UPS Has Gone Berserko...

Usually I have little problem w/ UPS delivery’s. My local guy, Eric, is absolutely the best.
Back in late Nov, I ordered a case from Jonathan at Cedarville. After a few days, it wound up in Monroe Township NJ. Where it has sat “In Transit” ever since.
Early last week, Jonathan sent me a replacement case. Scheduled for delivery last Fri. Then rescheduled for tomorrow/Wed. When you look at the tracking, still scheduled for delivery tomorrow but indicated to be “In Transit” today ( and last two days) back in Secaucus NJ. And it will be here tomorrow?? Yeah… sure! We’ll find out tomorrow!
Why the heck is NJ such a black hole for my wine??
When I try to contact UPS, I get some AI software that gives me a BS answer. Can’t seem to get ahold of a human bean.
OTOH, my DryCreekVnyd shipment arrived ystrday in two day’s time.
Seems pretty crazy w/ UPS.
Tom

Tom, I’ve also had a few crazy experiences with UPS recently. I would imagine they are related to the pandemic. My craziest story so far…I ordered some wine from a Napa winery last summer. It was shipped in early December by 2 day air. Two days later, I get an email from UPS saying it was delivered, but no package was delivered to my house. I contacted the winery and, to their credit, they ship replacement bottles to my work address the following week. The replacement bottles arrive without incident. Then, last weekend, I see a large package outside the front gate of my house and realize UPS had finally delivered the original package that was shipped 2 DAY AIR in early December, except it arrived more than 5 weeks after it was shipped!!! Who knows where it’s been the entire time. I contacted the winery and asked it they wanted me to return the bottles to them, but I haven’t heard back…

I think they’ve been unable to keep up with the huge pandemic-related increase in demand. I’ve had multiple packages (FedEx too) that have taken much longer than expected and gone on circuitous routes. And a small package I mailed (USPS) to a fellow beserker on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving arrived yesterday, and he lives 38 miles away!

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We did a rush job for a client involved with a pending real estate transaction in early December. Emailed a PDF and mailed a hard copy (USPS) overnight on 12/5. He received it yesterday. 20 miles…38 days, approx 1/4 pound.

A box turtle averages 0.15 mph, if it walked 8 hours/day…it would’ve beat the package.

RT

All the carriers (please don’t ask me about DHL international shipping) have struggled.

Yep, every shipping company, including USPS, is being ‘challenged’ these days with a combination of the sheer number of packages they are dealing with and a lack of infrastructure to be able to handle it. You name em - UPS, Fed Ex, GSO, etc - they’re all receiving ‘failing grades’ over the past two months.

The thing that kills me is that lack of automated customer service - if a package is going to be late, fine - but why isn’t your online tracking info correct? And in the case of many of these, why are you saying you’re attempting deliveries when the recipient says that they were home all day and there was no attempt?

Uggggggghhhhhh

This. I had an entire pallet missing by UPS. The story turns out they did a trailer swap somewhere and they drove away leaving my pallet on the ground. It just sat there for two weeks until someone say “why is that there?”.

Ironically, we use GLS for shipments in the west coast and they’ve been fairly good. GLS was GSO… They were purchased and moving into the regular package delivery business, they have a few bugs to work out, but we’re saving a ton especially when shipping odd sizes that required dimensional pricing. GLS doesn’t do dimensional, at least until very soon, so we were shipping just by weight. It was great, we’d ship an 8’ long 12x12" box to Washington and they’d charge us $8.50. LOL

International is really a problem because lots of companies use commercial airlines for transportation. There aren’t that many commercial flights between the US-EU now so I’ll track large shipments that will sit in London for a week or more waiting to get on a plane.

Wow, even worse USPS performance than I’ve had. I mailed three checks for local delivery on 12/21. One arrived on 1/4, one on 1/6, and the last one, to a P.O. box at the exact same branch that I mailed it from, on 1/11. It took 20 days to get it into a box at the starting point, maybe 25 feet from where I dropped it off?

I’ve had a lot of the problems mentioned in this thread, and would not that one of the big issues seems to be that both FedEx and UPS have added contract drivers (and one would assume warehouse workers as well). In our neighborhood most FedEx and UPS packaged are delivered via Penske truck and the drivers only wear uniforms about 1/3 of the time. My usual UPS and FedEx guys are great but the contractors are a step down in quality and are much more likely to mismark packages as delivered.

USPS has been a whole separate mess.

Tom

I actually live in Monroe Township, NJ and we don’t have a UPS warehouse in our town, so that’s a long time to be “in transit”!!!

Perhaps a driver lives in town and is starting his own cellar.

I don’t think it’s simply the drivers. A lot of things added up to cause this: slowing down the Postal Service from the top under directive; 30-40% increases in nationwide package movement due to the pandemic; many absences of employees out from Covid exposure or precautions. We have always had contract drivers for home delivery for FedEx and no problems with them, but they have many more deliveries to make.

tom: this might be a little bit of a “did you remember to turn it on first” question: but did you verify that they are shipping to the correct address? not sure why it would still say “in transit” but might be worth verifying?

FedEx is batting 100% for me. UPS just the opposite. They initiated returns to wineries without my consent and even UPS doesn’t know why. I asked for a shipment to be held at the terminal for pick up that they then left at my house. They are a mess.

I had a fedex package sent 2d day delivery that took 10 days and the online tracking page never changed from “preparing to ship.” Address was correct

Thinking the same thing OR there is a bug in the label print job for the bullseye.

The 2’nd package is no longer in Secaucus NJ but now “In Transit” also in Monroe Township NJ w/ its brother.
Scheduled for delivery in LosAlamos today!!
Yeah…sure!
Tom

Let us know what happens Tom, we are rooting for you!

P.S. I have a wine package that’s “Out for Delivery” by UPS today…fingers crossed.

So if I’m getting the gist, basically now all shipping services are as bad as OnTrac. :slight_smile:

“Are there two Monroe townships in NJ?
If you’re in one of New Jersey’s duplicate townships — either of the two Monroe Townships or five Washington Townships.”
I’m sure there is a UPS warehouse in adjacent South Brunswick or Cranberry that may have a Monroe Township address.

I’ve had good luck with UPS and FedEx of late. Some packages coming sooner than I expected.

Then there is USPS. Sent my Mom’s xmas gift ~3 weeks before holiday, and it just arrived there yesterday. Tracking and insurance gave some comfort but yup, 5 weeks.