adventures with FedEx

Poststructural Pub
1

Has the topic of shipping one’s instruments instead of trying to carry them on flight come up yet?

Since I’m usually home during the day all my tenants have their packages shipped to my address.
I tease the UPS guy about trying to catch me in my night gown when he rings the door bell,
but he always wants a signature.

The US Postal Service delivery person usually rings the door bell before leaving a package
that DOESN’T need a signature.
Its just a low effort courtesy.

I don’t mind if they ring it and run.
I live on a very busy street and it just isn’t safe to leave packages of things on my front porch.

Appearently its too much to ask for the delivery person from FedEx to ring the door bell as a courtesy when leaving a package.

Yesterday I found a box containing a tenant’s new banjo sitting on my front porch. I’d been home all morning waiting for the door bell to ring.

Not only did they just drop it off and run without so much as a tap to the door bell, they left it on my front porch moving a potted plant on top of it (to make room?).

At first I thought they did that so to avoid a confrontation because the box looked like they’d played foot ball with it.
I was really surprised to see the banjo in one piece when the box was opened.

When my tenant contacted the business that sold her the banjo they said she should have requested a signature.
She’d only requested that the delivery person ring the door bell and not just leave the package on the front porch.

Her husband’s banjo was going to be delivered today so I posted a big sign on my front door that read,
“DELIVERY PERSON,
I AM HOME.
RING THE BELL”.

Once again the box of banjo was just left on the front porch by the FedEx person with a potted plant placed on top of it.
My door bell wasn’t rung.
I’d been sitting in the living room reading a book all afternoon, fortunately I’d been checking the front door every 15 minutes.

I haven’t a clue how much these banjos cost.
I opened the boxes each time because my tenant asked me to inspect them.
Of course I had to tune them up to do that
and play them a while.
Banjos are fun!
I might get one for myself someday but I’m going to shy away from any business who ships using FedEx.
If I ship my fiddle instead of trying to fly with it, you better bet it isn’t going to be with FedEx.

2

There are shippers that I refuse to do business with, FedEx and DHL being the two biggies. UPS can be pretty bad too, but at least I’ve been able to get my items worth out of them when they screw things up or batter my package into a mangled sphere. Getting a settlement out of FedEx or DHL in the past has been harder than trying to herd cats (OMFGTHREADCROSSOVER, snigger snigger).

3

I would suggest reporting the delivery person’s behaviour to FedEx. All delivery companies experience some problem personel (its not a particularly taxing job) but I usually get some response. For cross border stuff, I have found FedEx to be the best (and most expensive), followed by US Post, DHL and others. UPS is the worst.

djm

4

When I lived in Vancouver, I found that UPS Canada was absolutely atrocious. I could never count on them for anything. I could count on Canada Post more.

Speaking to FedEx about a driver is rather futile tho…all their drivers are technically independant contractors who run their own ‘business subsidiary’ of FedEx. A buddy of mine who is a driver for FedEx explained it to me once after a nasty cockup by said company.

5

Something very similar happened to me, but sadly, it didn’t work out nearly as well.

I, too, was expecting delivery on a banjo, not for me but for a friend who was away temporarily assigned out of town. The delivery person had come the earlier in the week when I wasn’t home and had left a delivery notice, so I called and arranged for a delivery on a day I knew I would be home. I waited all morning, and it didn’t show up, so I lay down for a nap and, like hyldemoer, left a note stating:

DELIVERY DUDE –
I AM HOME.
LEAVE THE BANJO BY THE DOOR
AND RIGH THE BELL

He left the banjo by the door, but I don’t think he rang the bell. I never heard it, anyway. When I woke up about two hours later, I went downstairs and went out to the porch to see if the banjo had come.

And that’s when I realized one should not leave a banjo unattanded on the porch, because some person or person had snuck up onto my porch and had left me two more banjos, plus a recorder, a piano accordion, and a set of cheap Pakistani pipe drones.

6

Somehow, I feel I should have seen that one coming, but I didn’t, and ended up busting a gut laughing. :laughing:

djm

7

LMFAO! :laughing:

8

OMFGTHREADCROSSOVER, snigger snigger

9

I completely missed that one, too. I was totally wrapped up in thoughts of “Oh, noooo!” and I was DREADING hearing what horrible fate befell that banjo . . . :laughing:

Ah, Gonzo! You play our emotions like a string on a . . . violin. Where’s my fiddle? We need to work on that some more.