISE for WinesTileSoldOut for being very generous and helpful even though it was absolutely, 100% NOT their fault in any way shape or form. Please buiy in confidence from WinesTilSoldOut. They’re stand up people. When you do please DO NOT use FedEx to ship it!
Honestly, aside from the Customer Service, which for a minute I don’t believe they can’t get a hold of their drivers if they needed to, it really depends on the driver. I’ve had the same guy delivering in to my area for a number of years, so much so to the point we’re on a first name basis from the years of orders being delivered. For my deliveries, he makes it a point to drop by late when he knows I’m home, which is good enough to make my Christmas card list.
Their CS does suck though, they can’t, nor want to, answer a single damn question.
The only driver I’ve ever seen more than once from FedEx is the Ground driver. She’s a really nice lady and seems to be very conscientious. However, the Express guys seem to change every time a truck pulls up out front. This was an Express driver.
Other than showing up a little later than I’d like (to be expected during peak periods) my UPS drivers have always been good.
it’s cause their ground is sourced out to independent contractors who don’t give a shit about the Fedex customer service. You get amazing service with Air shipments.
I had a package not only delivered to the wrong address, it was dropped off to the person who signed for it and then the fedex people told me the package was lost!
But Charlie, this was an Express truck. Now why in the hell my Ground shipment was on an Express truck beats me but I clearly saw the truck before it sped off. They must of screwed up somehow. They’ll send 3 freaking trucks to my house on the same day: Express, Ground and Home. Seen it happen. They never mix and match.
Sitting here waiting again today. I have good money to bet it shows today on a Ground truck this time with my normal Ground driver.
There is no way that your ground package was on an air truck. If you saw an air truck, then your package was not on that truck, but on a different one. I have seen similar things happen, though, to my customers. I am sure the ground driver just ended his route early for the day.
I’ve had something similar happen with UPS before. Saw on online status that it was “out for delivery”. Was home all day, not a peep. At the end of the day, the status says “delivery attempted, recipient not home”. No slip on my door, nothing. I was not happy, but it wasn’t a time of extreme temperatures, so I just chalked it up as annoying, didn’t follow up.
I have had similar problems with Fed Ex ground. I’ve been home, seen the truck outside and yet they didn’t drop off my package and the tracking info shows a missed attempted delivery. I don’t understand it, and have gotten nowhere when I’ve called Fed Ex and complained. Sometimes I also get a missed delivery notice on my door, despite that I was home (they didn’t bother to ring the bell or knock). Makes no sense, but it happens.
Sure did look like an Air truck but I’m willing to concede it could’ve been a Ground truck. It was parked in an unusual spot at a weird angle from “normal”. He was parked there barely long enough for me to get a look at the truck both from the living room and the front door once I got there.
They are separate companies, separate terminals, separate rates. I cannot even get a ground driver to take an express box at pickup because they do not end up in the same warehouse EVER. If you saw an express truck, then your package was not there.
Well I finally have my package. I met him half way down the side walk before he even had a chance to get to the door. Before I could say anything the first words out of his mouth were “I’m sorry about yesterday sir.” He said he read the address wrong and took the package to the 4600 block instead of the 6400 block and by that time he was too far out of the way on his route to deliver the package. My response? “Not my problem. Turn around next time.” This means that the FedEx Express truck I saw yesterday wasn’t for my delivery. Looks like he was just stopping out front to do something unrelated. He wasn’t delivering to my neighbor because I just asked. Purely random. My guy, FedEx Ground, was several blocks away at the wrong place entirely. I do find it incredibly odd that the FedEx Express truck just happened to stop in front of my house at the same time as the FedEx Ground guy 24 blocks away was marking my package as undeliverable. Smells wrong to me.
It’s happened to me as well, a couple of times. Very frustrating. Not sure if the guy just decided to clock out early and mark everything “attempted” or if there was some screwup. It’s particularly annoying if it happens during hot weather on a Friday …
You guys must not go to church or something. I never (really) have these kinds of issues. I’m never home for deliveries, but at least the slips are there.
In my area the Fedex Ground guys isn’t even a Fedex employee, the just outsourced the whole thing to the lowest bidder. I avoid Fedex ground like the plaque, but their express service is still great. UPS is the most consistent for me and I usually ask for UPS shipment when I place orders.
i don’t get what smells wrong.
Fedex ground and Fedex Express are NOT related other than by Fedex name. The fedex ground guys are independent contractors!
I know this is hard to believe, but this is purely coincidental that the truck was there.
As for Ground, we ship about 90% of our stuff with them. I do agree, that when problems occur, the service is not up to air’s standards, but remember, you get what you pay for. Ground service is a fractional cost of air. We rarely have problems with either.
My FedEx ground service has been excellent (knock on wood). My office is relatively close to the FedEx facility where the packages are sorted so I get my ground deliveries by 10 a.m. This is nice when we have an unusually hot day. The last place I worked was teh absolute last stop for the FedEx ground guy. I found myself waiting around for shipments until 6-7 p.m. when I knew something was coming.
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