Drop UPS from your options and go with FEDEX, it will save you lots of aggravation and wasted time.
I had something printed for a very important event and a very important client and we needed it delivered by friday since the event was sunday. Monday, June 18th, I tracked the package and it was shipped off...perfect. Plenty of time to get it there by Friday, June 22nd. I kept checking the tracking info to make sure everything was going smoothly and going to be there on time at 3:30pm. 4:30 comes along and nothing changed in the tracking and no package. 5:30 comes along and no package but the time delivered changes to end of day. 6:30 comes along and no package but I see another change in tracking saying they need the correct address yet neither I, the printer, nor the client got a notice or phone call.
I tried to get a hold of someone at customer service and waited on the phone for about 15 minutes, then they disconnected me. While I'm on the phone, the client submits the correct address and waits. I call customer service again and get through to a human being, but its to late to have the package delivered and its to late to schedule a pickup at the ups store since the cut off is 7pm so I look at my watch and its 7:10pm. I was very politely and asked them make an acceptation and let me come pick up the package at the store, its for a very important event for a very important client and they say there's nothing they could do politely. I begged and pleaded and still got nothing. Just to be clear, I'm not pissed at the customer service guy, I'm extremely mad at UPS for their shitty system and their bogus policies. I said I know your following your rules so please connect me to your supervisor, the customer service guy says he can't, I ask for a direct number to the Jackson customer service center (where the truck was going back to) so I could try and get them to hold the package and customer service said they don't have phone number for the stores, they only contact them through the system. So my only option was to re-schedule delivery for monday, a day to late, and I tracked it this morning... of course it would say by end of day monday... when is the end of day to a UPS driver, because when I asked several people within the UPS company they all gave me different times (6pm, 7pm, 9pm).
I hang up with the customer service and call my buddy who is a UPS driver in the burbs to see if he knows of a way around this crap and he says nothing they could do. He also told me that drivers has all the contact info of the sender and receiver and should have called one of them or at least Googled the clients business name that was on the package. My buddy told me that's what he does, it takes only like 2 minutes and everyone has a smart phone these days.
Considering the driver had the phone number, correct street, correct city, correct zip and the major businesses name, I'm extremely surprised this idiot couldn't figure out that he needed to go 3 block further to deliver the package!!! And if he didn't have a smart phone, he still has a mouth and could have asked someone at the other wrong place or on the street if they know where this major company is located.
I'll never use UPS to deliver any package to or from Chicago again. read more