A couple weeks ago, I ordered some stuff from Rockler. They shipped
the order the next day, and e-mailed me the UPS tracking number. The
UPS-scheduled delivery date was Monday, January 24.

The package didn't show up on the 24th, but we'd had a pretty major
snowstorm over the weekend and I figured that had held up delivery,
which was forgivable, and meanwhile the UPS site showed a rescheduled
delivery on the 25th. No big deal.

Well, it didn't show up on the 25th, or on the 26th either. On the
27th I e-mailed UPS asking for an explanation, and they replied with
a promise to provide an answer by the next business day. That answer
never came.

On Monday the 31st I called UPS and after struggling through the
automated system I finally got to talk to a human being who was
perhaps the most un-helpful customer service representative I've ever
dealt with. She first tried to tell me that the package had been
delivered a week ago. When I pointed out that the UPS tracking page
showed that the package had been sitting at the local depot for over a
week, she told me she wasn't familiar with the tracking system and had
no explanation. (How the hell can they put somebody into customer
service who hasn't a clue how the system works and doesn't know how to
read the tracking page that the customer is probably looking at when
he calls?!)

Eventually I was transferred to another individual who was equally
clueless and equally uninterested in helping me. She said the best
she could do was to "initiate an investigation." This investigation,
she told me, would take up to eight business days and they would not
tell me the results. Instead, they would report to the shipper, and I
would be expected to call the shipper on a daily basis to ask them
whether they had heard anything from UPS.

At this point I sarcastically thanked the woman for her complete lack
of useful information and hung up. I then called Rockler to see if
they could be of any help. The woman I spoke to said she'd look into
it and see what she could find out.

An hour later, the lady from Rockler called back. She apparently had
gotten the same non-information from UPS and basically concluded that
the package was lost in their system. But rather than making me wait
eight more days for it to turn up, she said they would re-ship the
order and straighten it out with UPS later.

The order was re-shipped that day and arrived today. Rockler sent it
second-day air even though I had only paid for ground shipment.

What a contrast. Thanks, Rockler.

-- jc
Published e-mail address is strictly for spam collection.
If e-mailing me, please use jc631 at optonline dot net

I had a good time with FedEx recently. A package was shown "delivered" on
their Web site. It wasn't. I called, they said they'd ask the driver and
call me back. No call back.

Called again, they said the driver delivered it to my aparment management's
office. Uh-uh; I went over there twice on the date it was allegedly
delivered. We're investigating and we'll call you back. No call back.

I talked to customer service; customer service escalation; tracking dept.;
claims dept.; even the VP of public relations. We'll call you back. No one
ever did.

Four days later, my postman knocks on the door to tell me there's a FedEx
package with my name on it sitting in the office of an apartment complex up
the street, not the one in which I live. So I call FedEx and they send a
driver over there.

He can't find any package addressed to me. I start over again with the
"channels." People are beginnign to recognize my name. :-)

I get the hard-ass, flush-this-pest guy, who tells me to have the shipper
send "another one." I'm ready for him.

"The shipper can't send another one. The box contains the ashes of my only
child."

Tony, age 14, thought that was hilarious. :-)

Three hours later, I received my printer suppliers.

David Hakala wrote:
[snip]
"The shipper can't send another one. The box contains the ashes of my only
child."

Tony, age 14, thought that was hilarious. :-)

Three hours later, I received my printer suppliers.


It's all in how you explain it...

"John Carlson" wrote in message

dealt with. She first tried to tell me that the package had been
delivered a week ago.

Must of been the same one who told me, with a straight face, that someone
named F. Rontdoor signed for it ... and at a non-existent address on that
particular block.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 11/06/04

On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 18:57:03 -0700, "David Hakala"
wrote:

I had a good time with FedEx recently. A package was shown "delivered" on
their Web site. It wasn't. I called, they said they'd ask the driver and
call me back. No call back.

.... snip of charming FedEx story
e. :-)

I get the hard-ass, flush-this-pest guy, who tells me to have the shipper
send "another one." I'm ready for him.

"The shipper can't send another one. The box contains the ashes of my only
child."

Tony, age 14, thought that was hilarious. :-)

Three hours later, I received my printer suppliers.


That was funny.

OTOH, I've had very good luck with FedEx -- the last order I had shipped
through them actually had the package arrive a day earlier than they had
predicted.

UPS has been hitting the delivery dates predicted pretty much dead on.




+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety

Army General Richard Cody

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 18:57:03 -0700, "David Hakala"
wrote:

I had a good time with FedEx recently. A package was shown "delivered" on
their Web site. It wasn't. I called, they said they'd ask the driver and
call me back. No call back.

Called again, they said the driver delivered it to my aparment management's
office. Uh-uh; I went over there twice on the date it was allegedly
delivered. We're investigating and we'll call you back. No call back.

I talked to customer service; customer service escalation; tracking dept.;
claims dept.; even the VP of public relations. We'll call you back. No one
ever did.

Four days later, my postman knocks on the door to tell me there's a FedEx
package with my name on it sitting in the office of an apartment complex up
the street, not the one in which I live. So I call FedEx and they send a
driver over there.

He can't find any package addressed to me. I start over again with the
"channels." People are beginnign to recognize my name. :-)

I get the hard-ass, flush-this-pest guy, who tells me to have the shipper
send "another one." I'm ready for him.

"The shipper can't send another one. The box contains the ashes of my only
child."

Tony, age 14, thought that was hilarious. :-)

Three hours later, I received my printer suppliers.

You, sir, are truly evil.

I admire that in a person. :-)

==RC
"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

"David Hakala" wrote in message
...

"The shipper can't send another one. The box contains the ashes of my only
child."

Tony, age 14, thought that was hilarious. :-)


Absolutely marvelous! That one gains a place in the Hall of All Time
Greats.

--

-Mike-

In article ,
John Carlson wrote:

A couple weeks ago, I ordered some stuff from Rockler. They shipped
the order the next day, and e-mailed me the UPS tracking number. The
UPS-scheduled delivery date was Monday, January 24.
[snipperectomy]

I must say that I have nothing but good experiences with UPS. 'Cept one.
I buy a fair bit of stuff from the US and use UPS to get it to me.
I use their broker. UPS brokerage is expensive... but fast.
.....*just looking here.....* ...............the last 3 shipments from
the US were all one day earlier than promised....one was 2 days earlier.
Regular (not-in-a-hurry-replacement/repair-part-category) stuff goes to
my Mailboxes Etc. box in Port Huron. Again, with no delays from UPS.

Just ONCE was there a comical abberration.
Friends of ours, from St.Louis MO (he was the minister who married us)
had been here to Kanuckistan for a 3-day visit. As part of their
road-food collection, they had a bag of big-fat-twisted-huge Cheezies.
Our daughter (11) isn't used to that 'straighttohellinnabasketgarbage'
enjoyed that crap immensely. So much so, that our friends decided to
send her a big bag via UPS. "Ah, what-the-heck, Rob, it's not that she
eats that junk every day..."

Two weeks go by.
Then, a notification from UPS that the expected shipment was being held
by customs waiting for direction on brokerage.
Value of shipment: $ 5.00 (There were some Pixie Sticks and Tootsie
rolls in there as well..."what are friends for")
Anticipated brokerage fees: TWENTY-SIX BUCKS!.
I reject shipment. (At that time, I still don't know what's in it, but I
know who it is from, and I'm suspicious of those pranksters.)

Two weeks go by.
Somehow, fees were waived and the MegaCheesies showed up.
All the contents had been opened and taped shut again with 'special'
tape. Labels of 'this dept' and 'that dept' all over the box.
The thing looked like a crime scene.

I strongly suspect that one of the MEGACheezies was missing.
Took a month. (The expiry date on the MONSTERMEGACheezies was 2066 so
there was no hurry...not that there is any food in it....)

Holy cow...look at the time..Tea is all done...

OUT

Mike Marlow wrote:
Absolutely marvelous! That one gains a place in the Hall of All Time
Greats.

Agreed, Weegie did you grab this one?
Dave in Fairfax
--
Dave Leader
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
American Association of Woodturners
http://www.woodturner.org
Capital Area Woodturners
http://www.capwoodturners.org/
PATINA
http://www.Patinatools.org/

John Carlson wrote:
A couple weeks ago, I ordered some stuff from Rockler. They shipped
the order the next day, and e-mailed me the UPS tracking number. The
UPS-scheduled delivery date was Monday, January 24.

The package didn't show up on the 24th, but we'd had a pretty major
snowstorm over the weekend and I figured that had held up delivery,
which was forgivable, and meanwhile the UPS site showed a rescheduled
delivery on the 25th. No big deal.

Well, it didn't show up on the 25th, or on the 26th either. On the
27th I e-mailed UPS asking for an explanation, and they replied with
a promise to provide an answer by the next business day. That answer
never came.

On Monday the 31st I called UPS and after struggling through the
automated system I finally got to talk to a human being who was
perhaps the most un-helpful customer service representative I've ever
dealt with. She first tried to tell me that the package had been
delivered a week ago. When I pointed out that the UPS tracking page
showed that the package had been sitting at the local depot for over
a
week, she told me she wasn't familiar with the tracking system and
had
no explanation. (How the hell can they put somebody into customer
service who hasn't a clue how the system works and doesn't know how
to
read the tracking page that the customer is probably looking at when
he calls?!)

Eventually I was transferred to another individual who was equally
clueless and equally uninterested in helping me. She said the best
she could do was to "initiate an investigation." This investigation,
she told me, would take up to eight business days and they would not
tell me the results. Instead, they would report to the shipper, and
I
would be expected to call the shipper on a daily basis to ask them
whether they had heard anything from UPS.

At this point I sarcastically thanked the woman for her complete lack
of useful information and hung up. I then called Rockler to see if
they could be of any help. The woman I spoke to said she'd look into
it and see what she could find out.

An hour later, the lady from Rockler called back. She apparently had
gotten the same non-information from UPS and basically concluded that
the package was lost in their system. But rather than making me wait
eight more days for it to turn up, she said they would re-ship the
order and straighten it out with UPS later.

The order was re-shipped that day and arrived today. Rockler sent it
second-day air even though I had only paid for ground shipment.

What a contrast. Thanks, Rockler.

-- jc
Published e-mail address is strictly for spam collection.
If e-mailing me, please use jc631 at optonline dot net

I feel your pain Have had similar problems with UPS and FEDEX Ground.
If you do not get your package from UPS at date in shipper just forget
about it you'll never see it. Had similar experience twice online they
said it was delivered, (not to me since I nevr saw the package) and
their customer service might as well not waste your time. All they will
tell you is we still have the tracer and we are working on it. Never
saw the packages. I'm convinced UPS costumer service is there to give
you a false sense that they are working to find the missing package
when in the background nothing is being done. Friends of mine have had
exactly same problem. FEDEX ground I will never use them again NEVER
!!!!. Every package approx 4-5 in the past year have either not shown
up or left on doorstep completely open and contents missing or broken.
Call Fedex gnd customer service (hidden on their website or difficult
to find) they just apologize take information and tell you a
superviser/manager will call you, you guessed it they never call you.
The US Post Office sadly enough gives somewhat better service than UPS
and fedex Ground. Fedex air are still on the ball so far never had a
problem.

I had bought a Leigh Dovetail jig from a private party, and he shipped it USPS
about two weeks before Christmas, in four boxes, all insured, at the same time.
Well one came before Christmas, and the other three showed up the next week
up to a week later than the first, all on separate days. I was sweating it out
that they would loose maybe one or two of the packages and my other two would
be of little value.