Come on FedEx, really???
- Thread starter redk9258
- Start date
Decibel_116
AK Subscriber
It happens. Very recently I had an order destined for Alabama that originated in Ohio make a few stops in California. It caused over a week delay in the delivery. I thought it was lost and probably would have been if I hadn't contacted the seller directly.
^ ^ ^
One of the natural laws!
One of the natural laws!
Yeah, but I just want to fix my dishwasher! (It's a seal for my dishwasher, not a Monster receiver!)
not sure if the algorithm is still the same but Fedex was a thesis by its founder with
the premise that moving all shipments to a central location, then redistributing it
to destinations overnight for early first deliveries was optimal.
USPS has different algorithms and for efficiency (labor, traffic costs, time, etc)
have some similar "features". a package going to the next city/village over
may have that package sent to a farther away depot for processing then
delivering to that destination post office for eventual delivery.
one of the most interesting application is airline scheduling.
the premise that moving all shipments to a central location, then redistributing it
to destinations overnight for early first deliveries was optimal.
USPS has different algorithms and for efficiency (labor, traffic costs, time, etc)
have some similar "features". a package going to the next city/village over
may have that package sent to a farther away depot for processing then
delivering to that destination post office for eventual delivery.
one of the most interesting application is airline scheduling.
ETLS
metacarpophalangealcranium
It's a good thing you didn't order a walrus for the dishwasher. Those are much harder to train, and a real pain to ship.
Champco
Super Member
Sold a roof top ski rack a few years ago. Two piece's just under 5 feet long. light aluminum. Made a box out og two Boxes I had gotten golf clubs in. Worked out real slick. Light package. Sent it off from Mn to Upstate NY. I figured it was a 5-6 day trip.
Expected to have some assurance it arrived so i checked the tracking. Said it was still in town so I call the PO and they say it's in transit, check tomorrow. Day 8 I look and it's still not tracked so i call the buyer. He was getting ready to file a case because he could not see it in transit at all.
I explained what I knew and suggested he take its tracking number to his PO. I did the same. That night it's voyage comes up. Made it to his PO 4 days ago and somehow got sent back my way. Got to my PO and they reshipped it back and was arriving to his PO the next day. Whole trip from my mailing to his receiving it was 11 days and 10 nights. Strange things happen in shipping.
Expected to have some assurance it arrived so i checked the tracking. Said it was still in town so I call the PO and they say it's in transit, check tomorrow. Day 8 I look and it's still not tracked so i call the buyer. He was getting ready to file a case because he could not see it in transit at all.
I explained what I knew and suggested he take its tracking number to his PO. I did the same. That night it's voyage comes up. Made it to his PO 4 days ago and somehow got sent back my way. Got to my PO and they reshipped it back and was arriving to his PO the next day. Whole trip from my mailing to his receiving it was 11 days and 10 nights. Strange things happen in shipping.
In my area, of something is shipped via FedEx/USPS SurePost it comes to FedEx's Portland sort facility which is about 18 miles from my house. Since it's a USPS delivery item, it then goes to a USPS regional hub near Seattle, ablout 180 miles from my house. Then it returns to the Portland USPS sort facility and eventually makes its way to my house.
This roundabout transit strategy adds 2 or 3 business days to the delivery.
WTF???
This roundabout transit strategy adds 2 or 3 business days to the delivery.
WTF???
try amazon. most of my deliveries are a combo of UPS/fedex and USPS. and it almost always
comes within 2 days, and occasionally next morning, and I get Sunday deliveries.
almost never a 2-3 day "additional" delay. and from a statistical viewpoint (bell curve)
there is the chance that something never gets delivered.
however, anyone with better ideas: think about it (thoroughly), write it down, build
business plan, start company, go public (billion dollar IPO). I can think of 4 companies
and 6 countries where, even if this speeds things up for ONE day, is worth the
competitive advantage (think silicone valley computer technology) and
almost any amount of money thrown at it.
comes within 2 days, and occasionally next morning, and I get Sunday deliveries.
almost never a 2-3 day "additional" delay. and from a statistical viewpoint (bell curve)
there is the chance that something never gets delivered.
however, anyone with better ideas: think about it (thoroughly), write it down, build
business plan, start company, go public (billion dollar IPO). I can think of 4 companies
and 6 countries where, even if this speeds things up for ONE day, is worth the
competitive advantage (think silicone valley computer technology) and
almost any amount of money thrown at it.
Back in my shipping days (like, where I was packing, shipping, etc. thousands of packages per year in the 80s and 90s), everything shipped by UPS Next Day Air or 2nd Day Air was flown down to their hub (Kentucky?), and then flown out to the destinations. So in the rare event we had someone order something that was within UPS Zone 2 (ground, normally one day delivery) who wanted to be absolutely, positively sure it got there overnight, the packages still flew out to the hub and back. It could have been a mile away; hell, the UPS driver could have dropped it off himself for that matter. But it would still fly out to the hub. In that case, they were buying the guarantee they would receive it overnight, whereas ground deliveries at the time were not guaranteed in terms of delivery date. (It's just that the guarantee included a free trip of several hundred miles.)
Of course, this does not explain the one USPS package that bounced around our area distribution centers and post offices for a few days before they finally got it to our local post office. It makes more (or less?) sense shown on the map below!
Of course, this does not explain the one USPS package that bounced around our area distribution centers and post offices for a few days before they finally got it to our local post office. It makes more (or less?) sense shown on the map below!
toxcrusadr
Omelette au Fromage
Obviously things are being controlled by software rather than people, or these packages would never make ridiculous trips out and back and round and round.
That, and sometimes the box ends up on the wrong belt, in the wrong bin, on the wrong truck, and it goes to Timbuktu and back.
Hard to imagine how this is cheaper. In any case they are not factoring in the intangible cost of pissing off the customer!
I had a problem with a FedEx package once that was going round and round endlessly in the same loop due to a bad zip code. I got a Customer Service Ombudsman on the phone who had super powers in the database and fixed it. That was 20 years ago, who knows if you can even talk to a person now.
That, and sometimes the box ends up on the wrong belt, in the wrong bin, on the wrong truck, and it goes to Timbuktu and back.
Hard to imagine how this is cheaper. In any case they are not factoring in the intangible cost of pissing off the customer!
I had a problem with a FedEx package once that was going round and round endlessly in the same loop due to a bad zip code. I got a Customer Service Ombudsman on the phone who had super powers in the database and fixed it. That was 20 years ago, who knows if you can even talk to a person now.
toxcrusadr
Omelette au Fromage
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/fedex-responds-to-customer-service-complaint-3974964
Very interesting blog from 2016 by a customer who had a nightmare with a lost package that ended up going all the way to the top (the incident, not the package).
BTW you CAN ask to have your problem 'elevated', at least in 2016.
Many good lines in this article but here's one I picked out:
"The real reason that FedEx lost my trust is because one transaction that was out of the ordinary revealed to me that the FedEx system is built to function well under perfect circumstances, but not in imperfect circumstances. And sadly, FedEx employees don't seem to be well supported nor managerially motivated to deal well with imperfect circumstances either."
The people at the very top always seem horrified to hear of these customer service disasters, and they promise company policy is quite different. I'm betting that if workers lower down actually took the time and effort required to fix things, they wouldn't meet their daily tonnage figures and management would chop their heads off for THAT. Management expects them to do both superhuman production and excellent customer service. It's probably impossible, and that's the disconnect between (as the author says) corporate intent and frontline reality.
The other thing that stood out to me was the inability of the system (databases, tracking, etc.) to deal with problems. "It works fine when it works, but if anything goes wrong, watch out."
Very interesting blog from 2016 by a customer who had a nightmare with a lost package that ended up going all the way to the top (the incident, not the package).
BTW you CAN ask to have your problem 'elevated', at least in 2016.
Many good lines in this article but here's one I picked out:
"The real reason that FedEx lost my trust is because one transaction that was out of the ordinary revealed to me that the FedEx system is built to function well under perfect circumstances, but not in imperfect circumstances. And sadly, FedEx employees don't seem to be well supported nor managerially motivated to deal well with imperfect circumstances either."
The people at the very top always seem horrified to hear of these customer service disasters, and they promise company policy is quite different. I'm betting that if workers lower down actually took the time and effort required to fix things, they wouldn't meet their daily tonnage figures and management would chop their heads off for THAT. Management expects them to do both superhuman production and excellent customer service. It's probably impossible, and that's the disconnect between (as the author says) corporate intent and frontline reality.
The other thing that stood out to me was the inability of the system (databases, tracking, etc.) to deal with problems. "It works fine when it works, but if anything goes wrong, watch out."
The USPS doesn't care. One of my buddies has worked for them and worked his way up the ranks--dysfunction runs throughout the entire organization. And it's also so poorly run, it's no wonder they can never turn a profit (vs. staying deep in the red).
ETLS
metacarpophalangealcranium
If it's artificial intelligence, they must have based it off of Rube Goldberg with a huge dash of Pee Wee Herman.
I can sort of understand how UPS and FedEx ship their air shipments off to a central hub before dispersing the packages--it's a proven and reliable system for them, very much a routine. Even if I ship overnight to a neighbor one street over, it's far better to have it travel to the hub and back out again, than have the local dispatcher handle it as an exception and screw it up. The cost is already built in, and those who request it need the package ASAP and expect to pay it, so it's really not a problem. (For customers we had, $30 to ship a $25 part overnight was less costly than production halted for an extra day.) If it were that much of a rush, there were local courier companies who would take it for a reasonable fee--at the last couple of places I worked where we were a full line distributor, it was not uncommon to have our favorite courier service pick up a part at a local warehouse for us, then drive it to the customer who likely had a production line shut down and it was costing them for each minute that line was not operating.
I still remember Emery. They were the big FedEx competitor here, even before UPS started dabbling in overnight delivery. We would occasionally have Purolator requested, although it sometimes took them a day or two to pick up an overnight package. (They had a reputation back then: "Sooner or later, Purolator!") DHL was another infrequent request. I have to say that in my limited dealings with DHL and Amazon (from the EU or UK), they've managed to screw up my shipments in one way or another--it either took five to six weeks to arrive, or the box would arrive badly mangled.
I still remember Emery. They were the big FedEx competitor here, even before UPS started dabbling in overnight delivery. We would occasionally have Purolator requested, although it sometimes took them a day or two to pick up an overnight package. (They had a reputation back then: "Sooner or later, Purolator!") DHL was another infrequent request. I have to say that in my limited dealings with DHL and Amazon (from the EU or UK), they've managed to screw up my shipments in one way or another--it either took five to six weeks to arrive, or the box would arrive badly mangled.
