I had a package scheduled for delivery yesterday by UPS. I waited in all day and kept looking out the window in case the driver hadn’t been supplied with the flat number – an occasional problem, though it never before led to a failure to deliver – but when it hadn’t arrived at 5pm I checked the tracking on the net and there it was: “A CORRECT STREET NUMBER IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION”. There was also a note to say that the driver had sent a postcard to me to find out the street number. But strangely, he did of course have the street number – all that he lacked was the dreaded flat number. If he didn’t have the street number how did he expect the postcard to get to me? The postman was going to have to deliver the postcard somehow! Anyhow, all he had to do was come to the block – 4 floors of 2 flats per floor – and ring one or more of the buzzers. I would certainly have answered – and I would have seen the van if he’d parked outside. But rather than try to deliver – to save coming back and to try to keep the customer satisfied – he appears instead to have drafted a postcard to me . . . . . .! I’ve done courier work myself and my approach was always to deliver if at all possible, to save a return journey, and to prevent the customer from having to wait in again.

Having contacted the UPS call centre this morning before 9am I was informed that the delivery will be rescheduled for tomorrow – time unspecified. A short time ago I checked the tracking and at just after 1pm there was an update to say that UPS are still attempting to get a correct street number . . . . more than four hours after I provided the detail that will hopefully make the job easy. I appreciate that the original shipper should have ensured that the flat number was included along with the street number, but UPS haven’t covered themselves in glory here. . . again. This was my second UPS experience. My first was two weeks ago when I was shipping something to someone else. The driver failed to appear on the due date to collect and turned up just before midday a day later without an apology. 2 experiences and both bad. I won’t be using UPS again, and I won’t allow anyone shipping to me to use them at my expense. It’s not going to hurt them of course since I’m only one customer lost but I don’t think that poor service should be rewarded with more business.

Again, my thanks for being allowed to post this information. Appreciated. jim