This is the entrepreneur linked by Insty. The premise is both UPS and FEDEX are being excoriated for delays in holiday shipping. That the companies erred twice by planning poorly and over promising. In reality, Ray Hennessey says we are responsible because 1) We are procrastinators (true here) 2) Retailers are discounting later 3) Americans are generous (eh, maybe).
Are the companies blameless? Hennessey asks. No. Hennessey answers. They should have known better.
From what I saw UPS plan brilliantly and Amazon cannot be criticized. I am amazed this year. Impressed beyond expectation. These people are good. They did plan, and brilliantly. They were ready and showed it. They under promised at every point in every way, and that is quite a few leaning over words there just now proving how good they are.
I did not deserve a free return that I caused but Amazon gave it to me anyway. I was told the money would show up when the item is returned but the money transferred immediately. The return item picked up at the first moment of the 4-day time span provided. The replacement items delivered before the promised delivery time, at the same time as the return pick up, scheduled for two days earlier. An altogether impressive experience through Amazon and UPS. I saw substitute drivers for things delivered here.
21 comments:
The local UPS driver is a good friend of mine. Every Christmas eve I see him going up the road and down the road in front of my house at 6, 7 at night.
I don't blame UPS. The UPS guys I see are always working their butts off, and for most of December UPS has two guys in each truck here. One drives and navigates, the other runs parcels up the driveway.
I'd bet that a big part of the problem was late purchases and some shipping delays caused by bad winter weather.
I did notice that retailers and malls around here seemed less busy this year than they were in past Christmas seasons.
I would like to agree, but then I read the tracking information for the package I ordered on the 19th. It was scheduled to arrive on the 23rd, and it did to the local facility. Although it arrived in the morning, it did not go out that day or the next two days (the last day being Christmas, but some claimed they got UPS delivery Christmas Day). When I got up the 26th to see if it was "out for delivery", UPS changed the tracking data saying expected delivery was scheduled for the 27th, but I should get it early on the 26th. That's an outright lie, and I don't accept it. I also note they claim the delay for delivery was "due to external factors". The weather was excellent, so that's a lie too.
If online businesses want to tell consumers they shouldn't purchase so late, fine. I'll make sure to disregard online retailers within a week of Christmas Day.
OBAMACARE!!!
Spoiled whiney Americans who procrastinated and didn't get their every desire the second they wanted it?!?!?
Another fantastic diversion from the colossal fkup that is the Democrat party/Obama administration.
I tracked one particular package that I didn't need before Christmas, but I did order with plenty of time to spare.
Package mailed via UPS. Then the package arrived in town. UPS handed it over to the local USPS - ( the local post office right down the street!) So close! I'll get it today!
Post office diverted the package to Denver. Then the package finally transferred back to town and was delivered 2 days later.
Efficiency.
I'm not complaining. I'm mildly amused. It's Christmas and the sheer number of packages must be over-whelming for these delivery companies. I'll cut them some slack because, on the whole, I'm amazed and impressed with their services.
I generally hate unions, but UPS is my one exception. Those guys work like they're on commission.
Although it's common now, I'm still amazed at on-line buying (Amazon and McMaster-Carr in particular). I can almost always find, comparison shop, get good advice, buy, and have something in my hand via on-line with less time invested than it would take me just to drive to the closest store. In addition, I can buy things that have no relationship to each other and could never be found at the same physical location. When asked, I tell everyone that all I want for presents is gift certificates to Amazon. That's also what I buy everyone on my list. It might not shown that I spent much time and effort, but it's not about me, and everybody loves to get a free shopping spree at the biggest and best department store that ever existed.
This is exactly how health insurance should be purchased. Amazon type access to every company in the nation, with them competing with all kinds of plans that you could read about, compare, ask questions, read reviews, and then purchase instantly. Each person would have a profile stored that would include all relevant info which the insurance company's program would access and use to price you. If people could absolutely not afford anything reasonable then we provide subsidies through the online process. Give people complete power of choice and ability to take advantage of total and open competition.
With what has been spent already we could have this system up and running by now, and have an empowered people, well rewarded doctors, and companies at much lower overall cost. The secret as always is competition. There is simply no way even close to that for reducing costs, and improving quality and choices.
Who here could quadruple their normal activity level at anything, succeed, and then keep going normally afterward like the businesses who make and ship our stuff at Christmas. Imagine if that happened to volume at the DMV.
What do we expect?
More people are shopping online every year, so, yeah, UPS is going to have some growing pains adjusting.
FedEx may need some work, however; I ordered a T-shirt for a nephew and it sat in a PA warehouse for a week. Still trying to figure that one.
I'm convinced the democrats want the entire middle class on welfare. It's no accident that the only expansion of the ACA so far has been the expansion of people on the Medicare rolls. This is all by design and at the expense of the poor and the young.
The left are doing the exact opposite of your idea, Bagoh. The Dems promised more competition. (a lie that matches up to Obama's "if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor... if you like your insurance plan you can keep you insurance plan. Period.") But every day, the competition pool is shrinking, and premiums are skyrocketing.
This is by design.
At a Christmas party this year, a woman started bitching to me about the cost of Obamacare. I jumped in a expressed my opinion.
She promptly shut the conversation down and walked away from me. Bad faith on display once again.
She openly bitched about it, but was unable to make the connection and hold those responsible to account. The dems own the ACA 100%. You'd have to be a moron to not understand this. It was passed on party line vote in the dead of night. To the blind faithful, The democrat left hold NO responsibly whatsoever.
Her last words to me were "At least they didn't classify ketchup as a vegetable."
Riiiight. Because classifying ketchup as a vegetable is much worse than destroying the health care industry in America.
The left sure do cling to their false bullshit memes.
I for one would love to see April in a good cat fight.
McMaster-Carr, which is quite expensive, but has most everything for an industrial company or R&D department is our main goto for stuff we need immediately.
They are in my city, so at the end of the day I can order some widget or a whole freaking machine, and it will be in my office at 10am the next morning. Maybe 60 seconds to find it in their online store and order it, and they are rarely out of stock. I don't know how they do it.
When I got to my sister's for the holidays, I discovered my new used laptop (an off-lease Lenovo T410 refurb for $299) does not have bluetooth. It was likely leased to the government or a major corp which forbid bluetooth as a security risk.
So I ordered a USB bluetooth dongle for $12.99 from Amazon and it arrived as promised on Christmas Eve.
Yay!
Bluetooth still sucks. The BT mouse is mostly fine, but my BlueParrot headset paired once and never worked again. I keep thinking they will get Bluetooth working but it remains the Obamacare of digital tech.
Creely, it's the device. I've had things like phones be very unreliable with the Bluetooth hookup in my truck, and then I buy a new device and have it work flawlessly.
Pay per view, baby.
*meow ffft ffffft*
I know I sound like a broken record but the phenomenon fascinates me. We on the "right" constantly criticize our guys (and gals). The collective left do not do this. The left rarely ever criticize their political representatives. and even when they do, they pepper it with excuses and blame. If only the R's didn't stand in the way, our dictator king could deliver his promises of humanity perfectionation.
bah - I'm sick of it.
Creely, it's the device.
bagoh: I don't think so. I've used several Bluetooth devices with several computers. Always top-line brands -- Lenovo, Logitech, BlueParrot, etc -- and it's always a pain in the neck.
It may boil down to a Windows problem, since that's what's common to my setups. I get the impression that Bluetooth works well with cell phones. However, I'm not the only tech person to disparage Bluetooth.
The UPS and Fed Ex guys are working really hard all of the time and especially in the Holiday seasons. Long hours. And in my area....LONG LONG drives between deliveries. Bad weather.
It isn't their fault that people waited until the last minute to order. It isn't UPS or Fed Ex or Amazon's fault that people don't plan ahead. We all know that there is going to be a crush of people at the Mall buying last minute gifts. We shouldn't be surprised that there is going to be a crush of online orders either.
Amazon has given me amazing customer service. Hubby bought me a Kindle Fire in May of this year for an anniversary gift. He bought it at a local establishment, Radio Shack. A few weeks ago the Kindle 'bricked'. On calling the Amazon support people, we tried a few tricks and in about 10 minutes they decided that I would get a replacement from them. They had the registered serial number, knew exactly when it was bought and that it was still under warranty. No grief about it. No arguing. They were cordial, professional and efficient. I had a new replacement within 3 days and shipped the bricked Kindle back the next day at no cost to me. It can't get better than that!
Fewer and fewer people know what broken record means. Some people think it means that you run faster than someone else--you broke their record.
Baghoh: Here's a great page of engineers and techs griping about Bluetooth.
The most recent comment:
2013 and [Bluetooth] still is the worst performing over complex waste of time "wireless" technology ever.
Thanks creeley, I'm not an expert, just talking about my own experiences. Bluetooth for me has been both formerly very frustrating and lately quite reliable, so I assume it's my new devices. It's certainly not a robust technology, but in a way I like that. I like that for instance that it works great when my phone hooks up in my truck, but when I walk in the house it's not capable of keeping the connection, which is a benefit. I suppose it has a limited range of uses like that.
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