Rant: courier companies
I hate courier companies and their lack of logic.
I have a typical work schedule: Monday to Friday, mostly from 9h to 18h. They have their typical delivery schedules: Monday to Friday, from 9h to 17h.
This means that, when I order stuff online, I can never be home to get one of their deliveries. Every time I need to call them, explain the situation, and get my package held up at their facility so I can go pick it up. If I’m lucky, I can do that from 8h to 20h, Monday to Friday.
The thing is, half the time when I call, they sound surprised that I have no one at home to receive their goodies. I’m sorry, but I live alone, there’s no one here when I’m out. Even if I had a girlfriend living here, odds are that she would be working a similar schedule to mine and wouldn’t be available either. This isn’t the 50’s anymore, with a housewife taking care of chores and shopping during daytime.
I could stay at home to answer the door if I had a rough idea of when they’d be dropping by. With the advanced logistics and tracking possible in 2013, they could at least say if the delivery would be in the morning or the afternoon. In that case, I could skip a half-day of work and take care of that, but I can’t. I need to stay home ALL day if I want to handle this properly. An alternative, possible with modern technology, would be to send me a text message an hour or two before the approximate visit time. That way would allow be to leave work, get a box, then head back. Of course, none of this is offered at this time.
One thing that infuriates me even more is the pick-up locations: all the courier companies have exactly one spot each where I can go claim my box. That’s at their respective warehouses, all located near the airport in an industrial zone, at least 20-30 minutes from here by car when accounting for the local traffic. None of them have a single convenient downtown location, which I could easily hit on my way to or from work. None of them have a spot easily reachable by public transit either. It always has to be done by car.
Screw you UPS, Purolator, DHL and FedEx. I know that I’m technically not your customer, it’s whoever sent the package. Still, screw you for your lack of decent options.
Oh, and UPS? The staff at your pick-up location all look like they’re ready to jump down a bridge. Acknowledging me with a polite “hello” would be a great start.
– Doctacosa