FEDEX sucks

Imagine putting up with that and a pissed off customer

 

That’s also been my FedEx experience. And it’s what has been reported by others nationwide. UPS and USPS have been more reliable.

 

Yep, for me FedEx has gotten worse over the years.

 

I am as impatient as the next guy but I generally think of things like this several ways

1) life is strictly temporary so who gives a fuck about something as insignificant as a delay in shipping

2) even 50 years ago you'd be waiting months for something you wanted... Get the catalog, choose, mail in your order, slowly processed, shipped out without benefit of air cargo, no tracking, gradually working its way cross country to you until it surprised you by showing up because you forgot you ordered it... And you liked it!!!

3) white people problems aka first world problems aka it takes some balls and lack of awareness to be pissed about a package you don't need taking 5 days to get to you when mother fuckers be starving to death elsewhere

 

@MeefZah I'm use that " life is strictly temporary "

 

https://ring.com/share/f5708fcc-8ffd-4f41-ba56-1db532991328

My PS5 being delivered on 11/29. Wasn't shown this video until 12/25. I set it up for the kids earlier in the week so it would be playable on Christmas, but man I'm glad I didn't see it happen.

 

Drop tested before kid tested!
Proper packaging techniques, especially for electronics, combined with proper shipping packaging usually allow for at least a 3 foot drop onto a hard surface without damage. That looked like more of a tumble, so very little G forces.
Pretty funny though.

 

Perhaps these fellows are concerned not because they have it too good but because they PAID for a service and FedEx just sits their hands and totally screws the customer.
FedEx is awful. Every experience I’ve had with them has been negative in at least one way. Late and/or damaged. Shipping is expensive recently so folks expect to get the service promised. I hope this thread detours others from using FedEx for anything remotely important.

Drivers too lazy to off-load a heavy cast iron cylinder head so I get a sticker on the door.
Most every package notification showing it as out for delivery yet doesn’t actually deliver for two days.
Packages left unannounced at the door in the rain.
Packages with holes and broken contents.
One package taking 22 days from KY to OR.
A coworker paying dearly for 2-day shipping and getting it a week later only after starting an inquiry.

 

Has anybody had a shipment via Fed Ex, UPS, or other freight company that's been a "life or death" situation? Lots of people have no clue what's involved in the 'commodity relocation industry' aka.. trucking. While I anticipate deliveries via several freight companies, UPS and Fed Ex included, I sometimes get 'let down' by late delivery and other glitches, anxious to receive stuff I've ordered, I have no idea what happened to cause such glitches, it's usually not "life or death", so does it bother me? Ya, but being in the trucking industry for 40 yrs., I also see the other side of the coin too. One thing that has got to change is the pathetic work ethic that has been building for decades. Best of luck on those deliveries.... patience.

 

I've never had a problem with any delivery company except USPS, all they ever deliver are F'n bills and junk mail.

 

FEDEX When it absolutely positively has to be there..... eventually

 

All the shipping companies that go through LA are having a big problem. The criminals they've been freeing in droves have gone from robbing stores to robbing trains. Lots of pictures around of trains with packages spread around them all over the ground. The crooks are free to search through the packages on the boxcars to see what all they can walk off with. Cops do nothing, train security does nothing, the Feebs do nothing...it's a shopping spree free of charge for anyone that wants to engage in it.

So, if you have, or had, something that was due to move through LA, forget about it. Order another one from somewhere else that doesn't go through LA in any way. You probably won't get it if you go through LA.

Good luck to all!
Pat☺

 

I can agree that FedEx delivery sucks. I don't use it unless I order something from Amazon, and they are the carriers of my package. From the moment I see their name, I already know what I'll have to endure. The parcel will be late, probably even destroyed when they arrive. That's why I always try to ask for https://www.packages24.com/carriers/speedpak-tracking. I have never had any problems with them. And no carrier was ever rude enough to simply through my box into the door like the ones from FedEx. I wonder how they are still in business.

 

The issue I have with FedEx is that their tracking system never seems to update from "On Time" until it's already two days late, then it goes to "Pending" with no estimate for a couple more days. I've never had that with any other delivery service that provides tracking. If it's going to be late, so be it, but don't tell me everything is looking good and on time when it obviously isn't.

 

FedEx does suck. Seems like I know the ups guy on a first name basis. We live in a 5er traveling for work and ups is the only one capable of getting the box to my door

 

This is the embodiment of Me Now, Me Now, Me Now.... that has become commonplace in our country. What no one here has bothered to look at or understand (at least the complainers) is how the ease of online ordering combined with Covid really Fucked the delivery sector.

From 2016 to 2020 there was a growth increase in Fed Ex delivery:

2016 - 1.93 billion parcels
2017 - 2.01 billion parcels
2018 - 2.13 billion parcels
2019 - 2.28 billion parcels
2020 - 2.54 billion parcels

Last year, with the fed gov't scaring everyone with Covid restrictions and people making the choice for home delivery instead of going to a brick and mortar (if you could, ie; California and New York) the steady increase of about ~100M parcel increase per year jumped to:

2021 - 3.13 billion parcels

Combine that growth with people quitting their jobs in record numbers, due in part to so many jobs being available and low unemployment rates, the average time labor positions stayed at Fed Ex last year (package pickers, drivers, etc.) was reduced by nearly half.

Try operating your company with unheard of growth, your employees leaving in record numbers (because the grass is always greener elsewhere), Covid causing parts not being available for repairs on planes, trucks, conveyors, computers, etc. and you have a perfect storm of shitty customer service that you cant do dick about.

I refuse to pay for expedited shipping because right now, chances are, it wont be expedited. I stopped paying attention to tracking. It serves no purpose right now. I set reminders for 7 days on emails with tracking to remind me to confirm it shipped. When the economy tanks here shortly, jobs start disappearing, all of this will come back to normal, but no one will have money to spend on having crap shipped to us.

 

It may be 'me now' but it is also making boasts and promises companies can't or won't keep. They give a delivery date and then let your package sit on a truck that won't move for days. Amazon is raising their prime fee to cover 2 day shipping then deliver your purchase when convenient. I had a puchase shipped from Kentucky north to Pittsburgh PA just to ship it south to Florida where it was supposed to go in the first place. Just admit your can't keep your guesstimate but don't charge extra for your promises you don't intend to keep. That is what makes paying customers jaded. I am still waiting on furniture that I ordered in August that was supposed to be delivered in November. The company sent me 2 delivery notifications then called me a day later with an excuse and a new delivery date. They say my item will arrive in 2 weeks. We'll see about that.

 

While all of that may be true, it doesn't explain why every other delivery service seems to be accurate with their estimated delivery date and their systems update with new estimates as things change. In my recent three experiences with FedEx, they tend to provide an expected delivery date of a couple of days, then on the day it is scheduled to arrive it's still many states away while still indicating that it will arrive on-time, and remains in that status for up to two days after it hasn't arrived. Then it goes to pending with no estimate. It just seems like dishonesty from the beginning, which is the part that bothers me the most.

I guess the part I'm not understanding is how it seems to be trivial (from my admittedly naive standpoint) for other services like UPS, USPS, and Amazon to update the tracking information quite accurately, but FedEx is unable to follow suit.

 

UPS is not far behind FedEx in their tracking misinformation. Where they used to give you details when you click on the 'details' link in UPS tracking, like each location scan along the way, now it most often says 'on the way' with no details of where it is in their system. I think more and more of the parcel delivery systems, USPS included, are dumbing down their tracking systems because they know perfectly well they are usually wrong in this shipping environment.

You'll also note that Amazon is going more and more to their own Amazon Delivery service and skipping the big boys in the delivery system. The tracking for that is on the Amazon site, and may or may not have detailed in-transit information.

 

The company I work for uses all three big carriers. Hundreds of thousands of small to large boxes and hundreds of pallets per week. Trust me when I say Fed Ex is not alone in this. USPS is the bigger abuser of its own systems. They do what airlines do - they pad their "arrival times" by X percentage to meet the criteria set forth by the FAA. USPS gives you a delivery day of 4 days, but delivers in 3, padding their expectation of systems to the postmaster generals annual report for funding.

 

You’re right, everyone has been conditioned to expect immediate results in so many aspects of life. Without appreciating the complexities of the technology and infrastructure that makes it all possible, and usually it works. But if enough things go wrong the disruption is severe. The whole world has been disrupted by covid not just the US delivery systems.

I’ve experienced a mixed bag for my deliveries, but my ranking from best to worst for me is Amazon, USPS, UPS, FedEx.

As far as the US economy, it’s well on the road to recovery. Problems are still ahead and there’s inflation, but check out the recent jobs report.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coming-up-u-s-jobs-report-for-january-11643980058

 

Yeah, the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics always reports that has always bugged me too. Jobs “created”, “added”, “gained”, etc., it just means bodies filling an open position.

 

We must live in the only area in the country that all 3 of the freight carriers do an OK job. Living in a rural setting has many perks, trying to 'pound' thru snow in the winter is not one of them. Given road conditions, ETA's (that are setup by someone sitting in an office that doesn't see the outside till it's time to go home at 5) I think the FedEx driver that delivered our ECGS bushing (even though it was 20 degrees below zero) did a good job, as did Matt at ECGS shipping it when he said it was getting shipped. Being a truck driver/delivery driver is NOT always a bowl of cherries. Some cases it's the drivers fault, some time the people in 'the office' making promises, and even sometimes the shipper.

 

The biggest issue with the jobs report is that is controlled by what ever administration is sitting in the big chair. How can 2.9 million people leave their jobs in one month, but unemployment is that low? What they are not showing you is the total number of jobs that became available AND the hustle work that is not reported. Its a matrix that is not correct.

 

Uh, no.
The BLS is staffed by over 2000 career personnel. The head commissioner of the BLS is nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and serves a 4 year term. The current commissioner was put in place in 2019 during the Trump administration. I don’t think anyone is driving a political agenda.

There are a lot of moving parts in the economy. Trying to keep track and figure it all out is pretty damn complex and is way too much for me to even think about. I’m glad some expert bean counting organization is doing it, however imperfect it is.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

But if you have any better analysis feel free to post it.

 

I'm currently waiting on a shipment. The package was shipped from PHL on 31 JAN, for two day delivery. The last update on their tracking side shows 04 FEB, shipment delayed. No info between 31 JAN and 04 FEB, and nothing current two days later. I understand shipping delays, but at least post accurate updates. Better yet, don't charge for services if you can't deliver on it. I'd much rather be told up front that it was going to take a week or more.

 

Exactly. That's my main beef with them and I haven't experienced it with any carrier other than FedEx. Did all their package scanners get stolen? Did they lose the source code for their tracking algorithms? Something went haywire for them recently and it doesn't seem to be impacting any of the other carriers. If it's going to take a week or two, so be it, just don't tell me it's going to be here in two days then.

 

Probably had to do with the snowstorm. I am also waiting on a package that was due Feb 1. It hit NJ on the 29th and then sat until the 5th when it arrived in Greensboro NC. They are good at clearing snow up there so I cannot believe there was good reason for it to sit for 6 days. Oh, and it is USPS.

 

The UPS tracking site is more and more reverting to this information on shipments in their system:

On the Way

Severe Weather Delay

Two shipments I was tracking recently had real information until today, when the above was substituted for progress details. They also like 'Delivery information will be updated when available'...