Fail: UPS

I remember a time when I worked for a start-up in San Francisco that UPS was my hero.  I was working with a company that had to ship to China and Australia from time to time, and our UPS driver guided me through classifications and Schedule Bs and all kinds of import/export land minds.  My experience with UPS prior to that point was nothing but positive--drivers were always courteous, patient, and strived to please.

This impression lasted until about two years ago when I worked for Grainger in Oakland--our regular driver embodied what I knew of UPS, but substitute drivers were rude, late, unapologetic, and the local office’s leadership was more of that on a higher level.  I knew that when our regular driver went on vacation I would have to work longer hours--UPS was to make our pickup by 5:30 pm, but on substitute nights you could find me at work at 7 pm, hoping the twentieth call would get the driver to show up.

When I left my job in April of last year, I still had some items delivered from time to time, and our local UPS residential driver in San Francisco developed a trick over time that if he didn’t have everything delivered by his idea of quitting time then he would just slap a sticker on the main entry door to my apartment building that said I wasn’t home--even when I was.  If I would call about this, the driver would claim the doorbell didn’t work.  (Never in my entire residency in that apartment--four and a half years--did the doorbell not work.)  On days when UPS might have had more delivery staff cover for delivery spikes (for example, when the iPhone 4S came out), UPS leadership didn’t seem to allow for that from the buzz on the social networks; folks were told just to come to the UPS location and pick them up as opposed to making a delivery attempt at all.

I was thinking maybe this was a big city thing; surely UPS can’t have this bad of behavior EVERYWHERE.  This past week a friend of mine sent me a care package here to Carlsbad, California, to deliver on Monday.  When the box didn’t come Monday, I checked the website:  no apt/unit number on the box.  I called the UPS representative, Shawn, who told me that he would add the unit number and it would be delivered Tuesday.  Tuesday I called again in the morning when I saw on the website that it was still in limbo:  Brittany answered, and said it didn’t have an apt/unit number on it.  I explained that Shawn was supposed to add it last night.  Brittany added it (no apology added), and said it would be delivered later that day.  When 6 pm came and went and it was still in limbo, I called again, and Alice informed me that I would need to pick it up in San Marcos.  I said that Shawn and Brittany were supposed to correct the address and that picking up the package myself was unacceptable when two people had told me it would be delivered.  Alice put me on hold, came back, and said the local office would call me within an hour.

Twenty minutes later the hero, and apparently the only guy who can add an apartment number, called me and said that it would be delivered Wednesday.  Wednesday morning, the status changed to “Out for Delivery.”

Shawn?  Brittany?  Alice?  How hard was that?  I tell you, it was hard for me--not as much for not receiving my package for three days, but for the fact that my expertise is in call center customer service.  While I’m not working in that field, there are three people out there that are in those positions, and collecting a paycheck without doing their jobs.