[Richard]

This was my most recent go-round with UPS.

Waiting for and tracking an expensive watch that was being sent to my wife from Dallas, a notice appeared that there was an address problem which precluded delivery and they were working to resolve it. I then checked the address of the package and it, along with the zip code, was correct, so I checked the update box to indicate it was, indeed, correct.

The next day I check the progress again and there is a message that the package is now being sent back to Dallas. WTF!

I call UPS and go through all the “Press whatever” notions to actually get a service rep, tell him what’s happened, and – after about 30 minutes of him attempting to fix the problem from somewhere in Waziristan by the sound of his accent – end with him telling me he has notified a supervisor and that I will be called back within an hour.

I give them two hours, during which I logged on and checked the status several more times, and call back again. This time I am connected with a woman who, after I explain my previous predicament and give her the name of the guy I’d spoken with earlier (I always ask for and write down the name of whomever I talk to in this matters), tells me that there was nothing done and the status of the package is that it is still scheduled to return to Dallas from Sacramento that day.

This is UNSAT and I tell her so, and we work through the process – if they actually have such a thing – again. This time, after about 30 minutes, she tells me the package is now tagged to ‘hold’, and gives me a name and telephone number for their air freight facility about 7 miles from the ranch next to what was once Mather AFB and is now a commercial cargo airport.

I call the number and speak with the facility manager who tells me that I can come to the facility and pick-up the package 1530-1830 that day.

I show up and they want the failed delivery notice which I never received, so I give them the original tracking number I’d written down off of the UPS web-site. The guy puts it into the computer and comes back with a “This is missing a number and we can’t locate it.” Before I ‘go postal’ on them, I take the paper and read the long alpha-numeric tracking number to him as he again inputs the info, and – behold – there it is! He had mistyped the number.

Five minutes later I have signed for the package and headed home, wondering just how many more of those rocks in the cogs there must be in that complex delivery system and how much stuff must get misrouted out there by any of these companies if this was any indication of employee efficiency.

Another issue we dealt with this year over the holiday season was having a package sent to a niece in Dallas through UPS and having it stolen from her front porch by some sorry MFer – something that seemed to happen in a lot of areas around the country this year. Now we request a delivery signature when shipping packages.

Richard