I basically hate ALL delivery services now that I've moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. People just refuse to deliver or just do their damn jobs. Mostly, they don't bother to ring the bell and just slap the notice on the door. And then expect me to schlep to some depot in the back of beyond which has no access to public transportation. This applies to USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Though now I am getting FedEx packages delivered because I made friends with the driver and realized that the problem was not with him, but with his supervisors, who do a poor job of communicating with him and are amazingly rude to me when I talk to them on the phone.
UPS takes the cake though. I got a notice because I forgot I ordered something (and I stupidly thought that because I ordered it from Amazon, it would come USPS). Problem was, the next delivery attempts would be Monday and Tuesday, when I wasn't scheduled to be home. So I called UPS and attempted to reschedule it for Wednesday, when I would be home. Only they wanted to charge me MONEY for the privilege of actually receiving my package. It's highway robbery. I can understand charging more if you wanted to reroute the delivery to a different borough, but to charge the RECIPIENT more money just to change the day of delivery, or to a different apartment in the same building is just obscene.
So anyway, the operator told me that if I left my signature on the notice, the UPS driver would enter my building and leave it in front of my apartment door. Not the ideal solution, but I trusted that a LaserJet ink cartridge wouldn't be so attractive to my neighbors that they would steal it.
Well, I followed directions, and all I found when I got home was a new notice. On my apartment door. When I called, I was told that it was UPS policy not to leave packages in apartment buildings. At this point, I imploded because I had wasted time and money by being LIED to. (I was losing money because I couldn't produce cover letters that didn't look like ransom notes.) I was then told that I could leave the notice with my signature with an alternate apartment if a neighbor was home to sign for it. I checked with my neighbor and she said she would. No problem.
Turned out to be a moot problem because the UPS driver came and went before I even got out the door that day. I was home and they never bothered to ring my doorbell. However, the driver did mess up and label it a second delivery attempt. (I think that's what happened. I have a hard time believing that I was given a fourth delivery attempt out of concern that I was lied to and inconvenienced.)
Anyway, I went ballistic. I am SICK TO DEATH of drivers who don't ring doorbells! I called up UPS and told them that if my doorbell wasn't rung the next day, I was going to call up the depot and make sure the driver got fired. And then I was going to go up the food chain, and get the manager of the depot fired, and then I was going to continue to go up the food chain until everyone who ever lied to me got fired. I told them that I was persistent and vengeful, and now that they lost me my clients, I had nothing better to do. It was a bravura performance.
Well, today I got my package. The driver was incredibly rude to me. I suspect he got an earful about me from someone. But I don't care. I got my package and that's what mattered. It's nice to know that my meltdown (which happened outside on my cell phone in front of the whole neighborhood and caused everyone to stop in their tracks) was productive.
Man, I miss the driver I had in Astoria. He always went out of his way to get my packages to me. He was so good that I actually called UPS and demanded that they give him a raise. And all I got was "We'll put a mark of commendation on his file." Typical. Treat their customers like shit and also the few employees who are competent like shit.
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