Andro ordered several props on Wednesday that he needed for a seminar this weekend. He paid extra for 2nd day air, but on Thursday, he noticed an odd error on his package’s tracking information: “LATE TRAILER. GROUND MOVEMENT CAUSED THIS DELIVERY DELAY”

Along with that, new delivery date on tracking page was listed as July 23rd, the Monday -after- my seminar. Alarmed, I dialed the 800 UPS line in hopes of expediting the shipping, or even upgrading it to overnight if possible. The first representative I reached was very unhelpful – I was told that ‘UPS commits to deliver packages within set timeframe, but takes no responsibility for delays.’ – I was told there’s nothing he could do for me; an inquiry about his name or service number went ignored, and upon asking for call to be escalated, he hung up on me.

Not ready to give up yet, I called again, and my call was answered by “Steven”. Steven seemed more than happy to help me – he said he’d upgrade the package to overnight shipping, quoted me the upgrade price, and took my payment information (since original shipping was paid by vendor, I didn’t want to tack it onto their account). By this time it was quite late, so I went to bed, quite relieved.

The next morning, friday the 20th of june (today), I checked tracking again – to see apsolutely no updates on the tracking page. I promptly called UPS again and, after explaining to representative about delayed package, attempt to upgrade, giving someone my credit card info and receiving no confirmation e-mail or status change on tracking page, she immediately forwarded my call to the supervisor.

The supervisor, Ms. Melinda McGill, listened carefully to my sad tale without interrupting. She then proceeded to explain that CS reps have no ability to escalate or sell the upgrades to existing shipments in transit, expressed her worry that someone might’ve scammed me out of my credit card number*, and comitted to checking phone logs to see who I spoke to. Afterwards, she spend additional 15 min on the phone with me, establishing the whereabouts of the package and trying to figure out if she can get it into my hands before the seminar. At one point, she asked to call me back, as she must inquire with shipping manager at the location package was last seen. At this point, I expected she’d just use it as an excuse to get off the hook and I’d be back to square on.

However, I in fact received the follow-up call from miss McGill less than 30 min later, and she proceeded to ask some additional details about package, to help her locate it in the truck that was apparently sitting at the sorting facility in Kentucky. She also mentioned she noticed destination was a business address, and asked if I’d like to change the address in case they were to attempt saturday delivery – something I myself completely forgot about (office is closed on weekends). Again, she asked if she may call me back… I went back to waiting.

Eventually, I received one more call from her – roughly 30 minutes later. She informed me that she arranged for the package to be expedited and re-routed to my residential address, expressing at the same time her regrets over the messed up shipment and possible security threat to my credit card. Overall, she was exceedingly helpful, concerned, and very proactive about making a customer happy – something I really didn’t expect based on my previous UPS interactions.

*And, for those of you worrying I had my credit card stolen because I was so naive, worry not. Since I shop online exceedingly frequently, I have made it my habit to use secondary, temporary, easy-to-terminate credit cards for all non-in-store transactions; thanks to that, I was able to immediately block that card and requested that WellsFargo work with FBI & UPS on tracking down the potential thief…

Wow. Melinda could have easily fed Andro the company line, but instead, she got to work and fixed his problem. Andro also deserves credit for closely monitoring his package, and for using a disposable credit card number.

(Photo: jurvetson)

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