Fed Ex BLOWS

[jimalbert]

I always use Sausage Maker "Country Sausage" seasoning for my sausage but unfortunately it has been unavailable for weeks on their website (Im doing my sausage this weekend). On a whim I decided to call their retail store in Horseheads, NY because I have a business acquaintance that lives in Elmira which is right down the road. Call the store, guy says yea I have 3 jars. I say Ill take them, pay the dude over the phone and my buddy runs down to pick them up. Immediately heads to the Fed-Ex shipping location and overnights them to me. AWESOME. Tracking said shipment should be there by Tuesday at 8:00PM. Tuesday gets here, no package and tracking hasnt changed. Oh well, its probably weather related. Long story short. Fed-Ex lost the damn package. They cant find it anywhere. They are calling me to find out whats inside, what color they are, blah blah blah. What a PITA. All the trouble my friend went through and the crack heads at Fed-Ex botch the whole thing up. And i'm without my favorite seasoning for sausage. At any rate I ordered some AC Leggs #10 to try out. Anyone ever try it?

Thanks,

Jim

 

[meatsweats86]

That's a bummer. I work in customer service and FedEx is usually pretty good at not losing shipments from my experience. UPS on the other hand is a different story.

I have been using Popp's Country Style Sausage recipe that everybody seems to like in my family. I buy the ground sage in 2oz bags and I believe that almost equals a half cup for me. I use table salt, not Kosher.

¾ cup salt
½ cup black pepper
½ cup sage
put in ziploc and shake thoroughly, then use 1 tbsp per pound of meat.

I would test this out vs. the AC Leggs and see how it works for you.

 

[zippy12]

I agree with you on fedex

They lost the first smoking tube I ordered and some car parts! They suck!

 

[SonnyE]

I had an order through Walmart.com that came from the mid-west by FedEx.
I watched as it crawled, literally, from one town to another, until it hit a main terminal here in So. Cal. 11 days, I think it was a mule train.
They transferred it to USPS, and it was here the very next day.
FedEx totally blew my shipment, then were too embarrassed to even deliver it.

I made sure Walmart knew about it. They claimed they couldn't control how vendors on their Market Place shipped orders and weren't responsible.
I explained to them I was shopping through Walmart.com, and that did in fact make it their problem.
Because as a consumer, I can choose to not do further business with a site that bungles my order.
And that I would not be using Walmart.com in the future.

I do not tolerate bad service. And I kicked Walmart right in their cash register.

 

[jimalbert]

I still didnt get this damn package. They lost the damn thing. Still trying to get reimbursed through the claim process.

 

[SmokinAl]

You hear about this stuff happening all the time & only hope it doesn't happen to you.
I just ordered a part for my generator from what looked like a reputable company. And maybe it is, but it's in Great Britain (didn't know that when I ordered it). I thought the price was in dollars, but it was in pounds, & the shipping is pretty high. Not to mention I had to pay a surcharge on my credit card for an international transaction (didn't know any of that until I got an email from them with the invoice). I just hope I get the part & my credit card didn't get compromised in the transaction. I thought I would get a jump on hurricane season & get my generator all ready to go. Hope I didn't make a big mistake. The only good thing is I used an American express card & they are real good about taking off fraudulent charges.
Al

 

[zippy12]

Al my china circuit boards and DC motors take 2 months to get to me so don't give up hope!

 

[gmc2003]

Seems to be a common problem with delivery companies. Last month we received a package via USPS for someone who lives in Las Vegas. I'm not sure how it got delivered to VT. The guy's lucky I'm not an eagles fan.

Chris

 

[SonnyE]

Seems to be a common problem with delivery companies. Last month we received a package via USPS for someone who lives in Las Vegas. I'm not sure how it got delivered to VT. The guy's lucky I'm not an eagles fan.

Chris

Hah, Ha, Chris!
I ordered something from a vendor in Idaho. I'd ordered from them before and was a happy customer.
They usually used USPS for their orders, and it was fast and trackable.
I live in Saugus, California. I watched as my order hopelessly was transported to Saugus, Massivetwoshinolas.
Some total doomass at the Post Office in Iduhho saw Saugus, and sent it back East.
I of course, raised hell with the vender and told them to make sure their Post Master was aware they had an employee wreaking havoc with a local business.
It seems the shipping chain needs some slack pulled out of it, and a frozen boot applied to its backside.
To the USPS's credit, as soon as my package emerged in Saugus, Mass; they shot it west and delivered it almost overnite. It arrived correctly addressed by the vendor.
I hope the USPS sent the doomass packing. Weak links cost a lot of business. Just ask the ones on my blacklist.
(For the record, the one in Idaho is not blacklisted.)

 

[johnmeyer]

FedEx Blows? Well, what company doesn't?

My point is that, while I too have horror stories to tell, I sure wouldn't want to make sweeping comments based on one experience.

Stuff happens.

I do a LOT of shipping, and have direct experience, as a shipper, with FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Also, I have received packages from half a dozen other carriers, over the years. My experience:

USPS is far more reliable than they used to be and their "flat rate" boxes can be a bargain for heavy parts. However, their tracking is very minimal, and if you are concerned about sending a truly precious item, they would not be my first choice.

UPS used to be the rock-solid company for delivering packages. I no longer use them much because, for a small operator like me, they have priced themselves out of the business, often charging double what the other carriers charge. They are absolutely wonderful for returns (Amazon used to use them exclusively for this purpose), and when they took over Mailboxes Etc. fifteen years ago, it became really easy to drop things off and avoid the pickup charge. Their tracking is better than USPS, but not as good as FedEx. The one thing I really dislike about UPS is that they damage far more packages than any other carrier. It is night and day: I routinely get crushed and damaged boxes from UPS, and have sent many, many photos of the damage to the shipper and UPS. This seldom happens with USPS, and I'm not sure it has ever happened with FedEx.

FedEx, despite the heading of this thread, is still my "go to" shipper when I need reliability and tracking. Their tracking is the best, and I have not yet had any delays or losses. Having said that, ANY shipper can and will lose packages. I am surprised, however, that the OP found their customer service bad. That has not been my experience. Also, they do a really fine job delivering packages without damage. They are the best carrier, in my experience, for treating packages like eggs. Finally, if you have really heavy packages to ship (> 10 pounds), the FedEx Ground (or the "Home Delivery" equivalent for shipping to homes) is the best price deal from any of the shippers.

Online shopping has astronomically increased the number of packages shipped each day. With that growth, inevitably, comes more package losses, and thefts. We have had criminals stealing mail and packages here the past few months, and I ended up in a high speed car chase with two of them three months ago at midnight (one of the stupidest things I have ever done). The point is that in addition to all the other ways a delivery can get screwed up, theft has become a MUCH bigger problem. And, as I found out after I reported the mail theft incident, you will never get any sheriff or police department to follow up or care. Heck, we no longer have any sheriff coverage where I live. If any home here gets broken into, no one will come out because they are all stationed in Salinas (twenty miles away) to deal with the gang warfare and nightly shootings (literally, every single night). They even publicly announced this change three years ago. Not surprisingly, a lot of people who never thought they'd own a gun now have one tucked away.

So, my advice is to not completely write off FedEx based on this one experience. The two major alternatives (UPS and USPS) are generally worse for losing packages.

 

[dward51]

All it takes in one crappy employee at any of the shipping companies to gum something up.

Apparently the route driver for FedEx around my subdivision is a lazy jerk. Short story, package of fruit shipped from Harry & David is clearly marked as "protect from heat". What does the moron do, lays it in the full July sun on a 98* day when there is a covered porch 5' to the right of where he left it laying against the garage door. Also the garage door was closed and it would be very easy to not see that package and back over it after opening the garage.

Everybody else leaves packages on either the front porch at the door (again a covered porch) or on the side/back porch at the kitchen door. But not our FedEx driver.... In the sun, in the rain, beaten up boxes with "fragile" on them, etc....

I'm talking about a regular fedex driver, not their smartpost partnership with the USPS. Not sure if he is a green fedex or orange fedex driver (I have been told green are contractors and not actually fedex employees but I can't confirm that).

 

[johnmeyer]

dward51, you bring up a really good point: many carriers now subcontract the "last mile." All carriers now routinely show up at our house in rented or unmarked cars. The drivers are still usually in uniform, but it is a little creepy to have an unmarked car or Ryder truck suddenly show up (we're a little isolated at the end of a long driveway). I don't know if these drivers are full-time employees and I don't know if they receive the same training as the drivers who show up in a company-logo'd car, in uniform.

Since the men in the white coats don't let me out much, I am usually here when packages are delivered, and I too have seen the driver leave them in front of the side door nearest to the driveway, rather than walk seven more steps to the front door which has a nice porch over the top to shield the package from sun and rain. And, I once had exactly the same thing you described, where the driver didn't even make it to the house and leaned the package against the garage door, over the meltingly-hot black asphalt.

 

[Bearcarver]

My best service is with USPS.

When FedEx delivered my Honda 3000is Generator, it looked like they rolled it all the way from Ohio. The freaking box was round by the time it got here.
Needed to replace both handles & one of the feet.

Bear

 

[johnmeyer]

My best service is with USPS.

When FedEx delivered my Honda 3000is Generator, it looked like they rolled it all the way from Ohio. The freaking box was round by the time it got here.
Needed to replace both handles & one of the feet.

Bear

But, is USPS even an option for shipping a generator? I didn't think they handled such heavy things. I've sure never seen anyone hauling a crate of heavy machinery into the post office.

I am surprised that FedEx ships things that heavy, and they certainly would not be my first option. Instead, for heavy things, the usual choice is to use a freight company like the old Consolidated Freightways (now defunct).

P.S. I need your generator now; those high winds I mentioned in the thread about MES covers have accompanied our latest rain and knocked out the electricity. (Actually, I do have a generator, but don't have a transfer switch, so it is a PITA to set it up).

 

[dward51]

UPS shipped my Honda EU2000 generators also. They were boxed separately. Weight is around 50-60 pounds so it's not bad. Came double boxed from Mayberry's back when I had the travel trailer (sold the trailer a couple of years ago, but kept the generators).

 

[lovethemeats]

My area must be lucky. No problems with FedEx Shipping and the only problem I had with UPS was when they mistakenly delivered my Custom Cornwall speakers by normal delivery and the guy damaged them. UPS ate the cost and Klipsch had a replacement pair sent freight. Boy was UPS pissed. But never had in issue again. Now the lazy butt postal service lady can't read an address worth a crap. Hate USPS.

 

[Bearcarver]

Yeah John, I don't think USPS ships anything like a Generator, but if I had my choice I'd use UPS, but when I ordered the Honda 3000is, they choose the shipping method

The only problem we've had since we moved here 16 years ago, was we never got the "Eagles" T-shirt Mrs Bear ordered for Bear Jr for Christmas. But we can't blame USPS for that---It must have been stolen right out of our mailbox, out at the road.

Bear