Fed Ex Is Awful!!

[MattIM]

I thought the comments were overblown about Fed Ex but now that I've had an experience with them, I can honestly say, Fed Ex is amazingly incompetent.

Ignore this post if you have been there done that...I got notification from Apple that the IPad case I ordered was shipped on 07/13/2010 from China and that I should get it by 07/19/2010 after 4:30 pm. Since I knew I wasn't going to be home Apple gave me a pre-sign form to put on my door instructing Fed Ex to leave it on my doorstep. I dutifully put the notice on my door before 8am yesterday 07/19. All day yesterday, I would go to the Fed Ex website to see if the case was delivered. Around 4:30 pm yesterday, I expected to see on the website that it was delivered. NOPE! The Fed Ex Website showed a new delivery date of 4:30 pm today, 07/20. All day today, I watched the website hoping I would see "delivered". When it got to be 4:30pm, the website showed it would be delivered @ 4:30pm today.

I went to dinner with a friend. Rather than doing other things with my friend, I begged off telling him that I wanted to get home and unwrap my new Ipad case. I got home , NO CARRYING CASE!!!!!

I got on the tracking website and it told me it would be delivered after 07/13/2010. WTF!!!!

So I call Fed EX entered my tracking number and the automated voice told me it was still in delivery to 46825 (my zip code). The auto voice asked if I wanted to hear more options, 3 prompts down, it asked me if I wanted to talk to a representative.

Oliver gets on the phone. I told him that Apple and Fed Ex told me my package would be delivered today. He said it looks like this package is lost, do you want to put a trace on it? I asked Oliver would that get my package sooner? No he says, we'll be able to look through our system and see where it went lost. Then he remarked, you know we process millions of packages every day and one is bound to get lost.

Okay, is this an excuse? Is this supposed to make me feel confident in Fed Ex's ability to get my case to me? If this package is indeed lost, who would I call to make a claim? Fed Ex or Apple? Oliver told me I should get a call from them within 24 hours BUT if I don't hear from them call them back, provide the tracking number and now another number he called a trace number.

I went to Apple Store to see if I can reach someone there by phone or email and of course that information is not provided.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Bluesjam]

Has to be Fed Ex.

 

[col.bris]

All courier companies loose packages it's unfortunate that maybe yours is lost in "translation" I would try to call fed ex and speak to some one regarding it. Apple uses fed ex to deliver products if it is delayed after shipping it is a Fed Ex issue not Apple

Hope it helps col

 

[MikesTooLz]

Hopefully its not the official apple ipad case, you will just get another round of disappointment. (from apple this time.)

 

[MattIM]

Yes, it is the Apple IPad Case

I saw this case being used by this acquaintance of mine. It was okay to touch. It looked alright. But I had already ordered my case a couple of days before I saw his. The friend told me it was a dust magnet, but it was better than the bubble wrap baggie he was using as he waited for his order. He waited five weeks to get his order delivered. When he got it, he was underwhelmed.

There is a sense of irony in this iPad business--Apple has produced a tremendous product, but they have partnered with companies who do not seem to share the same amount of customer care:

AT&T pulled it's unlimited plan a month into the iPad availability--disappointing.

Fed Ex, whose main claim to fame was to guarantee they will deliver every package on time, now allows it's customer service reps to say: we process millions of packages a day, odds are we'll loose one or two of them--disappointing.

Steve Jobs unaccustomed to criticism resorts to tarring his competitors by accusing them of having similar problems with their handsets--disappointing.

I don't need the iPad case, I ordered it anyway because I thought it would be better than carrying around a naked iPad, but if I don't get this case soon, it will go back to Apple. My friend gifted me his bubble wrap baggie and it works pretty good!

 

[Mecread]

I cringe when I have have to deal with fed ex. I have UPS coming a few days a week to my house, and then when i have a vendor that ships fedex I loath it. We live in middle of no place kentucky, with a mile gravel drive and you pass over a low wooden bridge (get my drift of nowhere?) I have had fedex say many of times it was delivered and it never was as the two big Aussie Shephereds would have let me known. Or I get the call they could not find me on GPS, I know it works as I have 2 gps's and googlemaps on my phone.

OR the last one was the greasy scary guy that looked like (and smelled) like he had not bathed in months. good thing he was scared of the dogs LOL.

 

[CaptKirk]

Wait till FedX and UPS merge

 

[Bogy]

Like Mecread, UPS is a regular at my house, Fedex not so much. Not quite as isolated, but its a small town.The UPS guy leaves the packages in my garage instead of the front steps. If it has to be signed for he stops by my office so either my secretary or I can sign for it. If my mother isn't home he drops her packages of with me. Then again, I don't know if that really speaks to the superiority of UPS, or the advantage of living in a small town.

In regard to the original post, I think I would give it another day or two before I would assume my package was completely lost. I know it's frustrating when it's your package, but out of the millions they deliver it really is unrealistic to think none of them are ever going to go astray.

 

[MattIM]

Bogy, it is unrealistic of me to expect this package

To be delivered, especially for two days I get email notification that it will arrive by 4:30 pm on 07/19 and the next day I get another email notifying me it will arrive after 4:30 pm on 07/20, from FED EX!

Why would I expect FED EX to do what it emailed me it would do? And then when you talk to a representative, that living human being could not find it in their system?

Of course packages get lost! But when you set expectations and email them twice, then don't deliver then they can't find it, should one say, oh well they didn't really mean it, after all, they process millions of packages ever day, one or two is bound to get lost!

Now that I've entered into the status of lost package, no more emails, not even an acknowledgement from Fed Ex confirming that this package is lost. The tracking website now indicates a generic "ship date July 13, 2010".

 

[nhbeast]

Well, I just had a Macbook and and iTouch delivered by FedEx on separate days. For both I had to pre-sign because I would not be home. Left instructions to leave the packages in my wife's car, and both times that's exactly where I found it. Guess I had a good delivery person!

Lost packages happen to all carriers, not just FedEx (though they seem to be the worst). lol

 

[Bogy]

Yes Matt, you are right. You will never see your package. It is lost forever since it didn't show up when the emails said it would. No sense waiting to see if someone figures out they have a package they missed delivering, better to assume all is lost.

Four years ago I sent a package to my daughter in Kenya, Africa. I add the continent designation because not everyone is aware of where Kenya is, and the fact that her "zip code" there was the same as a community 45 miles from my location in Iowa didn't help her get her mail. An amazing amount went to Mason City Iowa before it went to Africa. Anyway, the first package I sent her weighed 25 lbs., and cost me $80 to send the cheapest rate I could get using the U.S. Postal Service. FedEx or any alternate carrier was out of the question since I wanted to keep the bill under $150. I never again sent her a package that weighed that much, and I never used anything but first class after that. That way she received most deliveries in between 2 and 4 weeks. She received that first box approximately 23 months after I mailed it, shortly before she was evacuated. Sorry to hear your delivery from China is a couple of days late.

 

[iPadCharlie]

Maybe UPS is better because they are in the Teamsters Union and FedEx is a non-union shop.

 

[kjfswkr]

Wait till FedX and UPS merge

then you will have a company called fedups!

 

[MattIM]

Update: WOOHOOO!! Apple and Fed Ex Thank You!

So after 4:30 pm, July 20, I called Fed Ex Customer Service, who created a transaction ticket identifying my package as lost. I didn't hear from Fed Ex, on the website my package only showed a ship date of July 13.

Thursday, I get a voice mail message from Fed Ex advising me that they have declared my package lost and have contacted Apple regarding their declaration. If I had any questions, I can call Fed Ex, provide tracking number or transaction incident number.

Friday (yesterday) I'm home early, pull up my driveway and there is a Fed Ex delivery truck, getting ready to leave--but I block his way. He pops out of the cab and apologizes for getting in my way, but I interrupt asking him if he was delivering a package for me. He asks if I lived here, I say YES! Great, he says, I just left a note for you to call us because my original package was lost but Apple found a replacement in San Jose, California and shipped it to me for over night delivery. He needed a signature to deliver, I gave him my signature and he handed over my package.

By 1:30pm, EDST, Friday, July 23rd, my naked IPad was properly attired in all it's subtle micro fiber splendor.