Canada + Vonage + UPS: The Never Ending Story

Poststructural Pub
1

Well, I’ve been using Vonage for more than a month now and I’m quite happy with it. But this morning I had such an awful experience that I felt the need to write about it here.

It’s that, you see, UPS has one single customer service phone number for America. Which means that you call this phone number, and depending on your own phone number, you get redirected to the right department. If you have a canadian number, they send you to the canadian department, and a US phone number sends you to the US department.

There’s a UPS package that was delivered at my place, but I wasnt there, so I needed to call to pick it up myself. So I called the phone number on the paper, and someones asked me my tracking number, and then he said “Oh that’s international shipping, let me forward you to the international phone number”. But the new operator would tell me the same thing “Oh, but you’re international, Ill giveyou the phone number”. Gives me a new phone number. I call it, still the same story. For exactly 45 minutes I was bouncing back like ping pong.

Then one enlighted operator asked me “Are you using VoIP service like Vonage?”. I said yes. She said "Oh, that’s because when you use VoIP with an american company, like Vonage, your phone number is being recognized as a US number and thus you can’t reach canadian customer service.

Arghhhhh!!! No other operator knew this! So she gave me a special phone number that would allow me to be recozgnied as canadian using Vonage. But then it took another 30 minutes to get things moving, but at least I was on the right path.

So bottom line, big companies really need to wake up and realize that VoIP is getting bigger. I can’t believe a company like UPS would be so ignorant about VoIP and the effect on their customer service.

I’m in a good mood today as I slept pretty well, but I just thought this was crazy. So beware canadians, VoIP might not be compatible with your favorite company :slight_smile:

2

I seriously doubt it’s ignorance. Vonage VOIP is probably a really small sector of their calls. Canadian customers are certainly fewer in number. What business is going to rush out and ‘fix’ a problem caused by someone else?
Besides… you should have been home to get the package anyway. This never would have happened. :laughing:
If you haven’t noticed. Many 800 nunbers don’t work on cell phones. So this sorta thing has been going on for years. I say: Pick up a land line and make your call. That’s the way it is.

3

Well, that’s because UPS doesnt work the same way as Fedex or Post Canada does. When you get a package from them and you’re not there, they leave it at the closest store. But UPS leaves it at their central storage facility which would require for me to get a car or a 30$ cab. So I had to call them to have it delievered at a UPS store close to me, of course for an extra 5$.

If you haven’t noticed. Many 800 nunbers don’t work on cell phones. So this sorta thing has been going on for years. I say: Pick up a land line and make your call. That’s the way it is.

But my Vonage IS a land line! :slight_smile:

4

Yeah, the land of the free and the home of the brave!

:astonished:

5

No, your Vonage is a VoIP line, which runs on data networks, not phone networks. The term “land line” is used expressly to describe a hard-wired physical phone line, aka POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service).

With all the courier companies, I have had to learn where their depots are located and when their end-of-day parcel pickup times are. None of them are equipped to deal with residential service where no-one is home during the day. Their market is with business customers, and it is completely out of their scope to deal with customers as individuals. You will comply.

djm

6

Resistance was futile, and I am being assimilated…

But just to add twist to all this, there’s an administrative lady on the first floor of my building and she usually signs the parcels etc, but this specific parcel required my own signature, not just any signature, so that’s why she could not sign for me as she usually does.

Oh yeah and this package is in fact a used laptop I bought on eBay, which is a gift for my mom, and a second laptop is coming because I made bidding mistakes. So I will need to seel the second one. Argh, Christmas frenzy again… stress level is going higher.

7

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who screws up on these on-line order forms. :smiley: I hope your Mom likes the laptop.

djm

8

UPS is one of the most backwards amd upside-down companies I’ve ever had the displeasure of encountering (I used to work for them, and my father is still in upper district management with them and has been with them for almost thirty years). Life inside UPS is like living in the Shire, change comes slowly if it comes at all.
While I lived in Vancouver, dealing with UPS was a nightmare.

9

I’m having fun with couriers just now as well having finally done what I’d been threatening to do for years, i.e. all my christmas shopping online.

One company used by amazon held my package in the depot for a week without delivering it, I only knew it was there through track and trace. I called amazon and they contacted the company who said it was on the way and would arrive that day, which of course it didn’t. Next day I called amazon again and tried to get contact details for the company. They said they could only email the company on my behalf, but eventually I managed to get a number for the courier’s call centre. The call centre was about as useful as amazon, they could only email the depot on my behalf and wouldn’t give me their phone number. I tried the company website, no contact details other than a central email and the address of their head office. They weren’t listed in the phone book or yellow pages either.

So I resorted to digging around and eventually figured out that the company was the same one that a friend of mine used to deliver for when it was under a different name, I also discovered a heap of complaints on various online forums. So he was able to provide me with contact details and a location.

I phoned the depot and they told me that the driver who normally does my route was off sick, that’s why they hadn’t delivered it (why couldn’t they just get someone to cover his route?). I arranged to go to the depot the next day and collect it. Unfortunately I was also sick, and got worse the next day. So I called my folks and asked them to head over to the depot on their way in to mine, but before htey could do that my doorbell went and it was, of course, the courier delivering my package. I questioned the driver about the troubles I’d had all week and he said he’d just started at the company after driving with another courier. In his own words he couldn’t believe they get away with the stuff they do at the company and how they treat their customers. I wasn’t particuarly impressed really.

Expecting two more things today so hopefully they go a bit easier.

10

Well I will definitely try to avoid UPS in the future, if I can, because even the local UPS “stores” don’t seem to be of the same company as the main UPS center you call for customer service. One person tells you one thing, and the other something else.

So they held my package at the main UPS storage facility in Montreal, and I had to make 4-5 phone calls, and pay an EXTRA 5$ + taxes, to get the package moved to my nearest UPS store so that I can pick it up myself, because the main storage facility requires a car, or 40$ cab, to get there, and I don’t own a car.

Way too much trouble.

11

(cue the violin player…)

OK, take a deep breath.

Feel better now?

12

Hmmm not really, is there something wrong with me? :sniffle:

13

I dunno, Az, after seeing the other thread with the .002 cent thing, maybe you got off lucky…at least SOMEBODY agreed with ya…
Good luck tho. I always had good luck with UPS but there are many detractors…