UPDATE: UPS Promises To Stop Catapulting Your Packages

Ryan’s local UPS driver has an unfulfilled dream to become a champion shot putter, at least judging by how he always tosses Ryan’s deliveries over the fence 15 feet onto hard cement.

Ryan writes: “Dear Consumerist,

I’ve got a problem with UPS.

The driver who tends to service my local community (Huntington Beach, CA) likes to toss packages over our back gates.

Let me backtrack real quick and give you a picture of my neighborhood. I live in a PUD (planned urban development), which is kinda of like a bunch of townhouses built side-by-side and sharing common walls. My backyard, like all backyards in my neighborhood, is rather small and acts as a separator between my house and my garage. Between my garage and my neighbor’s garage, there is a little walkway capped by two gates: one for my neighbor and one for me.

Whenever I or my neighbor (and presumably everybody else in my area) orders something that ends up being shipped via UPS, the driver inevitably will mistreat the package. 9 times out of 10 he tosses it over the back gate, allowing it to land on bare cement. In other words, he takes my package (even ones that say “fragile”) and chucks it 15 feet in the air, allowing it to land violently on flat, cold cement.

I’m emailing you because today, like usual, he tossed a package over my gate. Except unlike most other days, this package contained a coffee machine from TigerChef (sold through amazon). My wife is at home caring for our baby, and she let me know it was tossed over the fence as we feared it would be. She’s very occupied with our child, so she’s not had the time to open the package and inspect it for damage. I’ll be checking on the status of the machine when I get back home in roughly 7 hours.

I have contacted TigerChef letting them know the product was tossed over the gate, and will be following-up with a status update (to let them know if it’s broken or not).

UPS is the only shipping company that does this. FedEx and the USPS have respect for my packages, typically leaving them at my front door (well-hidden by bushes). This UPS driver is just lazy and doesn’t want to walk up to my doorstep. He’d rather hop out of the back of his truck, toss a package over the gate, and hop back into the truck. This is all frustrating, to say the least. If you’re interested in following up on the coffee machine story I’ll update you later today once I know the status of the package.”

You should also contact the local UPS depot and let them know about how their driver treats your packages like he’s re-enacting the opening scene from Ace Ventura:

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