Decades of UPS: Don't Be So Sure That You Are Receiving All Your Mail

Truly, in the words of George Carlin: "... Whoever coined the term “Buyer Beware” was probably bleeding from the a__hole."

UPS Stands for United Postal Service... there's nothing united about them, and the word "service" makes me wonder: what kind?! This company has been in business since 1907; founded in Seattle, WA., they have been in the logistics industry for 116 years!

On the other hand, we have others such as FedEx (1971), and Amazon, yes, Amazon, founded in 1994. With such a lead, anyone would be forgiven for arriving at the conclusion that UPS's service and business model are superior to the other two competitors given here, based on experience... not so; they'd be mistaken!

The inspiration for all this...

Over the years, many a media outlet, or angry customer, have published articles, and given interviews, expressing frustration with the quality of service they had received from UPS, which included, but was not limited to, damaged parcels, missing packages, bad customer service, and lack of following process and meeting expected business etiquette.

What I am about to discuss, which also touches on all the above, has a bit of a different dimension: We may appreciate the reactions that customers have expressed by experiencing the above when they received said deliveries; but, what if you had no idea that a delivery was NOT made at all?

You may ask: "Well, Raéd, all these packages are tracked, and we would receive the tracking slips from the senders!" I would say: yes, but that type of delivery is not the only service that UPS, like FedEx and the United States Postal Service (USPS), offer... they also have the store fronts that offer a barrage of other office and logistics services! What can go wrong there?! Well, I'll share a few of those here, and I will further demonstrate another serious gap in the latter offering (the UPS Store services).

"The UPS Store ?"...

A bit of a background...

"The UPS Store" is a subsidiary of UPS, which was created In March 2001, after they acquired Mail Boxes Etc .. According to their website, they specialize in shipping, shredding, printing, faxing, taking passport photos, offering personal and business mailboxes, and notary, services.

Mail Boxes Etc. was founded in 1980 as an alternative to the post office. It was in February of 2003 that UPS rebranded more than 3,000 locations as "The UPS Store." Each location is independently owned; please note this latter distinction, for it will return to prominence in a short while!

My best friend since college days, and, later, business partner, Micheal, and I, are part of that legacy customer-base whom were migrated from MBE to T-UPSS ('UPSS!' yeah, it sounds and feels like D-oh!)!

For a couple of decades I did not bother with dealing with the mail service, whence Michael was the one to kindly pick it up and sorted it all for us... that is until the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world with vengeance, starting during 2020.

From all of my network—that is friends, family, and personal acquaintances, Michael, my brother and BFF, was the one I would lose to Mother Nature's designs... he was a 'victim' of evolution: he passed-on after fighting the virus for an extended period in critical medical care; a fact that I am yet to make peace with, for, him being more than just a brother, he occupied a significant part of my being... Yin & Yang... he was beyond one who picks up the mail, and one who debates business decisions, and go out running, hiking, and rollerblading with... a true friendship! But let me not digress...

That said, I had to fulfill that role and task which he always dealt with, and start taking care of this business.

From the beginning...

Micheal and I are basically of the same generation, but he was a couple of years older, almost to the day... two days to be exact. Having had survived the aggressive treatment for a malignant cancer at a young age, I would judge that Michael's priorities were better aligned than some of mine when it came to choosing what to fuss over and what was not worth it... that said, it does not mean that he was passive!

Not at all, just more introverted than I, 'cooler,' thinking in the moment, and slightly more relaxed at being calculating, even while being a "family man," where I tend to be a bit more expressive, extrovertly passionate, strategic in my thinking, and [pro]actively engaged, including when I delegate (a quality a gained later, due to life experiences)... We used to joke and attribute that variance in "chill factor" between us "two brothers" to the fact that he inherited the Anglo-Saxon family genes vs. I the Mediterranean ones!

With that explained, I have no doubt that there were issues that he witnessed which he deemed unnecessary for further perusal, and he did not communicate them back to me—which is fine, for he was more than capable at making sound decisions... but, what I appreciated, and he placed less emphasis on, is that little things matter in the context of the [strategic] big picture, on the long run, and should not be dismissed outright... the single bricks that make the wall, as I used to bring to his attention.

To-wit, when I took over managing the mail services, I observed that while the employees working at The UPS Store were very nice people, there was a lot to be desired when it came to the management and organization of the store, and the local system of sorting (shelving) and tracking they were using. I lost count of the occasions they had a hard time locating the whereabouts of deliveries that were made to the store.

Ironically, due to my increased volume of online shopping, triggered by the pandemic, I started noticing this gap, not due to issues I noticed related to our business correspondence and logistics.

Over the span of a few months, it started with the tracking of three orders that were made via the USPS, which were delivered but could not be located at the store, and where UPS refused to take ownership of the loss, while blaming the disappearance of the items on the USPS not making the deliveries at all, even though they reported the deliveries and hand-offs (chain of custody)!

When I demonstrated the tracking tool, and providing the day and time details of the delivery, the UPS managers persisted with their accusations, claiming that they checked their store cameras, and that the problem was not with their end of the service.

In two of the three deliveries, the sellers were kind and generous enough to resend me the products without charging me extra, and one—rightfully—stuck with the fact that the USPS tracking tool demonstrated that the package was delivered, and that there was no fault on their behalf, so, I had to repurchase that product at a personal loss of finance and time.

Again, during this experience, I had presented the problems to the store manager, who, while seemingly nice, he was beyond goofy, and certainly was lacking any form of leadership or business acumen... and eventually proved to be a bona-fide, genuine, liar.

I escalated the issue to UPS proper, who refused to handle the situation, and washed their hands of the whole situation by advising that they are not affiliated with the UPS Store operations... when I asked for a contact number for the UPS Stores operations, they referred me to check the latter's website.

When I contacted the UPS Store operations, they claimed that they had no control over the store operations since "they are independently owned," and that I need to talk with the store manger... the loopy-de-loop... "Do not pass GO; do not collect $200!"

At this stage, I decided that I need to put all this in writing, and I started an email campaign, which yielded zilch, but did demonstrate the total disarray and lack of professional ownership at this operation, and the complete lack of care for customer's property, and the willingness of the store management to chronically lie through their teeth to cover their a$$es (the store went through three managers to-date, since my experiences started)!

Much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving!

Planning to contribute to the cuisine for Thanksgiving of last year, I ordered, online, a large container of one of my favorite spice mixes, a McCormick product; the price was a 'steal' compared to if I had purchased it from one of the grocery stores, including places like Costco or Sam's.

The delivery was made about a week before Thanksgiving, but The UPS Store denied that it was ever delivered, and the store associates gave me the same lame story about checking the camera recordings—which, mind the point that, they never shared those recordings, or any other evidence for that mater, with me... they expected me just to believe them.

I requested that a manager contact me, and I provided the detailed information of the delivery and the package it contained, etc., my contact info, including email, and pressed the urgency for a follow-up. The associate promised a call-back by the next day, but three weeks passed—as I pursued them, and not a peep from any manager... not a whisper!

Now, I became furious for the lack of respect and the lies. In this case, the seller had sold-out of the product (no surprise, for the pricing was very aggressively discounted), so, I had to just purchase the item from my the grocery store at the much higher retail price.

With many more important things to manage in my life, I decided to let go of dealing with this matter, while the staff apologized profusely about the absent follow-up by management, and after assuring me that they forwarded my request, and all the info I provided to him.

I never recovered that package. At this stage, The UPS Store lost/stole about half a dozen tracked packages that were shipped to me via their operation.

Now, I am hyper-conscience of the problem...

Prior to Michael's death, my interactions with UPS where limited to the packages they delivered to my home/home-office address... 100% of those occasions, they never rang a bell to announce their arrival; for the packages that required my signature, they always left that sticky note on my door that stated that they came and [the lie that they] did not find me at home, so, that I needed to contact them to organize a re-delivery, or to visit the logistics center in-person to pick-up the package myself... the lying sacks of fertilizer!

The other was when I'd open the package, and discover that the product was mishandled and damaged in some way... I'd estimate that such an experience happened 50-60% of the time! It happened frequently enough that I gave-up on reporting the problem, and I started requesting those who ship me products to use the USPS or FedEx, and even offered that I'd pay the difference in price, if higher.

Some contrast...

To create a contrast, in all my years dealing with FedEx, there was ONLY one time where I received an item that was damaged, and technically, I would contribute that state to the way the sender packaged the item... an unexpected gift. The sender was 汉莎航空 , and the gift was a cast-metal model of an Airbus A340 aircraft, that had a polymer (plastic) tail... it was shipped in an envelope with little, if any, proper protection... the plane arrived with a tail bent about 4mm above the fuselage, which shortly broke-off as I took it out of its box.

I called FedEx to report the issue in the spirit of providing feedback, no more and no less... in other words, while slightly disappointed, I was not upset, and I had no expectations of any follow-up at all.

The kind female agent took my report, and promised that this matter will not be ignored and will be escalated, not because of the monitory value, but for the sake of process improvement (heavy boxes should not have been piled on such an envelope), and she further advised that she will follow-up with me, afterwards, regardless.

I was impressed with the degree of attention that she granted my report (even after I advised her that I am not requesting any kind of restitution and that I am not upset at all), but I still took her commitments with a grain of salt.

Next morning, around 10am, as I sat on my cushy executive leather chair, working in my study, and while I was on the phone, the front door bell rang... there stood a FedEx delivery person, who, as usual, after greeting me, requested my signature on the Motorola/Zebra "FirstPhone," and handed me a FedEx envelope in turn, after I returned to him his stylus.

I thanked him for his service, and retired to my office, and got back on my call as I paced the room, while wondering what's in the package. After the call concluded, I sat down and took a sip of coffee, I opened the envelope to notice a letter. I took it out, and discovered that it was an apology letter from FedEx for the experience I reported, and, in it, it explained that they included a token gift, a check, to make up for my trouble... I reached back into the enveloped, and extracted a check for $100.

Later in the day, as the agent had advised, she called to follow-up and let me know that the constructive feedback I shared was escalated to management, and that they are handling the matter, and apologized, again, for me having to go through that experience!

I shared with her the fact that I already received a letter of apology and the $100 gift, and—as I see it—the matter is better than closed. She shared her gratitude and expressed some pleasantries about my attitude, and after I kindly thanked her, we hung-up the call.

... And there you have some contrast...

Undeservingly, where UPS blamed every problem onto me, the seller, and other entities in-between, and offered less than the essence of a positive customer service experience—even after Michael and I have being clients at "The Store"/MBE for decades, FedEx didn't even argue, and took ownership of the situation, in order to maintain leadership and customer satisfaction.

I've had the same experience at the FedEx-Kinko's stores, which due to that, I was introduced—in the early 2000s—to another wonderful human-being, who became one of my best friends, and another man I call brother: Sam! He is still serving as a PM for FedEx Kinkos ... later renamed FedEx Office .

Here comes 2023... The New Year...

New beginnings? Nope, more of the same! On three different occasions, the staff at the UPS store insisted that packages that were delivered to me, were never delivered, until I insisted that they were, and became vocal and—while polite—relatively loud about it.

On two of the occasions, they promised that they will check the camera's and call me back, which they never did call back, even after at least two weeks passing; and with the third experience, I advised that I will not be leaving the store, and that at this stage, that I am suspecting theft, and I intend to call for police intervention and putting this experience on the records of law-enforcement... guess what: in each of those three cases, they located the packages in the store!!

Two weeks ago, I received an international package that was shipped to me last December, and which I was awaiting with bated breath! It was a model of an airplane that I purchased... an Airbus A380... yes, with 联邦快递 's livery (photo)!

The package was tracked, and it was indicated as delivered... even the seller sent me an email to advise me of so, knowing that the delivery was delayed, to my disappointment, due to COVID pandemic reasons and that of customs.

With all due excitement, a few days later, I went to pick up the package in the evening. I was told by a new guy working at the store that there was no such package delivered; I refused to accept that answer, and a young lady who overheard the dialog came to assist... she looked in the system, and true to the records, there was no tracking entered, and then she started a quest to look around for any package within the general dimensions I described, to no avail.

Via phone, she called two persons, whom I believe that at least one was a store manger, and the other the assistant manager, and in both cases, they requested that she takes my information and that they will call me back "tomorrow"... yeah, that same lame story!

Initially, I refused to leave the store, but it was approaching closing time—which I did not care about initially, but then I remembered that these employees have been working all day dealing with customers, and I felt empathy for them (from my own experiences in retail and customer service).

The gal, Leslie, promised that she will share the details of the situation with the manager, again, and she assured me that I will get a call-back from said manager the next day (which would have been a Saturday). She documented the package info, etc. in writing, on a sheet of paper, and had their notary person stamp the sheet as proof that all is legit and that he witnessed the agreement, after she took a photo of my smartphone screen displaying the details of the package's tracking records.

You guessed it... I did not get the call on Saturday, but I did receive a voice-mail on Wednesday, from a female manager advising me that she "just got my message" (although, she was one of the people Leslie called that night), and that she checked all the packages, and that all the ones that were in the store were picked-up and that there was noting left, which means that my package was not delivered!

Furthermore, in her voice-mail message, as if she is doing me a favor, she stated that if I give her the tracking number of the package, she will see if there is anything else she can do for me! Yes, that sheet of paper that was notarized, etc. had the tracking number, my info, the dates, and other notes! She didn't even look at the damned thing!

I called back in the afternoon, during my lunch break, but she was not in the store, and I was advised that she works the early shift, and that she has already left for the day (information she did not provide me with). I decided to deal with this face-to-face in a few days, the next time I intended to visit the store to pick-up my mail.

During the following visit, as one of the male associates was checking for my mail, Leslie saw me, and approached to greet me, and to verify if the package was found and the issue addressed to my satisfaction; I shared with her where I stood with the matter, and also the lack of timely follow-up by the manager, which, to her embarrassment, she apologized profusely for, and assured me that she provided the management with the information I gave her!

I insisted and expressed my confidence that the package was delivered to the store, and I further expressed my intentions to make a theft police report if I do not get immediate satisfaction... and at this moment I recognized a bigger problem...

... The bigger problem...

... what will assure me that the mail that is sent to me, without tracking, is actually being delivered?!...

The bigger problem, which I recognized at this stage, and shared with Leslie, is that: if I am having so much trouble in receiving my tracked mail... within the first month of 2023 alone, I had such problems with at least 25% of my packages (where they denied receiving deliveries that were actually made and received as proven)... what assures me that the mail that is sent to me, and received by them, without tracking, is actually being given me?!

She agreed and supported my concern, then she embarked on a second goose-chase in a seemingly futile effort to find my international package (with the airplane model)... within three minutes, as she was passing where I stood, she observed a small package on a table right behind the customer service desk... curiously, she grabbed it, and as she flipped it around in her hands, she looked at me with "can it be this?" in her eyes! I spoke up, and stated that the lost/stolen package should be about the size of that one!

As she handed it over to me to check it out, I immediately noticed the customs documentation, and she authorized that we risk opening the plastic-wrapped package... Yes, after three weeks since they received the package, and the store manager denying that they ever received it, she located it on the table right behind the customer service desk! I did not have to sign for picking it up, becasue it was never processes into their systems!

Legally, how can the customer make their case?

My question stands at the following precipice: Legally, as a customer, what is the path a customer can take to receive satisfaction?

The seller may have documented proof that they mailed a package, any intermediate delivery services may/would have theirs, and apparently, in such a case (with UPS), all they have to claim is that they checked their camera's and they have no record of receiving the delivery! That's a bunch of malarkey!

How do you hold the actors of such acts of maliciousness, or at best: negligence, accountable? Any ideas?

Apparently, the current process follows this logic: If you are the UPS customer, you might want to take a moment to review your shipper’s agreement, and the tariff. You’re going to find that you agreed to go to arbitration in lieu of any lawsuit, and that arbitration is only available after your claim has been denied, and your appeal has been denied.

To "win," at minimum you will need to show proof that you tendered the package, and paid for the shipping. Then you will need to offer evidence of the value of the contents of the package. UPS is liable up to the amount of shipping charges, minus the cost of any excess declared value indemnity service, plus the actual value (as demonstrated by the evidence you provide) up to either the default value of $100, or the excess declared value you paid for.

This means, that if you shop via sites such as eBay, in many cases, you are up the creek without a paddle! In the others, measuring for the time and effort you will invest, it may not be worth investing... time is their friend, not yours, in such cases.

Last but not least, that does NOT cover the issue of mail and parcels that may be sent to you, especially business related, where you may not be aware that they were not provided to you until it is too late! Think bills and legal documents that the senders did not pay for them to me "tracked"... in hindsight, there is a great probability that I already have dealt with such losses between 2010 and 2012!

While, due to the setup of my business infrastructure, I may have to continue using and dealing with UPS, another factor comes into play: Lack of competition... I think that this latter fact is what is emboldening them to continue to be belligerent in their negligence, even if that same state does not seem to drive the way FedEx does business!

Surely, when it comes to shipping important documents, or valuables, I will use no one but FedEx, and with some national shipping, and where confidentiality is most paramount, the the United States Postal Service (USPS).

As I was wrapping up this article, I wanted to sign-off and conclude it with a comedic video demonstrating the irony that often goes with such an experience, so, I started mining YouTube! ... among the results, lo-and-behold!, I came across the following two recordings, the first by George Carlin (note: "adult language" in use):

... and the second by Will Pattison ... the latter supports my experiences perfectly, and demonstrates the nightmarish experience of a customer who attempted to pursue them legally (and won—after much time an effort)! He also gives details of the "how to" legal steps to be taken. I think that you will—very much—appreciate watching this:

On a side note, and last word...

WJHL-TV , this video interview is nonsense in the context of this article, and you may want to revisit it from the perspective of what I, among others, shared in this article: