A FedEx miracle

Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Messages
10,280
Location
California
My order from Japan arrived in 2 days with standard FedEx shipping. For once, the package also didn't go half around the world. It's a FedEx miracle! Tonight I'll have to drive to the city and pick up my package.

FROM

KAGOSHIMA, JP

Label Created​

9/19/2022 7:16 PM

PACKAGE RECEIVED BY FEDEX

KADOMA-SHI JP
9/21/2022 2:20 PM

IN TRANSIT

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA
9/22/2022 8:10 AM

OUT FOR DELIVERY

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA
9/22/2022 9:16 AM

DELIVERED

SAN FRANCISCO, CA US

DELIVERED​

9/22/2022 at 11:07 AM
 
Ordered a Samsung phone for my son. FedEx took five/six days from Dallas, TX to Greenville, NC

Sunday, 9/11/2022 12:00 AM Picked up IRVING, TX

Friday, 9/16/2022 12:23 PM Delivered Greenville, NC

In my area Fed Ex is horrible. So bad that even USPS is better. I have a Ring Camera video showing where they don't use my driveway, but drive across my yard. My neighbor has a video of a driver washing his FedEX van in his driveway using his hose.
 
That is pretty quick. I’m guessing it was processed and went right on a truck that was heading for the airport. The timing would be fun to know.
 
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FedEx, UPS, USPS, and DHL have their own ups and downs.
But, on all 4 companies, I had some bad experiences from UPS.
 
My experiences: (Living in a very rural area)
FedEx - Slow but usually arrives in one piece.
UPS - I've received items in 1 day, usually 2-3. Might arrive as flat as a pancake, so there's that.
USPS - You be surprised what can fit in a mailbox if you try hard enough.
 
FedEx is the worst of the services here in the U.S.A. I retired the end of last year. But before I retired, I often had to get parts returned to me from one of the auto assembly plants. Sometimes one of the other suppliers would send me trim, so I could do fit trials. Or I would send parts out to field reps, so they could replace a bad part at the assembly plant. My company negotiated better rates with UPS and FedEx. Often, we were told to use one over the other, whenever possible.

FedEx was the preferred carrier for a while. But it didn't take long before most everyone I worked with hated having to deal with FedEx. They were notoriously late, about as often as they were on time. They would often deliver parts to our sister plant, that is about 1/2 mile from where I worked. We became very accustomed to having contacts at the other two facilities that were close by. More than once, they even delivered packages to JetWay (JBT Aerotech now), which was around the corner from us.

But worse than that, they lost packages. I had one particular experience when they lost a part. I called the day after it was due for delivery, after checking online and seeing that there was no record of delivery. At first, they told me that it was delayed, and would be delivered in the next 1-2 days. After no delivery, I checked again, and they admitted that they had lost the package. I really needed the item, so I pressed them hard to find the package. After about 2 weeks, they said the they weren't going to make any more effort to find the package, and told me that I could file a claim.

What really got me was how condescending they were towards me, as though it was no big deal to loose a package, and I should just go away and not pester them with my petty concerns.

UPS was occasionally late, and also sometimes delivered to our sister plant. But not like FedEx. UPS quickly became the preferred carrier for most everyone I worked with. Just mentioning FedEx to others at work, would get looks of disgust.
 
In the auto parts business, you will never make it with 250,000 ppm failure rate.
This isn't the auto parts business. A delivery that's a day (or 2 or 3) late isn't a "failure", i.e. unusable. People act like their precious little package should be hand-carried door-to-door for chump change and act like it's the end of the world when it's a day late or the routing doesn't make sense to them. Hire a dedicated courier if it's that critical... Well, see what their rates are first and then people will almost always reconsider.
 
I’ve always had good luck with FedEx overnight, 2 day shipping, Ground and Express Saver….. never had a problem except some of my boxes were beat up and I don’t blame the driver for that.
 
This isn't the auto parts business. A delivery that's a day (or 2 or 3) late isn't a "failure", i.e. unusable. People act like their precious little package should be hand-carried door-to-door for chump change and act like it's the end of the world when it's a day late or the routing doesn't make sense to them. Hire a dedicated courier if it's that critical... Well, see what their rates are first and then people will almost always reconsider.
Not all defects on automotive parts make them unusable either. Many are nothing more than minor cosmetic, or customer perception of quality.

When FedEx failed to deliver on time, in many cases, it cost my company money. Other times, I was not able to provide a customer response as timely as they wanted. Sure, when FedEx doesn't deliver my wife's new shoes when promised, it's just annoying. But when they didn't deliver parts on time, and I scheduled a crew of temps for a project that needed those parts, that's waste. Wasted motion. Wasted time. Wasted energy. Wasted money.

When other shipping companies can do so much better, then it raises the question. Why can't FedEx?
 
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