Fedex: your experiences and my recent story

[steve2470]

Several weeks ago, I asked the kind people of the Lounge for suggestions on how to sell cemetery plots faster. You answered and I thank you.

As of yesterday, the plots are now sold! It was a much more difficult and lengthy process than I had anticipated, but at least my brother and I got them sold finally.

Now, the Fedex issue: long story short, to expedite the entire sales process, I had paperwork sent to Tallahassee for my brother to sign, and then he was to Fedex the completed paperwork to the funeral home.

The paperwork got to Tallahassee just fine, and my brother did his part. I gave him a pre-paid Fedex envelope to use, with a sticker with the funeral home address on it. He dropped it into a Fedex box in downtown Tallahassee, and, naive me, I thought it would go back to the funeral home quickly with no issues. Wrong. It never made it there.

In my entire life, I've only lost one piece of mail with the Postal Service. Now, Fedex has lost a piece of mail. Are they as reliable as the USPS or have I just been lucky ? Just curious, thanks.

[RainCaster]

1. You are unlucky, I have never had that happen. Ever.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Work requires I use FedEx and I have had few problems, but...

I get a tracking # just in case. I think one package got lost in New Jersey years ago where there were six huge FedEx buildings in one town and it got lost in that mess.

FWIW, I have used USPS priority mail for some things, and it works great. Last month it cost 6 bucks and change to send a letter overnight.

[Major Nikon]

3. ...

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. To be fair, that's clearly not the truckers fault....

as the lights weren't working and the gates didn't come down.

Should he have looked up the tracks to make sure there wasn't a train coming? ( I hear you ask!) Well, yeah, perhaps, but it isn't always practical nor is it always effective. I mean fences, buildings, trees etc can obscure the view of the tracks.

And FWIW, I'm betting FedEx recovered all of those packages, with minimal damage.

[mahina]

4. Yikes. My experience is that if something happens to your parcel, even if it's insured,

When you file a claim they say oh, that’s not actually insurance, it’s just a statement of value.

Why would I pay extra for a statement of value, and why would you then collect funds for a statement of value? I can make a statement of value for free.

Went nowhere. Box with verified contents with receipt with a forklift hole through the box and its contents, taken for their claim research, never returned. So I’m out the item and the box and the shipping and the refund to buyer.

No fedex for me, no exceptions. USPS all the way whenever possible.

Plus,
http://www.apwu.org/issues/grand-alliance-save-our-public-postal-service

[jdadd]

5. I use Fedex, as a last resort....In order, USPS...UPS...then Fedex

[Atticus]

8. UPS is union. That swings it for me. nt

[Bayard]

6. Fedex sucks

I've had to chase stuff down all over the place that they were supposed to have delivered here, and while I was in CA.

The main problem in recent years is that they contract deliveries out to private individuals. Those folks won't even bother trying to find your house, they just take it to the nearest post office (and the difference between that and USPS is?). We ended up having to put up a mailbox a couple months ago with this being one reason. Our post office box is in another town, so I can't tell you how many packages I had returned to the vendor.

Ok, climbing off my soapbox now.

[sl8]

7. Well, this one time, I shipped a Wilson volleyball to my friend via FedEx.

Last edited Sat Jan 12, 2019, 08:06 PM - Edit history (1)

It never got there.

I can only assume that some FedEx employee absconded with it and developed a deeply personal relationship with it, but I'll probably never know.

[Atticus]

9. Yes, there was a very personal relationship for a while, but they drifted apart. nt

[Kali]

10. I've never shipped out, but get lots of stuff delivered.

I love my local driver. He even gives subs pretty good instructions about contacting me. I use USPS for outgoing and try to have small things sent to me that way, but a lot of companies will only use FE or UPS.

[MarvinGardens]

11. A coworker sent his passport to the State Department by FedEx.

They lost it. It caused him a lot of problems. I told him next time, use USPS Registered Mail.

[Phentex]

12. One bad experience that left me baffled...

package was delivered to my neighbor who was honest and brought it over (after several days however). Meanwhile, Fed Ex was like well it was delivered so it's not our fault.

I get that people make mistakes from time to time. But since it's their job to deliver and they were the last ones to have the package in their possession, I'd say it WAS their fault.

[Fla Dem]

13. No service is perfect. You just hope they are with your transaction.

I've had a couple of issues with USPS, UPS & FedEX. But I've been using them for over 30 years, I can't complain. Considering the volume of mail they handle, USPS more so with all the envelope mail (card, letters, junk mail), I would have to say they're all pretty remarkable.

[steve2470]

14. end of saga....

A guy from Fedex called me and left a message.

He said, somehow, the package got into the USPS system and ended up in Jacksonville from Tallahassee. Then, USPS notified Fedex they had a Fedex package in Jacksonville, so Fedex retrieved it and finally delivered it to the funeral home. Therefore, Fedex is not at fault because it was delivered from Jax to Orlando in one day (?!).

I know my brother, and he knows what a Fedex box looks like (very different from a USPS collection box), so I'm very sure a Fedex worker put the package in a USPS box.

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. All 3 handle each others shipments.

I work for a US Mail contractor. I am in and out of major USPS facilities all the time. I see United Parcel Service and Federal Express trailers on Postal Service properties on a regular basis.

I would like to say, in defense of all 3 of these entities, that the methods, machinery and processes used in handling the absolutely unbelievable volume of letters and packages is at times, faulty. Sometimes stuff slips between the cracks. Sometimes a package or a letter falls off an overhead conveyor or other machine into an area or space not often looked at. Things happen. If I could, I would take a video of the inside of a major sorting center to give folks an idea of just how massive an undertaking it is to get your mail or parcel through, and just how enormous some of these facilities are.

The USPS frowns on that, however, but here's a YouTube vid of a news story that shows some footage of such a facility;

For the most part, FedEx does what it does with remarkable reliability. Ditto UPS and the US Mail.