Yer lucky. Fed-ex doesn't even bother to ring my apartment number. They just leave the door sticky downstairs at the entrance to the building. I have to go pick up the packages personally.

A lot of delivery companies won't leave boxes at apartment buildings, and can't seem to figure out how "complicated" buzzer systems work. What I always do is order the package delivered to my nearest Fedex/Kinkos, DHL, etc., and have them hold the package for pickup. That way, even if it's not coming right to your door, you aren't always chasing your packages down.

About the only time I was ever home to sign for something is in college. Nowadays, I get the notices on my door, and signing it and leaving it out won't work, since they almost always require a signature. So I have to go to the place after work and pick it up. It's why I'm happy when people send things with the postal service instead of FedEx.

I have the exact same problem, but with UPS. Nothing could compel them to leave the package even if I buzzed them in (Condo units.) I have switched to FedEx and haven't had any problems. It really seems to be up to the mercy of the individual driver, because I experienced the same lack of concern complaining all the way up to a district manager.

Switch to a different carrier and you'll get a different driver!

Advice for people who live in large apartment buildings:

If your order allows for printable delivery instructions, THIS IS WHAT YOU USE IT FOR. If you say "Leave package in hallway/infront of apartment door/whatever," it will be printed right on the delivery label, impossible to miss. If this option isn't available on your order form, immediately contact customer service after your order is placed and make arrangements to include the information.

I live in a 2-unit converted garage apartment behind a stand-alone house. My address is a "1/2" that's not immediately visible from the street. I can't even begin to describe the pain I've felt when it comes to courier delivery, but printable delivery instructions have saved the day many times.

You know, I'm all for equal rights, but that doesn't extend to hiring brain-damaged people to do jobs that involve a small amount of thinking, i.e., reading a note and making a decision to leave a package. Of course, if you stopped people from hiring idiots, 90% of the population would be unemployed.

Sounds like an entirely inept delivery hub. I've had UPS, DHL, and the USPS miss me at my apartment. Each time, they either leave the package with the leasing office, or bring it back to the station, where I must pick it up. I'm not sure if my experiences are atypical, but they're certainly logical.

FedEx blows chunks! I ordered 1000 envelopes and they were sent to me via FedEx Ground Service on a Tuesday(delivers mon-friday only). Comes friday and don't get my package so I figure I'll get it on monday. Comes Monday and it was not delivered so I check the status online and it says that it was delivered on saturday.
I call FedEx and the seller to confirm the shipping service used and it was Ground. FedEx could not tell me why a ground package was delivered on a saturday and they could not explain it nor did they cared, the "System" said delivered and according to them it was delivered. Will never use FEDEX again.

Here's the problem: FedEx has no incentive to listen to you, because you're not their direct customer here. The company who you ordered the shoes from is.

I think at this point it would be a good idea to contact the company you ordered the shoes from and tell them the story you told Consumerist about FedEx. I think a little pressure from the company, who presumably spends $$$ on FedEx shipping, will go a long way in getting FedEx to do something about the problem.

@chumia40: FedEx Ground/Home Delivery in particular blows. They do deliveries (and are open) Tue-Sat, which explains the Saturday delivery date you were given.

Here's the reason you have so many problems with FedEx: anything shipped ground is delivered by subcontractors and they don't have good communication with them or control over them. Yes, they drive FedEx trucks and wear FedEx uniforms but they aren't FedEx employees. Overnight service is a whole different delivery system. They don't even look at the pickup requests if it's a regular stop, they just look at the packages that are sitting there.

I had trouble getting FedEx to pick up a package until I filed a complaint--which I had to insist on doing, they sure didn't want me to. After I filed the complaint someone called for complaint resolution and I said that they just needed to pick up the package and not deliberately damage it as retaliation for me complaining and that would resolve the complaint. Is that asking too much? Me begging them to do business with them? [It was not my choice to use FedEx, the company I was shipping to was paying for it.]

The complaint person tried to say that the ground guy said the package was overnight which I told them was impossible for him to say since he never saw it in the first place! When I told him that he just shut up.

Bottom line, UPS or USPS may be better and certainly the UPS guys are cuter than the FedEx guys, at least where I live.

Fedex has become quite unreliable lately. I order a large amount of computer hardware for work. One day I ordered a Sony all in one dekstop and it was shipped Fedex Ground for some reason. Well delivery day comes and goes and then we get to checking and the last scan was at a hub in the same state I am in about 200 miles away when it was leaving the hub. This scan was 5 days prior and to this day Fedex has not been able to tell us what happened to the package or where it was headed when it was scanned as leaving the hub. They even admitted themselves they they thought I was stolen internally.

i've switched to having them deliver things to the place where i work. there's always someone at the front desk who will sign for it, or call me if they don't want to sign themselves.

it's much easier than driving the 30 miles (each way) to the UPS hub on my lunch break.

A few years ago I had a similar experience with UPS. I kept calling about my package and they would tell me that no one was home to accept the package, fine that's acceptable except that I WAS home on all occasions and the delivery guy was a no show. I even left my door wide open one day to give a clear indication that someone was indeed inside the house and I still got nothing. After a few more calls (and days) I get a knock on my back door and it's the delivery guy. ... I was set to explode (and looked forward to it)when I opened the door, I noticed that the delivery guy was an old friend!

He said it was his 1st week doing delivery's and he couldn't find my house. What was I to say? I let him slide. In retrospect it was kinda funny, but I felt robbed of my anger.

I recently moved out of a townhouse where the UPS guy never even left a slip. The times when I was home, he would ring the bell once and would give me about 5 seconds before he would start to walk away.

The guy at my new house is great. Leaves slips, waits about a minute after ringing the bell twice, makes sure the packages he leaves aren't sitting in the rain.

I guess it's all luck. I would get good UPS service at the townhouse when the regular guy was on vacation.

Consider yourselves lucky that they even actually STOP at your door. :0 I've wathed Fedex slow down by my house and throw packages at the porch without actually stopping.

*sigh*

I have noticed over time that businesses seem to get better shipping treatment than residential addresses. If a package is damaged they stand there while i'm open it up at work and make sure it's all there, as opposed to at home they quietly set it on the porch and tip toe away without a word. Less packages seem to get lost when you're a business and the overall courtesey level is higher. This goes for all 3 main courier services- UPS, DHL and Fedex. I try and stick to USPS at home since they treat residential customers the best compared to the three monoliths. Even if I leave some cryptic instructions like "hop over to the garage, place the package in the chest in the bck of the garage and skip back to your car" the postman is only too happy to oblidge, whereas UPS especially seems to just decide to throw my box in a puddle.

[/slight dramatization]

"(the other operators said they could only send electronic notices)"

This is not true. They can and will connect you to your local depot if you make enough of a big stink.

The electronic notices do absolutely nothing. Nothing. In situations like these, you have to get a human being in the depot who will talk to the driver.

@blackmage439: Yeah it definately sounds like a "special" hub. My local UPS one was awsome with the help when I had to sign for my 360. They patched me through to the driver's cell and we worked out a pick up cause he would not be back at distro(which was about 40 minutes away) for a couple hours but was still in my area. So we met in my tattoo parlor's parking lot.

Just have the stuff delivered to your workplace instead. I called my credit card company told them that my work address was valid for shipping and I have been having stuff delivered to my office for years. I never have anything delivered to my house because a) they may not leave it, and b someone might steal it if they do. Fedex sucks, but there are ways to make it suck a little less...

This one has gone beyond stupidity. I'm betting complaints have led to a vindictive driver or drivers on that route.

Calling and complaining doesn't usually help as the station bosses and CSRs tend to side with the drivers, as you've noticed.

Remember: The biggest screw-ups on their part will be ignored if you provide any excuse. Stick to the facts and remain professional.

If you're motivated, write a letter to the DM with the usual: delivery dates, calls, etc. Their telephone and web support paths are pretty well filtered by deadwood.

Slower deliveries, incompetent service, AND destruction of packages, all at triple the price of the USPS? The private sector wins again!

My husband and I both work from home and yet we still get "while you were out" notices from every company except Canada Post, while being here the whole time.
Canada Post rocks actually - they'll deliver packages at 8pm and always ring the bell.

Granted, this entails spending money, but have you considered a non-postal service po box? I have a box at the local UPS store, but I'm sure any location that offers mail reciept would work (my local mom&pop mailing center's not open late enough). I pay for the smallest box they have, and they hold all my packages for me. It amounts to about $50 a year, which is better than the hassle of losing my lunch time and driving across town to go to the UPS/FedEx/DHS/USPS depot.

I have the same issue in Cincinnati. FedEx does not deliver to me, they simply bring it into the city. It is then my job to find out what station it is at and retrieve my package. At least USPS (my local office) is not completely filled with worthless humans like most! :)

I had Fed Ex once leave a "sorry we missed you" notice on my apartment's front door and then leave the actual package on my railed-in porch (NOT the same door as my front door.) We hardly even go out there because we're on the first floor and right in front of the parking lot, if I hadn't walked out there bychance to dump some water I wouldn't have even found our package for weeks. It made me SO MAD.

@cleek: I do the same thing. Its the best way to handle this problem.

I once cornered my postman about this (who in our neighborhoods park and then walk the mail around the block) and his response was, "but then I'd have to carry your package around." Nice.

God I hate parcel delivery companies. And retail big box stores. And airlines. And hotels. And moving companies. And vehicle rental companies. And...

FedEx seems to be the only entity in the world that CAN'T reach our door. Even though my husband is home all day to receive packages, they never come to our apartment door. I WISH they'd keep the boxes so I could go pick them up. Despite my numerous complaints, instead of coming to our apartment door, they leave the packages with the apartment manager, who never makes them available for me to pick up. I get home from work and her office is closed with no way for me to get my stuff. I've complained to her, FedEx, the shippers. Nothing changes. She thinks she's doing me a favor, the FedEx guy is spared the arduous trek from the street to our door, and me, I never get my stuff. Maddening. Glad I'm not the only one, though.

I printed and filled out a indirect signature form from the FedEx website and taped it to my front door. At the end of the day, I checked the tracking of the package and it showed an exception - customer not available status. I then called FedEx and explained that the form was on my front door but the driver didn't take it or leave a standard door tag to have signed. Which led me to believe that he never actually came to my house. Customer Service said they would contact the driver and have him call me for redelivery. He never called. The next day not only did he drop off my wife's new macbook, he also dropped off someone else's brand new macbook. We contacted FedEx to let them know about the error. They told us to leave it out on our front porch for the deliver guy to pick up...the computer sat there over a week (we would bring it in at night) before we finally had to call customer support back to let them know the driver had not picked up the package. There is definitely some room for improvement...maybe next time I'll just keep it and let them sort it out.

This is why I fork over $15 a month for a UPS Store "box" besides the fact that I live on a first floor apartment and any idiot walking by my building could see that I have a package waiting for me and decide to "help themselves."

Yeah, your kinda at the mercy of the driver. I had a UPS driver in NJ that started leaving a '3rd attempt notices' on the first day. He/She never didn't even bother to ring the doorbell. UPS customer service could never explain the fact that that three days prior I hadn't even placed an order or it was still in tracking in the middle of the country so a 3rd attempt wasn't even possible. They still said tough luck, it's in the computer as a 3rd attempt so I must drive 15 miles to pick it up or they'll return it to sender. After being burned several time, I didn't use UPS again until I moved away from NJ.

The last item I had delivered to my home, FedEx decided to leave the package in the garage, with a "Sorry we missed you" tag hanging on my door saying that my package was in the garage ... they may as well have left it sitting on my doorstep.

I have the Amazon Prime thing because of how much I spend on books per month....(hey, it's better than heroin, right?)

Amazon Prime uses UPS in my area, and for awhile, I would have to have them delivered to my office because they wouldn't leave them on the porch.

Finally, our neighborhood got a new driver or something and now all my packages are signed for by some guy named "Porch". But at least they leave the package....

I have the UPS problem (FedEx leaves packages at my apartment door without issue and USPS leaves a note for me to pickup at my post office, which I can do on weekends.)

But UPS is like the devil. Whenever I order from Zappos (who I love, for example) UPS comes in the middle of the day. Well, I (like - I imagine - most people) WORK FOR A LIVING during the day, so that I can afford the shoes I am having shipped. So I'm not there when they try and deliver. But they WILL NOT leave it at my door. My options (as I have been repeatedly told by CSRs) are:

1. to be at home, ie: take off work (since they can't guarantee the driver will come back when I am home.) Ridiculous.
2. drive an hour each way to their depot in Downtown LA between the hours of 9am and 7pm, M-F - any Angelenos will laugh with me at this one.
3. have the parcel returned to sender.
4. have the parcel delivered to a different address.

Can they deliver it to a UPS store near my home? No. Can they deliver on a Saturday? No. Can they please for the love of God leave it at my doorstep? No. I frequently ask the CSRs - who are presumably *at work* when I call, what they would do with these options for a package of their own. They can't tell me. I mean, I can't be the only person in the country who works a regular 9-5 who wants to have packages shipped to her place of residence! I usually follow this question with - 'what CAN Brown do for me, then?' This usually just annoys them.

So, I have them ship my packages to my parents' address (on the other side of the country!) They then send me the package via USPS (cheaper than UPS and clearly more efficient.) And I have the added bonus of knowing that UPS - due to their own ineptitude, has had to fly my package thousands of extra miles for free.

(I have since asked Zappos to send all packages to me via USPS - which they were happy to do, upon hearing my sad tale of woe. But it means I don't get their nice free overnight shipping. *sigh*)

hmmm, if fedex actually felt it and it was stolen this would be an entirely different post with fedex still the incompetent one.

Tough crowd to please.......

Yeah. Fed Ex actually delivered a package that DID NEED to be signed for to the wrong person. The person even signed for it and got to keep my watch. Boy was a I pissed.

I'm assuming there are no other deliveries at this address. If that's the case this guy is just making more work for himself going there everyday and writing out a door tag instead of just leaving the package and being done with it.

Unless the processing of a signed doortag requires the sacrifice of a goat or something.

@mocena: Of course, they probably thought they were doing you a favor by not just leaving it out front. Sigh, package delivery just sucks if you live in an apartment.

@ballookey: THIS.
I have this exact problem. There's no point in using expedited delivery if it's going to sit in the main office of the apartment complex all week.

As previously suggested, I have anything that's not huge sent to my job.

My FedEx Ground guy (not the next day guy) likes to play treasure hunt and he hides my packages in my back yard behind very thick shrubbery and doesn't leave a note. When I figure out the package is missing I contact (not Fed Ex) but the company I ordered from and they seem to hold more power and they make FedEx send the guy back out to find the package he has hidden so well it can never be found and he'll leave it by my back door.

Sadly he doesn't leave the packages in a plastic bag so after a week or so in So.Fla. the goods are ruined and I have to ask the company I ordered from to replace the ruined goods.

@LSonnenhimmer: I disagree. If the customer signs something saying to leave it and it gets swiped then you can't blame FedEx for that. I think most people here would say the same thing.

You could always just avoid this whole thing and go pick up the package at a FeDex depot. However, this does nto solve the delivery issue, and it can be annoying if its far away or if the depot closes before you can get there from work or something.

I had the same issue with UPS, but that was because the person who sent the package required an adult signature, and I am not, nor is anyone I live with, 21 or older. I had to have them hold the package at the UPS depot and find someone who was 21 to go get the thing. Grr...

my first thought was that this guy should have just went to pick it up.

and i thought fedex didn't deliver on saturdays?

I had this exact same problem with Fedex. In my case, it was a package from Apple. (Not a problem...I live in suburbia across from nice friendly retired folks who would surely notice anything nefarious.) I'd printed out the little form from Apple saying "no signature required" and taped it to the door. I got the infamous "could not deliver" note. Signed it and taped it to the door. Got another one. Called FedEx and was assured that they'd deliver. Got another one. Called again. Was assured again. Got another one the next day. Was told repeatedly that I could come pick it up. During working hours. 20 miles away in the opposite direction of my office.

I finally gave up, told them to return the damn thing to Apple and reordered to be delivered to my office, where there's always someone to sign.

@CountryJustice: As someone who worked with FedEx a lot I know that the customizable delivery label is merely a suggestion not a command. The person delivering the package doesn't have to follow it if they don't want to.

The best solution I've found is, whenever I'm ordering something online, check the box that says my address is a PO Box. That compels the store (if everything goes right) to ship by US Postal Service, which has never had a "problem" delivering to my apartment building.

Sometimes when I mistakenly order something that will arrive by UPS, I've had luck rerouting the package to my office for redelivery. But I don't think I should have to do that. I refuse to pick things up at a UPS or FedEx center. If it comes to that, I let the package go back to the shipper and get my money back.

@djanes1: I work for a larger company that really frowns on personal deliveries at work. In fact, it's grounds for disciplinary charges.

Robbie doesn't say who he called, but if it was the 800 number, that's part of the problem. Calling 1-800-Go-FedEx is worse than worthless if you're having problems with FedEx Ground.

A local FedEx Ground driver was confusing my house with the local post office, since we have similar addresses (eg 22 W. Maple vs. 22 E. Maple). Packages were being marked Return to Sender - Delivery Refused. I caught one tracking update when the online information said it was still on the truck, a bare hour after being marked Delivery Refused. It wasn't even lunch time. Surely, I could get them to redeliver it, right?

I called 1-800-Go-FedEx three times over the next 24 hours. They told me they'd get the package to me, but never did. They said they'd call me back, but never did. I also used their online email system, begging them to deliver my stuff, but never got so much as a form response.

I contacted the shipper, who contacted FedEx. FedEx told them that once it was on the way back to the sender there was nothing they could do to intercept it.

So a week later it was delivered back to the shipper 300 miles away. They sent it out yet again. A week later, the driver again marked it Return to Sender. But this time, I was armed with the Super Secret Telephone Number of the local hub. I called and the fellow who answered was very apologetic, and clearly irked by the driver's actions. He offered to drive it over to my house immediately. And he swore that nobody at FedEx had ever contacted him about the botched first attempt. I believe him.

There are four major problems with Ground customer service:

1. Even though it has been 7 years, FedEx still acts as though Ground isn't really part of FedEx.

2. Ground drivers are, as BeeBoo pointed out, independent contractors. They don't have radios in their trucks, and they're not supposed to use personal cell phones for business, so there's no way they can be reached in the field.

3. 1-800-Go-FedEx will flatly refuse to let you call your local Ground hub.

4. They won't contact the local hub on your behalf or follow through.

I was fortunate to get hold of the Super Secret Number to the local depot. It's so unpublished you can't even reverse-Google it. Not everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who has access to that number, but if you can dig it up, it's worth it.