UPS - is this some kind of scam?
I am going back to school, studying Management at GGU in San Francisco two nights a week. My first class was last night.
Tuesday, I ordered my three books on Amazon, signed up for the free Amazon Prime trial ($79/year for all-you-can-eat 2-day shipping) and paid the $3.99/book to upgrade to overnight shipping. I anticipated getting all of the books Wednesday afternoon, giving me a few hours to read the first chapters before I had to head to class.
Just before 5, I logged onto Amazon's website, to discover that my two packages had allegedly been delivered at 10:19am and signed for by "WO". I'd been home all morning. I live in an apartment with a phone panel where visitors and delivery persons can dial my apartment number, and the system forwards to a google voice account, which in turn forwards to both my cell phone and my better half's cell phone. Neither of us had received a phone call, and I checked Google Voice, which indicated noone had called that morning. I'd also gone to run an errand just after 12, and there weren't any packages by the mailboxes, so I knew that the UPS driver hadn't attempted to contact me and that the packages weren't downstairs.
I started to evaluate where my packages could be. Perhaps the UPS driver had multiple deliveries to make in my building and had given my packages to someone else, who then decided to keep them. This sounded dubious, because the UPS driver would probably remember who they'd given my packages to, and this person lived in the same building as me, and I am naive enough to believe that most thieves probably wouldn't want to steal from someone in the same building. Possibly someone had generously accepted my packages and taken them back to their apartment and was going to deliver them later, in which case I would have to scold them upon delivery because next-day-air does not mean do me any unwanted favors.
I walked through all five floors of my building to make sure the packages hadn't been left in front of someone else's door. They hadn't.
So I called UPS. I was pretty pissed at this point. A driver's responsibility should be to actually attempt to contact the address they're delivering packages to. UPS told me that they would make no attempt to contact the driver and that my only course of action was to call Amazon.
Amazon has a neat feature I hope to see on more websites - if you're logged in when you click on help, you have the option to have them call you, rather than the other way around. This means you don't have to spend 3 minutes identifying yourself, because they already know who you are. They apologized for UPS' behavior and said they would send me another set of books and launch an investigation. Unfortunately, it was already 530pm and my books probably wouldn't go out that day, so I wouldn't get them until Friday. I pondered buying copies of the books at the university bookstore, which I would then return after the Amazon copies arrived.
At 6pm, our two cell phones started ringing. Better half answers, and it's UPS downstairs, delivering the packages they claimed had already been delivered and signed for. By the time I'd sprinted down my 5 flights of stairs, the UPS driver was gone, and my two packages were sitting in the foyer.
There are a few possible explanations I can think of:
- UPS personnel reviews are based on how quickly a driver delivers packages, and the delivery person figured someone at a residence wouldn't be home during a week day.
- Similar to above, Amazon requires that UPS next-day deliveries be done in the morning, and delivery person faked it.
- Delivery person wanted to steal my packages, but when hearing that I was actually home, decided to deliver. This is probably the least likely, because that would probably require coordinating with the person I spoke to at the call center.
Anyway, I have my books, but I'm disenchanted with UPS. I hope Amazon really does follow through with their investigation and UPS disciplines their driver.
Tuesday, I ordered my three books on Amazon, signed up for the free Amazon Prime trial ($79/year for all-you-can-eat 2-day shipping) and paid the $3.99/book to upgrade to overnight shipping. I anticipated getting all of the books Wednesday afternoon, giving me a few hours to read the first chapters before I had to head to class.
Just before 5, I logged onto Amazon's website, to discover that my two packages had allegedly been delivered at 10:19am and signed for by "WO". I'd been home all morning. I live in an apartment with a phone panel where visitors and delivery persons can dial my apartment number, and the system forwards to a google voice account, which in turn forwards to both my cell phone and my better half's cell phone. Neither of us had received a phone call, and I checked Google Voice, which indicated noone had called that morning. I'd also gone to run an errand just after 12, and there weren't any packages by the mailboxes, so I knew that the UPS driver hadn't attempted to contact me and that the packages weren't downstairs.
I started to evaluate where my packages could be. Perhaps the UPS driver had multiple deliveries to make in my building and had given my packages to someone else, who then decided to keep them. This sounded dubious, because the UPS driver would probably remember who they'd given my packages to, and this person lived in the same building as me, and I am naive enough to believe that most thieves probably wouldn't want to steal from someone in the same building. Possibly someone had generously accepted my packages and taken them back to their apartment and was going to deliver them later, in which case I would have to scold them upon delivery because next-day-air does not mean do me any unwanted favors.
I walked through all five floors of my building to make sure the packages hadn't been left in front of someone else's door. They hadn't.
So I called UPS. I was pretty pissed at this point. A driver's responsibility should be to actually attempt to contact the address they're delivering packages to. UPS told me that they would make no attempt to contact the driver and that my only course of action was to call Amazon.
Amazon has a neat feature I hope to see on more websites - if you're logged in when you click on help, you have the option to have them call you, rather than the other way around. This means you don't have to spend 3 minutes identifying yourself, because they already know who you are. They apologized for UPS' behavior and said they would send me another set of books and launch an investigation. Unfortunately, it was already 530pm and my books probably wouldn't go out that day, so I wouldn't get them until Friday. I pondered buying copies of the books at the university bookstore, which I would then return after the Amazon copies arrived.
At 6pm, our two cell phones started ringing. Better half answers, and it's UPS downstairs, delivering the packages they claimed had already been delivered and signed for. By the time I'd sprinted down my 5 flights of stairs, the UPS driver was gone, and my two packages were sitting in the foyer.
There are a few possible explanations I can think of:
- UPS personnel reviews are based on how quickly a driver delivers packages, and the delivery person figured someone at a residence wouldn't be home during a week day.
- Similar to above, Amazon requires that UPS next-day deliveries be done in the morning, and delivery person faked it.
- Delivery person wanted to steal my packages, but when hearing that I was actually home, decided to deliver. This is probably the least likely, because that would probably require coordinating with the person I spoke to at the call center.
Anyway, I have my books, but I'm disenchanted with UPS. I hope Amazon really does follow through with their investigation and UPS disciplines their driver.