Delivery Exception

FedEx is so goddamn stupid.

So at work the other day, I had to send an envelope to some people in Canada. Went onto FedEx website, filled in the shipment form like I’ve done a zillion times before, and dropped it in the box downstairs.

The next day, I get the Delivery Exception email that the address was incorrect. -_-

The thing is, no it wasn’t! What I typed in was the correct address. After the recipient was alerted to the problem, what she told us was the correct address is still exactly what I typed in. Yet FedEx had some issue with it, and it’s entirely their own fault. Why? Because it turns out that even though I typed in the address, complete with correct room number, after generating the airbill, the FedEx system seemed to decide it didn’t like the room number… and changed it to something else! Because an automated server has a better idea of where I want to send a letter than I do. Though clearly not, seeing as it got exceptioned.

It gets even stupider. The building was correct. It was the room number that was not correct, which means the courier brought it to the building but could not find the correct place it was supposed to go. He/she knew the room number wasn’t right, but on the label was the company name, so you’d think they’d maybe look around and see which room that company is in or at least ask someone. Hell, I’ve had couriers and mailmen in my work building ask me about a name for something they want to deliver if they can’t quite tell where it goes. True, I don’t know the layout or size of the building I sent this thing to, so maybe not that feasible.

An obvious solution might seem to be to just use the old handwritten airbills, and we have those, but the international ones are like ten pages thick, ten carbon copies that is, and filling one in is not unlike carving your initials into a tree bark. Screw that.

Not the only time the FedEx server has been stupid. Whenever scheduling a package pickup, the form specifies there must be a two hour window between package ready time and latest pickup time. Except the form won’t let you do less than four hours. It’s been like that for years. You’d think with as many people as use that company for stuff they’d have picked up on these errors at some point.

That’s another thing that bothers me. Conservatives like to talk about how wonderful the free market and all is, that, in this case, FedEx would be way better than the US Postal Service because the latter is paid for by tax dollars and thus, unlike the former, not obligated to keep good customer service. While FedEx would have to please you knowing you could easily switch to UPS or to some extent DHL.

Well, theoretically, yes, but the thing is, FedEx is one huge ass company and really wouldn’t miss you if you left, and what they do is vital enough for business that people wouldn’t switch en masse unless there were some major, grandscale fuck up. When a company can’t be bothered to make sure their website isn’t screwing things up, but can expect you to pay ten dollars for a movie ticket to see a two hour FedEx ad starring Tom Hanks, you really need to be skeptical at the very least.