Federal Express Sucks

On the night of September 25, I ordered some dog supplies from JeffersPet. I’d heard on the Chihuahua list that someone had a chihuahua who absolutely loved the little piggy stuffed animal from JeffersPet, made especially for small dogs, and had already gone through 3 of them during her first year. Her owner had ordered 30 (yes, thirty) more piggies for her because they were being discontinued, and I felt certain that Paco and Mina would joyfully welcome a tiny toy like this.

So I ordered a little lamb and a little duck, which were the only shapes they had left. I also picked up some treats, because what chihuahua can go for long without trying some freeze-dried ice cream? Total cost of my purchase was $39.95, not including the $5.95 shipping charge.

On September 28, I got an email from JeffersPet letting me know that my package had been shipped out that morning via FedEx. I clicked on the link to track my package, and read that it was due to be delivered the following day.

Yippee!

Not so fast. September 29th came and went without any FedEx package showing up. On October 2, I called FedEx because I saw online that my package was due to be delivered October 5 now, due to an “incorrect address.”

I called FedEx Ground, and was transferred to FedEx Home Delivery. They verified that my address was correct, and I told them our street had been built a year and a half ago. I gave them directions to our street, and mentioned that FedEx Express and UPS hadn’t had any trouble finding our house months ago. They explained that FedEx Express was a different division from FedEx Home Delivery. They weren’t sure when the package would be redelivered, and they said that they had sent out a postcard to my house telling me that my address was incorrect. (Gripe Number One: What’s the point of sending a postcard to an address you think is incorrect? And Gripe Number Two: I still haven’t received any postcard from them as of today.)

The next day, I received two separate calls from FedEx on my answering machine. The first call was from a man who said that the FedEx terminal manager where my package was being held, would be calling to let me know when my package would be delivered. The second call was from the terminal manager, who said that they had received the directions and that the package would be redelivered the next day, on October 4, or perhaps October 5.

Nothing showed up.

On Friday, October 5, I looked online and found that my package now had a redelivery date of October 10, and said “incorrect address” again. This time I called FedEx Home Delivery, and they transferred me to FedEx Ground (so much for trying to figure out what department I should be calling).

The FedEx operator I spoke to called up the terminal manager, and then reported back to me that the manager, Susan, knew about my package and was very upset because the driver who currently had my package had turned in his two weeks’ notice that day. She did not know if he had even tried to look for my house, or had just scanned in a new delivery date because he didn’t want to bother.

Because the drivers take the trucks home with them, the operator said that the terminal manager would take the package off the truck the next morning, and would hand deliver it to my house on Saturday since the terminal was only one town over from mine. I asked if there was a possibility the driver might not show up in the morning at the terminal, and was assured that this was not possible.

Then I called JeffersPet, and spoke to Amy to ask if I could get my shipping refunded. She said she would have to speak to her supervisor on Monday, and asked if I wanted her to call FedEx. I said, “No, that’s okay. They said they would hand deliver it tomorrow. But if it doesn’t show up, I’ll call you again.” Ha Ha. It was a joke, because what were the chances that FedEx would screw up again?

It was a good thing I’d had that laugh, because I needed it the next day when, you guessed it, nothing showed up.

At 5 PM on Saturday, I called JeffersPet again. They called FedEx, and said that whoever they’d spoken to had said it was still going to be delivered today, as they delivered up to 7 PM.

At 7:45 PM, I called FedEx. The woman I spoke to said she would call the dispatcher, have him locate the driver, then have the dispatcher call me back.

Ah, if only there were a happier end to this story, and someone had called poor Jane that night!

On Sunday, I called JeffersPet again, and was told that all they could do was have FedEx send back the package and then JeffersPet would resend it. They also said that if I ordered again from them, I could specify UPS as my shipper in the comments section, and that there shouldn’t be a problem getting my shipping refunded for this package.

I called FedEx and spoke to a woman who told me there was nothing she could do as the terminal was closed. She had no idea what happened and why no dispatcher had called me the night before, or if anyone had tried to deliver to me on Saturday as promised, and said I had to call back Tuesday morning, October 9, and find out what happened. They couldn’t track it for me or call me; I had to call back.

I asked her if she could cancel the package and have it sent back, and she said yes, so I did that. I called JeffersPet and asked them to resend my package UPS, which they said they would do on Monday.

Today, one and a half weeks from my original delivery date and no package later, I received a call from Frank, the JeffersPet sales rep at FedEx. He apologized for what happened, and stressed that it wasn’t JeffersPet’s fault, but entirely their own fault at FedEx. He also asked me what happened, and said that he’d had different information from the terminal manager. Apparently she’d had the same driver take my package out Saturday, even after he failed to deliver it Friday.

Ah, America, the land where if at first you fail, try, try again to fail!

Frank said he would follow up on what happened, and that FedEx had recently purchased another company that was now their FedEx Home Delivery service which was meant to deliver specifically from businesses to homes. And that they hadn’t given this other company the FedEx name until they were sure that it was worthy of it, but clearly I hadn’t had good service from them.

He also offered to have my package resent FedEx Express, paid by himself, if it hadn’t already been sent out UPS, and said he would follow up to make sure this new one got delivered. Or would I be interested in having my original package redelivered if it hadn’t already been sent back?

I explained to him that I had spoken to 7 or 8 different people in different divisions of FedEx, and had only had good service from one of them–the terminal manager who had offered to hand deliver my package, and that, of course, had not even happened. So at this point, I was writing off the original package.

I also told him that I would have been willing to pick up my package, only no one had been able to tell me when my package would actually be there. And after a while, I’d wanted to see if they would even make an effort to find my house.

Express delivery was fine by me, but I thought my package had already been sent out by UPS.

The United States postman, who is not paid any extra money by us, has no trouble finding our house every day. The police in our town know our street. UPS and FedEx have both delivered to our house in the past, although they did have to call us first sometimes, to ask for directions. (When I mentioned that to FedEx, the woman said they had no phone number on file for me, so they’d had no way of reaching me. But then someone called me the next day from FedEx, so apparently they could have called me for directions earlier.)

Other service people have managed to find their way to our house, though we did once have someone who called from his car phone, and then said he’d gotten the police to escort him there.

Apparently it was too much for FedEx to ask for directions, from me or anyone else, or to even follow them when I contacted them.

The Good Service Award of the Day goes to JeffersPet, who followed up with their sales rep at FedEx even though I had spent less than $40 with them, and to Frank the sales rep who has that rare ability to claim responsibility for his company’s mistake, and to do what he can to rectify it.

Bad Service Award of the YEAR goes to FedEx in general, and FedEx Home Delivery in particular. I will never use FedEx again, and frankly, after all this effort, the freeze-dried ice cream better be damned good.

10/10/01

Update 10/12/01:

I called JeffersPet today because it has been 5 days since they resent my package UPS. Amy said that THEY SENT THE SECOND PACKAGE OUT FEDEX. Again. And clearly, it has not made its way back here again.

I confirmed last Sunday and Monday with 2 separate representatives of JeffersPet that my package would be resent on Monday UPS. Amy said today that they did say it was UPS but the warehouse people have the option to change the shipping carrier if another one is cheaper, which evidently they did.

Amy said the package should have arrived by now, and that the best they could do was resend it Express and have it here Monday. Nice, but you know what? What I was more concerned about is that even knowing I’d already had a problem with FedEx, they still didn’t bother making sure it went out UPS! AND that FedEx has gotten more than a second chance to rectify this error. They’ve gotten 4 or 5 chances to get this right–let’s count them up.

There was the first initial attempt (or non-attempt, in this case) to deliver. There was no attempt to track me down and find out where I lived. Then I gave them directions, so they got chance #2 to deliver. The driver didn’t look for me. Chance #3 was when the terminal manager was going to hand-deliver it to me. Didn’t happen. Chance #4 was when they gave the package to the driver (the same driver!) to try and deliver again. Chance #5 was after they found out the driver had failed again (surprise, surprise) to deliver. Chance #6 was to get the package to me, knowing this, and nothing happened. Chance #7 was this week, when they got to deliver my package again, and did nothing.

Amy says she doesn’t know who contacted Frank at FedEx about this, or even how to contact him. I asked her bluntly whether anyone at JeffersPet cared that my packages were going missing, and whether they cared that FedEx had screwed this up multiple times. She said, “you can talk to a supervisor, but they’re on the phone right now.”

She had no way of guaranteeing me that even I put in the comments section “ship UPS” that it would actually be done, so clearly it is pointless for me to order again from JeffersPet, because even with everyone at JeffersPet and FedEx aware of the situation, it is now two full weeks since my package got to the next town over, and I have no package.

Bad Service Award of the Decade goes to JeffersPet and FedEx.

Posted by: ssjane | October 12, 2001 | 5:00 pm
Posted in: Rants