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| 5/23 |
| 2005/7/6-7 [Consumer/Shipping] UID:38442 Activity:low |
7/6 This is a response to the Fedex Ground guy, a response to KAIS
38390, 38366, and 38302:
http://csua.com/?entry=38302
http://csua.com/?entry=38366
http://csua.com/?entry=38390
I can't say much about Fedex Ground, but I have a friend who has a
another friend who works at UPS. He is a UPS delivery man based at
Oakland. I played golf with them one time, and he bragged about this
one time where he opened up this long box with Titleist printed on the
box. He opened it up, took the clubs, demo'ed them (which were used
so you can't tell who made scratches) for about a week, then finally
delivered them. From what he says, there isn't a lot of security
measures for these things. Pretty much everything's based on the
honor system.
\_ Your friend's friend is scum.
\_ I agree, and actually from what he describes, it happens ALL
THE TIME. They have this mentality where they think their
company will just cover up losses anyways, and at any rate
that's what insurance is for. Scums are everywhere, the
question is what can management do about it? Put a camera
in the warehouse and have someone monitor it 24x7? It's
a difficult problem.
\_ Criminals always rationalize their behaviour by claiming
that "everyone does it." Everyone does not do it. Most
FedEx and UPS guys are honest. How do I know? I have
shipped at least hundred things via them and never had
a problem. If they had major problems with losses, they
would go out of business quickly.
\_ I've heard stories that imply that theft prevetion at
UPS is a pretty major effort. Fake packages/tons of
cameras/stings/etc. I suspect FedEx non ground is the
same way.
\_ Part of the problem with RPS (now FedEx Ground) is
that their drivers are independent contractors who
are paid as long as the package moves from point A
to point B (which might both be regional shipping
centers) and leaves their truck.
\_ FedEx Air is not that reliable either. I once sent out a
time-senstive document using 2nd day air, it took them 30+
days to deliver it. I applied for a refund which they never
gave me. -tien |
| 5/23 |
|
| csua.com/?entry=38302 I ordered a brand new dual G5 from Apple which just vanished into thin air after leaving a Sacramento facility the evening before it was supposed to arrive. So far FedEx Ground seems to have no idea what happened to it, and all they do when I call customer service is tell me they are putting a "tracer" on it and that they will "call back" (which never actually happens). Basically I'm out $2400 and my computer has vanished into thin air. I've heard that FedEx Ground's claim process takes 4-6 *weeks*. Printout and also save all screenshots/webpages of apple and fedex pages. If no results in reasonable time, also consider cancelling charges on your credit card after consulting/informing apple. You shouldn't be the one filing a claim with FedEx because you didn't ship that package. Call Apple, tell them you didn't receive your computer, point out that the company they contracted with to deliver it to you seems to have misplaced it, and suggest that Apple try it again (perhaps with a different shipper). If Apple wants to delay shipping a replacement system while they wait for FedEx's investigation, then insist that they refund your money until either the original system is found or a new one is shipped to replace the lost shipment. BTW, any reason you picked ground shipping for a g5 vs the other shipping options (apple has given me free non-ground shipping on all my orders, including for my g5)? The "free shipping" option simply said "FedEx," as far as I can recall. The other choice was "expedited," but since I was adding memory and a hard drive along with other things (thus delaying the ship time), that seemed unnecessary. Since today is Monday, I'm trying to get the ball rolling on the above suggestions. Apparently since this computer was purchased through the employee purchase program (long story), the Apple store customer service people won't even talk to me. Meanwhile, FedEx has absolutely no clue where the package went, although they have a "trace agent" in Pittsburgh "looking into" it. According to him, if the package was put on the wrong truck it could literally be on its way to anywhere. Fuck FedEx Ground - they have permanently lost my business. Oddly enough I *was* able to deal with an EPP support guy on Friday, but now that route is apparently closed to me. Don't tell them it was EPP unless there's a specific EPP complaint group you can talk to. I understand why you're upset with Fedex, IMO you should be just as upset with Apple and crawl all over them. They're the ones who have your money but didn't deliver your product. Fedex is just some middleman and not as important IMO \_ Well, I started from scratch with Apple and yelled a lot, which seemed to get me further. They have now opened their own investigation into the matter, and say that they should be contacting me within 3 days. As soon as they consider the shipment lost, they will overnight me a replacement. In the meantime, I would urge anyone shipping via ground to avoid FedEx ground. Their overnight service seems outstanding, but apparently the ground service was originally a company called "RPS" that FedEx bought and rebranded. I've looked around and talked to people about them and have heard many horror stories like this, all involving mysteriously vanishing shipments. Today I got to hear a FedEx person rant about how much time she spends tracking down the packages that Kinko's loses. |
| csua.com/?entry=38366 No note from FedEx, no signature asked for, no evidence that the package was actually delivered in their tracking system. The box seemed a bit battered and the packing list was missing, but otherwise everything seems totally ok. I'd still ask Apple for a copy of the packing slip, check serial numbers, but careful when you do this so as not to let them know you actually received it. |
| csua.com/?entry=38390 I've been using USPS for packages but lately noticed that vendors usually use UPS which is cheaper. However, I also noticed that when I (non-vendor) use UPS, I get charged 20-50% more than vendor rates, so the savings isn't all that great. I have a personal FedEx account that I use for larger pkgs b/c FedEx generally has better rates and faster service for larger pkgs. I used FedEx ground once and it worked perfectly for me. YMMV I wouldn't ship anything very valuable via FedEx ground. com This site is protected by copyright and trade mark laws under US and Inte rnational law. |