J. is a Consumerist reader of Asian descent. Earlier this week, he was expecting a package from UPS. The doorbell rang, he signed for the package, and all was well. So he thought. When his e-mail delivery confirmation arrived, he was surprised to see that his package had been signed for by “CHIN.” Who?

J. provided us with the tracking number, and we were able to confirm that the tracking info does, indeed, say “CHIN.” Who is “Chin?” Did he drop the box at the base of an Easter Island statue? No, not that we know of. Is J’s last name something similar to “Chin?” He asked that we not share his full name, but we can tell you that it isn’t. Was the driver trying to write “Chinese dude” or something similar? If so, J. is really not pleased with that.

“I am disturbed by how the UPS guy put my name in there,” he wrote to Consumerist when he sent along the original screen grab and tracking number. We asked what he wanted from UPS, and he requested an apology and an explanation for what happened, if possible.

Just now, we received this response from UPS:

UPS takes this situation very seriously. UPS does not tolerate discriminatory comments. When we are made aware of discriminatory comments by an employee, we quickly investigate and address the issue. We have taken appropriate disciplinary action with this employee. We have also reached out to the customer and apologized for this incident.

That’s good. We don’t want to see the driver get in trouble, but we also don’t think that ethnic designations are the best way to keep track of who received which package.

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