FedEx Follies
Gosh, kids. Sorry to tell you that Santa isn’t coming because there was a mispelling on our address. His list said Wesleg Ave, so he was too stupid to realize that the only street with a similar name is Wesley. And of course, he knows that we are the only ones named Russell in the village.
Today should have been like Christmas, but the incredibly incompetent FedEx people sent the bicycle back to the distribution center claiming that the address was in correct. Now, we get enough FedEx deliveries and the village will live in is very small, so there really is no excuse for their contention that the address was wrong. And why does FedEx require the phone number of the recipient? It obviously isn’t for calling the recipient to ask for directions to the house. Maybe it is just there so it makes FedEx appear more concerned about deliveries arriving at the proper house.
In my mind, I think that the driver, who is usually the same person that we always have, would look at the address and wonder if we were the same, exact Russells that lived on Wesley. Now there’s a concept. We do have a post office in the village so if it were a different drive, it would NOT be difficult to ask at the post office if there was a similar street name in the village or a Theresa Russel who lived in the village.
I called the headquarters in Memphis and the custormer service person first told me that the bicycle was on the truck and then told me that the address said Wesleg so they couldn’t deliver it. I asked that he contact the driver and he said that was impossible. Golly gee. What an efficient system they have. I decided that I would call the local FedEx center, but to my surprise, there is NO listing in the phone book for FedEx. There is nothing on the website that gives phone numbers for the centers. There is no way to file a complaint except by snail mail or on the phone. There is NO email address to describe less than acceptable experiences with them.
The customer service rep said that they can’t simply change that last letter of the street name and re-deliver. It will take a few days and if we are lucky, we can get our shipment on Friday. What an efficient business. This entire incident has made me re-consider using FedEx to ship our bikes to the starting point of our trip. I knew if we did it that we should allow some extra time so that they are waiting for us. I wonder if Main St. is written as Maine St. if the FedEx people will be so befuddled that they will be unable to deliver a package.
If this package arrives on Friday, it will have taken almost a week to travel from OK to NY. I can’t imagine how long it could take to travel from NY to OR. In our case, the more times that it gets shipped back and forth from truck to center, the higher the change that the bicycle will sustain some damage. Even though many packages that we receive request signatures, our delivery person usually just uses the knock, drop and run method. If the packaging is damage, I then will have to go through the hassle of contacting Memphis. I was home all day today expecting this package. Now, I can stay home waiting for it tomorrow, Friday or whenever they decide to ship it out.
It will be a great day when FedEx learns the definition of customer service. Guess I will have to figure out how to print out a letter and send it via snail mail to the dear folks at FedEx. I am sure that they will be very sympathetic to my situation - NOT.