Revolt growing at UPS

The Dallas Morning News ^ | May 4, 2006 | Katherine Yung

[Basselope]

United Parcel Service Inc. is facing a revolt within its shipping network as a growing number of store franchisees, including several in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, are joining forces to sue the company.

The situation has become so acrimonious that more than 100 UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. franchisees from around the country are expected to picket outside the package delivery giant's annual shareholder meeting today in Wilmington, Del.

[kinoxi]

good pic

[fatnotlazy]

Our retail store's experience with FedEx is to nearly always be shorted on packages, which is rarely the case with UPS.

***

Wow! I used Fed X in past jobs with no problems.

The worst was DHL. About a year ago, they successfully courted us away from UPS. But the "marriage" lasted barely a week. Seemed they forgot two days in a row to pick up our overnights...and in one instance, a case was potentially lost because of it. From what I understand, DHL was not willing to make things right, so we went back to UPS.

[Rockpile]

".... high theft rate from packages...."

====================================

Hmmm, heard from my gunsmith that he always tries to ship with UPS on Mondays in hopes of having guns get to the other end by Friday in order to avoid having them sit in a UPS warehouse over the weekend. He was trying to reduce the theft danger.

[Flavius Josephus]

I always thought Kinko's sucked.

[reformedliberal]

I have used UPS for 18 years or so. I am rural and only ship 3 days a week. However, for daily pickup, I was charged a fee which increased yearly. Their billing was a nightmare, with the computer not recording payments made and bills coming in overdue by 2-3 weeks when payments had already been made.

Sometime before the purchase of MBE, I was using MBE and loved it. They never charged me more than the actual shipping and they were willing to bill me monthly. I noticed no difference after UPS purchased them, except for the name. I still have no extra charges and am billed as a house account, plus, they generate a tracking number the moment my boxes are listed and then send me an email. They seem to make most of their profit from selling packing materials, packing (I pack my own) and renting mailboxes.

The MBE UPS store is so convenient, being right across the street from my husband's office. Kinkos/FedX is across town. I hope my MBE stays w/UPS and stays in business. I only use UPS for wholesale orders and use USPS for retail and shipments to AK and HI. I do remember when UPS last went on strike. I had to ship large, relatively heavy boxes through the USPS. They were slower, although everything arrived both here and at my accounts intact.

OTOH, I agree FedX is faster. They are not cheaper for the small shipper. Things may have changed, but last time I checked, they still wanted $15 a shipment on top of the shipping rate.

[CertainInalienableRights]

The worst was DHL

Couldn't agree more. They screw up every package that I've used them for.

Once, I had a server that was acting up. My vendor shipped me a pre-configured replacement so we could be up and running next day.

This was a 1 unit, rack-mounted server, so it comes in a huge box that is difficult for one person to carry since its so bulky - not something you misplace on a shelf somewhere.

DHL lost it - for over a week. They kept saying they found it, but it would never show up. Of course, each day that went by, we could have already had a new replacement ordered, but they kept telling us it would be delivered "tomorrow". After a week and a half, we had to order a replacement from IBM and configure in manually - making this day-long outage into a two week outage.

Supposedly, DHL eventually found it and returned it to our vendor, who then switched back to UPS.

Still, its a toss up for me as to who is worse; DHL or USPS.

I have been almost 100% satisfied with both UPS and Fedex. When they screw up, they fix it quickly. My experience with both has been excellent.

[fatnotlazy]

It's a shame because I remember years ago DHL was the only game in town for international shipments. My employer at the time used them without problems. Don't know if DHL still does well with internationals, but apparently, at least here locally, it could not do U.S. overnights.

[Red Boots]

The billing department at UPS is what finally drove our company away.... the statements were always about 3 weeks behind the payments; and you had to phone the national office (where the people were invariably nasty) to apply a credit to your account.

We now use FedEx, and have no problems.

[HHFi]

I ordered roses delivered to my wife last week for our 16th wedding anniversary, and the company I ordered them from uses UPS. They never showed up until the night of the day after our anniversary. UPS claimed they tried to leave them and nobody was home, which is garbage because we home office and were there all day both days, and UPS never left a note. By the time the roses arrived, they'd been out of the water for 48 hours and were wilted and dying. The company is having to replace them this week. Worst of all, my wife had no flowers on our anniversary for the first time in 16 years. I will never voluntarily use UPS again.

[VeniVidiVici]

are millions of people out there that still consider "UPS Store" synonymous with "price gouging".

LOL! I used them a few months ago and thought it was about double what it should be. Just a guess though. If it really wasn't, thank God I don't ship more packages than I have to.

[hosepipe]

Is it time to SHORT UPS yet?...

[savedbygrace]

That's not my experiemce. I've only had one mis-delivery in nearly ten years. In that case, I called and insisted on speaking with a supervisor. She found the driver and the driver was willing to come back out here and try to find where she delivered it. Instead, my wife found the package down the street at a neighbor's house in the next block.

The driver called me back later to thank us for finding it, and to apologize.

Both FedEx and FedEx Ground have delivered one or two days early on many occasions. UPS delivers early VERY rarely, and sometimes is late. I've had several UPS shipments that have crossed half the country twice to get here, after being sent to the wrong city in mid-shipment.

But don't get me started about that waste of a corporation, DHL. I've never had a good experience with DHL.

[null and void]

*oh my*

I'll think of SOMETHING...

[-YYZ-]

"I hate UPS, I swear one of our assitants spends 90% of her time on the phone fighting with UPS over bogus brokerage invoices."


I knew, even before I read it, that you must be in Canada. UPS operates its customs broker as a big profit center, obviously, while Canada Post will do the same task for $5. Unfortunately many companies will only ship to Canada by UPS.

[T-Bro]

What I heard from the franchise in town was that business was going very well until they started landing some big shipping contracts. UPS then decided that it was their perogative to take over those contracts. In this way, the store was going nowhere.
All in all, it does seem a little underhanded.

[MplsSteve]

I agree with you.

I use the Post Office's Priority and/or Express Mail Service.

It works surprisingly well. Costwise, it's also a bit cheaper than DHL or FedEx.

[Dont Mention the War]

I get a course manual I wrote copied from time to time. It is copyrighted and each page has that notation. Once in a while, I'd get a call (usually an hour or two before pickup) that they could not copy the manual because it was copyrighted. "I own the copyright," I'd tell them. Well then, you need to fill out the release form. "I have filled it out, many times. You should have it on file." No, you need to fill out a release form every time. "Why didn't you ask me when I left the job?" Didn't notice.

You're one of the lucky ones. I've had FedEx-Kinko's refuse to copy works of mine even with a release form.

[HitmanLV]

No problems at CopyMax. Kinkos is an adventure! I only use them if I have to (never)!! ;-)

[Dont Mention the War]

I could not be more pleased with FedEx ground. They handle claims quickly and promptly. Consistantly excellent service. Yes, they are independent contractors/ that's as in small business people that care about their business by my estimation.

That's my entire point. They're independent contractors, plural. Yours may be great, but the one I had to deal with was hell on earth, and their attitude was very much one of "Hey, we own the FedEx concession around here, so what are you gonna do about it if you don't like our service?" It's shipping by Russian Roulette.

At least with UPS, it's all one operation so that every employee has an obligation (on some level, anyway) to help you if you have a problem.

[GingisK]

They are not cheaper for the small shipper.

I wish we had the same experience with UPS. We ship small/light stuff by via the US Parcel Service. They do the most consistant job for us.