Why are UPS so incompetent?

[Autocar Publicity]

Recently, I opened an account with Gaugemaster, oh good I thought, we'll be able to expand our range of scenics and offer some of their products to complement our existing stock. Unfortunately, they use UPS for their deliveries.

We were due to receive a parcel on the 21st December. The UPS driver claimed there was no-one to take delivery, when in actual fact there were several people on site, including two in the office (to which all deliveries report). Having seen the tracking e-mail which was sent following this, I changed my plans and ensured I was at the delivery address for 9am. At lunchtime, you can imagine my feelings when I found that whilst I had been waiting, the UPS driver had ignored an ‘Open’ sign and the fact that the lights were turned on, and posted another note claiming we were closed through the door.

I rang the number on the card and was told that I could not arrange redelivery until after Christmas (Contrary to what they state on their web-site). Having done this, and arranged for the delivery to take place on the 31st, I noticed that a driver had attempted to deliver on the 30th.

When the parcel finally arrived on the 31st, the contents were damaged and I had to return these. Having spoken with the sender, they arranged for these to be collected. I was in all day, from 8am to 6pm and there was no sign of a UPS driver.
The delivery of the replacement goods was scheduled for the 12th January. Their driver claimed the premises were closed then, also on the 13th and 14th.

When I looked up their complaints procedure on their web-site, I didn't find one - always a bad sign - but did find a lot of Internet sites with horror stories about UPS drivers' laziness, incompetence, aggressive behaviour and blatant dishonesty. With behaviour and customer 'service' like this, why does anyone actually give them any work?

Just by way of a contrast, the local Parcelforce driver delivered a parcel Christmas Eve, when we had between six and eight inches of snow and sub-zero temperatures. We felt his efforts to fight his way through the snow deserved better than a hot coffee and a mince pie, but he was working/driving, so we could see his point...

[redtoon1892]

Why does this post not surprise me ? it seems to be a requirement of business to be incompetent these days, its everything not only postal services. My friend who is not net savvy asked me to order an item for him from Canada as it was £150 cheaper than here, despite my warnings that he would end up paying more he insisted I go ahead - you can guess the rest -took 6 weeks to arrive via U.S Postal service via Parcelforce and the charges they added on were disgraceful in the end he ended up paying £25 than if it was bought here as they used U.S. dollars not Canadian dollars to calculate and they used the U,S postal service to deliver. A grand old wheeze to screw you for extra cash.

[52D]

UPS ******** i cant put into words what i think about them, sack the lot of them and bring back Red Star in its original form.

[richard]

And yet we get pretty good service from UPS here. We even know our local delivery guy to say hello to. Generally speaking, here inthe US they probably have a better reputation than the USPS.

Richard

[strang steel]

If you read this RMWeb thread you will see it is not just UPS that give problems

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... ntry297662

[StoneRoad]

So much of the level of courier service is down to the front line staff.

Some do work their socks off, bless 'em. But others couldn't give a (insert your choice here)!
Even when working for the same company, the quality of the drivers is so variable.

Over the years I have had both extremes.

Perhaps the worst bad service was again at Christmas. The MD of the small company I worked for at the time was a romantic, and part of his year end present to staff was half a smoked salmon (each!) This was delivered, from Scotland, by special courier. This one time, there was a mix up, and the whole order was tracked as delivered to his home address. Being teetotal, I was sent off in his car (a Porsche) to go and fetch said parcel. These cheese (from the same source) was there, but no parcel of salmon - and no other tracks in the snow........
Suspicious or what.......we got replacements about the 10th of January, Thank goodness for credit card transaction insurance.

Best service. Sending a motorcycle engine away for specialist attention, at a time when I didn't have access to my own transport. I sent it on 5-day, the couriers overnighted it both ways, so I got it back before it had been delivered! Unfortunatley that company is now merged into one of the big players, and my local depot was closed.......

[Autocar Publicity]

We appreciate things go wrong occasionally, but with us, UPS has fouled up consistently...

It's definitely the weak link in Gaugemaster's supply chain, when you place an order at 1630 and it's there next morning, that's pretty good service from them and smart work from the carrier for a 'standard' service. Though that was elsewhere and a few years ago, so almost certainly using a different driver, one who actually tried to do a decent job. When it takes an average of a week to get our hands on a parcel, it annoys us, frustrates our customers and makes a mockery of the efforts and hard work of Gaugemaster's warehouse staff.

I always used to quote Gaugemaster and Peco (who don't use UPS) as being the quickest to despatch orders, you'd often receive it the next working day or the day after.

It is true that much depends on the individual driver, a few years ago one from Parceline used to time his round so he'd have his lunch with us most days, really nice chap and did a great job, everyone I ever spoke to loved him. Then he moved depot and his replacement was a right miserable * who worked to rule and never smiled, never did any more than the bare minimum. (He's still far better than what we've seen of UPS though!)