FedEx: A Small Rant, If You Will.

[64Ivy]

A few years ago, I recall starting a thread about just how much I hated 'Brown', specifically their service in regard to the delivery of live fish, etc. I can't remember exactly what happened but I remember it being something stupid and almost leading to physical violence. In any event, I began to deal exclusively with FedEx. Why? Because I discovered that for a long, long while, FedEx was thought to be the best of the carrier services, at least around here. Not perfect but pretty good. Lately however, they, to put it mildly, could suck the paint off a house from the next block over. I say this not just because of what seems to be a marked increase in anti-FedEx posts by RC members, but given my own recent experiences with them, I feel I have to ask, again mildly, what's the #%@& is the matter with you people???

A couple months ago, an order I had placed (mainly acro frags) was delayed in Memphis due to weather. Okay. It happens. I can understand bad weather. So they had to ship it out the next day. The next morning, I check the tracking number and it says that it's waiting for me at the hub. Cool. So I jump in the car and drive to the next town over (40 min.) only to have them tell me they put it on the truck! Politely (*lying here*) I ask why they would do this when I specifically marked it 'Hold" and they say that they were doing me a favor, as the box had already been held up for so long, they figured they'd get it to me quicker that way... being marked 'Overnight Priority' and all.

Did you know that there is no way the hub can contact a driver for the purposes of locating him during his run? Neither did I...until then. So about 2:00 pm dude finally comes pulling up to the house with my box, which had been sealed for nearly 48 hours by now, looking for all the world like he'd saved the ranch in an old western movie.

Surprisingly, only a few things didn't make it and the vendor promised to make it good. Those few things were shipped out last Monday. Held up in Memphis. Got here today (Wednesday) 9:00 am. Now, because of prior commitments (which I didn't have yesterday 'cause that's when the friggin' corals were coming), I couldn't pick them up until after 10. Then with the drive home (still 40 min), I couldn't start the acclimation process until just about 11.

Now, the most interesting part at this particular stage was just how cold the bag water felt. Strangely cold given the temps both inside the FedEx hub and outside the FexEx hub didn't seem unusually frigid...for MAY!!! So I took a quick temperature reading of the bag water. 62.4F. AFTER having been in the hub for an hour and coming home with me for nearly another hour. Coming off the plane, it must've been absolute zero. Or maybe they didn't even put it in the plane; maybe they just bungeed it to the wing! Or perhaps it's still winter in Memphis, I don't know. All I do know is that the vendor, who is just as frustrated as I am, says if you ship anything FedEx Overnight Priority, it has to go through Memphis. HAS TO!!! Even if you're shipping it across town. MEMPHIS! HAS TO!!!.

I will not, at this point, go into how completely idiotic this procedure seems to be. I am tired and I have some corals to finish unthawing. My only hope for FedEx is that the mob buys them out. At least we know that our stuff will actually finally come on time then. I also hope that all of the current people in upper management there are summarily fired. And may their severance packages be delivered by FedEx. Overnight Priority.

Good Day.

 

[Misled]

Hey Ivy, I don't mean to laugh, but I couldn't help myself. The part I don't understand is we use Fed Ex at work. They are always on time, (and they had better be, they deliver our payroll). I also don't understand the, "they can't contact the drivers when they're on the road". They seem to be able to do it here. We placed a call to have a couple packages picked up yesterday. The guy that dropped off a package a couple hours before, came back to pick them up. We were supprised he was there that quick.


I'm sorry you had that happen though!!!!! Brown is terible around here. We're really scared to use them.

 

[spleen93]

That was a good rant. Sorry to hear about the problems. Besides the delay though, why do you feel that the box water temperature is Fedex's fault? I'm just curious. Fedex's overnight priority system has always been that everything gets shipped to Memphis, no matter where it's going - it's been written up in multiple business articles in the past.

 

[OceanSpray]

We feel your pain! Unfortunately, there is litte or nothing the average person can do about stuff like this, except rant. I too, am finding it hard to believe that they cannot contact their drivers from the hub. Perhaps they just didn't really want to? They must have put the box inside a cooler or something? Its just not that cold. At least now we know where Elvis is......held up in Memphis!

 

[LPS_Blasto]

Thats why I don't buy corals or live fish during the winter. From the LFS--SURE!!

But not anything that needs to be shipped.

Seams a no-brainer to me.

Sorry that you had so much trouble. Hopefully, we can all learn something here.

 

[tmantaylor18]

Lol I saw the ups man the other day drop my box out of the truck with my corals in it. Luckily no harm done.

 

[greenmonkey51]

That is untrue that every thing goes through Memphis. A couple orders ago, the fish went through Indianapolis instead. I had a couple problems with Fedex, but for the most part they are pretty good. I used to ship geckos with UPS and out of 7-8 shipments, 3 got delayed. I've been told by multiple vendors, not to put your address on the box or system if you want it held. Stuff like you had happens a lot. You just get it shipped to the station and thats it.

 

[vanmo92]

I just ordered something (non fish related) from california. And the tracking said it was in memphis, and I could not figure that out, but I guess when you order something with 3-day or less shipping that it will go through memphis. Which is awfully odd, it went from Ca, over CO, and to practically the other side of the country. If they could have landed in denver first, it would have been here in monday or tuesday, not today at 4:00. But I was not in a hurry to get it so it does not matter that much. But I agree that the shipping systems are not as efficient as they should be and that we need, as a global community, to devise a better method for transporting things.

 

[64Ivy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12443004#post12443004 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Misled
Hey Ivy, I don't mean to laugh, but I couldn't help myself. The part I don't understand is we use Fed Ex at work. They are always on time, (and they had better be, they deliver our payroll). I also don't understand the, "they can't contact the drivers when they're on the road". They seem to be able to do it here.

Maybe it's different for business accounts. Or maybe they really can contact them but figure, 'if we start letting customers influence our drivers delivery routes, they'll ALLl want to be first and there'll be chaos! Heck, chaos is OUR job!"

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12443008#post12443008 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spleen93
Besides the delay though, why do you feel that the box water temperature is Fedex's fault? I'm just curious.

I dunno. I just can't figure out how something can actually be colder than the ambient air surrounding it. The only other time I've seen anything like that is with the hash browns at Denny's: There can be steam coming off them but they're always ice cold. Both of these phenomena SHOULD be impossible, right? So, in the case of the corals, all I can guess is that they had to have undergone refrigeration at some point, either on the plane or the during the trucking from the airport to the hub.

Fedex's overnight priority system has always been that everything gets shipped to Memphis, no matter where it's going - it's been written up in multiple business articles in the past.

But doesn't anyone see just how dumb that is? " Hey, let's create a system whereby we process all of our customers most IMPORTANT mail, and we'll do it in just one place so in that one in a billion the chance the weather may be bad, it can just sit in there, no longer being 'Overnight' OR 'Priority"!

Now, far be it from me to run their business for them, but if I were the FedEx King For A Day, I just might suggest that should radar show a storm headed towards, oh...say, Memphis, we have one or two contingency hubs with the ability to process at least the priority stuff.

Boy, that was hard.

Oh, and the Denny's thing I have no idea how to fix .

 

[scapes]

I love my Fedex man. I was trying to retrieve a package for my neighbor...he couldn't give it to me b/c the neighbor had to sign it. He gave me his personal cell # to call him when my neighbor got home

As far as the company not being able to call their drivers, maybe maybe not. I find that hard to believe since everyone in America has a cell phone. I found that being nice to my drivers, I get nice service in return.

 

[vikubz]

I had a Foster and Smith order that disappeared for a day. Their web site said it had been delivered, but it was nowhere to be found.
I called customer service and they started checking on it, but the next day it showed up. My theory is that the driver was behind and just entered that it was delivered and figured he'd catch up the next day.

When ordering livestock, I put the address of the local Fedex store and it's held at the counter.

 

[BucNtears]

I'ld much rather deal with Fedex then UPS any day. It took UPS 3 trys to delievered my bulbs unbroken. I feel UPS could care less what shape the package gets to the customer.

 

[wiscsaltwater]

Its a risk you take when ordering online, if its a reputable seller then they should have been packaged with heat packs or cold packs depending, Fed Ex, UPS, and USPS ddeliver millions of packages every day, unfortunately its impossible to treat every delivery with silk gloves and it sure beats the alternative, driving to florida from wisconsin.

 

[kmf507]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12444236#post12444236 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wiscsaltwater
Fed Ex, UPS, and USPS ddeliver millions of packages every day, unfortunately its impossible to treat every delivery with silk gloves and it sure beats the alternative, driving to florida from wisconsin.

They are being paid to treat our packages with respect. Simply shrugging it off as "they deliver millions of packages" isn't acceptable to me when I'm paying upwards of $35 for overnight delivery.

 

[Dejavu]

All Overnight Priority shipments have to be flown in to Memphis or Indianapolis. I have a friend that work for FedEx, he explain to that due to some international railroad and shipping act requires that all airline shipment have to be flown to a base of operation. Which is Memphis or Indianapolis for FedEx. This is done to avoid a fee. I will talk to him tomorrow to make sure this is right, but it some thing like this. So don't blame FedEx for this blame the government and there silly laws.

 

[spleen93]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12443471#post12443471 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 64Ivy
I dunno. I just can't figure out how something can actually be colder than the ambient air surrounding it. The only other time I've seen anything like that is with the hash browns at Denny's: There can be steam coming off them but they're always ice cold. Both of these phenomena SHOULD be impossible, right? So, in the case of the corals, all I can guess is that they had to have undergone refrigeration at some point, either on the plane or the during the trucking from the airport to the hub.

I suspect that it got cold during the flight itself - since we don't know when the flight actually hit Connecticut, it might have gotten cold during the flight in the cargo hold (especially if it wasn't in a pressurized compartment). Or maybe somebody shoved it into a refrigerator somewhere along the way, thinking it was food?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12443471#post12443471 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 64Ivy
But doesn't anyone see just how dumb that is? " Hey, let's create a system whereby we process all of our customers most IMPORTANT mail, and we'll do it in just one place so in that one in a billion the chance the weather may be bad, it can just sit in there, no longer being 'Overnight' OR 'Priority"!

Now, far be it from me to run their business for them, but if I were the FedEx King For A Day, I just might suggest that should radar show a storm headed towards, oh...say, Memphis, we have one or two contingency hubs with the ability to process at least the priority stuff.

I think they do have some backup hubs in case of weather issues but I guess it's not a foolproof system (as evidence, what happened to you). There are some mass efficiencies having ONE place to route everything and to sort everything out. I guess Fedex has done the math and figured out that this makes the most sense (and literally, it IS math since it's actually calculable).

In any case, my sympathies on the screwups.

(edit to say: more research on Fedex shows that they've got at least a few separate regional hubs now - Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Newark, Anchorage, and Oakland. But the "superhub" is still Memphis)

 

[ReidiLoverLinds]

I always use fed ex standard overnight. it gets there at the same time and costs less.

 

[Tswifty]

Strapped it to the wing... I woulda paid extra for that service... check out my lighting I purchased that was shipped via the united states postal office.

Apparently they were training intensley for the next world cup, and couldn't find a soccer ball.

 

[sjj80]

I too have had problems with fedex lately. I always have preferred fedex when ordering livestock due to their reputation and the fact that they ring your doorbell when the package arrives. Lately though this has not been the case. The first time it happened I had laid down cause I wasn't feeling well and knew the doorbell and dog barking would wake me. I woke up around 3pm, looked outside and there was my package, tracking info said it was delivered at 1pm!!!! So the next order I posted special delivery instructions for the driver to ring the doorbell. I see the truck pull up, the lady carries the box sideways up to the door (even though the box says this side up and is clearly labeled Live Animals), then I hear the box drop on my porch followed by the doorbell ringing!!!!!!!!!!! :mad2: Hello......could someone be that stupid, it reminded me of Ace Ventura when Jim Carrey was kicking a package down the hall! Next delivery I didn't have the option to add delivery instructions so the doorbell didn't ring. I have since put a note on my door asking delivery people to ring the doorbell. You'd think if delivering a box that says live animals they would handle them better, I'm expecting another shipment friday from fedex and I hope the box is handled better, If not I'm calling the local fedex to complain. We reefers spend way too much money on these precious specimens to have them mistreated during shipment.

 

[widmer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12443471#post12443471 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 64Ivy

I dunno. I just can't figure out how something can actually be colder than the ambient air surrounding it. The only other time I've seen anything like that is with the hash browns at Denny's: There can be steam coming off them but they're always ice cold. Both of these phenomena SHOULD be impossible, right?

I don't work at Denny's but I certainly make hashbrowns at home. The reason they can be cold in the center is because they come as frozen shredded potatoes. And the goal is to brown the outside without cooking the inside, because if you actually cook the inside too it turns into a mushy mess. So you need to find that balance where it's hot on the inside but not cooked, and I guess they don't care to...

You should get into making hashbrowns at home: Buy them frozen at the grocery store, use a teflon pan and olive oil, resist the urge to flip them at all until when you peak underneath them they really are brown. Heaven on earth, baby.