Fedex is still better than DHL which lost my laptop because "the truck was stolen". Their information was inconsistent. I was forced to have Dell send out a new one.

FedEx is good for most things...I've had only a problem or two in twenty years - but when they smashed my Titanium PowerBook G4, it took three months and many phonecalls to get the $500.00 I'd declared the value of the shipment to be.

Shipping companies won't deal with the recipient. On Monday I saw that UPS claimed to have delivered a package from Amazon to my front door at 2:00. When I got home at 5:30 there was no package. I called them and they made me check the back of my house and with my neighbors before they would finally tell me there was nothing they could do because I wasn't their customer. They said the complaint had to come from Amazon. Luckily Amazon has great customer service so I reached someone immediately and they issued me a refund the next day because they no longer had the item in stock to replace it.

Hopefully Apple will be as good to you as Amazon was to me.

I had some problems with FedEx this past week; however, the times when I called and got escalated to a manager, the manager was actually very pleasant and helpful. I think Ceci is just a bad egg.

this actually sounds very typical of shipping problems from fedex or UPS. the shipper wont usually talk or discuss what happened to the shippee. they will refer them back to the shipper to work out the problem. as the shipper is the one responsible and files claims with fedex, etc.

Why is Minoru hassling FedEx? It really is irrelevant why or how the package was damaged or lost or whatever. I "demanded" more information. Yeah, because that information would have helped him how?

Minoru's beef is with Apple. It was Apple that was supposed to get him that MacBook and if it failed to arrive it's Apple's fault. Minoru needs to stop wasting his and FedEx's time and get on the horn to Apple.

This isn't not a serious issue, yet. The delay is fustrating, and the refusal of the CSR to fess up in inexcusable. But FedEx is dealing with the situation appropriately.

Here's what happened. Somewhere along the line your package got trashed. Maybe by the driver, or maybe the driver just spotted it. Rather than deliver it and make your deal with Apple for the warranty, they have returned it to Apple; probably with an insurance payout. Apple should be issuing you a refund or sending you a new laptop very soon. You need to work with Apple on this.

Call Apple.

I had a Bath and Body Works delivery sent Fedex that mystically disapppeared from their system, truck, whatever. One call to B&BW had the whole order replaced. The first order showed up about a month later.

Hahaha, Chris left out the last of the guy's post. It's hilarious:

"I've also read some horror stories about FedEx employees and contractors. Drivers are often too lazy to deliver all the packages they're supposed to, so they make up excuses and fake status updates or purposely leave packages on the dock. Based on this experience, I have to conclude that the status updates are meaningless until you actually get your package in your hands. "On vehicle" might as well read "I fucked your mother," because they could do whatever the fuck and get away with it. I have no reason to believe that it's actually damaged. I'm reeeaaally getting pissed off now, thinking about a crooked FedEx employee or contractor probably selling my laptop on eBay. I HATE HATE HATE FEDEX! Someday, if I ever have my chance, I will take a big, runny, stanky shit in their truck, I swear."

i hope he includes that in his EECB.

I've always gotten great service from Fedex, so this kind of suprises me. The only thing I can think of is that it really was lost (i.e. they have exactly as much info as you do, so really can't help you.) and they've already reported that to apple, so she really can't help you get another laptop any further, it's up to Apple to ship again... very strange that she wouldn't just explain that though, so who knows.

For fear of litigation, many companies are averse to admitting any fault. Ceci didn't want to give you any more information than you already have, to avoid it being used against them in a lawsuit.

And as other posters have said, it's still an issue between Apple and FedEx. It was never at any point 'your laptop'.

The part of this logic that doesn't make sense is that they required you to contact Apple.

My suggestion. Contact Apple and just tell them you didn't get your computer. Let them track it down and resolve it.

@NeroDiavolo: FedEx online claimed that my package had been delivered to my doorstep, despite the fact that I had been home the entire day, and never once received a knock at the door or a FedEx truck anywhere near my area. I called their 800 # immediately, they said they would put in a report and maybe get back to me in a week or so. I found the number of the local office (a little bit of social engineering as it wasn't listed anywhere) and called them right afterwards. They got in touch with the truck driver who continued to claim that the package was left at my doorstep. Early the next morning I was out at my car (apartment complex - had to park far away) and see a FedEx van with a man hurrying quietly up my steps, dropping the package off, and hurrying back to the van. Boy did he speed off quick. Made me sick.

@Black Bellamy: Exactly, if you didn't get your MacBook - cancel/chargeback the payment, call Apple and give them shit...

Ceci Watts of Borg.

Your shipment and your money is irrelevant. Prepare to be scanned as miscellaneous and assimilated.

I've never had anything but bad luck with Fedex. A part of an outfit for my brother's wedding was to be delivered the day before we were set to go out of town for the wedding. By 6pm it hadn't arrived, so I called and was told that the driver "ran out of time" and the package would be delivered the next day. When I stated how that wasn't acceptable, they told me too bad. I finally spoke to a manager who agreed it would be there at 7am the morning we were leaving. It showed up at 8:15 - 15 minutes before we had to leave the house.

Another time, I had to return a defective printer under warranty. Brother arranged Fedex pick-up and Fedex never arrived. Took them two days to finally show up. What was worse was that another Fedex driver showed up in the meantime with a package for me (I work from home) and he couldn't take this package even though he works in the same location.

The third time happened recently. I was going out of town and ordered a new cell phone rush delivery that was to be delivered two days before I was supposed to leave. It was on the truck for delivery and never arrived. The driver first claimed it was delivered to my house. I pointed out that I was home all day and was there when I signed for work packages so why wasn't it with that shipment. The next line was that they'd tracked it and it was delivered to a Stone Ridge in another town instead of Stone Bridge in my town.

After the driver was questioned, he admitted he hadn't gotten a signature and had gone to the wrong area, but he remembered where he'd left the package. The homeowner says he never received anything mistakenly from Fedex. I was out the cell phone for my trip and someone, somewhere got a free phone out of the deal. Eventually, I did get my replacement, but Fedex refused to refund the shipping charge.

@Murph1908: It became his laptop as soon as he paid for it.

I generally like FedEx, but I they once misdelivered a laptop from Dell. They supposedly went to pick it back up, but it was gone.

Dell called FedEx, it was very quick, and created a replacement order right away.

I don't know about Apple, but Dell only ships with the included in the cost of shipping $100 in declared value, and eats the rest of the loss.

Odd. I sent a laptop back to s student after repair, it arrived with the box torn open and the laptop running inside... The mother claimed she herd a THUD and when she got to the door the FedEx truck was already around the corner.

I've seen too many "delivery exceptions" to ever trust UPS/FedEx/USPS with anything of importance.

Really? You tried to deliver it? Funny, I've been home all day.

They even send a Parcel Ninja to sneak to your front door, leave that damn exception sticker, and slip off without knocking.

I love the convenience of buying online, but I hate the 3-7 business days of (warranted) paranoia that I'm then inflicted with until the package arrives.

Shipping companies only talk to the sender. They seem to reserve all their loathing for the recipient.

@Buran: Except, it didn't. And honestly, that's a good thing here, because he would be on the hook for the loss and would have to deal with FedEx. As it is, Apple is still the owner of the laptop and bears the burden of the loss.

Check out UCC § 2-401(2)(b).

@Jmatthew: How good or bad your FedEx/UPS/DHL/USPS service is depends entirely on who's working on your route.

The UPS people on my route are douchebags and frequently lie about making delivery attempts. One even went as far as to lie that "we had moved" one time he felt too lazy to come and ring the damn doorbell.

FedEx people on my route rock. The guys who drive the truck on my route are friendly, courteous and professional.

@Buran: "It became his laptop as soon as he paid for it."

Actually no. It only becomes his if he actually takes posession of it.

When he paid for it he wasn't paying for any particular laptop - it might not have even existed at that point. What he was paying for was to cement a contract that sometime in the future Apple would deliver to him a laptop, upon which time he would take posession.

dont do a charge back

apple will send you a replacement.

@sprocket79: Amazon is great like that. I ordered $130 worth of books for my company when I worked in Brooklyn and the UPS status was "delivered at 1:30 p.m." There were no packages and every single person in my company was in the office at 1:30 because we were having our weekly meeting. So it's not like they knocked and no one answered. Amazon refunded our money and then later sent out the books again when they were restocked with absolutely no problems.

As I speak I'm on the phone with FedEx becuase they were supposed to deliver a package to me this morning, yet it was mysteriously refused. Which is total BS, they just didnt deliver it. Now I'm in phone hold hell.

Regarding your situation, if you buy something from Apple and Apple has FedEx Deliver it, then this becomes Apples problem as FedEx is acting as an agent on behalf of Apple.

...UPDATE...

Captin's Log, Stardate...

now I've been transfered to the Customer Advocate Team. I always question the valility of a team who's supposed to help me when they represent the exact people who I'm mad at.

She's quite appologetic but for some reason I dont belive she has the power to solve my problem.

I will think positive though

@Buran: wrong. it becomes his when he signs off on the delivery from the shipping company. until then it's between apple and fedex in this case.

Apple Store customer support will take care of it if it was a new order or if it was warranty work Apple Care will deal with it.

For future reference a good option for help at Fedex is the CAT or Customer Advocacy Team. Call the main 800 number and ask to be transfered to the Customer Advocacy Team. If they ask for your case number tell them you misplaced it. CAT will work with you with a personal rep to help resolve your issue.

same thing happened with my first cable descrambler. i mean cable box. ups said it was missing from the box. im sure the driver has a nice new descrambler. i mean cable box.

About 10 years ago, I was waiting for UPS to delivery a CPU to my house. I heard the doorbell ring, and hopped downstairs to answer the door. When I opened the door, I saw a yellow tag, and saw/heard the UPS truck gunning it down my street.

An hour later, my neighbor (who I had NEVER met) brought over a package that UPS had dropped on his front step...

Despite the yellow tag on the door, ups.com showed it as shipped to me!

@Buran:
No. He was due a laptop from Apple when he paid for it. The laptop on the truck, though intended for him, never made it to his possession.

There's a reason the phrase 'possession is 9/10th of the law' exists.

I'm not saying that this happened, but there is a considerable amount of product that 'falls off the truck' if you are regularly dealing with really desirable products, like laptops or iPods. FedEx and other shippers deal with internal theft on a regular basis, which they compensate the shipper for. But since their entire arrangement is with the shipper, the recipient can get treated like a minor nuisance in their mechanism for generating profit.

@Buran: You are not the owner of merchandise until you are your agent receive the property.

I.E if you buy a something doday and receive it in a month, but between then and now the sales tax goes up...well, you're paying the new tax because the law says it's not you're property until you receive it and that is when a transaction is complete.

You should be ashamed of your star. j/k.

@AustinTXProgrammer:

"I don't know about Apple, but Dell only ships with the included in the cost of shipping $100 in declared value, and eats the rest of the loss."

This is incorrect. FedEx's insurance policy is terrible for larger customers, so Dell (and many other large-scale producers) goes with no insurance from FedEx (which gives a base 100$) and they have a private insurance company handling their affairs. They usually place the value of the package in their shipment notes, which is passed on to the 3rd party insurer.

UPDATE!

I just got done talking with a Debbie Rodriguize (slaughtered the spelling, sweet) and since I'm leaving in 45 minutes and wont be in tomorrow, she's going to have it priority overnighted to my house tomorrow morning before I leave for vacation.

I'm filled with delight at the moment.

Several years ago, UPS lost an overnight shippment from my health insurer's mail order pharmacy. The web site indicated the package was left by my garage. Unfortunately I don't have a garage anywhere on my property. I called the mail order pharmacy and they tried to give me that "check with your neighbors" crap. No way, I told them. It is their job to get the delivery to me, and as the UPS website clearly indicated that it was left somewhere that could not have been my property, it was their problem. They decided to resend a new shipment, at their expense. They told me I would have to be home to receive and sign for it. I stayed home on delivery day, and just by chance, I saw the UPS guy putting the package in my road side mail box and driving off. So much for having to sign, let alone having it delivered to my front door which is what they are required to do.

@Wormfather:

Be sure to let us know if everything turns out as advertised. So far, you still don't have the package in hand.

Am I the only one here who sees nothing wrong with what FedEx did?

First, Minoru needs to realize that he's NOT FedEx's customer in this transaction. He's paid no money to FedEx, Apple has. So to expect any satisfaction from FedEx is unreasonable.

Second, FedEx did you a FAVOR by not delivering the laptop. They basically admitted fault, and returned the laptop for you (something you would have had to have done if you received the busted package, and then you would have had to deal with Apple).

You'll get your laptop, soon enough. Once Apple has it back and the paperwork completed, they will probably overnight express it to you and send an Apple Store coupon.

Lighten up. If this was so time sensitive that you can't wait a few extra days then go to an Apple Store in person.

@Wormfather:

"I.E if you buy a something doday and receive it in a month, but between then and now the sales tax goes up...well, you're paying the new tax because the law says it's not you're property until you receive it and that is when a transaction is complete."

What? Sales tax is applied based on when and where money is exchanged. You're example makes no sense.

@jtkooch: I was about to write EXACTLY what you said.

Minoru hasn't paid FedEx a dime, and they owe him precisely nothing.

He should simply call Apple say "your delivery contractor didn't deliver my laptop, WTF?" and put the onus on Apple to deliver a new one, toot-sweet. They will, without even thinking about it, because there's undoubtedly a process for dealing with busted/lost/misrouted/stolen shipments already.

While the OP's business may not have been with FedEx, doesn't the OP deserve an explanation?
"The package was set to be delivered, was damaged and had to be returned to Apple for a replacement."

I don't think that's entirely too much to ask as someone waiting for a package. Instead the OP was completely stonewalled. Actual customer or not, a simple answer is just run of the mill (one would hope) customer service.

In other news, there's a FedEx driver that's enjoying a shiny new MacBook Pro.

Fedex is the ABSOLUTE WORST.

Don't even get me started on fedex ground. Wondering where your fedex ground package is? Don't bother, fedex has no idea because fedex ground is outsourced to local delivery companies that have no actual contact with fedex customer service.

The whole company is a joke.

UPS > DHL > Messenger Pigeon > Fedex

Ask the douchebag how much the tires on fedex trucks cost.

Assure him that the answer to that question IS relevant.

I wrote a blog post about my FedEx experience. This is part of it:

I was expecting a Fed-Ex package that was already a day late due to weather problems. They were required to deliver it by 3pm.At 3:06 I got an e-mail that they had delivered it at 2:59. Uh. Nope.

He pulled up as I was calling FedEx, and I confronted the guy. He didn't want to get in trouble for being late so he said it was delivered when it wasn't.

I could have gotten the guy in trouble, but I decided against it. He admitted it, and took responsibility.

I realized that our client was getting their money refunded anyway. I realized that this guy could get fired. I realized that my next package could get accidentally "lost" if I made an enemy.

Still, it was dead wrong.

UPS in my area is by far the worst. I refuse to use them if at all possible because they have lost packages, refused to deliver (I took a day off from work to catch an important package. I sat on the couch, staring at the door for the entire day. No one ever knocked, no note, but UPS said that I wasn't home.)

FedEx is easily the better of the two.

Thanks to Consumerist for posting my story. Those of you who say that I should just contact Apple -- I have, and there's still no resolution. Apple promised to contact me to let me know what will happen, and it's been about 30 hours since my first contact, and about 5 hours since my second.

Those who say that FedEx is not at fault... I see where you're coming from, but as a company that makes money by getting packages from point A to point B, they have clearly failed in this case, so how can I not fault them? I was supposed to have something, and they failed to give it to me. Also, I suspected that the package wasn't just "damaged" as they said, so I asked for more info to see if I could get to the truth at all. If it turned out that someone at FedEx stole the package, is it still Apple's fault?

In any case, complaining to Apple is a good thing, as cases like this -- if there's enough -- should impact their consideration for who to partner with.