We get that accidents happen. What we don’t get is why FedEx won’t tell this guy what happened to his laptop—why it went out for delivery, why it got returned back to the warehouse, why it was then reported damaged and undeliverable, and finally why the person he was sent to for help keeps stonewalling him by responding that his questions are irrelevant.
The only information Minoru has to go on to reconstruct the last, sad hours of his new laptop’s life are the status tracking updates:
- Apr 22, 2008 3:36 AM On FedEx vehicle for delivery
- Apr 22, 2008 5:24 PM At local FedEx facility
- Apr 23, 2008 1:10 PM Shipment exception / Unable to deliver
Wow. So now I’m really disturbed. I called FedEx, and the rep tells me that the package is damaged, and they will not deliver it. I demanded more information, and she switched me to her manager. Ceci Watts at Cincinnati call center was absolutely 0% helpful. You could tell she handled this type of calls frequently. All she could repeat was the same stupid line no matter what I said or asked. This isn’t word for word, but it’s pretty much how it went:
Me: So was the package on the truck at 3:36 AM or not?
Ceci: It was a miscellaneous scan.
Me: What does that mean?
Ceci: It was a miscellaneous scan.
Me: So what does it mean? “On FedEx vehicle for delivery” sounds like it at least made it to the truck for delivery. I would like to know if the package made it to the truck, and when and where the package was damaged.
Ceci: That’s irrelevant.
Me: It’s relevant because I need to know why I don’t have my package.
Ceci: It’s irrelevant.
Me: So was it a lie? Are you saying the status was a lie? It never made it to the truck?
Ceci: It was a miscellaneous scan. It doesn’t matter.
Me: This is ridiculous.
Ceci insisted that there’s nothing they can do for me, even though they destroyed my package. My laptop was fine until it entered that mysterious 14-hour window on April 22. It was in FedEx’s hands, and it somehow got damaged, and who knows where it is now. The only option for me, Ceci said, was to contact Apple. So even though it’s almost impossible for anybody else to be responsible for the matter, they’re refusing to correct the situation or be helpful about it in any way. Now I have to take my own time to contact Apple, Apple would have to investigate it, then send me another computer.
Minoru, here are email addresses for the executive team at FedEx—if you can’t get anyone on the customer service front line to talk to you like a human, perhaps it’s time to aim higher up in the company.
“FedEx destroyed my package, and lied about it” [Moochida]
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“Email Addresses For A FedEx EECB”
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Oh forgot another with Fedex. I work for a large Medical school / Research institution. My office alone does $5k to $10K a month in Fedex shipments, about 50% of them international since we manufacture products that are used in research labs around the world. For 10 years our daily pickup for our department has been in the same exact room at 4:30PM. Sometimes they don’t show up until later but usually they are on time. One day they just decide to not pick up our packages. We call them the next morning and they come right away. That afternoon they fail to pick them up again. We call again and they come out. They do this every couple of months with no explanation or they will take part of the packages but leave 3 or 4 behind. Most of our shipments on dry ice which has to be replaced when they do not get picked. Now we’ve gone to making Fedex reimburse us for the $50 to $60 of dry ice in each box when they don’t show up. We’ll see what kind of reimbursement the are manager can get us since they did it again this week.
@Nicholas_schaulsohn:
Too bad your post is completely wrong. I think you mean “FedEx Home Delivery.” Yes, it is outsourced but you can choose whether to send packages through FedEx Ground or Home Delivery; I usually send packages through Ground to avoid the contractors.
@Nighthawke: Oh good, I’m glad I’m not the only one that thought that
Obviously the laptop is now part of the Collective. Resistance is futile.
I know Apple used Fed-Ex but it kind of sucks that they have to replace it because of their mistake. Fed-Ex should have to pay Apple for the replacement unit.
my suggestion for most people, if they can, is ship your package as a Hold at Location with FedEx anyway
They will like you more and you can pick it up on your own time without the inconvenience of door tags and run arounds.
and btw its’ free.
@ecwis: both are contractors btw, Ground as a company. The drivers are not employee’s of FedEx they are all private contractors however if you do a quick Google search many of them are fighting this and requiring more money or less rules.
interesting stuff as i work for FedEx.
It usually works like this
Guy buys Route from FedEx, then buys Trucks and uniforms. Next he finds he needs more vehicle’s, so he higher his own workers to do the route. My route where i work has 7 Drivers all employed by One guy who owns this route. He makes 100′s of thousand of dollars (that he has to pay out to his employee’s and their vehicle’s)
They generally make like 1.00 a package and an extra .50 cents if its’ big
which is why ground usually hate s you if you have a bunch of large boxes and will treat them with utter disrespect.
So yea FedEx Ground regardless if it’s Ground or Home is Independent contractors.. just and FYI
@Skankingmike: Interesting argument as they are classified as contractors but Jimmy Hoffa says that FedEx has a lot of control over them. [www.fedexwatch.com]
Ha, I did not know that they’d treat large packages with utter disrespect. I have several large boxes (18x18x24, 30-40lbs) and I was going to call FedEx for a pickup soon actually. Maybe I’ll choose DHL (would that be any better?).
@ecwis:
they are contractors yes, but the definition of a contractor means they operate outside the company, however in FedEx Ground’s case they make them operate within FedEx company guidelines yet they pay no benefits nor do they cover insurance or other costs associated with being an employee thus they are contractors and own their own routes.
FedEx makes a killing off this concept, but many of the Ground Drivers if not all are suing FedEx to either become true contractors or Employee’s. And slowly their Unionizing.
as far as those boxes just pack them well with lots of stuffing and don’t make them too heavy for the box their in. If you have heavy crappy packed boxes (like 80%) of the crap i see your package is ever going to make it.
A good test for boxes is drop it from a height of 3meters (that’s what happens to all boxes fyi) if it crushes, repack it, if it’s fine, go.
Hey legal eagles: FedEx were still complete jerks to a customer. Whether or not the customer should ultimately deal with/blame Apple or FedEx doesn’t excuse the CSR’s poor service skills.
Why get caught up in this esoteric legal blame game? It’s reasonable to assume a shipping company should give you some details to confusing shipping terms, mistakes etc. to a customer who paid to have an item shipped.
I work for a company that ships stuff through FedEx on a daily basis. They won’t do much for the recipient, the sender usually has to file a claim for missing stuff. The procedure is for the recipient to call us, we ship out a new package at our expense, then we recoup our costs from FedEx.
But then we have pretty awesome customer service.