UPS Ground is awful, avoid at all costs

[ANGREY]

UPS (regular) seems to be fine. Over the past year (including the recent Black Friday rush) UPS (regular) has delivered packages with minimal issues.

UPS Ground on the other hand is another matter. If you're shipping anything heavy enough to require ground trans, avoid UPS Ground. They're so incredibly swamped and a mess right now that there's little to no tracking accuracy, they can't tell you (accurately) when something is going to be delivered, it can be sitting 3 miles from you for days on end (with no way of voluntarily picking it up even), they're just awful.

If you have a choice, use FedEx Ground. If you're buying something heavy, ask your vendor if you can specify FedEx Ground or DHL instead.

Oh by the way, UPS Ground has a "policy" that they don't issue refunds right now. So if it takes them 20 days to deliver your package and you paid $50, then tough isht. That's your problem. What a bunch of crooks. They take packages and orders knowing that they can't deliver on their service advertisement/promises and then offer NOTHING in return. Hell, they don't even offer "free shipping" or gift certificates against future shipments (which is what most companies do because free or discounted future business costs them pennies compared to outright refunds and still gives the customer some semblance of restitution).

 

[gimmie11s]

UPS "regular" is UPS Ground......

Are you talking about Freight maybe?

 

[08mojo]

^this.

 

[AAG]

I've never used UPS freight, but I've never had issues with UPS ground. I've even switched to deliver to a UPS store and I pick it up and it only delays it by one day. FedEx on the other hand....I avoid at all costs if I can.

 

[HudsonFalcon]

It's a busy time of year no matter what carrier you use.

 

[TaraFirma]

Wish I knew this yesterday. I just had a boot carrier group shipped to me via UPS ground.
Guess I'll just assemble the rest of the gun and just wait.

 

[ANGREY]

Perfect timing, second part of a full system from ARH just arrived. a full week late (first box was delivered 2 days ago, and yes, they both left ARH at the same time). Driver lied and said first he couldn't find the address (when we get multiple UPS deliveries daily here and it's a 15 story building, not a shed behind someone's house we're talking about.) Then the next day, I get a call from UPS that says the driver is returning to deliver and asks if I will be there for the immediate future. I reply yes. Driver never shows. Finally delivers the first package the next day and looks like I asked him to solve partial differential equations when I ask where the second box is. 2 days later, second box arrives and here's what it looks like. If it hadn't been such a huge saga to get the system, I'd have rejected it.

Additionally, I currently have an MGW shifter that's less than 5 miles away, but I can't go pick it up and they don't know when it'll be delivered. This is after getting a "status" update that the package was delayed for 3 days sitting in SC due to "operational" issues.

So I paid probably near $100 in shipping for 2 boxes that arrived a week late (both of them beat up, one so badly it looks like it's been to Beruit). Paid $18 in shipping for a shifter kit that's been delayed almost a week now with no clear end in sight.

No refund offered. No hey, we understand, here's a token of our apology. Nothing. Basically, tough isht. Deal with it.

I'd be absolutely and utterly ashamed if my company offered that sort of product/service. I wouldn't admit to anyone that's where I worked. What a bunch of shitty crooks.

USE them at your own peril and frustration.

 

[nxhappy]

I think he is talking about UPS freight , which is a totally different company than UPS ground (small pack). UPS and Fedex have several different entities.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

i dunno which part of UPS our local Cat dealer used to overnight a turbo for us but that was ordered on Monday and they still dont know where the hell it is. We had to order another from a different warehouse

 

[ANGREY]

I think he is talking about UPS freight , which is a totally different company than UPS ground (small pack). UPS and Fedex have several different entities.

Actually no, I was mistaken in that FedEx is separated more formally but apparently UPS is not.

When you select shipping though and stuff is generally too heavy for air it goes "ground" and that is the service with all the trouble. Smaller packages that are not "ground" restricted don't seem to be having the same problems/issues. We've received dozens of UPS delivery stops and packages during this holiday season with no issue. It's the heavy/ground stuff. Even my company today got a shipment of tools and again, the box was practically DESTROYED.

 

[BigPoppa]

Heck, I've been waiting all week for an overnight package via UPS that was supposed to be delivered Tuesday.

 

[SVT-BansheeMan]

We have had above and beyond good service from UPS lately. They have hidden our packages very well. They are a pleasure to deal with all the time.

You hear far more bad about any company than good. Hopefully making this thread helped you feel better.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Heck, I've been waiting all week for an overnight package via UPS that was supposed to be delivered Tuesday.

maybe its hanging out with our turbo somewhere. Hopefully your lost package didnt cost you thousands in additional labor trying to do the job with the wrong equipment while you waited.

 

[BigPoppa]

maybe its hanging out with our turbo somewhere. Hopefully your lost package didnt cost you thousands in additional labor trying to do the job with the wrong equipment while you waited.

It has the keys to the owner of my engineering firm's condo in it.

I'm down in the islands right now and for some reason he wants me to use his condo. To be honest, I just stay in one of the old Dutch hotels and never had any issues. Heck, the refinery is putting me up in one of their cottages right now and it isn't too bad.

 

[ANGREY]

We have had above and beyond good service from UPS lately. They have hidden our packages very well. They are a pleasure to deal with all the time.

You hear far more bad about any company than good. Hopefully making this thread helped you feel better.

If it prevents someone else from giving their hard earned money to UPS, it'll make me feel better.

Like I said, I use UPS (willingly and otherwise) all the time. Don't usually have any problems. Just this week I've receive 3 other packages with no issue. It's these "heavy" packages and freight/line haul that seem to be their issue and even though they may not claim two distinct companies (like FedEx Air and FedEx Ground) they do operate separately. I know this because to pick up a "regular" package is at one depot and to pickup "ground" packages is at another.

I'm a fan of businesses that try to do the right thing and no one expects perfection, especially this time of year. But here's what is NOT unreasonable to expect.

1) Get your tracking shit together and at least have information. It's one thing to tell someone you're going to be late. It's quite another to tell them you're late and you're so ****ed up that you don't even know when you'll fulfill your end and that you're even so ****ed up that you don't know WHEN you'll know when.

2) Offer restitution. If an airline messes up your schedule, they generally offer something for your inconvenience. Businesses from hotels to manufacturers, to whatever. It's actually CHEAPER for a business to offer a discount or free future service/products than it is to tell the customer to eat shit and die. It's the difference between me coming on here and lauding how great UPS has been and accommodating and how awful they are and to avoid them.

If I can convince a couple of people not to use them, it's equivalent cost to what would have been if they said "hey, we understand we ****ed up, as a token of our appreciation for your business, here's a voucher against your next shipment."

3) If you know you're swamped, then simply raise your hand and say so. Better to have people get frustrated you can't take in their business (and have it go to a competitor) than simply pile on to an already overloaded system and then piss EVERYONE off. If your local mechanic has 10 people in the waiting room, he'd be a fool to say "I'll get you in and out the door in an hour" to people walking in to patronize his shop. He's much better off to say "sorry folks, as you can see, i'm swamped, but just down the street you might try xxxxx"

 

[Blown 89]

UPS freight is too expensive for me to use, even with our discounts. I use YRC and they are both cheap and reliable.....or Central Arizona Freight if I'm shipping anywhere in the Southwest.

The last time I used UPS freight a customer footed the bill and they received tractor parts instead of the paper material they ordered from us and everything had been reboxed. So UPS broke the packages wide open somehow, found new boxes to pack them in and sent half of the shipment to God knows where and gave us half of some farmer's shipment.

They're miles better than USPS though. Half of our shipments disappear and nobody knows where they went. I'm sure the post office employees hock things on Ebay all day long.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

honestly, we've used all the major shipping and freight companies over the years and theyve all ****ed us over with about the same frequency

this "just in time" inventory shit is the root cause imho

 

[BigPoppa]

They're miles better than USPS though. Half of our shipments disappear and nobody knows where they went. I'm sure the post office employees hock things on Ebay all day long.

Surprisingly, the USPS is the most reliable method of sending a package to the Virgin Islands

 

[ANGREY]

The only way shitty companies ever get better is market feedback and rewarding them. I realize some industries (like airlines, cell service, cable, etc) are generally awful across the board, the only thing propping them off the bottom is threat of losing business to other shitty firms.

And I've pointed out, that it APPEARS to me it's not all of UPS that's a problem. Just their division/component that deals with containers and line haul trucks. heavier items. I've had little to no issues with typical slow and air freight packages.

 

[Blown 89]

Surprisingly, the USPS is the most reliable method of sending a package to the Virgin Islands

Their overseas service is stellar despite their inability to track a package. Outside of that the post office can go up in flames for all I care.