Never Ship With UPS!

Unbelievable.

On DECEMBER 17th, a package was shipped from clothingwarehouse.com using UPS. The content was TIME SENSITIVE: I needed it as soon as possible.

I live in a 14 story apartment building with well over a hundred apartments. Naturally, my name is not written anywhere on the building. Packages are to be delivered to the lobby office. In fact, the word "PACKAGES" is written by the door.

I have received close to a dozen packages at this apartment address from other shipping services, including FedEx. ZERO PROBLEM. The drivers all knew to drop the packages off at the lobby office.

UPS, on the other hand, must never deliver to apartment buildings. Here is what happened:

After a long wait and no package, I found a note in my mail box stating that delivery of the package had failed. The note was a tiny, flimsy card, stuffed all the way in the back. By the time I noticed it, the "Return to sender" date had passed. Nevertheless, I called UPS customer service to find out why the deliver had failed when the driver WAS IN THE SAME HALLWAY AS THE OFFICE to drop off the "delivery failed" note in my mail box.

The customer service rep said that my name was not listed in the building directory.

Um... hu?

WHAT building directory, I questioned him.

He explained that my name had to be written somewhere in sight on the building for UPS to deliver it.

...I want to emphasize again that I live in a 14 story apartment building with over a hundred apartments. My name is not going to be written anywhere in sight. Furthermore, I have never heard of a shipping company having such an idiotic policy--surely they must have delivered to enough apartment buildings to understand that packages are left at the front office, or some other designated package area.

Well, I contacted the shipper and had them re-ship--but this time also WRITE CLEARLY ON THE PACKAGE that it was to be dropped off in the lobby office.

At the same time, my mother, who had just returned from Hawaii, spent a fair amount of money shipping me a huge care package full of souvenirs.

ONCE AGAIN, I received two "failed delivery" notices... again, in the mailbox that is literally just a few steps away from the office where the package is supposed to be dropped off. If a mailman can get in to drop off the note, I do not understand why a driver cannot get in to drop off the package.

Anyhow, I called them once more to ask what the problem was. Again, they said I was not listed in this non-existent "building directory".

Calmly, I explained the situation, and the customer service rep said that she was leaving a note with special instructions for the driver. She said that both packages would go out again the next day and be dropped off properly.

When the package did not arrive the next day, I called customer service AGAIN, just to make sure. They confirmed that my instructions had been logged and sent to the driver, but said that they would send the instructions AGAIN in "emergency form" to make absolutely sure that the drivers knew what to do with my package... which they AGAIN promised would be delivered the next day.

I called a THIRD time when the package was STILL not delivered on the next day. They assured me that my special instructions had been noted an that I would receive my package.

When it had been 5-7 days since the original promise, I called them again to ask what the heck was happening to my packages.

Want to guess?

ON THEIR WAY BACK TO THE SENDERS!!!

Want to guess the date at this point?

FEBRUARY 27TH!!!

That's right. A package that went out on DECEMBER 17TH was STILL playing limbo back-and-forth almost three months later. The amount of inconvenience I have experienced for NOT having the item in the package is beyond what I can describe without resorting to all capital letters and expletives. Not only that, but my mother's care-package was on its way back after she spent so much money sending it.

Beyond ridiculous.

Naturally, I asked that UPS either completely reimburse the shipper, pay for the re-re-ship, or both. (In a perfect world, they should also be reimbursing me for the object in the first package, since they have utterly deprived me of its use, but I acknowledge reality.)

I was put through to an EXTREMELY rude supervisor whose job it appeared to be to scare away difficult customers. "And exactly what is it you CLAIM UPS is doing?" she snarled.

I explained to her, again, UPS's mistake. She put me on hold for a long while, and when she spoke with me again, she said, "I have contacted the local center where your package was shipped back to sender... They said they will NOT reimburse you or pay for the shipping."

...Not even an apology.

I was so upset that I had to end the conversation there. I was sitting there crying, wondering if I would ever, EVER get my things. The shipper of the first package had made it clear that they would not pay to re-ship again, and my mother couldn't afford to. More than that, I WANTED *MY* BELONGINGS!!!

After gathering myself, I called the customer service line again and firmly told the next representative that I DEMANDED a reimbursement or a free re-ship. Anything else was simply not acceptable--UPS had already committed robbery. (I try never to be rude to customer service reps, but it was difficult to keep my voice down at that point.)

The rep was very understanding, read through the log of events, and agreed that this was UPS's fault... but said that the local center had logged that there was a "reason" for the package not being delivered--a reason that was not specified, but which technically made it not UPS's fault.

Um.

She told me that she did not have the phone number for the local center (even though the last person I spoke with did), but said that she would transmit an electronic message to them, and that somebody would call me "within the hour".

I told her that they had ALREADY been contacted by the last person I spoke with, and had refused to reimburse me. At this point, she turned into a Broken Record and just kept repeating to me that they were unable to contact the center by phone, but that they would submit an electronic message and someone would contact me within the hour. After having this repeated to me three times, I just said "Thank you", hung up, and began to wait for the call.

I am now taking time out of my day to sit here and wait for said call. I know that I will have to fight with someone to overturn their bureaucratic decision, and I am not looking forward to it. To think that I have to FIGHT like this to get my own belongings after UPS messed up!

Do not EVER, EVER, EVER ship using UPS.

Hopefully I can resolve this issue with minimum conflict when/if they call me, but if there is any further insanity, I will post that as well.