Funky UPS Behavior

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

Today I was expecting a package from UPS, and the online tracking info says that the package was delivered to my front door. However, no package arrived.

A year or so ago, at a different address in Davis, this same thing happened to me. Thinking that it may have been stolen, I contacted the shipper (Zappos) and they overnighted me a new box. Both the missing and replacement boxes showed up the next day.

So I'm hoping that the package will come tomorrow. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else in the area has experienced a disconnect between tracking numbers and reality when dealing with UPS.

Thanks.

Comments

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I think what sometimes happens is it gets either misdelivered or itentionally delivered to a nearby address (like, your next door neighbor signs for it) and whoever it got delivered to then leaves it at your address.

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

Actually - funny story - I was just outside on the porch admiring the freshly painted crosswalk, when the neighbor yelled over saying my box was next door. WOOHOO!

Mystery solved.

[o0dano0o.livejournal.com]

That's not a bad idea - I may check into that.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

Thats a smart move.

[kelkyag]

About once a month (very roughly) a letter or package shows up at my building that's for a nearby neighbor. Sometimes it takes me a day or three to realize it's not for one of the other tenants and take it to the building it actually belongs at.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. The other tenants in my 3-family house turn over so often that it no longer registers when I see an unfamiliar name in the house mail basket.

[wandelrust.livejournal.com]

I've had crap luck with UPS. I once ordered a Gateway computer (for myself) to be delivered to my work address. Tracking showed it as delivered, but signed for by someone I didn't know (certainly not our front desk person). Investigation revealed they'd delivered it to the nearby Gateway store, because why bother looking at the address when you know where a Gateway box must be going, right?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Technically I believe UPS is liable for the shipment in cases like this.

I once had UPS deliver about $14,000 worth of computer equipment to our next door neighbor. Fortunately the neighbor was nice enough to come over and inform us about the mistake. I think a lot of larger companies would not have had the wherewithal and computers that no one ordered would just end up in a store room somewhere forever.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I've had terrible luck with porch deliveries in town... Now I get anything I wouldn't be ashamed of delivered to my office.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

This.

I live very close to the square and a lot of foot traffic goes by. Only recently my girlfriend/roomate had a box go missing. Very dissapointing but fixed quickly by UPS, now it all goes to work.

I prefer UPS over FedEx for home delivery however. UPS will let you go online and stop the repeat delivery attempts and have them hold it, especially when you know you wont be home during the day. Then you can go pick it up at the hub.

With FedEx, I could not figure out how to do that. So I had to wait for the driver to make three delivery attempts, all the while knowing I wouldnt be home to accept the shipment, then drive up to North Reading to pick the thing up. UPS is right in Somerville, also a bonus.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

That's odd. I've never had a problem with FedEx holding something for me. And they've always held it in their Medford location, which is closer to me than UPS's East Somerville location. And IIRC, they are open many more hours than UPS.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I had an extremely long and wretched experience with UPS which I won't bore you with now, but it involved thousands of dollars worth of my product going to the wrong state, and nearly 24 hours of telephone conversations over three days to find the shipment and get it to the right place.

What I learned from the various UPS managers through this experience was this:

Most so-called "tracking scans" are what UPS calls "virtual scans." When they say that your package was scanned at such and such a location at such and such a time, they do NOT mean that an optical scanner passed over the bar code of your package. Nor does it even mean that an optical scanner passed over the bar-code on the container which is supposed to be containing your package. What it means is that according to their shipping plan, you package *should be* at such-and-such location. Amazingly enough, this is usually right, or close enough to it.

It's like if an airline scans your boarding pass as you get on an airplane. You have three connections before your destination. If UPS ran the airline they would say they "scanned you" into each layover, and back out, even if they don't even know for sure if the plane left that airport on time, let alone if you were actually on it. Most of the time they'd be right anyway, but it turns out that package-tracking is basically a huge fraud.

Anyway, the kicker for me is that I still have to ship UPS exclusively because they are the *only* carrier that insures original art-work. (Fed Ex claims they do through a third-party insurer, but if you ask a lot of very specific questions you learn that's not really true).

Good luck with your package!