Why are FedEx so bad?

The Lounge General Discussion
#21

yeah that’s my favorite one. when they delivered my Buchla Easel it was at the local sorting facility two days early and I got all giddy to get it. then the tracking updated to something like “delivery not due” and it sat there for two days. :rage:

when I shipped a Jupiter 4 last fall, I did it all online and dropped it off at FedEx Office. when the driver picked it up, he used the wrong code (or something) and it was marked as delivered. of course, the buyer and I both start freaking out. the thing was basically lost, and un-trackable from our end. fortunately FedEx customer service was great (I think because of the insured value) and they helped figure out what went wrong, issued a new label, tracking data, etc.

generally during the pandemic all three have been pretty good. I like that FedEx will pick up shipments from my front porch for free. UPS charges $11 for this. USPS it depends on your carrier; they are supposed to pick it up, but some don’t (ours doesn’t). and these days the overnight drop off for packages is completely full. for signature required stuff, all three have done just a “gotta verify you’re here, I’ll sign for you” which is fine by me. though FedEx did make me physically sign once.

#22

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#23

Oh, so this has happened before. I like to think the FedEx dude whispered from his truck when “attempting” to deliver my Dj70.

#24

Got to know our FedEx driver pretty good, he’s awesome. The only thing I have to say nice about the company. Have had great luck with UPS though when shipping eBay.

#25

It does. depends on where you live, access and number of delivs they have to that area.

In LA and SF I always got stuff on time or early, which was weird. And annoying if you needed to be home to sign.

But since I’ve moved to Vancouver, you can expect it to be at least 3 days late. To possibly two weeks. So why pay the extra for fast shipping right?

They can be awesome and they can be absolute shit. I think the problem is…they just can. They are independent. I find the postal service is actually better than the express shippers are now. EXCEPT in Canada. I would say probably THE WORST postal service on the planet. In the US, express two day shipping I just that. Sometimes even in ONE day. No idea how they pull that off. In Canada two day express shipping is more like 10-17 days. Fuck off.

Let’s also keep in mind that, right now, corona is fucking shit up across the board. So be patient with packages and nice to the delivery guys. They have more chance getting sick than us stay at home folks.

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#26

FedEx freaking sucks! Wanna talk to a person? Hell no, just a bunch of automated useless choices. I pressed 0 so many times I pissed off the automated voice. Have my package 30 minutes from my house, even got the confirmation text & email last night, delivery 9n 12/1 by 8am. Log in today to see if there’s a time for delivery, now my package is being rerouted to Maryland to the address change I requested 3 days ago when it was NJ… now I’m trying to call that useless 800 number to see if they will stop the shipment & let me pick it up and of course no matter what I enter all I get is automated messages. Even though all of this started off as Verizon fault, fed ex isn’t doing much better. So now, when it gets delivered to Maryland, ny husband gets to mail my damn package back to me in NC. Stupid, right!!! I only use UPS or USPS when given a choice!

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#27

…let’s have a second of silence for all those delivery people…
…half the planet is waiting for delivery these days…
…and half of those gave their money to jeff…

last time i was visiting a friend for the first time at his place, i was going nuts in front of that doorbell stack, trying hard to find his name somewhere on there to ring his bell…and had this moment of switching perspective, stating that i would go crazy within a second if i had to deliver any post or package right now and here…puh, what a nightmare…

and i have seen so many moments of stressed out delivery staff, where loads of packages had to be adressed right, in time…and packages where just falling down to the ground…

always make sure, stuff u send out is packed properly AND covered by some insurance…
and order whatever ur x mas whishes might be, as soon as u can…

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#28

Heh, saw a video along these lines for UK delivery services. Different company names but I’m sure the message is universal :wink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L9ML_WDawE

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#29

…that were all amazon orders… :wink:

…if ur waiting for delivery, it’s also a good thing to leave a note where to drop that package in the neighborhood, in case ur not at home all the time…

even the black sheeps, working for one of all these delivery services, love to get rid of their loads properly and successfully…they only become black sheeps, if they experience too often, that they can’t deliver and have to get it back to some other collection spot…again…and therefor have to leave an informing message…again…

we all love to get stuff done for real, don’t we…

#30

This in Portland, OR as well. UPS, USPS, totally fine. FedEx, total shitshow. Lies about me not being there, so I started delivering to work. So they lie about the business being closed when we were open. Caught them there. Now they just mark it delivered when it’s not and show up whenever they feel like it, sometimes days after the estimated delivery date.

FedEx is absolutely terrible and it’s hard for me to understand why they still exist at all.

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#31

Just saw my fedex package that was scheduled for today was delayed and is now pending delivery. Very timely to see this thread bumped!

#32

I have had problems with all of them here in Kansas. It’s a crap shoot. I recently had UPS drive up my driveway, sit in the truck and then suddenly drive away. I looked at the tracking and it said “delayed for weather”. What the ever loving shit?

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#34

I can’t say why, but can confirm that USPS and UPS have been generally good, with small and understandable delays, while FedEx ground has been absolutely awful in nearly every case.

FedEx air seems OK, but FedEx overall seems like a sinking ship, so why risk it?

If I had to guess, newer hungrier logistics companies that don’t really ship retail - like OnTrac - are eating FedEx’ lunch and they can’t or won’t compete.

#35

In my personal life I only ship via USPS. And on the receiving end it is by far my favorite amongst the usual suspects. Fedex is a distant second place. I would murder UPS if I could.

I also ship books and art for a living. At work we focus on USPS and use Fedex mainly for international and a few fast deliveries. It’s not a popular option domestically. We don’t do anything with UPS. We used to. Now we don’t. It’s because UPS sucks and there’s not enough bits and bytes on the whole internet to contain a detailed description of why.

DHL rules. I wish every package I got was shipped through them and I kinda wish we had more reason to deal with them at work.

And now you’ve read the million dollar opinions of a minimum wage man :0)

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#36

My only complaint with USPS is that now they want $20 for six months of change-of-address mail forwarding, and won’t say how long the “free” service lasts. And 99% of my paper mail is spam. So they could be charging the spammers for it.

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#37

I live in a small town and at the end of last year the contractors literally abandoned our local fedex facility. So if something got shipped to me fedex it could take over a month for it to get here. And a lot of companies, like perfect circuit, refused to ship any other way. It was pretty shit.

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#38

Fun fact. UPS is a union company. Every delivery driver is paid a union wage from the company. FedEX is not. Their drivers are “independent contractors” who are their “own bosses” aka they observe all the cost while the company reaps the profits. This is also how a lot of those Amazon delivery trucks operate. If i have the option i always click for USPS. it’s always cheaper and typically gets there earlier then projected.

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#39

Yep, amazon doesn’t employ drivers.

I’ve had 3 FedEx overnight shipments recently and none arrived on time. They are totally incompetent.

UPS is supposed to be picking up an Amazon return for me (because Amazon won’t send me a label to return it myself for some reason, system call) and they claim they attempted once and never bothered again. They are supposed to make 3 attempts and then leave the label for you. Amazon has had to initiate a new return to hopefully get the driver to do the pickup.

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#40

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#41

I’m having a lot of trouble with DHL in the UK at the moment. I’m returning a Nord drum back to Thomann in Germany with the returns label they e-mailed to me, you’d think it would be a straightforward process, right? I took it to a local collection point and checked online to monitor tracking but after 24 hours of the package had not appearing in the tracking system I phoned the collection point who told me to collect my parcel as DHL would not accept it, no explanation as to why. I went and collect it and then found another collection point in town. left the parcel there, went home, checked DHL tracking and it was there on the system, great. Next day check tracking and it’s still at the collection point waiting for pick up, several more days go by, still no pick up. I call Thomann to tell them there is a problem and I email DHL 3 times in a week detailing the issue. DHL never replied to my emails and it’s impossible to get a human being on the phone. I contacted Thomann again couplwe of days later who told me not to worry and that they were monitoring the situation. Thomann later said that due to the unusual circumstances they would refund me even though they still haven’t got their parcel back. It’s now 16 days since I dropped the parcel off and DHL still haven’t collected.

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