The story of Amazon Prime and UPS – Part 2 “United Parcel Safari”

Read Part 1 here: The story of Amazon Prime and UPS – Part 1 “United Parcel Stealers”

I ordered a television/DVD combo from amazon back in March (well because I needed it, the price was right, and I get free two day shipping on all amazon orders, duh). I placed the order on March 23. It immediately (like within 30 minutes) shipped from amazon, and I even was given an estimated delivery date of March 24. I was totally excited; here comes a great TV/DVD combo (at a great price) in just one day. UPS, however, decided to take my package on a safari through the Eastern United States. Here’s a screen capture of the full tracking history (read from bottom to top):

Let’s use some mad geography and photo editing skills to chart this in order on a map of the US, shall we?

A week later (March 29), the package was finally delivered. Note the “Left with Man” comment in the Location field. I don’t know what man the delivery person left it with, but that TV was sitting in front of my apartment door on the floor when I got home.

As you can imagine, this whole situation had me soaring through the roof. They’re still not done hearing about this mishap. When your job is as easy as taking something from one place to another, I have no sympathy when people do this wrong. On a daily basis, I am expected to never make mistakes at my job, and any mistakes I do make have repercussions.

But you know, what? Bygones are bygones, and, although it’s unacceptable for a package to get routed a total distance over six times the proper distance in the wrong direction, I shouldn’t generalize about their overall service. Right?

Here is where it gets downright frustrating.