UPS: Tracking and Customer Service Failure
Customer Service July 7th, 2008
Image via WikipediaRecently I ranted about UPS’s delays and customer service level - oh, boy, little did I know then just how bad UPS Customer Service can really get.
Four out of five packages I dropped off at the same UPS store a 2 weeks ago still showed “Billing Information Received” status a week later.  In UPS lingo this means the shipping label was created, but the package was never received by the company. There’s nothing to track, as far as UPS is concerned, the package really doesn’t exist. This was what the Customer Service agent repeatedly told me anyway, further explaining that the only way this could have happened if I either did not send the packages at all, or did not properly attach the labels.
Of course she did not have an explanation on how the fifth package safely arrived in the meantime - after all, I did not dropped them off at UPS according to her theory. If it’s not in the system, it doesn’t exist. Only when I asked her if she was accusing me of lying did she change tone, and recommended we put a tracer on the lost packages. Since these were returns to ShoeBuy using their return labels, they were considered the shipper, not me, so they had to initiate the trace.
ShoeBuy is a company with amazingly good Customer Service - since Zappos is often referred to as to epitome of Customer Service, let’s just say ShoeBuy is like Zappos, often with lower prices.
They picked up my email immediately, and they probably carry some weight with UPS, since the non-existent packages were found in no time. The tracking information below tells the whole story:
The packages never entered UPS’s tracking system, there’s no sign whatsoever that I ever sent them from California, yet they miraculously showed up at the destination, ready for delivery upon ShoeBuy’s inquiry. So much for the rock-solid tracking system…I understand the first step, i.e a UPS store clerk forgetting to scan the received packages, which then got loaded on the truck anyway, but how were 4 packages then able to bypass all further stages of scanning?
But let’s finish this post on a positive note: it’s a story of good Customer Service, after all - just not by UPS. ShoeBuy, upon finding what happened, immediately refunded my money, before they even received the packages from UPS. Wow! They know something about keeping customers happy.
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Tags: customer disservice, Customer Service, shoebuy, tracking, UPS, upssucks, zappos
Zoli Erdos
RS and ARS labels dont get scanned because new employees dont know that they are actually real labels. where in the building they use similar ones that for bulk items. so before you go blaming the company just think how a person(s) mistake can make a whole thing look worse(because you know you get shity people no matter what company you deal with it the luck of the drawl)
I am in the midst of a similar experience. I shipped a handheld PDA through a UPS store, and shipped 200 miles via UPS Ground to my daughte at Texas A&M in south Texas. Delivery was promised by Thursday @ 7 pm, as she needed it for a Friday class. But it was never scanned into the system in the Dallas area on Wednesday, then after being “lost” for about 30 hours, it miraculously turned up via UPS’ first scan in MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA! UPS officials are at a loss to explain how an unscanned package can “stowaway” and end up 1000 miles away. The package is now scheduled for Saturday delivery via UPS air from Alabama, but there is NO EXCUSE for this package to have ever left the state of Texas! Ridiculous!!!
I am so sick of UPS losing packages and sending me bills for packages that were PREPAID!!! Obviously, their management team is made up of total idiots.
I sent 3 packages out on July 8th. 2 of them arrived on time but the 3rd is still missing in action, and I was told this morning that I can’t file my claim loss because I don’t have the original invoice. Well, when I placed the call to have these packages picked up, I was told that the driver would have the proper forms on the truck for me to fill out.
Again, management should have made sure that the trucks were fully stocked with the NECESSARY materials needed to do the job but of course the driver did not have what was needed. He told me to simply write all of the address information on the boxes and that someone from the terminal would call later that evening with the tracking numbers. I have a tracking number that simply says “Exception” when you pull it up on the website.
UPS-WHAT A JOKE It’s too bad that they put BullSh*t as their main priority.
The problem is that this 100 year old company is a monopoly. If you work at the hub (where packages are sorted) you’ll find outside of supervisors most workers are like drones. And the union is “not” really any help…they will only spend money if they can make a 2/3 roi. So if customer service sucks, that’s because the workplace is like a plantation!
How does a parcel get shipped without scans still get delivered? Simple! It just means that the humans who sorted it failed to scan it when they moved it, but that they still made the right delivery decisions. In this case, the package was likely merrily on its way to its destination (or already there) and was updated manually after the fact so you could click on a webpage and be happy. In fact here’s betting it was updated so quickly because it was already at shoebuy!!
On a seperate note, a 7 day ground delivery from CA to MA doesn’t seem slow to me… I’d be surprised if the return label was for anything but the slowest service possible, if I were shoebuy I know I wouldn’t be in a rush to get your returns…
Paul, I agree, UPS personnel made the right decisions…but this, and other incidents I read make me wonder if they easily fall back to secondary (manual) method since they got used to not trusting the system.
My next mishandled UPS delivery just three weeks later was a lot worse:
- From NY it went to Southern CA instead of Northern CA.
- Traveled in the LA area for 2 days
- Next week showed up in Sacramento in instead of the SF area.
- I started calling UPS, they saw something was wrong, but again told me I had to get the vendor initiate a trace.
- While waiting for that, two days later the package showed up in Vancouver, WA.
- Next day it showed “out for delivery” status, which was completely impossible. Called UPS, who confirmed I should believe the status, pkg. would get all the way down here by the evening.
- few hours later they woke up, updated status and took two more days to bring it down here.
Bottom line: the package was traveling around in CA and WA for 9 additional days AFTER it arrived to CA, and after UPS was told several times it was going the wrong way.
All 5 of my online purchased from different vendors in the month of august have had no UPS tracking updates beyond the label information received.
It appears that UPS has a new policy to simply ignore tracking (at least for ground parcels). USPS generally does the same thing, showing the label creation and not updating tracking except to show when a package has been received. Highly annoying.
How about UPS delivering my package that never left my desk!?!! I cancelled my shipment and pickup requests. Seven days later it shows my package arrived; they even have a signature!! The UPS supervisor “called the company” that signed for the package, and the company said I returned both items I ordered. Ha! I was only returning one item that still sits at my desk! The company I work for ‘used’ (past tense) UPS services for the nine years I’ve been there. I am the one who processed the shipments. Now Fed Ex, or any one else, has our business! It is very obvious to me that UPS has tracking issues and absolutely poor customer service!
i recently bought a pair of shorts from oldnavy and it was shipped by UPS.the arrival date was set for tuesday and i placed it on the weekend.it stated that ever since the 22 it has been in new jersey and today is the 26i called and complained and the bitch had the nerve to say it was probably lost.come on man if the bitch had to say that then there must have been billions of lost packages.they really suck balls