Does UPS Have Deep Systematic Problems?
Business, Technology July 26th, 2008
(Updated… a lot)
Recently I’ve seen signs that may suggest the occasional UPS glitches are not-so-occasional, and there may be deeper systematic problems with our favorite delivery service.  The brown truck driver is as friendly as he ever was - it’s the systems that appear to s***w customers left and right.
First there was the unreasonable delay within California, then the case of the “lost” packages, a systems failure compounded by rude customer service:
- Four out of five packages I dropped off at the same UPS store disappeared - i.e. they were never entered in UPS’s tracking system.
- Since the system is always right, customer service accused me of never having shipped them in the first place, then of not applying the labels properly.
- When the recipient, Shoebuy.com, a major UPS customer initiated a trace, the previously non-existent packages miraculously all showed up at the destination UPS center, without any indication how they got there.
The above example may not be rare, as demonstrated by this commenter:
Texas-to-Texas package disappeared (was never scanned in) and 30 hours later showed up in Alabama. UPS has no clue how it got there.
Finally, my third shipping experience within a month: I’m expecting a Sony Reader sent from NY to CA. It was originally due to arrive on 7/28 but now I see it’d rescheduled for 7/29. A one-day delay is not the end of the world, until you look at the details:
-The package arrived at Vernon, CA Thursday, 7/24.
-Next arrival scan is in Los Angeles, Friday 7/25 evening. (Great progress!)
Now, I don’t know why it sat a full day virtually in the same place, but even with this delay, if it’s in Los Angeles on Friday, why on Earth can I not receive it on Monday in the San Francisco Bay Area?  Why the Tuesday delivery? That’s 5 days within California!
Admittedly my statistical sample is rather small, but 3 failures out of 3 deliveries within a months suggests these may not have been accidents, UPS may just have more serious logistic / system problems than they care to admit.
Update: Rob’s story below is so shocking, anything I’ve experienced pails in comparison. You just HAVE to read it in full.
Update #2: On second thought, it’s a story worth bringing it up to here in full:
I’ve got one for you….
My sister-in-law has MS and receives very expensive injections delivered once a month, packed in dry ice because it has to stay refrigerated.
My sister-in-law lives with her mother. Well, her mother had decided to cancel her Dish Network subscription. Dish told her to put all of the hardware in a box and they would pay to ship it back to them via UPS. Only problem was, there was no hardware to return since she had already done that through the retail store. Dish claims that they notified UPS to cancel the pick-up…given the rest of this debacle, I’m inclined to agree with them.
Meanwhile, my sister-in-law gets her medication delivered via FedEx (because there’s no way UPS could get it there in time before the ice pack failed). FedEx leaves the package containing the medication on the front porch.
Now, UPS shows up a little bit later and TAKES THE WRONG PACKAGE. Apparently, the instruction to cancel the pickup never made it to the driver. The package they took was clearly in a FedEx box, with FedEx shipping labels, etc. There were no UPS shipping labels anywhere. UPS essentially stole her medications right off of their porch.
You would think, given their commercials about “delivery intercept”…you know, “there’s a problem with the gizmos” that it would be a simple matter to stop the package and turn it around….NOPE. Their advice was to call FedEx (what the *&!@^ does FedEx have to do with it and to call the pharmacy to get a replacement). They said that it was en route to Dish Network and they couldn’t stop it, but that Dish could send it back (which Dish would have to pay for…how is it Dish’s problem?). The problem, which was explained to them, is that by the time all that happens, the medications will have reached ambient temperatures and will be useless and that my sister’s insurance wont pay for the $1500 meds twice in one month.
They eventually rectified the situation by reimbursing my sister the money, but only after she paid out of pocket to get the replacements and after spending countless hours on the phone with UPS customer service.
What can Brown do for you? I don’t know, but I know what I’d like to do to brown….
Update (7/29): Today is the rescheduled delivery date. The latest scan info shows yesterday my package was in Sacramento, 90 miles NE of me (remember, it was coming from LA, South!). I smell another re-schedule 
Update (7/29 evening): UPS just confirmed they really have no clue where the package is and recommended I contact the sender, as only they can initiate a trace. Deja vu
Update (7/30): The sender initiated a trace and the expected delivery date field completely disappeared. A few hours later new scan information showed up: Out for delivery.  This means I should get it today. Hooray! Except… the package is in Vancouver, WA, and I am in California.  If UPS keeps on randomly driving around the West Coast, they might just accidentally find me one day
Update (7/30): I called UPS with my concern that it cannot possibly be “out for delivery” from Vancouver, WA. They confirmed I should ignore the status, the package indeed will find my way to CA today. Yeah, right.  A few hours later someone woke up. Now delivery is rescheduled for the third time, adding two more days, with this status message:
| VANCOUVER, WA, US |
07/30/2008 | 10:43 A.M. | INCORRECT ROUTING AT UPS FACILITY / THE PACKAGE WAS MISSORTED AT THE HUB. IT HAS BEEN REROUTED TO THE CORRECT DESTINATION SITE |
| 07/30/2008 | 7:25 A.M. | OUT FOR DELIVERY |
This is beyond pathetic…
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Tags: customer disservice, Customer Service, delivery, DHL, failure, FedEX, logistic, shipping, system failure, UPS, upssucks, usps
Zoli Erdos
I’ve got one for you….
My sister-in-law has MS and receives very expensive injections delivered once a month, packed in dry ice because it has to stay refrigerated.
My sister-in-law lives with her mother. Well, her mother had decided to cancel her Dish Network subscription. Dish told her to put all of the hardware in a box and they would pay to ship it back to them via UPS. Only problem was, there was no hardware to return since she had already done that through the retail store. Dish claims that they notified UPS to cancel the pick-up…given the rest of this debacle, I’m inclined to agree with them.
Meanwhile, my sister-in-law gets her medication delivered via FedEx (because there’s no way UPS could get it there in time before the ice pack failed). FedEx leaves the package containing the medication on the front porch.
Now, UPS shows up a little bit later and TAKES THE WRONG PACKAGE. Apparently, the instruction to cancel the pickup never made it to the driver. The package they took was clearly in a FedEx box, with FedEx shipping labels, etc. There were no UPS shipping labels anywhere. UPS essentially stole her medications right off of their porch.
You would think, given their commercials about “delivery intercept”…you know, “there’s a problem with the gizmos” that it would be a simple matter to stop the package and turn it around….NOPE. Their advice was to call FedEx (what the *&!@^ does FedEx have to do with it and to call the pharmacy to get a replacement). They said that it was en route to Dish Network and they couldn’t stop it, but that Dish could send it back (which Dish would have to pay for…how is it Dish’s problem?). The problem, which was explained to them, is that by the time all that happens, the medications will have reached ambient temperatures and will be useless and that my sister’s insurance wont pay for the $1500 meds twice in one month.
They eventually rectified the situation by reimbursing my sister the money, but only after she paid out of pocket to get the replacements and after spending countless hours on the phone with UPS customer service.
What can Brown do for you? I don’t know, but I know what I’d like to do to brown….
That’s shocking… I’ve linked to it from the post.
Zoli,
I also had a horrible experience recently with UPS.
For 4 consecutive days UPS said that they will deliver the package today, but somehow it never could get scanned and get onto the truck. Customer service folks ,though courteous, were not helpful. Finally I dug my heels in and kept escalating, finally I talked to the right people. And it finally got delivered.
Not using UPS again. Till get the delivery system back on track.
-Vic Podcaster
Vic,
You have a choice as a sender, but as an online customer, you typically don’t: most vendors just use UPS
[...] other week I wrote a tale about DHLs almost comic ineptitude. The other day Zoli declares UPS to be pretty poor. A couple of days back I give a (sort of) muted thumbs up for FedEx. What I should’ve said is [...]
I found UPS to have no concern dfor the customer. If you have a bad franchise owner neither UPS, or UPS store will listen to the customer. I don’t see how a business who disregards its customer the way they do can stay in business.
It’s been a while since I stopped using UPS in favor of a local delivery service but it amazes me to hear of such rumblings. Prior to making the switch I never encountered any problems with any of the stuff I shipped through them but its disheartening to see such things happen. I’m wondering if some of the more recently adopted technology is causing glitches or has some bugs that have yet to be worked out.
Great feedback. Just thought I would add my UPS experience. My husband is a package car driver for UPS so I get the daily update. In fact, it is important to mention that he delivers such medications at least weekly and customer service reaches out to him to meet the owners in parking lots, restaurants, etc. if he misses them at home. I recognize that all people at times have problems with shipping, but it has been his experience that all customers (especially businesses) that switch to DHL or FedEx due to pricing or poor service are right back to UPS within a year, two tops. Think of the old saying that democracy is the worst form of government, except for the rest. UPS is the worst shipping company in the world, until you evaluate your other choices…Fedex, DHL, US Postal Service, etc.
Seems like UPS has problems delivering large packages, or at least updating the status. my status hasn’t been updated in 5 days, where it was last seen in IL — today is the scheduled delivery date, but it doesn’t even show as being scanned at Vernon [which, I surmise as the main hub here in SoCal, since it arrives there then gets routed to another distribution center for delivery].
We’ll see if it actually arrives. the last 3 packages i’ve gotten from them have arrived on time, but their status was updated frequently, also….but they were also very small packages. this new package is a big box of car parts, which I doubt will arrive on time..because, well, it’s UPS. they probably couldn’t be bothered loading and unloading such a large package to be delivered on time.
Yes UPS Still sucks. I had a package overnighted several days ago. In fact yesterday it was just two hours from my home. But it is just sitting in some container and has been shipped even further from my home where it has continued to sit for over 12hrs now. This package contained cultures that cost $500 and can only exist outside the fridge for 24-48 hrs. Letting customer service know this for the last two days and they just tell me there is no more info on their computer screen and to get lost. Well I hope UPS collapses and no one ever uses this company again. If you have something to ship that needs to get their overnight good luck, the rep eventually told me one in ten packages don’t make it on time. If I had realized how much I was gambling by using UPS I would have given it a second thought.
UPS - Utterly Pathetic Service. I could write an essay of the problems I have had with this company. 4 out of the last 5 shipments have been service failures, 1 they didn’t even pick up, 1 they couldn’t find for 3 days, 1 they sent ground when it was a 2 day service and 1 they still can’t explain why it took 6 days to get to the customer. I refuse to use them and only if it is a customer request. The CSR’s are completely useless and will absolutely not investigate any trouble with your shipments until you ask for a supervisor, then all of a sudden they have more information for you.
Nicole you stand by your hubby honey but UPS would have to be the last man standing (which it cannot possibly be the way it is run) before I voluntarily use them for my customers.