What Brown can do for you - screw up everything

Needless to say, UPS is on my naughty list this year for the holidays. These guys seem to find a way to screw up everytime they get the chance.

This year, I finally broke down (literally on the broke part) and ordered a 70-200 f2.8 IS (which apparently waiting 2 years wasn't long enough for) to replace my perfectly wonderful Sigma 70-200. I also ordered 4 PocketWizard multimaxes and a third 30d, tipping the scales at of $4,000.

Being overly excited to get my new junk and playing before I need to use it, I decided to have it shipped 2-day air for $99. On Tuesday, I checked the tracking number just to make sure it got out when it was supposed to, and it did. However, on Wednesday when I checked, it had been delayed and rescheduled for delivery on Thursday.

I messaged B&H and informed them of the issue and that I will be expecting a credit for my 2-day shipping charge. The said they would initiate a complaint with UPS and when they get a credit, they would give me one. I told them that wasn't going to work and that I shouldn't have to wait for them to work it out. They agreed and credited my account for the shipping charge (or so they say).

Thursday came and the tracking number says "Out for delivery", yee haw. I waited all day, nothing came. Then as I left the house for dinner, a UPS truck pulled into the neighborhood at 6:00. Strange thing was, he never came to my house. He never stopped. I can only assume he had nothing for me.

It's Friday, I just checked the tracking number, guess what it says... "Out for delivery" but it's still from yesterday. It hasn't been updated at all. Does that mean the driver never came back? We had mid 50's weather yesterday, I doubt he was stuck in the snow somewhere. Where is my stuff? Will I get it today or not until after Christmas? Did it get dropped off somewhere else and now it's "lost"? I am going bananas.

That's what Brown can do for you... Screw up your holiday weekend.

My son is a night supervisor with UPS in Oklahoma City. Sunday night they moved over 217,000 packages through the OKC hub in 6 hrs. Sorry about your delima but I'm always amazed that they get it right as often as they do.

Chad McCan wrote in post #2433586
Needless to say, UPS is on my naughty list this year for the holidays. These guys seem to find a way to screw up everytime they get the chance.

This year, I finally broke down (literally on the broke part) and ordered a 70-200 f2.8 IS (which apparently waiting 2 years wasn't long enough for) to replace my perfectly wonderful Sigma 70-200. I also ordered 4 PocketWizard multimaxes and a third 30d, tipping the scales at of $4,000.

Being overly excited to get my new junk and playing before I need to use it, I decided to have it shipped 2-day air for $99. On Tuesday, I checked the tracking number just to make sure it got out when it was supposed to, and it did. However, on Wednesday when I checked, it had been delayed and rescheduled for delivery on Thursday.

I messaged B&H and informed them of the issue and that I will be expecting a credit for my 2-day shipping charge. The said they would initiate a complaint with UPS and when they get a credit, they would give me one. I told them that wasn't going to work and that I shouldn't have to wait for them to work it out. They agreed and credited my account for the shipping charge (or so they say).

Thursday came and the tracking number says "Out for delivery", yee haw. I waited all day, nothing came. Then as I left the house for dinner, a UPS truck pulled into the neighborhood at 6:00. Strange thing was, he never came to my house. He never stopped. I can only assume he had nothing for me.

It's Friday, I just checked the tracking number, guess what it says... "Out for delivery" but it's still from yesterday. It hasn't been updated at all. Does that mean the driver never came back? We had mid 50's weather yesterday, I doubt he was stuck in the snow somewhere. Where is my stuff? Will I get it today or not until after Christmas? Did it get dropped off somewhere else and now it's "lost"? I am going bananas.

That's what Brown can do for you... Screw up your holiday weekend.

Heh. They're Union, so what do you expect?

not a big fan of ups either, but I agree that what they accomplish is truly amazing, unfortunately there are things like this that pop up, especially this time of year

The other part of the story I left out is that I forgot to order the hotshoe adapters for my Pocketwizards to run my 580's. So I ordered those Tuesday... Well those came yesterday, UPS, 2-day air

A good friend of mine works at FedEx. I know how busy they are, but they have dealt with Xmas how many times now? If they wanted to, they could have it figured out by now, but I am sure it's a profit thing.

I'm sorry to hear about your story. I got Prime trial membership (just canceled after 4 months trial) from Amazon and I must have saved at least $200+ in shipping with UPS 2nd day shipping. They amazed me (sometime it arrives the next day). 100% customer satisfaction is hard.

I feel for you. I live in Ireland and it might as well be in the middle of the pacific as far as getting anything shipped to here.

Sorry, try FedEx?

It could also be Kansas City Brown. FedEx is much much more reliable here. They also have nice new facilities that are clean and well kept. The same people are there that were there five years ago, and they know me by name, many times I don't have to show my ID.

Brown on the other hand, looks like a pile of brown stuff when you walk in. It's in an old, dirty and dangerous part of town. I don't go there at night, because I value my possessions too much. The people are usually worn out with customers by the time I get there and aren't really nice or helpful. Many times I get the "Well did you call the 800 number" line. I hate that. They act like they aren't even affiliated with UPS, they just drive the trucks...

I think you are being a little hard on Brown. If you order this time of year, you have to expect problems. Also, that little storm around Denver affects the whole country.

One other thing, B&H had no direct responsibility once they turn it over to Brown, but, their desire to satisfy the customer is genuine.

Well considering the package went from NY to KC, I doubt Denver played a big part in it... if anything, it was less coming into KC, so it should have been easier to manage.

Again, it's not like this is the first time they have failed, it happens reguarly and at all times of the year. It's just that this one sucks more

you might want to give them a call, I had something shipped a few months ago and they left me a note they would deliver it at 2pm or something like that the next day because I had to sign for it, I got home at 1:30 and they had already been there, I called them up and they had the driver bring it to me in less than 30 mins, I was pretty happy about that

UPS gets it right a lot more often than they get it wrong. Thing is, you won't hear those stories. I don't feel the need to make a thread saying that my huge $2k alienbees order came just fine, and actually a day early, and I paid for ground shipping. I've already got the softboxes together, the light stands up, etc. and it only got here 25 minutes ago. I'll admit, though, that if it didn't come today, I'd be very upset, and I'd probably start a thread, too, just to vent the anger and disappointment.

Point is, don't let a thread like this and so many others make you not want to use a certain service. Think of all the happy customers you never hear from.

As for asking for a refund for the service, that's exactly what you do. You ask B&H to put a claim in for service failure. Thing is, they paid UPS, and UPS is the one that "screwed up". B&H didn't do anything wrong. They shouldn't have to give you a refund ahead of time. They just did so that you wouldn't be mad at them and never shop there again because of UPS's mistake.

cowpix wrote in post #2433762
I think you are being a little hard on Brown. If you order this time of year, you have to expect problems. Also, that little storm around Denver affects the whole country.

One other thing, B&H had no direct responsibility once they turn it over to Brown, but, their desire to satisfy the customer is genuine.

I agree.

UPDATE: UPS just came. My goodies are here. 2 days late, but B&H should have an easy time getting their money back. The reason I asked for mine back first is because they facilitated the sale of UPS's service to me. They did nothing wrong, however they took my money for a product that I never received, therefore the refund should come from them, as soon as it became impossible to get the product I bought.

To Ronald's point, it's not my experience that UPS gets it right more often. From my purchases, they are usually late/problematic as I described in the original post.