Randy Holmes-Farley
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My Tank Thread
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2014
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I know many of you have horror stories about FedEx lack of prompt delivery of reef creatures and such, but I just have to tell todays story.
My company is running a critical experiment at a contract lab. Overall the experiment is costing mega dollars and weeks of work. One lab was sending frozen blood plasma samples to a different lab for a very specialized chemical analysis. The chemical can degrade so the box is filled with dry ice to ensure it stays frozen.
Today I get word from the receiving lab that FedEx says there is a delivery delay. Oh crap, that’s really not good.
I look up the tracking, and it says that the package is actually at the local FedEx location for delivery, but delayed 24 h and will be delivered “by 4:30 pm tomorrow”. Definitely a serious risk the dry ice is gone due to an extra 24 h delay.
Since I’m not either the shipper or the receiver, my standing to get FedEx to do something is minimal, but I tried.
I called FedEx and asked for customer service at least eight times to a computer that kept saying no agent had more info on the matter, then I got through to a human.
I explained the urgency and she seemed to suggest that the package could be delivered at 8 am tomorrow if someone would be there. Good. Not perfect, but better than 4:30 pm. I alerted the receiving lab to be ready.
Got a call back a couple of hours later from a different FedEx person . Here’s where it got luny…
“so, I hear you want this package delivered at 8 am”
“well, I didn’t ask for 8 am, just that it not wait until 4:30 since it is a critical medical sample that might be ruined by waiting”
Gave her the tracking number (how did she not already have it when calling?).
“It’s actually on the truck for evening delivery now” she says. Apparently there was a partial tracking update, saying delivery was still by 4:30 pm tomorrow (about 26 hours away) but that it was also out on a truck for delivery…
“Not good, the business will be closed” I say
“Well maybe it will get there before it closes” she says
“If it doesn’t, can I be sure it gets delivered in the am and not 4:30 pm tomorrow?”
I ask
“No, you didn’t pay for morning delivery”
(omg, this is nuts)
“But I paid for delivery the day before, and you didn’t meet that time, so doesn’t it seem like you should try to fix your not meeting your obligation by delivering as soon as you can?” I ask
“no. We have other customers who paid for morning delivery” she says
ok, so i realize neither logic nor good customer service are going to solve this mess.
“Can I pay more with a credit card right now to ensure it gets morning delivery?” I ask
The conversation got confusing here. Not being the shipper, or receiver, I didn’t know if this would work, but she never answered. She just said let’s first see if it gets delivered today.
In my mind it would risk being told tomorrow that it was too late to change it if we waited, and even an extra $100 is easy money to give greater odds of a successful experiment.
But that’s all she would do.
So i watched the tracking, and watched, and watched. Finally it changed to delivered at about 4:30, which is on time.
I hope it was delivered to the right place because the receiving lab later wrote to me saying that yes, they would be there at 8 am in case it arrived in the am. No word that anything did arrive.
I think I’m going to ask the shipping lab to send all samples for morning delivery so that any delayed shipments will deliver in the morning, regardless of how many days late it is. lol
Now I have to wait to find out what happened to it at 4:30. I hope it got checked in and put in a -80 freezer. My fear is it is sitting on some random loading dock on a hot night in the Midwest.
Happy Reefing! lol
My company is running a critical experiment at a contract lab. Overall the experiment is costing mega dollars and weeks of work. One lab was sending frozen blood plasma samples to a different lab for a very specialized chemical analysis. The chemical can degrade so the box is filled with dry ice to ensure it stays frozen.
Today I get word from the receiving lab that FedEx says there is a delivery delay. Oh crap, that’s really not good.
I look up the tracking, and it says that the package is actually at the local FedEx location for delivery, but delayed 24 h and will be delivered “by 4:30 pm tomorrow”. Definitely a serious risk the dry ice is gone due to an extra 24 h delay.
Since I’m not either the shipper or the receiver, my standing to get FedEx to do something is minimal, but I tried.
I called FedEx and asked for customer service at least eight times to a computer that kept saying no agent had more info on the matter, then I got through to a human.
I explained the urgency and she seemed to suggest that the package could be delivered at 8 am tomorrow if someone would be there. Good. Not perfect, but better than 4:30 pm. I alerted the receiving lab to be ready.
Got a call back a couple of hours later from a different FedEx person . Here’s where it got luny…
“so, I hear you want this package delivered at 8 am”
“well, I didn’t ask for 8 am, just that it not wait until 4:30 since it is a critical medical sample that might be ruined by waiting”
Gave her the tracking number (how did she not already have it when calling?).
“It’s actually on the truck for evening delivery now” she says. Apparently there was a partial tracking update, saying delivery was still by 4:30 pm tomorrow (about 26 hours away) but that it was also out on a truck for delivery…
“Not good, the business will be closed” I say
“Well maybe it will get there before it closes” she says
“If it doesn’t, can I be sure it gets delivered in the am and not 4:30 pm tomorrow?”
I ask
“No, you didn’t pay for morning delivery”
(omg, this is nuts)
“But I paid for delivery the day before, and you didn’t meet that time, so doesn’t it seem like you should try to fix your not meeting your obligation by delivering as soon as you can?” I ask
“no. We have other customers who paid for morning delivery” she says
ok, so i realize neither logic nor good customer service are going to solve this mess.
“Can I pay more with a credit card right now to ensure it gets morning delivery?” I ask
The conversation got confusing here. Not being the shipper, or receiver, I didn’t know if this would work, but she never answered. She just said let’s first see if it gets delivered today.
In my mind it would risk being told tomorrow that it was too late to change it if we waited, and even an extra $100 is easy money to give greater odds of a successful experiment.
But that’s all she would do.
So i watched the tracking, and watched, and watched. Finally it changed to delivered at about 4:30, which is on time.
I hope it was delivered to the right place because the receiving lab later wrote to me saying that yes, they would be there at 8 am in case it arrived in the am. No word that anything did arrive.
I think I’m going to ask the shipping lab to send all samples for morning delivery so that any delayed shipments will deliver in the morning, regardless of how many days late it is. lol
Now I have to wait to find out what happened to it at 4:30. I hope it got checked in and put in a -80 freezer. My fear is it is sitting on some random loading dock on a hot night in the Midwest.
Happy Reefing! lol
