An Oregon woman whose medical problems leave her unable to drive thought that being able to buy almost anything online would make her life easier. That was before UPS began its mysterious war with her. Now, she’s forced to either buy from stores that use a different carrier, or have her packages delivered to a neighbor’s house. Why? The Oregonian tried to find out. [More]
deliveries
You Can Get Any 42" Samsung Plasma TV From Target, As Long As It's Smashed
By 9.14.10
Steve’s TV buying experience with Target has not gone well. If he wants to try this a third time, the store is more than willing to let him, but they say he has to pay full price now and there’s still no guarantee a broken TV won’t show up on his doorstep. [More]
My Post Office Says It Won't Accept Packages From Other Zip Codes
By 8.24.10
A Postal Service worker told Chris he wasn’t allowed to send packages from that specific office because the return address was from a zip code other than the one where the office was located, and thus the location wouldn’t receive credit for the transaction. [More]
Lazy Delivery Guys Left Appliances In Our Garage
By 6.28.10
Candice and Ryo hit up an Oregon Best Buy on May 2 and dropped more than $5,000 to fill their home with a range, microwave, refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. Now it’s almost July and due to a number of delays the couple still doesn’t have half of their appliances. Even some of the ones they do have are unusable because the delivery guys judged that the boxes were too large to fit through the door so they just left them in the garage. [More]
Shari's Berries Looks On The Bright Side Of Dementia To Improve Customer Experience
By 5.11.10
Let’s say a Mother’s Day gift food delivery gets delivered to a stranger’s address, so you call the customer on behalf of your company to deliver the bad news. Uh-oh, now that customer is angry that her Mother’s Day gift isn’t going to make it in time! What do you do? You probably don’t say, “Well your mom is 85 years old, so maybe she won’t remember which day Mother’s Day is?” [More]
Should I Have Given Back The iPad UPS Delivered Early?
By 4.3.10
Frederick tells Consumerist that he had an interesting dilemma yesterday. Another member of his household ordered an iPad, which showed up yesterday due to an error on UPS’s part. He accepted the package, then gave it back when the driver returned 45 minutes later, explaining that the delivery was a mistake. Would you have given it back? [More]
UPS Refuses To Leave Package Without Signature Despite My Wishes
By 3.30.10
Sue has the whimsical idea that she can receive a package shipped via UPS by not waiting at home all day to sign it. She took a step to sign the InfoNotice that the driver left, authorizing UPS to leave the package for her without a signature. But the driver wouldn’t comply. [More]
UPS Guy Outwits Thieves With Clever Hiding Place
By 3.23.10
Sometimes a reader writes in to complain about how the UPS guy left a package in full view of anyone passing by. Not Nick, who was at work yesterday when he saw that UPS had delivered his shipment from from Amazon. Usually the delivery guy hides packages in Nick’s bushes, but this time the notice said, “FD MAT.” Nick writes, “That worried me a bit, as this is a pricey piece of electronic equipment. But my worry was misplaced; the clever UPS man hid this package extremely well.” [More]
Should FedEx Have Walked Into My House To Deliver Package?
By 3.20.10
Sam had an odd experience with FedEx back in February. He writes that when he didn’t come to the door right away, instead of leaving the package on the porch, the deliveryman just opened the door and walked in. This confused Sam a bit, and he wrote to Consumerist asking what he should do. [More]
FTD Doesn't Bother To Find Florist, Makes Your Grandma Sad On Her Birthday
By 1.28.10
Erin has a Valentine’s Day warning for Consumerist readers. Not only is FTD part of the nefarious WebLoyalty cabal, but she tells Consumerist that they’re also happy to take customers’ money and conveniently forget to dispatch a florist with actual flowers. [More]
UPS Dumped My Christmas Presents All Over The Street
By 12.25.09
Warren was expecting some gifts to arrive via UPS this week, and understandably hoped they might be dropped off in front of his door. That didn’t happen, he says, thanks to a snow storm and some less than diligent delivery efforts. He found his packages nowhere near his house. [More]
Heads-Up FedEx Driver Makes Bonus Delivery Attempt
By 12.15.09
Reader Chris and his girlfriend were spared a long rush-hour drive through hideous Boston traffic because a FedEx driver making a large delivery to a single location had the good sense to load up his spare truck space with packages bound for nearby addresses. [More]
Vonage Sends 14 New Modems To Replace Customer's Broken One
By 10.21.09
My Linh’s Vonage modem stopped working, so she called to request a replacement under the terms of her service agreement. Vonage was happy to oblige. So happy, in fact, that they sent her 14 modems instead of one via UPS—but then couldn’t figure out how to get UPS to come pick them up again. Hey, they do VOIP, not logistics.
Home Depot Drives Away Another Customer Forever
By 10.21.09
Two months ago, Mike and his wife decided to re-do their floors. They’re expecting a child in November, so they made sure that they ordered the materials in plenty of time to get everything taken care of before the end of August. Mike even scheduled time off work and had family members come in from out of town to help out.
1800Flowers Sends Order, Doesn't Notice Florist Is Closed
By 10.15.09
Chelsea wanted to do something nice for her grandparents’ anniversary, since she couldn’t be there to celebrate. She decided to send them some flowers through 1800Flowers.com. Unfortunately, she had no way of knowing that the local florist handling orders in her grandparents’ area closed on Saturdays, and chose Saturday delivery.
UPS Shipment Takes Gap Year, Hides In Indiana For 14 Months
By 10.4.09
After yesterday’s article about a package’s 14-year UPS odyssey, Matt wrote in to share a misdelivery of his own. This package only spent 14 months astray—sort of a gap year. However, the item was shipped after the advent of online tracking, so he has a record of its travels. Or utter lack of travels.
UPS Has Strange Concept Of "Out Of Sight"
By 9.4.09
Chris sent us this picture of a package that UPS delivered to his apartment. Instead of leaving it at the complex’s office, the delivery person left the box in a “secure, out of sight” location.
Need To Change Your UPS Delivery Address In Transit? There's A Fee For That
By 9.3.09
If you’re having a package delivered by UPS and want to change the delivery address while it’s in transit, be warned: this service will now cost you either $4 or $6 depending on whether you make the request online or over the phone.
