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UPS or oops - we messed up

I was going to receive a delivery via UPS. I expected a normal delivery. Oh, I was wrong (and still am, at time of writing it has not been delivered).
Update: damaged delivery after 2 and 4 days delay.

The chronological order

The "long way" delivery (more or less 1000km) went without hiccups so I'll skip it. Longer than expected, but still in acceptable time frame.
The fun begins at the last 20km or 2% of the travel distance.
October 1st ~9am: System tells me: arrived at local distribution center 5:24, delivery window 10:15-13:15. totally fine.
13:30 package not there, checking online: moved to 14:00-17:00 OK, fine, traffic happens, I move my external appointments to the next day.
Package is urgent, more urgent than my appointments that day.
16:00 package still not there, checking online: delivery till the end of day, so moved another appointment.
18:00 now online tells me: delivery on the next day 14:00-17:00, OK, moved one of the appointments again.
13:30 checked my mailbox, well for mail. Notice in there, I was not reachable, will try again the next business day. Attempt to delivery at 12:30.
I was there, about 10-11m distance to the door bell. Was not used.
Called hotline, after a while discussing with a computer I finally get a person to speak to.
She was friendly, apologized and marked the package as priority, to be delivered today on another try. The delivery window in the system was set to the time after the call anyway, no change online.
Around 15:00, checked online, still set to could not be delivered, next try: October 7th, yes my "priority" package got delayed by 5 days or 3 working days. We speak about the last 20km here!
That's what I call priority.
15:47 an email (triggered by the call earlier):
"Laut GPS Überprüfung war der Fahrer für mehrere Zustellungen in der XXXX.  Ein erneute Zustellung des Standard Paketes heute ist nicht möglich, da der Fahrer bereits im Depot ist. Zustellung erfolgt am nächsten Werktag."
translated to
"According to the GPS check, the driver was at XXXX for several deliveries.  It is not possible to redeliver the standard parcel today as the driver is already at the depot. Delivery will be made on the next working day."
Are you serious? You admit that the driver went by the my address multiple times and not delivered once?
And "next workday" is not 5 days later.

Since then I tried to get my package delivered, even tried to offer them that I pick it up at the depot, but this is not possible until "the next working day".
Which according to their system is in 5 days or 3 working days...

This was before their closing time, so it would have been possible at the same day, there was no will.
Also I know they are working today and are handling packages, so having someone to deliver my package to the security to have me pick up would be possible, they just don't want to.

I tried contacting/discussions on

  • twitter (yuck, with UPS Germany and HQ, not willing to help)
  • LinkedIn (also yuck and both US and Germany are unwilling to help)
  • E-Mail on normal support: no response
  • E-Mail as reply with id from automated system: unfriendly response, basically saying: no luck, we deliver when we want
  • Phone one successful try, later calls were blocked by the automated system, my delivery is not important enough to warrant personal contact. Yes this was after the first support call that made it a "priority delivery".
  • their online system, which did not work. Could not log in, password is wrong (password manager, so I doubt that), password reset not working, new registration not possible, email (used for delivery) is already in use (true; I registered it the last time I had issues with UPS).

We will see when it will be actually delivered and in what state. According to the tracking it has been loaded into the vehicle once on Oct 1st, then unloaded and stored, loaded again on 2nd, claimed unloading/doorbell ringing, claimed loading, driving around again, unloading, loading again, driving around, unloading and maybe a delivery? We know how packages are handled.

And thanks to UPS to make today (a German holiday) a work day for me and 2 contacts, because of your (non)delivery schedule. Plus some delays and possible weekend work to catch up with the delivery content. IF it arrives tomorrow, despite what the tracking tells.

TLDR

If you want to have a package delivery into your area ~20km:
UPS works (not great, but works), but if you actually want to receive your package to your door: use someone else.


Will update if I get my package the next business day (tomorrow, but I doubt it)
To be continued, but never repeated.
I will never use UPS again, and I encourage you to do the same if you want to actually receive the delivery.
I had deliveries from China or US to Germany (including crossing international borders with customs involved), quicker than UPS claims for the last 20km: 5 working days.


Addendum:
Never during any contact they said "oh, we are sorry" or the like, no apology, not once admitted a mistake or similar. In that regard: their customer service is trained well to be slick as an eel. This alone should warrant a very wide distance to that company.

Update Oct 4th 9:17
on Oct 3rd, all support ways that could be reached told delivery today, online tracking tells Monday.
UPS US Support via LinkedIn tells delivery will be today, twitter support tells: delivery on Monday, E-Mail no response.
Wow, that is consistent. Package should be loaded into the vehicle right now (or not) will see.

Update Oct 4th ~10:00
online now tells both package will be delivered 11-13. We'll see.

Update Oct 4th 14:15
one of the 2 packages actually got delivered.
Looks like it was dragged the 20km from the depot behind the transporter and then ran over twice, but it arrived.
The other one: after calling and messaging and email writing: "we make a 2nd attempt of delivery, we promise a delivery today".


Next update 19:48
Online and support still tell me delivery today. Got an email that my package was lost and they will search it tomorrow and if they find it, they will deliver it. Just for context, the package has a size of at least 50cmx50cmx60cm, probably more and weights at least 21,6kg.
Sure this can slip between to other packages and in a gap between 2 racks in the transporter.
AVOID UPS AT ALL COSTS.

Next update Saturday ~10:00
Phone hotline told: package was found again, will be delivered today. The normal time as the last deliveries. (comment: so never?)
I was promised someone higher up will call me.

Update ~12:00
no call, no package, called hotline again. Package is still on the way will arrive today. Will CC UPS HQ in US and CC UPS DE HQ.

Update ~17:00
online still unchanged will deliver some time
no delivery

Update Mon, Oct 7th ~9:30
At 07:26 I got an email, my package is lost. (no surprise) The sender should create a search request.
Chat tells: ok, here are my options, delivery to other address, pick up at several places a.s.o. yeah sure.
Phone hotline: package is lost, but I can get another delivery attempt tomorrow? HOW?
The promised phone call from someone in charge did not happen, again.
Sender told me: UPS takes at least 10 days for such a search request, nothing they can do (which I believe, how should they)

Update Mon Oct 7th ~12:00
online suddenly tells: package in car and will arrive 11-00:14:00

Update Mon Oct 7th ~13:52
package actually arrived. Outer box looked like it was mishandled, inner bubble wrap gave it's live to protect the content. Several chambers were destroyed, but content survived with tiny issues.
1 screw was in bottom of box and one cable got detached. Both could be fixed within an hour.

So a semi-happy end when it comes to the delivery. Financial compensation: another story, but not publicly.

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