Letter to UPS

A letter I just sent off to UPS:

I am extremely dissatisfied with a recent shipping experience I had with UPS.

On 5 January 2010 I shipped 2 packages from my vacation location (Oak Ridge, TN) to my residence in Maryland. On Friday, January 8, I came home from work to find an InfoNotice on my apartment door. It said that there had been an attempt to deliver 2 packages, and another attempt would be made on Monday. As I would not be home then, either (your delivery methods presuppose that every household has a non-working adult it it, which is outdated), I went online to have the packages held at the local UPS center. I received confirmation that the packages would be available from Tuesday, January 12, for one week.

On Tuesday after work I went to the deliver center (6335 Sweitzer Rd) and was informed that one package was there, but that the other had been returned to the shipper, as three attempts had been made to deliver it.

I simply cannot understand why, if one InfoNotice controls multiple packages, is one request not enough to hold all packages on that notice? When I called the facility, I was informed that I must submit a separate request for every package on an InfoNotice; your website, however, did not so inform me. Nor were the tracking numbers on the InfoNotice or on the form for having packages held, though I concede they were available elsewhere on your website.

Not one person I spoke to could even attempt to explain this to me. Instead, they simply, albeit politely, told me what I should have done, without being able to tell me how I should have known what to do before I spoke with them. If the InfoNotice is not sufficient to control all the packages under it, if recipients are supposed to treat each package separately though each has the same number, I believe your website should say so, clearly and unambiguously. “There are two packages in this shipment; would you like to pick up both? If so, fill out another form” would suffice. As it is, I was misled into believing that both packages would be held.

I also am dissatified with having received only one InfoNotice from three delivery attempts. Had I received a notice from the attempt to redeliver, this would not have happened.

I am extremely dissatisfied with the service I have received. As a recipient, I have always found your refusal to deliver at times when I am not at work to be frustrating, but heretofore I have been able to get my packages by having them held. As a shipper, I am angered that I will have to pay you twice in order to have my package delivered.

I fully expect to get a form letter thanking me for contacting - possibly even for using - UPS. My father has told me that he'll be reshipping the package tomorrow. We'll see how it all works out.

But UPS's outdated delivery policy, coupled with their utter disregard for the recipient - who, after all, is not their customer - rankles. If FedEx were any better (they're not, in fact they're arguably worse, since their pick-up location closes at an incredible 4:30) I'd use them. As it is, I guess I'm back to USPS. At least they come around on Saturday without charging extra like FedEx (UPS? Saturday? Hah!) does.