George’s problem isn’t with UPS as a whole, really. As far as he knows, they’re getting his packages to his nearest distribution center quickly and safely. The problem is with the next step in the process: the part where the driver brings the package to his home. Maybe all of his local drivers are in competition with colleagues to see who can deliver the fewest packages in the course of a day. Perhaps they all suffer from a terrible social phobia, and therefore don’t want to ring doorbells. Whatever the actual situation is, when George stays home from work to stake out his own home, he has caught the driver just leaving a note without even ringing the doorbell. “Sorry we missed you,” indeed. Yesterday was different, though. Yesterday, no one showed up at all, even though he staked out the door all day.

I try not to use UPS because of previous bad experiences. Sometimes I have no choice.

I live in Delaware if it makes a difference.

In the past I’ve taken off work to wait for a package to be delivered just to be let down. Today’s example goes like this; at 3:39am UPS tracking says my package is out for delivery. So knowing how the UPS driver is, he doesn’t knock on my door and leaves that InfoNotice on my door (with no package in hand), I have to sit at my desk all day staring out the window. Thank goodness for laptops and netflix. I’ve caught the UPS driver red handed twice. So the driver goes back to the truck, gets the package and signs the PDA for me, and with upmost rudeness gives me my package. I’m sorry, but isn’t a courier’s job to deliver a package?

But today’s different. They’re not going to show up. I just know it.

In fact I’m still at my desk while writing this email. It’s past 7pm but maybe the driver will still come. Remember, at 3:39am the package was “out for delivery”, it’s 7:16pm.

Normally I would call customer service. But I’ve heard the same lies every time:

1. The package is on it’s way. It’ll be there by 7pm. (doesn’t show up, InfoNotice is placed on my door the next day).
2. The package was never put on the truck. (why would tracking say “out for delivery” if it wasn’t on the truck?)
3. The driver said he knocked but no one was home. (I’ve been staring out the window all day counting cars).
4. The package was refused. (I’m the only one home. Why would I refuse my own package?)

I’ve had ups.com inform me when my package is on it’s way or if there’s any changes. I even attached a note when I gave UPS.com my cell phone number, “I’m home. Please knock.”

Nothing.

Five out of the seven times I’ve waited for UPS, I’ve had to drive all the way to their shipping center all the way in Newark to prevent my package from being returned to the sender. I got my packages twice, only after I caught the driver red handed deliberately attempting to not deliver a package and put an InfoNotice on my door.

And I’ve lived in three different addresses in the past four years. So I really can’t narrow this down to a single weird anomaly.

The pizza delivery guy just informed me he saw a UPS truck at [a liquor store] and at [redacted] Apartments. Both are within a few miles from my house.

The best option for George would probably be to enroll in the MyChoice program, which would give him a four-hour delivery window (in theory) and let him redirect the package to an address where he’ll actually be, or a UPS Store. You know, in theory. Other readers have learned that signing up with the My Choice program doesn’t necessarily mean that everything will be happiness and on-time packages from here out.

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