Ordered a thing. It got sent UPS ground which normally takes 5 days to get here from anywhere in the US. Got a notice from UPS saying it would be delivered today; it wasn't.

OK, I know it's on the "slow boat" and I understand that things happen. What bugs me is why it wasn't delivered. You see, I called UPS and asked where my package was. Their answer? Weather delay. Hmmm, I don't know of any severe weather yesterday or today.

So, I ask where the package is now and they tell me it's in le Grand, CA. I go to the weather page and check. Yeah, the weather there is perfect. No precipitation, no high winds, nothing. Not today, not yesterday. In fact, not all week. OK, there were some high winds there on Monday, but my package was in New York on Monday.

Why would they lie?

Now, it's important to note that I've always received good service from UPS. I wouldn't bat an eye if the package was mistakenly misplaced. I wouldn't be happy, but stuff happens. What I can't abide is being lied to.

I'm on the phone (on hold of course) with UPS as I type this. I've been on the phone with them for 38 minutes now (I have a timer on the phone). I just spoke with a supervisor (at least he said he was a supervisor and speaks better English) and he is supposedly checking with the local service center. I'd like to get this cleared up, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that score.

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Freedom isn't free.

Ive got some springs they were supposed to deliver today,no sign of ups.

I agree. I understand that stuff happens and they can't always deliver on a promise, but that's ok. I'm a big boy - I can handle bad news. Just don't lie to me. That's suddenly a whole different ballgame.

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Been up since before breakfast

Where did it ship from? How long has it been in Le Grand? Maybe the weather delay was somewhere between New York and Le Grand? If it arrived in Le Grand too late to make the truck from there to your local area, then I'd expect that would delay it at least a full day.

I know ground packages shipped cross country go by train, so bad weather anywhere between NY and CA could hold it up...

I was to receive a check from a settlement and the payor thought he'd send it to me UPS ground W/O letting me have a tracking number. Local. Easily payable W/O the charges.

My thought,,,

OK, bonehead. My UPS guy knows the neighborhood and me.

If that don't work my local UPS hub is around the corner next to my bank.

No problem. I got the money.

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Dum vivo cano

Exactly. To discount the possibility of bad weather somewhere between New York and California over a five or six day period is unrealistic to say the least.

Just because it isn't raining in Bangor doesn't mean that all of the pivot points and hubs are in the clear. These last few weeks have been a mess just about everywhere east of the Mississippi and above the Carolinas. We would be snowed under too, but we've just got about 100" of rain.

That aside, this partnership between Amazon, UPS and the USPS and whoever else is in on it probably is 'different' but not 'better'.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I had a package of .380 ammo that was scheduled for delivery on Wednesday from UPS. I got an e-mailed " Delayed Delivery " notice. When I checked the tracking I found it was a weather delay and had been on the truck all day and returned to the dock. Thursday evening at 2000 I got a phone call from my UPS guy, he had tried to get in and had gotten stuck, I went and got him pulled out. We did have 28" of snow on Monday, did you get any at Tehachapi ?

I ordered a coupla dummy guns for holsters. Usually it just takes a coupla days to get here.
The last two took a coupla weeks.
They spent most of that time in Maryland.
Luckily people were understanding.
But still I'm a coupla weeks behind now.
I'm gonna be a busy boy this weekend.

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Keep on Chooglin'

And yet I ordered something Wed. night. It shipped UPS out of Mesquite, TX yesterday afternoon and went Mesquite-DFW-Louisville-Hapeville, GA and arrived my local hub before 8AM. Was delivered this afternoon.

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μολὼν λαβέ

I've had weather delays at airports when the weather was fine.....the bad weather was elsewhere, and the flight was delayed. Packages get piled up, UPS has to deliver the stuff that was held up, and they only have so many airplanes, so many pilots.
You could always charter a jet

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Halfway and one more step

Well there you go. Maybe no "weather" at Le Grand or near Edwards (OP is "near" Edwards) but 28" of snow at Shirley Meadows - which is pretty much in between the two.

Mine just showed up at 8:10 pm

OP, don't you realize that it does snow and blow between NY & CA?
Parts of I-70, I-80 & I-90 were completely closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from west to east. That would include Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota. I was struck in Chicago from 10:30 AM Monday till 12:30 Wednesday because I couldn't get a flight to my destination in MN because of fog & blizzard.

Now that I'm off the phone, I can answer some of these questions.

This is a reasonable thought and I had it too. In fact, this is why I called. I wanted to find out where the delay was.

The supervisor told me it got held up in New Jersey which is where it was on 1 Feb. I checked the weather for the past week there and see nothing that would delay any kind of transportation, rail or plane. There was some fog, but that wouldn't stop a train and 9 times out of 10 won't stop a plane.

Further, if it were held up somewhere else in the country, and is traveling by rail, why did I only find out about it today? Only if it were traveling by air would it make sense for a delay in NJ to cause a notification to be sent today.

Yes, I agree that there could have been snow or floods or avalanches or God only knows what between there and here. Still, it's awfully convenient to cry "foul weather" when something isn't on time. Also, I wouldn't be writing this if I hadn't received a message yesterday saying it would be delivered today. It's like saying the dog ate your homework. I'm sure it happens, but...

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Freedom isn't free.

I herd today that UPS is merging with FedEx................



The new company will be called FedUp!

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I am the Majority
How about u

Oh, this is too rich.

I just refreshed the tracking info. It's now saying that the package is in Vernon, CA. Normally this wouldn't surprise me because that is a common stop for packages coming my way. However, in this case it shouldn't be there. So which is wrong? Did he tell me the wrong place or is the system that screwed up? Do they really know where packages are?

I forgot to say in my previous post that the supervisor told me it would arrive in Le Grand tonight. What's funny about that is Vernon is about two hours south of here while Le Grand is about 3 hours north.

I understand that this is all just an exercise in futility. There is nothing I can do about this and will just have to wait. Wherever it is, that is where it will be until they decide to move it elsewhere. Nothing I do will alter that path. Still, none of it makes any sense.

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Freedom isn't free.

Sorry you are disappointed Rastoff, but you're just not being reasonable. If the train was on track to get to Le Grand yesterday but got hung up somewhere in CO due to weather or an avalanche, and it happened after they sent you the update saying it would be delivered today, it could have missed the truck out of Le Grand and they didn't know it wasn't going to make the connection until they updated the info today.

Did it occur to you that they may have had to route the train AROUND a snowstorm or avalanche in the mountains of CO? That would certainly explain it ending up in Vernon instead of Le Grand. You do realize that decisions like that are made by the railroad - not by UPS - and that the railroad may even make route changes without even notifying UPS, right?

They only move a few MILLION packages a day - and provide pretty darned accurate tracking of the movements of almost every one of them. Not to mention you can get a package delivered coast to coast in under a week for less than the cost of a box of centerfire ammo.

MAN, is it just me, or are people's expectations getting a teensy bit unrealistic these days?

Just watch the tracking and see where it is. Sometimes UPS delivers small packages to your local USPS for them to deliver. We all know how great USPS is about delivering on time schedule. NOT!
You think UPS tracking is bad then you don't even want to see how USPS tracking sucks so bad it basically isn't worth paying for.

when dealing with humans.....nothing is perfect....

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There's nowt so queer as folk

Touche! It's usually me that's talking about how unrealistic people's expectations are.

I typed a bunch of other stuff, but deleted it. You're right, it must be the weather.

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Freedom isn't free.

I was supposed to get a UPS shipment today for some 5.56
Black Hills match ammo. Checked the tracking number this
morning and got informed my shipment has a weather delay,
and will be rescheduled. The shipment was coming from
Minnesota, and was in Illinois. I can see that area having
bad weather.

LOL, yeah, we all get caught in that trap.

I read that back in the 50's they predicted that by the year 2000 labor saving devices would give us all so much free time we wouldn't know what to do with it all. But the faster we are able to get things done the faster we expect things to get done, and the more we are expected to get done. It's a viscous cycle and all of our expectations have escalated as fast or faster than our capabilities. We've all gotten to the point of taking the speed of everything for granted.

Hard to believe but just 40 years ago UPS didn't even deliver coast to coast. You couldn't even ship a package coast to coast except by parcel post - unless you could afford to charter a plane or hire a truck to carry it. And sending it parcel post might take 3 weeks or even longer to get there. Of course when you turned it over to the post office, there was no info about where it was or when it would be delivered until it got there, either.

Pretty amazing how far we've come in a few years isn't it?

I still think they're using weather as an excuse. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

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Freedom isn't free.

now they leave packages if not at home at drop off points close to your home location (like gas stations). Thats what they did on a recent delivery. E mailed me of the location to pick up. Guess its a cost saving measure on second and third delivery attempts......

If the shipper paid for a guaranteed delivery date, a refund can often be demanded if said date is missed.

One tiny caveat: a refund will not be issued, in case of weather delays, by any of the common carriers.

Perhaps this is pertinent to the discussion, perhaps not.

Forget the weather...I'm still trying to figure out How,Why or When did UPS start using trains to ship ground packages?

Does a UPS employee ride with the package to scan it at every stop? I've never had a package travel by ground from the East coast that wasn't scanned at least once or twice.

Someone care to enlighten me?

Lately I've been having packages initially shipped vis UPS, being delivered by the USPS mail carrier! This is only small packages but they are delivered by the mail man. UPS probably has some agreement with the Postal Service for the delivery of small packages. It is probably more economical to pay the USPS to deliver the package than to drive the brown truck all over town.

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Bill

I ordered some new reels Monday. They had free USPS shipping that said 9-12 days or something. I didn't care cause I don't need them for a couple months yet. My mail lady dropped them off Wednesday along with a dog bone. She always leaves a dog bone along with a package even if me & the dog aren't home. For some reason when both UPS and USPS are involved it takes forever.

The big snow storm in Nebraska put UPS in a bind for a day or two. You have to remember, they run a tight schedule. Think of Just in Time inventory. Or dominoes. UPS and USPS do have agreements. My cigars are shipped that way. Heck, UPS is probably the only reason why USPS is still in business. And Heaven forbid it should rain hard in DFW or Baton Rouge, our parts and gun shipments come to a crashing halt!

I get almost daily deliveries I've seen the on-time service from UPS go from what was virtually 100% perfect drop to about 85% (my estimate). This seemed to begin in December 2014.

In my case, on-time trackable package delivery is vital and really makes a difference in what I do.

I've been doing subcontracted warranty, extended warranty, and out-of-warranty work on flat screen TV's since I became self-employed in 2009.

Here's the way this type of after-purchase service works. The TV develops a problem. The owner of the TV calls the manufacturer and describes the problem, the manufacturer diagnoses the issue over the phone with the owner and tells the owner that the service company will be in contact within a few days.

Keep in mind that the owner has a $1000 60" living-room TV that is down. It's important that things go like clockwork in the least amount of time.

After the initial contact with the end user, then the manufacturer contacts the servicing company. The servicing company takes it from there - assigns the service to a local tech (like me) and orders the parts - usually 2nd day UPS. The tech (me) takes if from there - I print the work order, track the delivery of the parts, contact the owner of the TV introducing myself as the servicing tech and give the owner a due date on the parts and we used to be able to schedule the actual service day based on the parts delivery information at UPS.com.

To the TV's owner, days matter and before this apparent change in service level at UPS, I was able to confidently tell the TV's owner the exact day and time I could be there to get their TV working again based on the initial tracking when I was assigned the service. Now I have to leave it open until I actually have the part in hand because the delivery day can change. By days. I can't even rely on an "Out For Delivery" result.

Would be different if it were Ground but this is 2nd Day air.

Since UPS has gotten so big, naturally that gives the employees the right to act like government workers, and not give a ****.

As a former Govt Employee, that is completely un called for. You have no idea how hard people work(ed) with very little help and resources. It's just a common cliche.
No pay raises or COLA while insurance and COL keep increasing.

Every month or so there is a thread whining about UPS or Fed EX and the USPS. Get a clue on how many pieces of "stuff" they move in a day!

Got a better way, drive and deliver it yourself!

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Still Running Against the Wind

True. But, it's the broken promises, the lies, guarantees that are not kept, and general don't care attitude is what is unacceptable.

Ever pay for something next day air and didn't receive it? Ever use USPS priority mail with a guaranteed 2-3 day delivery that you pay more for and it doesn't arrive on time?

I have. And when you call, nobody cares. Think they reimburse you for late delivery? Hah! No way. You paid extra for nothing.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

I know all about working hard my friend Mr. Rule3. I will tell you what, I have been in the auto body industry all of my life, and I have worked my behind off to make a buck. I am sure there is some hard workers in the government, but the majority that I have seen are either sitting on their lazy behinds,a break, or on a paid vacation somewhere, so don't tell me what hard work is all about!!!

First, unless you want to pay extra for it, UPS does not guarantee a specific delivery date on ground packages. Ground service packages only have a PREDICTED delivery date. So unless you paid EXTRA for guaranteed delivery implying that they are lying about weather to avoid paying a refund has no basis in reality in this case. If you want an automatic guaranteed delivery date you have to ship next day, two day, or three day service. IF you pay for that level of service and guarantee, and do not get your delivery on time (unless it can be shown that there was a weather delay at the airport), then the shipper can call the UPS 800 number and get a refund on the shipping charges. Whether the shipper chooses to share that refund with you, their customer, is up to them - but since they are the ones who actually paid UPS to deliver the package, the refund goes to them.

Now, compare that to the USPS Priority Mail service. They guarantee NOTHING. If you listen closely to their ads or read the fine print on their service description it is "2-3 day delivery in most cases". So if they don't deliver on time, no refund - yours just didn't happen to be one of the "cases" where it got delivered in 2-3 days. Oh well, too bad.

UPS has been moving trailer loads of packages on rail cars almost since they started providing service coast to coast. They track packages all the way into a trailer then link all that data to the trailer number and every time that trailer number gets entered into their system, the tracking info for ALL the packages in that trailer gets updated. Every time a package gets unloaded from one trailer, re-sorted, then loaded into another trailer, it's tracking gets updated.

UPS handles something like 15-20 MILLION packages per day - and up to twice that many during the holidays. Suppose both their tracking and their on-time delivery is 99% perfect. Sounds pretty good doesn't it? Almost any business in the world would be thrilled with a 99% perfect track record, right? With 15 million packages a day to deliver, if UPS is a day late or the tracking info is wrong on just 1% of the packages they deliver that's 150 THOUSAND packages PER DAY where there was some kind of problem either with the tracking or actually getting it delivered as planned.

That would be 750 THOUSAND people a week (3/4 of a MILLION people) who think they have good reason to get on the internet and gripe about how lousy UPS's service is because the tracking info was wrong or the package got delivered a day late. Of course the other 99 times out of 100 that they deliver on time and track the package perfectly from pickup all the way to delivery NOBODY gets on the internet to say anything about that - or even recognizes how incredible it is.

The fact is UPS's service is probably significantly better than 99% accurate on correctly tracking and on-time delivery. And that is DESPITE things like people putting addresses on labels wrong, wrapping packages poorly, delays they have no control over at airports, delays caused by problems with trains, re-routed trains due to weather, etc., etc., etc.

So gripe all you want about being one of the less than 1% who didn't get completely perfect service if it makes you feel better. Like others have said, if you can find a better way that doesn't cost 10x as much, please share it with us all.

The USPS has beaten UPS as to delivery times. If the USPS did not have to deliver all the junk mail, think how much better they could be?? The USPS is a semi Federal agency, they have good ideas but are not allowed to implement them.

As mention USPS Priority flat rate mail does not guarantee 2 day.

Priority Express does, but is costly.

As far as employee claims, lies, customer service do you think it only apples to Govt Employees??

How about Car service, Retail, Medical, restaurants, service industries?? It's no different, Ever get ripped on car service, ever buy faulty products, poor service at a restaurant, wait 60 minutes for a Doctor?? There are bad apples everywhere.

I had to wait half a day for the Lock and Safe Guy to show up!



As a State Govt Employee we had our motto much like the Mans Prayer.

“We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”

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Still Running Against the Wind

I ordered something which ended up coming from Montana by UPS and saw this morning the delivery was delayed by weather .. so another day or two before I get the Sig magazines I ordered for the new Sig P238 I have on order ..

Its sitting at the warehouse in Peoria as it arrived at 11:38 AM this morning .. so guessing it will get to my FFL on Monday sometime ..

USPS the last 2 orders that have been shipped through them has been much faster then those by UPS .. the gun shipped by UPS is now on its 3rd day and will take at least 2 more .. wife ordered some trinkets and they arrived in 2 days from USPS and were shipped from California ..

Holy cow, batman, some people will complain about anything.

So a package was late and someone wants to start a war over it? Good grief, if something is that important, why was it not sent by courier?

Enough bickering....


THIS THREAD IS CLOSED

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I am the Majority
How about u

I buy most of my ammo online, and I must say I've had very good service from UPS. Even though my orders go UPS Ground, I usually receive them on the second or third day after ordering.

However, I did have one bizarre UPS experience. I ordered a toilet part from a plumbing supply company in Florida, and feeling a bit flush, I paid for second-day air delivery. The supply company promptly sent the part, which immediately disappeared into the UPS system. The second, third, and fourth days passed and no part appeared. I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so sending a package from Florida should have been easy. Weather was not a factor. I complained to the sender, who complained to UPS, who finally tracked it down. It had gone from Florida to Birmingham, Alabama, and then to Los Angeles. Apparently UPS couldn't find the small, rarely used DFW International Airport. Then, for the better part of a week, it was shuttled between three different locations in the LA area before someone actually checked the label (the package had been correctly addressed). I finally got the package about 10 days after it was sent, and the sender refunded my second-day air surcharge.

I know UPS makes few errors in comparison to the massive volume of packages it ships, but geez, four different UPS facilities somehow were unable to send me my correctly addressed package. I wonder if that's some sort of record? Probably not.

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What, me worry?

OH MY, were you struck by one of those IOWA CARCASS's, dang that musta hurt???

You think this is about a late package? Hmmm, maybe you should read it again.

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Freedom isn't free.

First World Problems . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

You're talking about not receiving something timely. If you order something and pay a vendor for next day delivery and don't receive it on time, that's an issue you need to take up with the vendor, not the postal service. The postal service isn't going to give you your money back, because you didn't pay the postal service...the shipper did.

The postal service does not guarantee 2-3 day delivery with its Priority Mail service. If you mail something using Priority Mail, look at your receipt. Right above the tracking number it will say, "Expected Delivery Day". Emphasis on "Expected". Since the delivery day is not guaranteed, no, they won't refund your money.

I normally dont side either way but to read what was written is amazing on this thread. I think it all started with someone being LIED to about a package. Not about the actual shipping service. So I wouldn't bash the OP because he complained about being lied to. At my place of employment we average any where between 20-50 packages a day. Incoming and out going service is not perfect but then again who is perfect all the time. That is three different shipping company's. UPS, USPS, and FED EX.

But in the meantime read before you make snide comments. Or people like me will laugh at you to your screen. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I understand completely. That's the beauty of it all. It's a scam!

Spend more for PRIORITY MAIL and in reality, there is no priority!

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Maybe the train got a flat tire!!!

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James Redfield
LM #497

Actually the OP made the CLAIM that UPS had lied about a weather delay in delivering a package to CA that had been shipped from NY, and he said that it had to be a lie - because there is currently no bad weather in CA. Others - myself included - have tried to show him why his assumptions about being lied to are faulty. Namely that there may have been delays due to weather anywhere in the 3000 miles between NY and CA. The tread has gotten a little sidetracked, but I still say that his basic premise - and the accusation stemming from it - is unfounded.

Now, take your own advice and read the ENTIRE thread again to see what I am talking about. Meanwhile we will "laugh at YOU to YOUR screen HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Normally I would agree with this reasoning however, in this case, that is not what I said. Allow me to recap.

I called specifically to determine WHERE the delay happened. I was first told the delay happened in one city, then another. I checked the weather in both cities and found that it was not bad weather. So, which is correct?

• The weather wasn't bad at either city. So, having a weather delay at the city they told me about, either one, was wrong.
• If it was bad somewhere in between, then claiming a weather delay in the cities they claimed was wrong.

No matter how you look at it, the information I was being fed was incorrect. I have no doubt the people I spoke to on the phone are not complicit in this. They were just telling me what they saw on their computer screen. Even so, someone in the system was entering false information.

Whether or not there was an actual weather delay is irrelevant.

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Freedom isn't free.