Fun with shipping

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's a strange arrangement, hard to believe it's faster or cheaper.

I've sung the praises of UPS, many times. Well they finally bit me.

Ordered a PC (Christmas gift)from Dell.
Friday night, email from Dell says it's shipped. Of course that just means they notified UPS it's ready, not really shipped.
Saturday, a phone call from UPS (actually a computer)saying it will be delivered on Wednesday the 13th.

Sunday I check the UPS website and it tells me Saturday they picked it up in Lebanon, TN, and it was in Harrisburg, PA on Sunday. By the way, it will be delivered on Monday the 11th.

Monday, I leave a note on the door telling UPS I'll be home at three and if they need a signature on their electronic dohickey, trace my signature off the bottom of the note. My regular guy would have done it. So, anyway, they leave an attempted delivery, blah, blah, blah.

I call UPS and tell them I'll pick it up at the airport the next day. Actually told one of those voice recognition computers but it knew what I was about, gave the correct address and hours for the location.....and I didn't have to push 1 for English.

It's a slight pain to get there but it's close to work. The problem is, I get out at 2:30 and they open at 5pm, but if I went home first, I'd have to leave almost immediately to get there at 5.....so I wait. But when they open, they don't have the package, it's on the truck trying to be delivered and isn't due in until 7:30pm. You know due in at 7:30 isn't a guarantee it'll be on time and then they have to find it and get it over to the pickup point.

They tell me yes, they got the message, but after they went home at 9, so nobody was there to tell the shipper not to send it out on the truck. WTF! The message goes to the pickup office and not to the people that have the damn thing and control where it goes???

Now in all fairness, this particular UPS terminal is the East Coast hub, It's the departure hub for all overseas packages going east. It's a huge operation, but they really ought to rethink this notification thing.



aside; I noticed a sign saying they would be open, Saturday the 23rd for pickup only. Nothing accepted for shipment on the 23rd, 24th & 25th. Must be their "winter" break.