It’s just the software doesn’t have a “delayed due to emergency” setting. Somebody put the package on a truck and scanned it into the system as being on the truck. The system doesn’t have any way of knowing the truck is stuck in a yard somewhere… it figures that since it’s not in the warehouse, it’s out for deliver. And if it’s out for delivery, it’ll get to the customer by 8 that evening.
There’s no malicious UPS worker constantly updating the status each day.
I do not believe you.
OK I guess that explains the mistaken status every day. I’m still pissed that they couldn’t get their trucks chained up over the weekend. They’re a big national company, not some mom and pop outfit.
Even today they’ll probably wimp out because, “eww, there’s too much slush on the streets!” Fucking idiots.
I would guess that since they rarely have to deal with heavy snow, that they don’t have chains for their trucks on hand, nor are their employees trained to use them.
(As a Seattleite, I am assuming you get about the same amount of heavy snow as we do, which is rare nowadays.)
Actually per my experience, I think Portland actually gets snow even less often than Seattle. Still, you’d think a major corporation like UPS wouldn’t be content to just throw up its hands and say “Oh well, I guess we’re not delivering to residential addresses for a whole week! Too bad so sad!”
The governor declared a state of emergency in Portland. I’d say UPS has an excuse.
I would not expect a delivery when the weather conditions are unsafe. Why have people who are not used to snow driving and causing injuries or worse? The same thing happens here in SC when it snows. Everything stops, with most people not even able to get to their jobs. Losing a weeks wages is more upsetting than not getting a package on time.
I grew up in the Seattle area and we used to get snow, but living here again the last 3-4 years, we never get more than a dusting. I figure if we ever get snow like you guys got last week, everything will shut down.
Last November or December ('15), I ordered a book that showed as delivered (by UPS), but was nowhere to be seen. There was a rash of robberies in my smallish safeish town (we were warned by my apt complex not to leave anything valuable in cars, and my workplace (a small college) gave the same warning to staff & students), so I figured someone must have grabbed it. I needed it for a class, so I reordered it. I didn’t even try with Amazon since I have it setup with UPS so I don’t have to sign for deliveries, and I figured it wasn’t Amazon’s fault. Then, about 3 weeks later, my apt manager knocks on my door with a package. UPS had apparently left it outside the door of a vacant unit. She noticed when she went to do a monthly inspection.
Then, later that month, UPS delivered a massive box for me…to the wrong apartment again.
I contacted Amazon not about them, but about their choice of shipping partners. I think I got a credit or some money back. In general, I thought that was pretty good of them because UPS’s incompetence wasn’t their fault.
Since then, I’ve noticed a substantial uptick in the packages being shipped USPS. I’m sure there are all sorts of reasons for that, but I wonder if there were other irate UPS customers emailing Amazon too.
This year I discovered to my shock that despite being in the middle of nowhere I actually did get a Sunday Prime delivery via USPS. I knew they’d signed some agreements but didn’t know rural Kansas was going to ever see that.
Almost everything I get from them anymore is USPS unless it is a larger package. I think its more about USPS cutting a deal with them than anything else. Having lived across the country, UPS has been great and terrible. I think it all depends on your local driver.
How the FUCK did you manage to get them to do that? I’ve been trying to get them to for literally over a decade and they have never, ever been willing to give me even the slightest consideration. Dozens of packages not delivered because they insisted on a fucking signature (which is purely them, not the shipper) and only deliver when I’m at work. Years of calling and calling and signing up for MyChoice and…
I would say that UPS is terrible as a company, at every conceivable policy level, but because they give the driver so much discretion (over that of the customer, which is one of the reasons they are terrible), sometimes you get a driver that’s willing to behave like a decent human being and do the job right.
It works really well other than the driver who insisted in delivering to my apartment complex’s office instead of my apartment.
Yes, I’ve signed up for that and it absolutely does not allow me to set it up so that I don’t have to sign for deliveries even though they say it does.
It all depends on the driver I guess, it has worked for me.
Yeah, drivers have the end say on that. If they think your neighborhood isn’t good enough to drop a package on the door or for whatever reason they decide, you aren’t getting it without a signature.
A while ago I had two different drivers pretty regularly coming to my old house (I think one was morning and the other evening, generally, but then they covered depending? I lived in a weird corner of the city). One would never leave a package, the other would. So I got to play UPS roulette and stayed home every time I needed to be completely sure.
And that’s why I hate UPS (and Fedex, though they’re used a lot less) - if I am comfortable receiving packages at my address, it should absolutely not be relevant that the delivery driver isn’t. I recognize that there are liability issues, but all they really need to do to get off the hook is to offer a way for the customer to sign something disclaiming UPS of responsibility and they don’t and refuse to. At the very very least, offering some way to communicate with the delivery driver so that they know how to get in touch with me if they need my consent, or to convey my preferences. And they just don’t.
I’ve been really pleased that Amazon’s new internal delivery service will just call me when they’re arriving to deliver my package. Not coincidentally, I’ve gotten every single thing that’s come that way.
On the opposite end, I really did not want UPS delivering to my apartment complex office (they had lost a package in the past, and I was always home anyway), and no matter what I did I couldn’t get them to deliver to my apartment. I called the 1-800 number and complained to the local hub. They still delivered right to the office even though the package was in my name and I clicked the box to require only my signature. So while UPS Choice has worked for me in the past, sometime UPS just really sucks.
Speaking of delivery companies not delivering. DHL tried to deliver a package that needed a signature. The driver tried the apt office but no one was there. He actually called me and drove it to my workplace (in the same town) to deliver it rather than leave a note and come back the next day. I’d had crappy experiences with them in the past, so that was really a happy moment.
As for UPS, yeah, My Choice has worked okay for me. There have been a couple times when the sender override it with an expensive package which I understood and was okay with. Before it, I lived in fear of missing the delivery attempts. Back in the day, there were 3 attempts and then it’d be held by UPS for a week. That worked for me. Then they switched to three strikes and you’re out. That sucks. It’s definitely what drove me to My Choice. But if I had a driver who refused to leave anything I’d definitely be ticked off.
I have never had a good DHL experience. Granted I only had to deal with them about 3 times, but all 3 times it was a failure. Last time was I ordered tamales next day air from a place in Texas (delivery in WY). It took them 7 days.
Well, yeah, if the shipper requires a signature, then someone actually has to sign for it, period, no way around it. And it’s even more restricted on adult-receipt-only signature requirements. But I think I’ve had maybe three or four packages in my entire life that had a shipper signature requirement - I think OGRE Designer’s Edition did, but that was a gigantic, plainly marked box so I was only too happy to go collect it myself. My TV. And I think an RPG book that shipped to me from Taiwan. (And that last was USPS so I just had to go to the local post office, which is not a big deal. UPS and Fedex only have one location each and they’re in some godforsaken part of Minneapolis or suburbs that’s basically impossible to get to by public transit. They’ve opened things up a bit in more recent years with Access Points or the Fedex equivalent, but you still have to have them route it somewhere other than the main facility which takes at least an extra day.)
Almost invariably it’s just been the default policy that they’re not supposed to leave packages without a signature for apartments, and that is entirely up to the driver to uphold or not.