UPS Package Delivery Fail (AKA: Technology Is Hard)

by joeheg

Flashback to a time where you’d never imagine buying anything expensive online. You might order some CDs or books but nothing of great value. That’s not the case today where people get $1000+ phones, computers, TV’s and everything else delivered right to your front door.

That’s fine if you’re home but do you really want your new purple iPhone sitting in a box outside of your house until you get back? It’s even worse if you’re out of town. Not only is your expensive item sitting outside waiting to get stolen, but it’s also a clear sign to a crook that you’re not home.

It’s not hard to let the major delivery services know that you’re not going to be home but how does the service work in real life?

Having the US Post Office hold your mail works great. Once you let them know the dates, they’ll hold your mail until you get home and then either deliver it to your home or you can pick it up at the Post Office.

I had my first opportunity to try our UPS’ My Choice service when I received an email saying a package was scheduled to arrive while we would be out of town.

a screenshot of a mail

This was when I tried to tell UPS to reroute this shipment to my local UPS Store, which they said they could do for a fee of  $9.99 per package.  I signed up for the service because I wanted to see how it worked and I’d be able to let you know if it was worth it or not.

The day before the package was set to be delivered, I received this email.

a screenshot of a mail

I clicked on Redirect Now. Maybe they’d let me do it for free since they were the ones offering the service. No dice, they still wanted the $10 which I thought was odd since I already had told them to forward my package.

Then I received this email.

a white box with black text

Instead of Friday, my package would be arriving on Monday which was the day we were driving home.

a screenshot of a mail

We still wouldn’t be home on time so I left the order to forward the package in place. When we arrived home, I found the “Sorry we missed you” post-it note from UPS on our front door. I also received this email.

a white box with black text

It turns out, this package wasn’t eligible for forwarding to a UPS Access Point for pickup. The main reason I didn’t want it sitting outside was that this package was coming from Willamette Valley, Oregon and contained our twice-yearly shipment from Backroads Wine Club. Ever since we visited the area and took a tour with them, we’ve been members and receive some amazing wines from smaller wineries that you can’t find in stores.

Florida heat and wine aren’t friends so I didn’t want the box sitting in a truck for an extra day. But that’s exactly what happened. We were home on Tuesday and received our shipment.

a screen shot of a package

I get why UPS will not allow packages that require ID verification to be picked up at UPS Access Point locations. If it’s a UPS Store, I don’t understand as much because you’ll have to see a person to pick it up but whatever.

Why doesn’t UPS’ system flag these packages as non-forwardable. Remember, they twice offered to redirect my package in their emails.

Even if they can’t get that together, why can’t I tell them not to deliver a package on a day and to hold it until tomorrow? Isn’t it a waste of resources to load my box onto the truck, have the driver come to my house just to leave a sticky note on the door when I already told them I wouldn’t be home?  That’s all I wanted and they couldn’t even manage to do that.

I’ll have to ponder this while sipping on some Pinot Noir from Oregon.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

2 comments

Anthony Fantino May 13, 2021 - 9:58 am

I frequently buy wine from many sites online, which means I might have a problem but it comes via Fedex and they offer to change the delivery location to a Fedex store or a Walgreens when I am checking out.

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Liberty and Freedom May 13, 2021 - 9:58 am

Wait until an expensive item in UPS doesn’t get delivered at all. Then the real fun begins. Worst customer “service” ever.

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