Last week I had some furniture sent to me via FedEx. The seller shipped it in two boxes, which we'll call "A" and "B," and I was given an estimated delivery date of Sep/24 (Saturday) for both A and B.

According to FedEx's online tracking system, both A and B were scanned around 11:30 p.m. on Friday night as they left Portland, Oregon. Then, A was scanned in Kent, Washington (location of the local FedEx Ground facility), at 4:14 a.m. on Saturday, and B was scanned in Kent at 6:53 a.m. Six minutes later, B is scanned again as it's loaded onto a delivery truck. But A, even though it arrived earlier, was apparently never loaded for delivery.

At 10:06 a.m., FedEx delivers B to my apartment in Seattle. I spend the rest of the day at home, but A never arrives. And the estimated delivery date completely disappears on the tracking page for A.

FedEx doesn't deliver on Sunday, so I hoped that they'd realize the mistake and deliver A to me on Monday. Nope--it's still sitting in Kent and hasn't been scanned since Saturday. So I call up FedEx on Monday evening and ask what's going on.

Explanation #1: "Uh, it looks like we tried to deliver, but it was closed."

I explain that the destination is a residential address--my home doesn't "close" or "open." The FedEx phone droid types some more stuff into his computer and gives me....

Explanation #2: "Well, it looks like we already made the third and final delivery attempt, so you'll have to come and pick it up from us."

Impossible, I say. The package didn't even arrive in the Seattle area until early Saturday morning. Since FedEx doesn't deliver on Sundays, and I was calling on Monday, they would have made no more than two delivery attempts. And no, I'm not going down to Kent because of FedEx's mistake, especially given that I don't own a car.

So the phone droid asks me to hold, and I spend about 10 minutes catching up on my email. Eventually he comes back on the line and gives me....

Explanation #3: "I guess we tried to deliver at 10:16 a.m. on Saturday, but nobody was home."

Huh? I tell him that I have the tracking information for B (the other package) in front of me, and it shows delivery at 10:06 a.m.--ten minutes earlier. I didn't leave my apartment until that evening. In fact, at 10:16 a.m., I was unpacking and/or assembling the contents of B.

At this point I'm starting to get pretty annoyed. The phone droid finally tells me that he'll send a message to the Kent facility telling them to deliver A to me on Tuesday.

Now, I'm not one to shoot the messenger, and I'm not going to blame some guy who's probably at FedEx HQ in Memphis for a mistake made thousands of miles away in Washington state. But I'm not terribly happy about being given three different stories, all of them impossible, none of them consistent, and all of them contrary to the online tracking information. The phone droid either realizes that I've got him cornered or lacks the intellectual horsepower to process what I said, and he just repeats that they'll try to get it delivered on Tuesday. I realize that further discussion won't do me any good, and I end the call.

Fortunately FedEx showed up bright and early on Tuesday with A, just as I was about to leave for work, so I happily accept delivery and head out to catch the trolleybus.

Sure, mistakes happen and nobody's perfect, but if FedEx is going to give me the runaround like that, I think I'll use the UPS Store down the street for my future shipping needs.

I've used both...UPS seems to be faster.

UPS fucked me over four years ago when I was a freshman living in the dorms. I called them to have them do a pick-up. I told them where I lived and made sure to let them know I lived in a dorm. They said they would be there from 9 to 5 (ridiculous!) so my stupid ass waits that whole fucking day for them to show up. They don't, so I call them later that night, and THEN they tell me they don't do pickups from dorm rooms. WTF!

Nikster said:

Interestingly, around here FedEx seems to be quicker. If somebody sends me something via FedEx 2Day, even from the East Coast, I usually get it overnight.

FedEx has unreliable moments.

we once had a settlement check delivered to the wrong address by FedEx, even though the correct address was clearly labeled on the delivery slip and on the label. 'operator error', they said.

fortunately the nice old lady to whom it was mistakenly delivered returned our check for $150,000.00

thank goodness for the tracking information you had?

had to have been a dolt that was working the phone - why make up stories when you had the information right in front of you??
i would relay this story to fedex - is it so hard to say "we will find out the status of your delivery and get back to you"

side note - i hate ups for anything cross border. it's a little customs brokerage racket
and they have you by the balls because they have your package
why do packages through fedex cross the border without brokerage
and packages through ups always take longer and cost more to 'get through customs'???

emm said:

I imagine that FedEx has an internal tracking system that provides more information that what I can get online. Still, that doesn't explain why all three stories were both impossible and inconsistent.



I see from your profile that you're in Canada. I'm told that Canadian Customs is pretty strict when it comes to collecting duty on import shipments, even when it's a relatively small purchase. OTOH, U.S. Customs is a little more relaxed... generally, if the declared value is no more than $200, it'll be admitted duty-free. I don't know whether this is a legal requirement or whether they figure it just isn't worth trying to collect duty on every single package coming into the States.

A formal complaint letter to the President of FedEx would be a good idea, maybe they will apologize and as a peace offering give you a lifetime FedEx account, free, no charge

did you send a link to this post to fedex?

matt said:

my beef is that if i had two parcels exactly the same coming from the u.s. and one was sent ups and the other fedex...
the fedex one would be delivered the next day with no brokerage fees
the ups one would be delivered three days later and you would have to pay customs clearing fees.
you have the option to find your own customs broker but who wants to bother with that? so you allow them to "handle it" for you.
i swear it's a money racket they are running.

Wow, am I having bad luck with FedEx.

This morning, just one day after I received my lost package, I heard a knock on the door. I looked through the peephole and saw nobody. So I resumed getting dressed, grabbed my work stuff, and opened the door so I could go outside and catch the trolleybus to work.

Blocking my path was a large box that looked as if it had been run over by the trolleybus. The bottom was torn open, and I could see the metal base of a table that I had ordered. FedEx must have figured that the fluorescent orange "Fragile -- Glass" stickers all over the box were for decoration. And this wasn't some cheap table from IKEA. We're talking about a $700 bar table imported from Italy.

(I'm amazed that the seller shipped the table without requiring a signature upon delivery, but I can't blame FedEx for that.)

Luckily, the table had suffered no damage whatsoever. And there wasn't actually any glass in the box -- the table is metal and wood.

I've never had FedEx do a "knock, drop, and run" delivery, even when I'm receiving something that doesn't require a signature. My guess is that the delivery driver figured that I might refuse delivery or have him/her wait while I inspected the contents for damage.

What did I do to anger the FedEx gods?

luv4u said:

But if they keep mishandling my deliveries, would I want it?

Seriously, I was prepared to forget about the first incident, as I didn't think it was worth my time and mental energy to compose a complaint letter that would probably get me nothing more than a form letter of apology. But after what happened today, I may go ahead and write it.

I won't send it to the CEO of FedEx, though. My letter would almost certainly be intercepted and rerouted to their customer service department. In general, I don't bother going to the top unless: 1) I have some reason to believe that the boss will actually read my letter; or 2) I don't know what person or department would handle my issue, so I address the letter to the head of the company and figure that the clerical staff will redirect it appropriately.