The more you drive, the higher the odds are that you’ll eventually hit something or something will hit you. So one might reasonably expect that having 7 million miles of roadtime racked up would’ve resulted in at least a fender bender or heck, a speeding ticket. Not if you’re Ralph, the UPS driver without a single accident or ticket on his record in 40 years. [More]
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Why Does UPS Need An In-Person Signature For All Of My Packages All Of A Sudden?
By 11.8.13
Have you noticed lately that UPS refuses to leave your packages on your doorstep, even when delivering only that tube of toothpaste you ordered using Amazon Prime at 3 A.M.? Cheryl noticed this happening recently. Signing the InfoNotice and slapping it on the door before work didn’t help: they had to sign for the packages in person. Why? She was an unwitting victim of fraud. [More]
“No One Cares If You Write ‘Fragile'” And Other Tips From A Former UPS Worker
By 11.4.13
With millions of people prepping to ship off gifts to loved ones and familial obligations around the globe, the holidays are prime time for UPS and FedEx. With that glut of parcels, many containing precious items, there comes the heightened chance that your package will be crushed, dropped, kicked, dropkicked, and otherwise run through the wringer. But a former UPS employee says there are ways to minimize the likelihood of damage. [More]
Why Does UPS Know Everything About Me (But Can’t Say When My Package Is Being Delivered)?
By 10.29.13
Anyone who has tried to get day-of-delivery tracking from UPS knows that the typical response from a company rep is “It’s on the truck for delivery and will come sometime today.” But while UPS seems to know very little about where exactly your parcels are, it has access to a surprising amount of information about where you’ve lived, who you’re related to and other personal data. [More]
UPS Robocalls Me 74 Times About The Same Package
By 7.15.13
Subscribing to UPS MyChoice means that you have more control over your packages and get some extra attention from UPS, but this isn’t what Eric had in mind. Over the weekend, something went terribly wrong with the company’s systems, and UPS began to robocall him about the package he’ll be receiving this week. Seventy-four times since the beginning of Sunday. [More]
I Just Want UPS To Take My Money, Let Me Use MyChoice Premium
By 7.3.13
Some of our readers aren’t fond of UPS’s MyChoice Premium, comparing it to a protection racket for items that you’ve already paid to have delivered to your house. We get that. Michael likes the concept and finds it useful. Or he would if UPS would actually apply it to his packages. [More]
UPS Doesn’t Offer “Insurance,” Even If An Employee Tells You It Does
By 6.12.13
The term “insurance” carries with it a boatload of connotations, so if you go into a UPS branch to ship a package and someone offers you “insurance” for a few extra dollars, you might think that you’ll be covered in case your shipment gets mangled along the way, but UPS employees are mis-using the term in order to upsell an add-on that doesn’t offer anywhere near the level of coverage one might expect. [More]
When UPS Teams Up With USPS, Your Package Magically Travels To 29 States And Back-And-Forth Through Time
By 6.6.13
Consumerist Reader Jocelyn went online today to check on the shipping status of her Shutterfly order, only to find that UPS and the U.S. Postal Service had managed to fold space and time, somehow sending her package to 78 different locations in 29 states (and Washington, D.C.), all while going back and forth through time. [More]
UPS Not Experimenting With Exciting New Teleportation Service
By 5.8.13
Did you know that UPS is now able to teleport packages hundreds of miles in only a few minutes? It’s true. Well, that, or something went slightly wrong with the timestamps on reader Kain’s package. [More]
Apparently UPS Will Send A Package Back If Anyone Nearby Chimes In And Refuses It
By 4.8.13
There can be a lot of obstacles the United Parcel Service needs to overcome in its efforts to deliver packages — no one is home, the address is wrong — but one might think there’s some kind of policy regarding who can send a package back where it came from. One might think that only the intended recipient can return a package to sender, but as Consumerist reader Kathryn found it, that isn’t always the case. [More]
UPS Hit With $40 Million Settlement In Illegal Online Pharmacy Probe
By 3.29.13
UPS may have lost to FedEx in the first round of the Worst Company In America competition, but the shipping giant is getting away relatively unscathed from a Dept. of Justice criminal probe into deliveries it made for illegal online pharmacies. [More]
Worst Company In America Round 1: UPS Vs. FedEx
March 27, 2013
The final match of Round One delivers the one-two punch of FedEx and UPS, both of whom were scheduled to fight earlier but had to reschedule because they were running late. [More]
UPS Fails To Use The Buddy System When One Of My Packages Wanders Off
By 3.20.13
When two items go out together as part of the same shipment, should they necessarily stay together? Nowal’s parents got her twins a table and chairs for their birthday, which shipped out in two packages. The toddlers celebrating their birthdays might understand the buddy system, but UPS doesn’t: even though the two packages shipped as a two-package shipment, one box arrived on time while the other disappeared into the bowels of the UPS system because of a damaged label. [More]
UPS SurePost Gets Package To My Door Four Days Late, Smushed
By 3.12.13
“There’s a reason the USPS is going bankrupt, and it’s because of their shoddy customer service,” read a subject line in our tips mailbox. Jeremy’s package, shipped UPS, got handed off to the U.S. Postal Service, and at some point things went very wrong. UPS SurePost is that company’s answer to FedEx SmartPost: a service that uses the private companies’ systems to get packages from the sender to sort of near their destinations, then depends on the U.S. Postal Service to travel the last leg to your doorstep. [More]
UPS Refuses To Deliver Package, Messes Up My Daughter’s Birthday
By 3.11.13
Julie currently lives far away from her daughter, and went her a wonderful box of gifts from cosmetics retailer Sephora for her recent 14th birthday. What a lovely surprise! Or it would have been if UPS hadn’t refused to release the package with a mere signed slip because it had been redirected after getting sent to Julie’s billing address initially. The package was significantly delayed past her birthday, and the surprise became significantly less fun. [More]
UPS Driver Delivers Package, Fixes Screen Door, Warms Hearts
By 3.7.13
The weather was bad, and Sergio’s family all left the house in a hurry. They didn’t secure the screen door properly, and the wind caught it, tearing it off the hinges. When UPS stopped by with an Amazon package, the driver could have said, “Aw, that’s a shame,” tossed their package on his porch, and then gone on with his day. He did not. [More]
Brother Sends My Printer On Vacation In Florida, Not Back To Me
By 2.26.13
Cyndi’s new multifunction inkjet printer malfunctioned just after the 14-day return period was over. Isn’t that always how it ends up? Not by design on the company’s part, of course, but it feels that way when you depend on a printer like Cyndi does. She contacted Brother’s tech support, and ultimately they sent her a refurbished replacement. Yay! Except that they sent it to Orlando, Florida. Cyndi does not live there. How did the printer end up there? No one knows. [More]
UPS Tells You To Pick Up Package From Station, Closes Package Station Due To Nemo
By 2.12.13
It was just Manu’s bad luck that the computer he really, really needed was due to arrive at the same time as an East Coast superblizzard. The storm wasn’t as bad as expected in New York City, where Manu lives, but it was still bad enough that work closed early on the day that they didn’t deliver his computer to his home, so he could go fetch it from the depot. So he left on an epic trek through the snow to the UPS depot to… well, not pick up the computer, as it turns out. [More]
