I’ve generally had better luck here in LA with FedEx than with UPS. But one reason is that I can have packages delivered to the FedEx Office just a few blocks from me. With UPS, I have to be home to ensure delivery. Otherwise, it gets a “free ride” on the non air-conditioned UPS truck for at least another day.
But where there is a problem or question, I’ve found FedEx vastly superior to UPS. I had a shipment via UPS some months ago where EVERY time I called or checked the website, I got a different story about what was going on. No one appears to be in charge…
In fairness, you think of the insane scope of what those companies do, it’s impossible they won’t make the occasional mistake. I think you just have to consider it a small but unavoidable risk.
My guess is that if you ask the wineries, they might be able to ship via either UPS or FedEx - your choice. I know that I generally can, except to a handful of states. Therefore, if you have a preference, you might be able to gain at least a bit of control.
That said, this thread could be altered as such:
‘XXXX Shipping Company’ Really Sucks . . . .
None of them are ‘perfect’, and as others have pointed out, with the scope of products that they handle, they generally do a good job. Wine is not a normal shipment for them because of potential temperature issues, but they don’t necessarily comprehend this all of the time - since they are generally not faced with these same issues with most of their packages. Heck, wine is just a challenging product to ship and keep cool. Period . . .
This is exactly why fedex is better for me. Re-directing any package to my local 24Hr Fedex kinkos is painless. Redirecting UPS is much more complicated and has shown to be far less reliable. Even though I deliver wine to work and we have a recptionist it still gets 2nd chanced like 1/2 the time. With Fedex this is never an issue. Always reliably delivered to local store. Both treat you like crap when something goes wrong but I have much better luck with Fedex with things going right.
Isn’t the issue not if these companies will sometimes make a mistake but how they respond when they do make that mistake? They use their size and market control as an excuse to have virtually no customer service.
At least with Amazon when I’ve had an issue, they do a fast refund and apology. UPS/FedEx could learn from them … a lot.
Another apologist. Let me repeat myself. The issue is not the initial screw up. The issue is their failure to make any effort, either corporately across the board or in an individual case, to mitigate damage from the error by providing a backup system. Their approach is simply - too bad on you, we’ll bring it to you the next business day.
Thanks, but I don’t want to out the winery because it was not their fault and they have made an effort already.
I already have one or two but wanted some backup because she is having some friends from work over and we may need more, but in a pinch, I have plenty of other stuff.
Jay, fundamentally, you are asking FedX and UPS to do something that they simply aren’t designed to do. They were not established to ship perishable and semi-perishable items. Period. There are numerous companies that do this on a wholesale level for all kinds of products, from lettuce to ice cream. Those companies understand the special requirements of the products they ship, and use refrigerated trucks in their supply chain.
The problem is that those companies operate at a wholesale level (palletized goods, often an entire truckload), and deliver to distribution centers that also have temperature contolled distribution warehouses. In most cases, local deliveries are made in temperature controlled trucks. But a local food distributor doesn’t attempt to deliver to every street address in their market. Maybe Amazon Fresh is one of the few exceptions.
There are specialized temperature contolled shipping companies for wine. Some will even handle LTL (less than truckload) quantities, like the trucking companies used by companies like Domaine Transit, The Wine Movers, Wine By Air, Int’l, some auction houses, etc. At Seattle Wine Storage, we get multiple pallets in and out every week, year-round, including the summer. Pallets sometimes are 50 cases, some are as small as 4-10 cases.
But these companies aren’t designed to handle a 6 bottle shipment picked up at an out-of-state retailer and delivered to your door. Therefore, winos rely on FedX and UPS to do something they simply aren’t designed to do. And while they are amazing efficient and generally reliable, they make occasional mistakes. No big deal when you are shipping a non-perishable product, hence their “too bad, it will be there tomorrow” attitude when problems arise. I doubt most of their customer service people, and many of their drivers, have any idea about the issue of warm temperatures being bad for wine.
One reason I am experiencing more issues with UPS is because now that Amazon makes up 10% of all their shipments, I suspect they are pulling out all the stops to make sure Amazon shipments arrive on time and if that means slowing everything else down, so be it. And then they blame it on “weather” or some other technicality and refuse to guarantee the shipment’s on time arrival.
Almost all wineries will send via any way you want. I default to UPS but can ship FedEx and am considering making them the default. I already do to some states. All people need to do is ask and usually a winery will accommodate.
I have admired many of your posts over the years, but it is simply absurd to try to ship wine for any reason at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. I am sorry that your wine was baked, but in a way sorrier that you did not foresee, even expect this. Even if you didn’t have an excellent cellar of your own, you obviously live in a place where there are good wine stores.
As a Mister Language Person, I can possibly distinguish between the English accents of people from the north or south of India, or from the Philippines (I don’t think there are many call centers serving the U.S. in China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, the rest of Asia, Brazil, Quebec &c). FEDEX and UPS are both multinational corporations and as such naturally outsource whatever tasks they can to save money. I would guess that there are accounts whose annual expenditures with these shipping companies entitle them to better, more responsive service, perhaps speaking to people whose native language is English. While I am also occasionally irritated by dealing with call centers staffed by people whose English is not fully adequate for their jobs, I also recognize both the savings involved for for-profit companies and the opportunities these jobs provide for upwardly mobile people in less prosperous countries.
FWIW, I do not have any wine shipped to my home between May and September. The only exceptions are for samples I need to taste to make buying decisions. Those are shipped from my office. They are chilled to 35 degrees before being packed in styrofoam for overnight shipping first delivery, and I drive to Portland to pick them up. If the shipment is delayed, or the wines are not quite cool when I receive them, I do not taste and if need be lose the opportunity.
This thread reminds me that suffering the injustice of wine delivery snafus in summertime is like getting a parking ticket.
It sucks. You made a mistake. You’re pissed at yourself. You’re pissed at the aggrieving party. But nothing is going to change by dwelling on it. You can’t fight City Hall. And you can’t fight UPS or FedEx. Pay your “fine” and move on.
Jay, perhaps you don’t understand how huge corporations (and countries) work. The system is greased by transactions that run fairly smoothly most of the time, but when something goes wrong, it goes wrong and no one wants to admit to mistake. I know as a lawyer you probably want someone held accountable, but this is the nature of the beast when you have an anonymous system with cogs supplying inputs. Think back to the BP Horizon oil spill, which I hope you would admit led to a bigger problem than the one you faced.
DOn’t think Jay wanted a refund (which he would probably get) - think he wanted UPS to get package to him on Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday) - which UPS probably wasn’t willing to do
