Hey Amazon, et. al., I think we just figured out how you can solve your Stupid Shipping Gang problem: switch over to this kind of box that fits every item, no matter what size, perfectly. It’s called the “Universal Packaging System” and it’s amazing. [More]
SHIPPING
Newegg's Overnight Shipping Takes Several Days
By 3.4.10
Imagine it: you’re trying to patch things up with an estranged parent, and send a thoughtful gift for their birthday. You pay more than $50 for overnight shipping, and wait for the gift to arrive. Only 48 hours later, the item hasn’t even shipped yet, while an identical item headed for another recipient, sent using standard shipping, has already shipped. What? That’s what reader Janet writes happened to her when she ordered a coffee machine from Newegg for her mother’s birthday. [More]
UPS Successfully Delivers Your Package To "BSMT GARBAGECAN"
By 2.25.10
Reader Martin would like us to know that UPS successfully delivered his package to “BSMT GARBAGECAN.” Hey, at least they are honest. [More]
Amazon's Frustration Free Packaging Still Not Quite Working Out For Electronics
By 2.24.10
Tom wishes Amazon would use better packaging when it comes to shipping things like hard drives. Their “frustration-free packaging” is meant to save shoppers from dealing with blister packs and unnecessary boxes. For the Western Digital hard drive Tom was trying to buy, it meant bouncing around a half-empty box from the fulfillment facility to his doorstep, where it arrived broken. Twice. [More]
Dear UPS: Please Stop Leaving My Packages In The Middle Of The Road
By 2.22.10
Reader Alisha is vexed by a UPS driver who thinks a road to a working farm is her driveway. She’s afraid her stuff is going to be run over by trucks full of cows or god knows what. [More]
UPS Promises To Stop Catapulting Your Packages
By 2.2.10
UPS has pledged to fix the problem with their drivers lofting Ryan’s packages through the air and over the fence to smash on the concrete. After Ryan’s complaint went up, UPS contacted Consumerist, and we put them in touch with Ryan. They are also apparently going to work on the whole leaving packages to soak in the rain thing. Hurray. [More]
Happy Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day!
By 1.25.10
Today is bubble wrap appreciation day, or “BWAD.” Celebrated the last Monday of every January, it’s the day to celebrate your love of everyone’s favorite packaging helper. Some partake in the festivities by making bubble wrap animals, bubble wrap dresses, or simply grabbing a piece of bubble wrap and popping all the pockets. And if you don’t have any lying around, you can always play the online bubble wrap popping game. Hooray for bubble wrap! You’ve filled our hearts almost as much as you’ve filled our landfills. [More]
Costco Ships Your Mom's Casket To Houston, But The Funeral Is In New Jersey
By 1.22.10
D.’s mother passed away last week. The funeral is today, and the wake was yesterday. He writes that thanks to Costco and their supplier Universal Casket, the casket that he ordered with expedited shipping was somehow shipped to a different city entirely, leaving the family scrambling for a new casket at the last minute, and defeating the entire purpose of ordering a casket by mail order in the first place. Costco did reach out and make things right, but not until later. [More]
Roku Uses FedEx TARDIS Service, Sends Package Back In Time
By 1.6.10
Roku and Fedex have done an amazing thing. They didn’t send Merujo’s new media player via Smartpost. They sent it three months back in time and to the wrong city and state. Or maybe they just can’t find the correct tracking number. [More]
FedEx: Here We Are On Day 16 Of A 2 Day Delivery
By 1.5.10
Reader Chad would like his 2 day delivery to be delivered. Nobody at FedEx can seem to do this, or explain to him why it cannot be done. [More]
Lenovo Ignores Customer, Waits For Gift To Reach Wrong Destination
By 1.2.10
We hear that Lenovo, heirs to the Thinkpad line of laptops, makes some very nice computers. In the last few months, though, more and more Consumerist readers are having problems getting the company to complete an exchange in which money is exchanged for a computer. E.J.’s purchase is one such failed exchange, and his father’s Christmas laptop is now lurking in a UPS facility, a few hundred miles away from where it was supposed to be delivered. [More]
UPS Tells Me My Package Took 'The Scenic Route'
By 12.29.09
CMT ordered a Newegg package that took what a UPS CSR told him was a “scenic route” from California to Tennessee, seemingly circling his city before eventually meandering in. He writes: [More]
Everything You Wanted To Know About BestBuy.com
By 12.28.09
Someone who says he’s worked with BestBuy.com for a couple of years now sent us an exhaustive list of topics related to buying from the website. Learn about the Satisfaction Matrix that determines how a CSR treats you! Discover the best way to ensure a new shipping address is accepted into the system! Exciting stuff like that follows. [More]
Watch Out For FedEx SmartPost
By 12.23.09
Cristiana says beware the trap of sending things via FedEx SmartPost: the USPS handles the local part of delivery, and “since you now have two shipping companies involved, nobody wants to take responsibility for the package” when it never arrives. [More]
Shoes.com Website Doesn't Want To Ship To Lora
By 12.21.09
Shoes.com doesn’t seem to like Lora. Not the people at Shoes.com, who were helpful enough, but the website itself. Each time Lora places an order, the system cancels it–and naturally, owing to its hatred of this woman, it won’t tell anyone why. Whatever Lora did to hurt Shoes.com’s feelings, it worked.
(Okay, it may have something to do with billing addresses, but nobody is sure.)
Beware Secret Surcharges On USPS Mail At UPS Stores
By 12.21.09
UPS lets you send USPS Priority Mail at their walk-in locations, but a New York Times investigation found Manhattan locations charging up to 140% more for the favor. [More]
Amazon Delivers With Santa-Like Speed
By 12.21.09
Benjamin bought his sister iPod speakers on Amazon, but when he found out they wouldn’t get to him in time to take to his sister for Christmas, Amazon sprung for free overnight shipping for a new set of speakers, as well as free return shipping for the others. That’s the sort of swiftness that can only be rivaled by eight tiny reindeer. [More]
