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FedEx (was: Re: [OM] Well, sometimes you just get hosed...)

Subject: FedEx (was: Re: [OM] Well, sometimes you just get hosed...)
From: T.Clausen@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 17:15:41 +0200 (CEST)
Well...Someone has to say something against FedEx.....I guess that was
me this time around....

Disclaimer: I live in mainland Europe - elsewhere in the world, things may
be different.

Also disclaimer: This is *not* meant as an insult against the FedEx
employee(s) on the list. I am sure that you conduct your work both
well and professionally. 

About half a year ago, I was regularly recieving shipments from overseas
(that would be from the US). Most often, it would be airline tickets, but
occationally it would be other stuff. During the six months I used that
american travel agency and FedEx, they did not manage ONE SINGLE TIME to
get the delivery to me without troubles - I guess I ordered about 10-20
tickets alone in that time-slot, and had those delivered by FedEx as
"next day delivery". My problems included, among others, that:

        - the shipment was utterly lost and could not be found,
        - the shipment was "mysteriously" rerouted to another department
          (and hence late late late - grave for airline tickets, I tell
          you),
        - they wrongly rerouted another persons letter to me (and mine to
          her) - they even relabeled the envolopes, so neither of us
          noticed before opening (incidentially, I was inspecting an
          airline ticket and got training material for cabin crew in
          American Airlines...I was expecting to go as a passenger, but
          ohh, well...*grin*),
        - they delivered the shipment to someone they met in my building -
          not me. Without getting a signature or the correct name (and I
          didn't know that "someone" - fortunately he was honest enough to
          track me down and introduce himself at a later point)
        - they repeatedly failed to find my working-place (which,
          incidentially, is one of the biggest individual places in its
          area - suburban Paris)
        - they never managed to make a delivery to my home address (which
          I tried since they had problems with my working address)

Every time I called FedEx with issues like the above, they were trying to
pass the blame on either the sender or on me (How can it be *MY* fault
that they reroute or label their stuff weirdly? - I never understood
that).

In the end, I opted for using a slightly more expensive travel agency, who
then was more "local" (and could issue electronic tickets).

Yes, everyone makes mistakes, and an occational slip is ok. Likewise, one
may, occationally, snap and hiss at a customer - I can understand that the
people in the 800-numbers may get lots of annoying calls daily. But noone
can be forgiven for not making one single delivery right out of that many
- or for consistantly blaming problems on the caller (..especially when
there is no way it could be the callers fault...)

I would *never* trust FedEx to send anything anywhere for me -
especially nothing valueable (that cannot be cancelled and refunded such
as airline tickets) or anything fragile. And in no ways would I trust
FedEx with any OM or Zuiks.

I'm having slightly better experiences with DHL, however I am not really
impressed there either (for example, they did not have the imagination of 
actually using the phone number they were given, when they had problems
with a shipment. They just left it somewhere, assuming that someone
probably would do something...).

--thomas

On Fri, 13 Jul 2001, Tris Schuler wrote:

> It's not just the delivery people FedEx has, it seems to be a first-class 
> operation from top to bottom. You call one of their 800 numbers and a human 
> being picks up. This person is always friendly, this person can tell the 
> time of day, this person has your answer for you, whatever  the question 
> was, immediately. Finally, this person wishes you well at the end of the 
> conversation. I have come to the juncture where if someone is going to send 
> me anything at all I email them or call and ask (beg, plea, whine) for them 
> to use my FedEx. If they tell me they only use UPS or the USPO I 
> beg/plea/whine for them to use my FedEx account instead. To my mind that's 
> as simple as can be. Call an 800 number, tell FedEx when you want the 
> package picked up, and that takes care of that.With the cost charged to my 
> account to boot! And still I meet people who resist, people who prefer to 
> ship me stuff the same old way they've always done it. Via UPS. I just 
> don't get why so many people wish to use this other service. Is brown in or 
> something?
> 
> Tris
> 
> 
> 
> 
> At 01:47 PM 7/12/01 +0000, you wrote:
> >As a 16 year FEDEX employee let me say I appreciate the kind words about
> >our service.
> >Everyone makes mistakes, we just try to make fewer than the other guys.
> >I work at our main hub here in Memphis and we sort around 1.5 million
> >packages a day through here.
> >I don't actually touch any of the packages but the wireless data systems
> >that I design and implement track all of the large containers of
> >packages that are unloaded and loaded as the aircraft arrive and depart.
> >If any of you are ever in Memphis I suggest
> >you take a hub tour and see the operation first hand. I see it almost
> >every day and its still pretty amazing.
> >
> >later,
> >mike m.
> >
> >Ryan Medd wrote:
> > >
> > > UPS:  "Use Purolator, Stupid"
> > >
> > > (I heard that from a UPS delivery guy!!!!  Not that I really prefer
> > > Purolator, I always believe that if you want it to get there, in on piece,
> > > and on time, pay the extra money and use FedEx!)
> > >
> >
> >
> >< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
> >< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
> >< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
> 

-- 

-------------------------------------------
  Thomas Heide Clausen
  Civilingeniør i Datateknik (cand.polyt)
  M.Sc in Computer Engineering

  E-Mail: T.Clausen@xxxxxxxxxxxx
  WWW:    http://www.cs.auc.dk/~voop
-------------------------------------------


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