FedEx is the devil

[shim]

I love this thread, I also have a shared hate of FedEx. 1 in 6 packages arrives on scheduled delivery date, the rest miss by 2-3 days.

 

[Ippyroy]

if you have a UPS premium account, they will (automatically) upgrade all of your smartpost/surepost packages to UPS ground for free. When amazon or anybody else ships you a package this way, UPS will automatically upgrade it to UPS ground delivery. Its included with a premium membership. I ship and rec'v a lot of packages, so it's worth it to me to pay the couple bucks per month for the premium account.

That is awesome. Thank you! I will definitely be looking into that. Smartpost and Surepost are the WORSE things ever. They always take several days longer.

 

[kingoftheHiLLpeople]

fedex is pretty miserable ....the drivers are independent contractors that own their vehicles (the girl next door to me leases a penske truck) and routes so corporate doesnt have as much control over them as say UPS...any personal problem and your stuff just wont get there...if you live in a rural area they will wait till they have more stops in your area and not waste the gas on a single delivery

She works for Ground. Express is as has been stated a different entity. As an Express employee, I’m not a fan of Ground. They are essentially a contractor under the FedEx umbrella. (There is also Customer Critical) for another example. And actually what you described is more akin to UPS, than it is to FedEx Express. (Bidding on routes etc.)

 

[Mical]

All shipper have their issues.

FedEx -I live within 30 miles of BRS, last winter I ordered a bucket of salt - FedEx left it at the end of my driveway (In January in Minnesota mind you) Box is crushed, half the salt is on the driveway & the driver never noticed something was Awry? Luckily BRS took care of it.

UPS - with their live tracking system I tracked my delivery of live fish from Vivid Aquariums - the driver literally drove past my place 6 times before delivering 10 hours later than "estimated" - I recorded it and sent it to UPS - I suspect he's now selling shoes at a local mall. We have a new UPS guy and he digs reefs!

UPS new slogan - mark it fragile & we only back over it once.

 

[ReadySet-Flow]

Since the pandemic hit, FedEx took a nosedive. I was getting 50% delayed packages with FedEx. I switched to UPS and have had less than 5% delays, at a lower price.

By the way, they also don't guarantee package delivery times so the "insurance" is not useful. They won't pay insurance claims as long as the package makes it there eventually. And as soon as you file a claim they have a funny habit of suddenly "finding" the lost package.

i've only ordered coral since the pandemic hit

2/3 of the coral packages from ups arrived on time (one a day late and with a dead wall hammer inside)
all of the coral packages i've gotten from fedex have arrived on time with no issues.

Just sharing my experience.

 

[kingoftheHiLLpeople]

All shipper have their issues.

FedEx -I live within 30 miles of BRS, last winter I ordered a bucket of salt - FedEx left it at the end of my driveway (In January in Minnesota mind you) Box is crushed, half the salt is on the driveway & the driver never noticed something was Awry? Luckily BRS took care of it.

UPS - with their live tracking system I tracked my delivery of live fish from Vivid Aquariums - the driver literally drove past my place 6 times before delivering 10 hours later than "estimated" - I recorded it and sent it to UPS - I suspect he's now selling shoes at a local mall. We have a new UPS guy and he digs reefs!

UPS new slogan - mark it fragile & we only back over it once.

Holy heck!

 

[ZoWhat]

I have a hidden motion detector on my front door. This is the latest delivery. I have about 5 deliveries on video that were thrown 6-8 feet. All my delivery drivers think they are playing Cornhole

I'm seriously thinking of making them Christmas chocolate chip cookies heavily laced with Ex-lax

 

[argiBK]

Well, was able to get them to redirect my DD shipment to a local Duane Reade for pickup. It wasn’t ready for pick-up until 8 hours after they “attempted” and the Tanaka Wrasse (the reason I put my order in) was DOA.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I buy livestock only from my LFS; that way I have no worries with shipping. The shipping of livestock ordered online will bankrupt you anyway.It costs only $10 round trip to drive to my LFS, versus the much higher cost of shipping livestock. Plus I get to see what I buy before I buy it.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I'm currently waiting for Fedex to deliver a box of corals today.... Shipped overnight priority.
They picked up the package at the coral shop yesterday..... supposed to be delivered by 10:30AM....
Tracking results haven't updated since they scanned the package at pickup. Its now almost 1PM. still no package.

ugh.

 

[Tamberav]

I am lucky as my FedEx driver must be a caring human or have a fish tank. I can’t hear the door from upstairs and I work 2nd shift so I don’t typically answer the door when he comes.

It is cold out now and when I don’t answer and the package says live fish/live corals, he leaves it with my neighbor (who is a morning person and always answers) and puts a note on my door to let me know. He doesn’t want to leave it out in the cold.

Luckily my neighbor is really nice too and doesn’t seem to mind :)

Also when I had a PS5 delivered, he must have known what it was somehow because I wasn’t home and he carried it around the house and put it at my backdoor so it wouldn’t be visible from the street.

I feel like I should go buy him a candy bar or something (shouldn’t share baked goods in a pandemic).

 

[LeftyReefer]

My package of corals wasn't delivered today. Ugh.
Looking like 48 hours in shipping now. Hope I don't get a box of dead corals tomorrow. Thanks fedex.

 

[sfin52]

Location location location. Some areas are better than others for each company ups fedex and usps. Chicago and st Louis for usps are a complete mess right now. While fedex ups have gotten everything I order on time.

It really depends on your region hubs. Just my 2 cents

 

[LeftyReefer]

My package was shipping from within my own state, from a coral shop only 2.5 hours away. Was supposed to be shipped overnight by 10:30 am.
It ended up being routed to the fedex hub in memphis TN several states away where it still remains. Can't quite figure out the logistics behind that one.

 

[FishTruck]

I have given up for now on online corals in winter due to fed ex. Just had a "tenius dream pack" arrive as a "nightmare fed ex popsicle pack". Noon delivery... showed up at 5 pm water temp in the 50s.

 

[AquaBiomics]

It seems like every week we have one of these threads :)

The common thread seems to always be people expecting FedEx or UPS to deliver to your house. This is not a recipe for success. Instead, have your packages delivered to the FedEx Shipping Center or UPS Store itself. Then drive over and pick them up when they arrive. Easy peasy, no late packages.

Both companies do a good job of getting packages to the hub, and a much worse job of getting them to your house. This is easily fixed by cutting out that last leg of the trip.

This also means theres no need for overpriced "super fast early in the day delivery". Just standard overnight gets it to the hub by 8 or 9 AM. Then its in your hands a few minutes later, when you show up to pick it up.

 

[LeftyReefer]

It seems like every week we have one of these threads :)

The common thread seems to always be people expecting FedEx or UPS to deliver to your house. This is not a recipe for success. Instead, have your packages delivered to the FedEx Shipping Center or UPS Store itself. Then drive over and pick them up when they arrive. Easy peasy, no late packages.

Would not have helped in my case. It never made it to my local hub. It was two hours away when shipped. FedEx routed it several states away where it sat for a day.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Luckily I purchased from a R2R site sponsor who has already agreed to replace the MIA corals after the holidays.

 

[BiggieJohn]

very lucky ordering on a thursday for friday delivery. If it got delayed, they would likely not deliver on saturday/sunday, nearly guaranteed a total loss.

 

[txrdnk]

I have a hidden motion detector on my front door. This is the latest delivery. I have about 5 deliveries on video that were thrown 6-8 feet. All my delivery drivers think they are playing Cornhole

I'm seriously thinking of making them Christmas chocolate chip cookies heavily laced with Ex-lax

Use Visine( eye drops) much more effective! Ask someone who works at a bar, they can probably share a few stories of its effects.