Well, here it is: first post. Longest day of the summer of 2004. Sets me all a-tingle. Until I have something more impressive comes from these fingers, let me say this: if you have the choice of using another shipper when presented with UPS, go with the alternative.
In an astounding case of stupidity, if you ship something with UPS Ground, say, and the package arrives to your local distribution center ahead of time, UPS will sit on it until the pre-announced delivery date. Yup, that’s right: they won’t deliver packages early.
I’ve been waiting a week for a Firewire 2.5″ laptop drive housing to arrive so I can upgrade the drive in my Powerbook (and put the one that’s currently in my laptop in the external Firewire housing). It was shipped from Georgia on June 15th, arrived in the Richmond, CA distribution center on June 20th @ 9:30AM. Since I’m having it shipped to my work address in Richmond, CA, I was expecting that it would have arrived today. When it didn’t show up with the regular delivery, I called UPS to find out that if it won’t be delivered, if it would be possible for me to drop by the distribution center after work to pick it up. Not surprisingly, they won’t allow that. Surprisingly, the UPS guy I had on the phone admitted that the policy that prevented my package from arriving one day early is a stupid one. While I appreciate this guy’s candor and don’t even pretend to know (nor even be capable of knowing) the intricacies of shipping packages, I have to say that this policy is a discouraging example of customer service of the venerable alternative to the ever-lacking USPS. Go Brown FedEx, indeed.
« OK, I’m done
