UPS Delivery

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

Has anyone else had problems with UPS delivery?

We're in Winter Hill, and for the last few weeks UPS has been refusing to deliver *any* package without a signature in person. Given that my boyfriend and I both have full time jobs, and can't sit around all day waiting for packages to arrive, this means that some packages have been returned to the sellers.

We've tried calling UPS and giving explicit instructions to leave packages at the back, private door to our apartment; leaving notes (the most recent UPS slip was left on TOP of our note saying to leave the package at the back door); calling shippers and having them designate the package as no signature necessary.

The driver is leaving slips in which he crosses out the area on the back where we can sign, and where it says "the sender required a signature at the time of delivery" he's crossed out "the sender" and written "UPS." He's also underlined "at the time of delivery," and scribbled over the spot where we can check where to leave the package.

I've just called UPS AGAIN and in theory the Somerville distribution center will be calling me back at some point today. With our schedules it is extremely difficult to drive to the out-of-the-way distribution center and pick the packages up directly, but I'm going to reschedule some things and try to go in person tonight to explain to them in small words that they are in the business of delivering packages.

Does anyone else have any ideas? suggestions? similar problems?

(For the record FedEx delivers quite happily to the back door with a 100% success rate so far.)

Comments

[jadia.livejournal.com]

If none of this works, you can try getting deliveries at work instead.

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it's against company policy to have anything delivered at work. :(

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

If they leave the little sticker, I just sign it anyway and leave it up.

Odds are good some packages have been stolen in your neighborhood; we're getting to that time of year.

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

He's completely scribbled out that area so that any signature we write in there would be illegible.

Maybe some things have been stolen, but our building is set up from the street, the front door is heavily shielded by bushes, and they are also ignoring instructions to bring things to the back door, where they could tuck it between the screen and storm door.

[ron_newman]

Any possibility that they rang the wrong bell, maybe because they couldn't read which bell belonged to which occupants? (I've done that plenty of times myself.)

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I have had this happen many times as well, here in Davis. (not recently, but in the past few years for sure)

[skate97.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they brought your stuff back. This happens to my in-laws all the time, in their apartment complex. The driver always says he attempts but never rings the bell, and when they call UPS to complain, they always say the driver says he rang the bell and that he can't go back because it will mess up the schedule. Even though they can WATCH THE FRONT DOOR on tv and know he never rings the bell.

We use them for work deliveries a lot, and they get really upset when we have an event and need to ship a lot of packages. Meh.

Don't get me started on UPS!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, UPS policy is that if a package goes missing the *driver* is held [to some degree?] liable. This is why a driver can opt not to leave a package regardless of what the sender or receiver want. If a lot of packages have been stolen in an area a driver has to protect him or herself from losing a paycheck or more.

I can see how this policy protects UPS from drivers keeping/selling boxes that look valuable, but it's mostly a case of placing the cost of business losses on the lowest, most vulnerable rung of the company ladder. (If they had this policy and also didn't allow the driver to decide when to leave the package or not, it would be even worse!)

UPS certainly deserves your ire, cranky-grams to the company, and refusal to do business with them whenever there is another option, but just to be clear, the driver is in a really screwed position here.

Really all you can do is get them to hold your package at the facility over on First Street (behind the Holiday Inn behind Union Square) and go over there sometime that's incredibly inconvenient. The hours of their customer-pick-up-window are something horrible like 7am to 9am and 3pm to 5pm; but it's really hard to get the actual hours out of them because they won't give you the direct phone-number of any location. It sucks.

For future issues, there are many retail-store that will act as delivery locations. Tags in Porter doesn't sound convenient to Winter Hill... maybe the Davis UPS store isn't so very bad for you? You can set up a delivery account with them and they receive your packages for you and you can pick them up during business hours. That won't help with the one that's currently on the lam, but I'd suggest finding a location for that for future UPS shipments for a while.

I'm pretty sure UPS believes themselves to be in the business of collecting money from people who have packages to ship. They do this by *usually* delivering packages, but not bothering to try to be too reliable when it's too inconvenient to them.

[ask me about "virtual tracking" some time. No wait, it's the Internet! I'll just rant now because I feel like it! Turns out they don't really "scan" your packages into and out of locations at all. They do what they call a "virtual scan" which means they put into the tracking system where your package would be if it had moved as planned. It would be like if you had three connecting flights and they said you were on the next plane when clearly you had missed it. You can watch the tracking of a package that's allegedly moving across the country only to discover a week later after a *lot* of phone calls, that it's still in a warehouse in North Dakota.]

Re: Don't get me started on UPS!

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

None of the pickup locations are convenient to me. I have a full time job, am in grad school, and I drive to Rhode Island most nights to ride my horse. I don't get home before 9pm at the earliest on weekdays, usually closer to 10. Ordering things online and having them delivered to me is the ONLY way I can buy 95% of the things in my life.

It's gone beyond frustrating into the realm of absurdity.

Re: Don't get me started on UPS!

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

THIS. I once lived somewhere where the driver refused to leave anything and when I called HQ they said the driver was empowered to require a signature since he/she was financially liable if the package was stolen.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

I think UPS in general has changed policy recently. I have a box at the UPS Store, and when I got a package that didn't fit, they used to just put a slip in the box that I had an oversize package; if I called ahead of time they'd put a key in my box for one of the overnight drop boxes (I pay extra for 24/7 access).

Now, however, they put a slip requesting a signature. I pointed out to them that I'm not going to sign for a package I haven't got yet (I don't think they pay very much) so now they just put the signature slip in the drop box with the package, if I remember to call.

Short version - I suspect they've had too many packages disappear in general, and aren't handing anything over without a signature.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

The UPS Store is a semi-autonomous franchise. The guy who owned the Davis one had been looking to sell since last January; maybe he found a buyer and this is the new owner's policy.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

and aren't handing anything over without a signature.

If so, they need to change the options they allows shippers to choose between - tell shippers and receivers, flat out - NO delivery without signature at time of delivery.

Change their webpage, change their slips.

Announce the policy.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

Does your building have multiple units and a common front door? I was told by UPS that they would not leave a package w/o signature (even on the slip) in such a building. Thankfully for me I lived in the same town as the distro center and they had late pickup hours.

Sounds like you'll have to resort to USPS or FedEx in the future. :-(

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

It does, but the killer is things got delivered just fine to the back (private) door until about three weeks ago. They switched drivers, apparently, and the new one has decided to be an asshole and ignore our instructions to go to that back door.

Love the UPS man

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

Treating others nicely that make my life a little difficult is often against my very nature but I often found that when you develop a relationship with someone by doing unusually nice things, people respond and eventually reciprocate.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

You might hire someone to receive packages for you through a service like TaskRabbit.com or Tillingers.com?

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

This is weird because UPS ALWAYS leaves packages at my place without ringing the bell. Even though at least one person is home most of the time. And I'm usually okay with it, but it made me very nervous when they didn't even bother giving the laptop I'd ordered to an actual person...just left it on the stoop and updated the status to Delivered. I had to call home so someone could go and pull it inside.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Mine varies incredibly. One package I ordered, left on the doorstep, no signature needed. Another I ordered, same value of goods, they wouldn't let me just sign for it.

I fully expect my next package will be strapped to the door with packing tape.

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

At one point we were having similar problems.

I made a big padlocked box out of plywood. On it, I put the delivery instructions ("Leave packages in big green box") and left the lock open. The driver put the packages in the box and snapped the padlock closed if he thought it was going to get stolen.

It wasn't hard to do - if you buy the plywood at Home Depot, they'll cut it to size. Screws, hinges, and similar hardware also came from Home Depot.


Since then the driver's gone to leaving packages on the porch again, and we've started using it as a convenient storage place for things like ice melt and sand. But if it becomes a problem we'll just find the padlock again and go back to it.


Sounds like you need a similar option. If your house is a multi-family you might have to discuss it with the others in the house, but it is the kind of thing where everybody benefits from having their packages delivered.

[dial-zero.livejournal.com]

That. Is. Genius. I had a similar problem with getting a package delivered to my building in JP; I signed the slip asking the driver to leave it in the foyer area (which only 6 tenants use), but because it is a big building with multiple foyers, I guess s/he didn't feel safe leaving it. After two failed attempts, my package got sent to the facility in NORWOOD where I had to go take a bus from my house at 7AM, walk almost a mile, pick up the stupid package (they didn't even ask for ANY kind of ID) and do the same thing going back home. The whole thing took 2 horus. I asked if they could just leave it at a UPS store near my apartment or work, but nope--only the facility in Norwood, or pay an extra $4 to have it re-routed to another address. Now I know--everything gets delivered to my work.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

this has happened to us in cambridgeport with just about every delivery service.

most recently we were told that if you have any kind of front door before the actual door to your apartment, it is at "the driver's discretion" if he wants to enter the building. this became INFURIATING when trying get a package recently, because the bells outside don't work. it's not a complex either - it's a house with only three apartments in it and one set of stairs, and the downstairs door is always open. AND WE WERE HOME. there is already a note always there explaining the bells don't work, and in addition to that we left a note assuring the driver we were home, we left the slip as instructed by their customer service agreeing for it to be left without signature, they had a phone number to reach us at (should they want to call from downstairs and not enter a building which, i guess is an important rule to have in some cases, but really this was just complete laziness and disregard for any instructions) and we tried every combination of things.

in the end we just had to find a day where we could get to the post office and pick it up. and when we did? the box was COVERED in notes telling the person to just LEAVE IT by people who had been TRYING to help us the whole time and that was probably the most infuriating of all.

anyway, sorry to not be helpful because this has happened with ALL of them from time to time but you aren't alone. i also wanted to post so people know that the driver's actually have a right to not enter a building (which they are clearly abusing) so that may be why you have all of these stories about not delivering when people are home.

i used to work for a company like amazon, and we frequently dealt directly with both fedex and ups on behalf of our customers and i can only say that YES, you can call and request it just to be left and this should work, (and ALWAYS leave a note too on the slip) but after the dispatcher tells the driver, there's nothing more anyone can do and sadly there are still problems.

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

I have my troubles in the past with them- going to pick up the package at the distribution center, waiting 45 mins and having the girl say it was not there and then showing her my phone with there number on it when I called when they told me it was there. She was just to lazy to go out back and yes many years ago a particular driver did not ring the bell either.
Guess my situation is unique because i know my driver now-tip him at X-mas and he gives my dog treats

[volantwish]

We have this problem in our apartment building in Spring Hill. Once when I was working from home and was around to get a delivery, I asked the driver about it. He said that there had been an issue at our building with a package going missing after delivery, and they now aren't allowed to leave packages at our building without an someone there to sign for it. (Regardless of whether the back of the slip has been signed.)

Luckily, I can ship things to workplaces, so it's only an issue when I forget to change my shipping address.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

We were having this problem in Porter Square last fall. I was told—I forget by whom—that our address was on a list of addresses where the driver wasn't authorized to leave packages at all, for any reason, even if you left out the slip or a signed note (which we'd been doing for years with no problem). Since we hadn't had any problems with packages disappearing and it was a two-family house where each side had its own house number, I don't know how we ended up on any such list.

After that, we all made sure to have packages sent by another carrier or sent to work. In the process of figuring this out, I had to have Amazon resend a package to my work address and had Sephora resend something via Fed Ex (I think). Once we knew what was going on, it was easy enough to get around, but it was a pain at first, and I found it strange that UPS wouldn't have thought to let us know that we had been blackballed, essentially. Poor customer service on that count.

Have it delivered somewhere else

[amantone.livejournal.com]

I've lived in Winter Hill for over three years, and this has always been a problem.

They won't leave packages in our zip code because of the rate of theft. End of story. I have things delivered to my office in downtown Boston or to one of my parents' houses if the package will only come UPS (such as from Bananan Republic).

What I do now: when I order things, I call the company and ask them NOT to send it UPS because of the delivery regulations in my neighborhood. Usually, they will send it another way if you go to this trouble.