UPS = +++++CARRIER LOST+++++

As the people who follow me on Twitter know by now I have had some issues with my PS3 and by extension UPS.

A quick rundown of events: Shortly after the warranty on my PS3 expired from Sony it began having issues. Disc read errors, not able to install mandatory installs for games such as Resident Evil 5, which is when all this mess started.

Times are tough and I don’t exactly have $150 just waiting to spend on a repair, so I found workarounds (none that void warranty) to play my games. This was all grand until the disc drive in the PS3 just finally went kaput and wouldn’t read anything at all anymore. I tried calling Sony, but they don’t have an easily found phone number for support on their website (although they did send it to me through email so here it is for all of you who need it: Sony Support Phone Number) so I had to use the online service form, which has issues unto itself.

After getting the service all set up they told me they were sending a return box via UPS 2-day air, and that I had 30 days to get the box to them before all manner of hoop jumping would come about for service. I was given the tracking number and awaited the delivery.

This occurred on Friday, December 4th.  I understand it is the day before a weekend, and realized that the box probably wouldn’t ship until Monday.

As I tracked the progress of the package an event beyond the scope of anyone happened: BLIZZARD!!! Yes, we had a winter weather advisory that came through the midwest, and the amount of snow that dropped on the Twin Cities made just about everything slow to a crawl. Of course, this would have been the day the box was to arrive; Wednesday, December 9th.

The package got rerouted back out from Minneapolis, MN to Des Moines, IA then sent back to MN to be delivered the next day (Thursday, December 10th). I would not find this out until Friday, December 11th.

As you can see above, UPS states that the package was delivered to my porch at 5:59pm on Thursday, December 10th. There are a few problems with this:

1. We were home, my wife and I, at this time. My wife was making dinner. Our doorbells do not work, but there was no knock on the door at all. We would have heard it.

2. We don’t have a porch, even those that are considered a porch in Minnesota. The front of our “porch” is our front door. We always, even when in the house, have our front and back doors locked. There is no way anyone can leave anything inside and/or on our “porch”.

3. All deliveries, due to the layout of the neighborhood, that are to be left unattended are to be left at the back door, on the back steps, away from the view of the street. This is the common and known practice for the area. We always sweep and remove any snow or ice from our back steps for deliveries and entry/exit of our house. UPS has delivered here before and has left packages in the exact spot described above without any notice to do so, which means they are aware of and practice this type of delivery for the Twin Cities.

So why am I bitching about this if the package arrived? Because the package DID NOT arrive. At all. It wasn’t here.

With the snowfall we had just been blanketed with you can easily see any person who had approached the house via footprints. The only footprints when I went outside to search the areas where a UPS driver could have left this package were the normal footprints from the USPS delivery driver.

How do I know those were the USPS instead of UPS? The USPS follows the same path everyday. He parks at the end of the street and works his way down the numbers, going from house to house via yards. His path is always coming from our neighbors with the next number up on our side of the street. A UPS driver would not follow that path; he would either come up the steps from the street, or if he was delivering where he was supposed to up the driveway to the back door.

There were no other footprints but the USPS until mine were added searching for the package.

After finding no package and no physical proof that a UPS man had been here at anytime whatsoever (including a search of neighboring houses and their front yards for footprints to provide a wrong address delivery issue) I called UPS’s support line. The conversation went something like this (paraphrasing as there was no dictation for the call):

Me: *saying all sorts of prompts to get to a human for 30 minutes*

UPS: *a complete set of automated, voice-activated prompts that you have to say the wrong thing to 20 times before the option to talk to a human shows up*

UPS: “Hello, this is [person_whose_name_is_unintelligible]. How can I help you?”

Me: “Yes, I have a problem with a package, the one that is on your screen. The problem is that the package shows delivered, but I have no package. It is not here. It has not been delivered.”

UPS: “We are sorry you lost your package, sir.”

Before I get to the rest of the conversation I want to interject something here. You are sorry that I lost my package? I didn’t lose a damned thing, UPS lost it. If I had lost it I wouldn’t be calling you now, would I? Back to the conversation….

Me: “I would like to know where it is or how we can find it as it is a time sensitive package, that was sent 2nd day air. I understand we had some adverse weather conditions but the tracking shows it was delivered yesterday, and it is still not here today.”

UPS: “You will need to contact the shipper and have them contact us before we can find out where it is, sir.”

So I have to contact a massive corporation to have them find one little package, when I am right here telling you that it is lost? You could just mark it as lost and start the investigation right now as you have done in the past when I have had packages lost when your service has been used, but I guess times are changing…

Me: “Why do I need to contact them to have you folks find out where a package that you said is delivered, but is not delivered, is?”

UPS: “We are sorry you lost your package, sir, but you need to contact the shipper and have them contact us before we can find out where it is.”

Me: “Thanks. I will contact Sony.”

Again, the blame lies on me. I am the one who lost the package that I never received, I am the one responsible for creating this mess.

I contacted Sony, through their online support system again, and sent them a note with every bit of information that could possibly be needed for them to contact UPS or to send a new box. They needed me to verify my shipping address, yet requested this via a non-responding email address. I had to go back through the online support system to send another message with the correct address. I got an email this morning with the actual contact information linked above.

Problem? The point is moot now.

Why? Because as of 3:14pm Monday, December 14th guess what was left on the front steps in the snow?

Yes, that would be the package that was delivered on Thursday, December 10th; a whole four calendar days (two business days) before it magically appeared on my “porch”. I was home and again there was no knock.

What is on the bottom of that box?

Notice anything else wrong with this box?

The box has been opened. While pictures cannot tell a person who is reading this how I know the box has been opened, allow my expertise in shipping items via any carrier guide you:

1. The end of the strap of tape is peeled back. This is not your normal wear and tear peel back, but a peel back done by a fingernail or a blade to minimize the amount of damage done to a box to see the contents inside.

2. To add to that assertion above, the strap of tape is split down the center. When someone opens a box they are knowingly receiving they almost always cut along the seam, opening the tape with the contours of the box. With the peeling of the bottom of the strap along with the split going against the natural motion of opening a box, this was opened by a human. The non-uniform split is a sign of a human hand pulling on tape.

3. The bottom of the tape, the part that sticks to the box, is covered in cardboard fiber. While this is not unusual unto itself when added in with the #1 and #2, mixed with the tape being loose as it is, the tape could not have stuck back to the box properly because the fibers holding it were broken.

There is also the aforementioned snow on the bottom of the box showing that the driver who made this package magically appear on my steps four calendar days after it was delivered did indeed leave it in snow.

Let us back up for a moment, to the assertion that perhaps the address was wrong. It wasn’t. I can’t completely prove that here without revealing my actual address, of which I hope no one is stupid enough to ever release their complete address online, but the labels in the photo below do indeed include the correct address.

As you can see in that photo, and as has been stated above, the package was shipped via UPS 2nd-day-air. Counting in non-Saturday delivery, it being shipped on Friday, December 4th, most likely not picked up until Monday, December 7th, add in the adverse weather conditions on Wednesday, December 9th and the delivery date should be as the tracking info suggests: Thursday, December 10th.

UPS even guarantees that their 2nd-day-air packages will arrive on the second day, barring adverse weather conditions that happened:

I am sure many of you are saying or thinking, “Why is this guy going so nuts on this thing? He got his package. He should be happy.”

Yes, I got the package. Yes, I am happy I can send my PS3 in for service now even though I have to use UPS to do it.

The reason(s) I am so pissed:

1. The fact that the UPS representative on the phone readily blamed the lost package on me. I used to sell custom computers. If I took an order from a customer for a computer to be delivered on a certain day, built the machine, then told them it was delivered on that day but it wasn’t actually delivered, do you think I could get away with saying that the customer is at fault for the machine not being in their possession? No, the cops would have been called and I would be in the middle of a fraud investigation even if the machine magically appeared on their snowy steps four calendar days later.

2. UPS guarantees delivery times. I understand the adverse weather conditions but when UPS marks the package as delivered within the guaranteed time frame yet it is not here, then magically shows up four calendar days later it makes one think that perhaps the driver in this equation has been marking packages as delivered to keep UPS in the clear on their guarantee. Whether it be to keep his/her job as they are a lousy delivery driver, the local manager has put a mandate on delivery, or some other reason that I am not privy to for creating the appearance of excellent service when the service was actually poor and against their own guidelines and guarantees.

3. Future shipment. Is this going to be repeated when the PS3 is sent back to me from service? Am I going to find myself with a delivered but not actually there repaired machine, to where I have to go through all of this crap again? If it does happen again will the package magically appear four calendar days later or will it just stay gone because the box now has something in it? The box was opened on the first round, which disturbs me, what is to stop it from happening the second round? As well, will the machine be left in the snow again? Instead of an empty box I will have a repaired machine that will be sitting in cold and/or melting snow which is in no way good for the machine itself. Will it be left in plain view again so that any person walking by can just snag it and get themselves a wonderfully repaired free PS3?

Call me overly reactionary. Call me paranoid. All I ask is that a company/corporation keeps within their own guidelines and has a little bit of customer service to any customer who has an issue, no matter the size of the issue. UPS is one of the biggest shippers of packages in the US, and the world, today. I used to ship exclusively through them until issue after issue kept popping up and I lost faith in their service. I abhor when other people use UPS to ship items to me but I have never experienced such a low in customer service or satisfaction from UPS until now.

The above list of complaints is nothing that can’t be rectified by using some common sense. I am more than willing to let UPS and their agents borrow some of mine in their pursuit of customer service.

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