For years, I have made it a standard to use Fedex for shipping of audio equipment and I think most of us have too. I might be changing my mind after a few incidents in the last few weeks. In our neighborhood, we have had many issues with fedex delivering to the wrong address and more disturbing, been seen throwing small bags/boxes from a distance to the clients front doors. Our neighbors had their Ring cameras record these incidents and when I went out online and did some searching, this is fairly common practice. Yeaterday, I had a shipment coming to me from an audio vendor that was worth $7,000 and there was a signature required when delivered. There was an issue where the vendor used my old address instead of my current address but I thought the new homeowners would see it was sent to me and tell the fedex guy it wasn’t theirs and he would take it back to the warehouse. That’s not what occurred. Nobody was home, so the fedex guy signed for it himself and left it out on the porch where anybody could have picked it up. The new homeowners called me when they got home to tell me my package was sitting outside. The vendor that shipped the piece asked for the digital signature and it was a line with 2 dots, but fedex indicates that I signed for it, I’m 30 miles from my old house.
What good is having paid for a signature when delivered if the carrier is going to sign for it and leave it out in the open? If somebody would have stolen the box, I bet there would be a fight since fedex claims it was signed for and delivered. Maybe UPS has fixed their issue with dropping packages up to 5’ from conveyer to conveyer.
Here in Southern California, Riverside County, I have had great service and relationships with both FedEx and UPS drivers (knock on wood). USPS Postal Service, on the other hand, could not find a bell attached to their backside with both hands tied behind their back. Honestly. The delivery route supervisor, Adrian, changes drivers on the routes frequently and our mail and many Amazon packages are mis-delivered (delivered to the wrong address). Complaining to the Post Master has brought no improvement to their service and the postal inspector is only interested in theft, not incompetence.
Thanks for the good tips on the adult signature required and pickup at depot options.
Our club recently had 8 speakers companies ship samples to us for an event. I also had them all shipped to my office as a secretary is always present.I had looked at all the boxes for damage when they arrived. Some companies used prudent packing precautions. Others required improvisation to repack them safely.
I had all the boxes back at my home to return ship per each company's preference. Most chose Fed Ex. One chose ABF, a freight company. ABS was the only prompt and professional company I dealt with. I wonder how much more it cost? They also provide next day delivery albeit to an adjoining state.
Only one speaker company chose UPS and I wondered why. When the UPS guy finally arrived with earbuds still intact and no hand truck-He had "forgotten" it, I explained these 5 boxes where expensive and fragile electronics. I offered to loan him my hand truck. No thanks I got this was the reply. He then proceeded to roll the boxes end over end to his truck. I should have walked out after the first flip and said "Hey Jack, You are fired. Get out!" As usual I thought of that too late. The MFG did not say anything about a condition issue when he received them. It was a Brand New, $16k system, I was very relieved.
Seems like a business opportunity for someone to offer a better way to ship stuff. Or everybody should consider triple boxing.
I have these same issues with FedEx and UPS. While somewhat inconvenient, I have UPS deliver high dollar items to my local UPS store for pickup; I have FedEx hold my delivery at the distribution center for pickup.
With other things, I take my chances like everyone else. I have a Nest doorbell and security cameras. More times than not, the delivery person will place, drop, or throw an item on my stoop; not ring the doorbell; and walk away. Luckily, I've never had a package stolen and only once received a damaged one.
If there were better alternatives, I think all of would use them.
Fedex Express does take these issues seriously and will end in termination if proven. Throwing of pkgs must be proven, i.e. video. Forging a signature is considered "falsification of records" which is grounds for termination. Call Fedex and ask to speak to their security dept.. I guaranty action will be taken. This is assuming Fedex Express was the carrier in question. Fedex Ground operates differently. They are independant operators.
FedEx delivered my speakers a couple of years ago. The driver rolled the back door of the box van up, and there they were, laying on their sides where they had been sliding around loose for the last 100 miles.
FedEx is just awful! After getting my signature, they tried to just leave my new speakers at the end of the driveway. It’s a long driveway, btw. The 2 boxes were each almost 6 ft. tall and each box weighed over 100 lbs. I made the driver get the dolly he just moved the speakers out of the truck with get it back out of the truck and move them into my living room, all the while listening to his sigh fest the entire time. I even gave him a cold bottle of water, which he didn’t even thank me for.
I stopped using Fedex years ago when, instead of delivering my HSU subwoofer, the driver snuck quietly to my front door and put a try again tag on the door. I was home the entire time and he never even attempted to ring a doorbell or in any way notify anyone of his presence. He simply did not want to carry a heavy package up my hill of a driveway.
Unfortunately, I had too many occurrences like that with Fedex and decided to part company. I’m not saying all Fedex drivers are bad, but it seems a larger % are when compared to the service offered by competitors.
One reason for this is that only Fedex Express are Fedex employees (and Fedex express, while expensive, is almost always good service). Fedex Ground is run as a separate company within Fedex and the drivers are all contractors with no allegiance, loyalty or pride of ownership or brand (and a high turnover rate).
Since then, I have used USPS for all small packages and UPS for all large packages and items that USPS will not handle. I have never had the first issue, lost package, late delivery or otherwise with USPS. As another poster stated earlier, my USPS driver puts all of my packages and mail by my side door out of view from the road. The icing on the cake is that USPS is also less expensive than any of the others.
UPS has been fairly good as well, albiet usually more expensive for the same class of service. My only real complaint with UPS is a total lack of predictability of delivery time. My USPS deliveries show up at the same time, every day, six days a week. My UPS deliveries (all using the same class of service) might show up at 11am one day and 8pm the next making planning for things like JIT production challenging.
One last word - my business is located 100 yards from a major Fedex hub and shipping office, but the service has been so bad and expensive that I happily drive 5 miles to USPS or 9 miles to UPS. When I first leased the building, I had images in my head of being able to pallet jack outgoing shipments over to Fedex two or three times a day, but alas, it was not to be.
I was sitting at home expecting delivery of some very expensive Synergistic Research Euphoria interconnects, which usually FedEx would deliver afternoon or evening, so was surprised to see email saying they had been delivered. Especially since I was right there at home and never heard the door bell. Even more suspicious, my wife was up and in the room right next to the front door at the time delivery was supposedly made.
Went right out and looked and found nothing. Never had anything like this before. FedEx, far as I can tell, did absolutely NOTHING to find out what happened. The reason I say NOTHING I won't go into details by suffice to say when something like this happened with UPS the driver himself called me personally to tell me where he left the package. UPS driver was really clever, let me just say that. And professional. And major cred for responsiveness.
I am leaving out a whole bunch of details ALL of which reflect nothing but BADLY on FedEx. I am leaving out a whole bunch of details of half a dozen other FedEx shipments tracking experiences. FedEx has totally lost it. I would never ship with FedEx again, if I had the choice.
"adult signature required is the way to go, not just 'signature required'. They have to see the exact name on the ID for the parcel to be delivered.
The other thing is to have it held at the depot for pick up, and then the Id has to be shown.
I used to do that for all parcels to Indonesia, and the like (a few other countries, Like the entire eastern block of Europe).
If the buyer wanted the product to be shipped to them in Indonesia, then they had to agree to those terms. Shipping depot delivery/pickup only, show id. The end.
I had an issue at my work with a package being delivered to my office back door. It is an emergency exit so nobody noticed the package for a week. When I called UPS the told me that the package was delivered to TN. I am in NJ. I said have a driver pick it up. They said the drivers in NJ do not have the ability to get the package that was to be delivered to TN. I said so what should I do with the package? They had no suggestions.
FedEx drivers forging signature is not uncommon, I have had it happen a couple times. FedEx did not even bother to want details when I rang customer service to complain. FedEx drivers also claiming you are not in and so could not deliver is also not uncommon, had that one twice last week even though in all day. The telltale on that is they are supposed to then leave a doortag which has a unique doortag number, again FedEx customer service were not interested.
Saying all of that in my area FedEx are the best service but we are really just saying they are the best of the worst so not much of a compliment I am afraid.
Gdnrbob-the email from the vendor did show my correct address where they were going to ship it to so I thought i would get it until fedex informed me that it was delivered, and it wasn’t to me. The shipping guy who actually created the label used my old address that they had on file when I bought some stuff from them
I am afraid to jinx myself but have had nothing but great service from Fedex, UPS not so much and USPS there are certain things I won't have shipped by them but on the whole they are much better than expected and getting better all the time.
You can complain to FedEx about the driver forging your signature. They take Signature Required seriously. I complained by phone about a driver who didn't show up two days in a row but said he did and nobody was home. I told them I was sitting in my house and watched as the truck drove down the street without stopping. They said they file a report about their drivers.
As for the wrong address, I'm afraid that's on you.
Until drones or robots start dropping off packages, it comes down to individual workers.
My normal USPS driver drops both packages and all my mail together on my doorstep, usually pushing it off to the side so it's not visible from the street. (He's an audiophile too, we've chatted about it a few times). The mail gets a rubber band around it and is easy to gather up.
The other driver puts the package on the porch pretty much wherever, and puts the letters and junk mail in my mailbox.
It's also a corporate management issue, but these guys are pretty much out on their own and unless someone from management is following them around and watching closely, they're going to do what they're going to do. An observer would be hard pressed not to be spotted, and as soon as they were, the behavior would change (temporarily).
Looks like another future YouTube video of how they deliver expensive items. maybe if enough bad press comes the will change their policy.
personally I gave up on FedEx years ago. my preferred deliver service in the postal service ( Canada post as I live in Canada) if too heavy-over priced for insurance, I use DHL they still seem to want customers and takes care of them.
I think it's more closely associated with the work ethic nowadays and it's not unique with FedEx. My FedEX guy is great.
A week ago I went out to my apartment mailboxes and took a look outside to see if any notices were left on the intercom squakbox and sitting pretty were several Amazon packages below it, just outside of the gated entrance. Anyone could have walked up and took them so I called Amazon and was told there's nothing they could do about it.
Though it might not be a consolation, I sometimes have my FedEx driver sign for me, since I am not at home much and my neighborhood is pretty safe and he knows me. Perhaps the new homeowners are much like me- the driver knows them and they trust him, and your old neighborhood is safe, as well. Lastly, there is no way for anyone to know that you moved. If it was so valuable, why didn't you ensure the correct address was used? Not to be a noodge.😕
Bob
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