FedEx strikes again...

Half Fast

Half Fast

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Half Fast
Some time ago I sent an oil sample off to AvLab for analysis. FedEx got it from USPS on 1/30. For the past month it has bounced back and forth between Southaven, MS and Memphis, TN. They cannot seem to get the package into Lousisiana. For your amusement (and my frustration), here's the @$%$^& travel history:

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I hate FedEx as much as I hate UPS and USPS. There's just no good answer.
 
FedEx sucks here too....they can never get the right house. I always get my neighbors stuff.....
 
Sounds like they're playing hide the weenie with the trailer it's on so they don't get dinged for dwell time in one particular facility.

One of our local sort facilities in ATL is notorious for 'departing' and 'receiving' packages (I'm pretty sure they're just rescanning the trailer that's already physically in their yard) about 23.5 hrs apart. My guess (based on experience in warehouse operations management) is that their management team is measured on dwell time on the yard and anything over 24 hours raises a flag. So what do they do? Send a dude out with a scanner to 'depart' and then 'receive' the trailers right before the 24 hr mark so it doesn't show up on the report as being there for over 24 hrs.
 
CJones said:
Sounds like they're playing hide the weenie with the trailer it's on so they don't get dinged for dwell time in one particular facility.

One of our local sort facilities in ATL is notorious for 'departing' and 'receiving' packages (I'm pretty sure they're just rescanning the trailer that's already physically in their yard) about 23.5 hrs apart. My guess (based on experience in warehouse operations management) is that their management team is measured on dwell time on the yard and anything over 24 hours raises a flag. So what do they do? Send a dude out with a scanner to 'depart' and then 'receive' the trailers right before the 24 hr mark so it doesn't show up on the report as being there for over 24 hrs.
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I suspect that's what's going on here. I spent 20 minutes getting a FedEx human on the phone, and then all he could do was read from a script and tell me he had no further information. It's absolutely impossible to actually reach someone who can do anything about a problem.

I called AvLab and they're going to see if they can do anything from their end.

FedEx services customers like a bull services cows.
 
Losing an oil sample is rookie stuff for Fedex. That task was probably assigned to a new hire.

In 2021, Fedex lost a rebuilt engine for my club's 172, somewhere between the engine shop in Illinois, and NJ. That's next-level stuff right there. Not a small envelope that slid under the seat and was overlooked, accomplishing this required an enterprising idiot with a forklift.

The engine was located a few days later, but still...
 
GaryM said:
Losing an oil sample is rookie stuff for Fedex. That task was probably assigned to a new hire.

In 2021, Fedex lost a rebuilt engine for my club's 172, somewhere between the engine shop in Illinois, and NJ. That's next-level stuff right there. Not a small envelope that slid under the seat and was overlooked, accomplishing this required an enterprising idiot with a forklift.

The engine was located a few days later, but still...
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Yeah, I remember that thread. I’m amazed you got it back. I figured it went to somebody’s airboat.

AvLab tells me that FedEx collects all the boxes going to them in a bag and won’t deliver until the bag is filled. Apparently they rescan the bag every time they drop a new box into it.

AvLab has since dropped that method since it was causing so many problems, but for now I wait and wait and wait....
 
Half Fast said:
I suspect that's what's going on here. I spent 20 minutes getting a FedEx human on the phone, and then all he could do was read from a script and tell me he had no further information. It's absolutely impossible to actually reach someone who can do anything about a problem.

I called AvLab and they're going to see if they can do anything from their end.

FedEx services customers like a bull services cows.
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FedEx screwed around with an overnight delivery. Didn’t show the next day or the next. Or the next.
I found both the email and phone number for the FedEx VP of customer service. Got a return call in 30 min, delivery even faster. Delivery guy was NOT happy.
 
I remember when:

"It absolutely, positively has to be there overnight!"

 
FedEx is so bad where I live. I buy items on Ebay. When it says seller uses FedEx, I find another seller.
 
On 17 January I sent my oil sample to AvLab via their return shipping label. Since then the box has been in Mississippi numerous times then back to Memphis numerous times. Delivery dates have been posted only to be followed by "in transit" messages. IF the sample ever gets to AvLab it will be too old to be useful. I agree...FedEx and the "Smart Post" is totally worthless. AvLab suggested (via an insert in the shipping box) that if you want them to ever get the sample, pay for some other shipping firm.
 
Arrow76R said:
On 17 January I sent my oil sample to AvLab via their return shipping label. Since then the box has been in Mississippi numerous times then back to Memphis numerous times. Delivery dates have been posted only to be followed by "in transit" messages. IF the sample ever gets to AvLab it will be too old to be useful. I agree...FedEx and the "Smart Post" is totally worthless. AvLab suggested (via an insert in the shipping box) that if you want them to ever get the sample, pay for some other shipping firm.
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Our samples are probably sitting next to each other in Memphis.
 
I recently had an order delivered by FedEx. It was humorous as it was reported to be on the truck and out for delivery between 11 & 2. I watched the driver pull up at the end of the driveway, search the truck, get out, walk around, check the address, get in the truck a speed away without making the delivery.

I was thinking he's forgotten to load it but soon enough another FedEx truck came from another direction and he had the package on his vehicle. Amazingly enough it was not damaged and only a few minutes later than predicted to arrive. So I'll give them a few points ... this time.
 
I believe you're looking at the wrong metric here. Delivery performance is good and all, but how come no one is asking the really important question? How diverse and inclusive is FedEx? That really is the main point of any business and I hope FedEx is doing their part in this matter.

* sincerity or sarcasm. YOU decide.
 
texasclouds said:
But they saved that SW pax at AUS, bro…
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They'll quickly bark at you that they're a different "Fedex [_______]". Reminds me of the uber-triggering of the Field Ops and AMO peeps when I'd call them border patrol. hoo boy, like watching a S-300 ripple launch. :D
 
In my small part of the world FedEx is the way to go. UPS takes too long with New Mexico being a foreign country and all....:lol:

And USPS doesn't deliver outside the city limits. USPS doesn't offer overnight delivery here, I guess because the horses aren't that fast.....
 
You guys are amateur bush league rookies when it comes to freight screwups for your Amazon/Wish orders…..now LTL is the true eff up of the delivery business.
 
FedEx handles 16.5 MILLION packages each day.

Even if only one out of 10,000 have an issue, that is almost 2000 per day with issues.

Personally, the only big issue I had with FedEx was trying to get them to hold a package at the office instead of trying to deliver a signature required, when I was not going to be home, but close to the office. They could only hold it after they tried to deliver it.
 
I’ve actually had surprisingly good luck with USPS as far as packages arriving where they’re supposed to and intact. They’re just not fast and their tracking is nearly useless.

FedEx has always been the worst. I won’t use them if I have a choice.
 
Half Fast said:
Based on personal experience, I think it's much MUCH higher than that. Somewhere around 1 in 10 or 1 in 20.
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Same. In my experience, I have had more FedEx packages that HAVE issues than ones that do not - and when I say 'issues', I mean delayed WEEKS (not just days or hours) or never delivered at all as it hits the death spiral of "arrived at sort facility -> departed sort facility -> arrived at (same) sort facility, lather, rinse, repeat", or my great experience of the Sheriff's Deputy finding the trolling motor I had ordered laying on the side of the road. Something that big doesn't just accidentally fall off the truck without a good nudge (and likely a call to a buddy to come pick up his new trolling motor on the side of the road).

I also know that service across carriers is highly variable by region. ATL in general has seen a steady decline in both amount and quality of workforce over the past several years (pre-dating COVID), so it's no surprise that jobs that require both speed and a certain amount of attention to detail are struggling. The major sort centers are highly automated, but I'm pretty sure the local sorts - where the final-mile delivery trucks are loaded - are still a lot of 'If the label has these two letters on it, load it onto your truck'.
 
Half Fast said:
Based on personal experience, I think it's much MUCH higher than that. Somewhere around 1 in 10 or 1 in 20.
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My experience is much better than yours. I have not had one package in about 40 years of using FedEx get delayed significantly (over a day) or lost. A couple where the package was damaged, but the contents were fine.
 
murphey said:
FedEx screwed around with an overnight delivery. Didn’t show the next day or the next. Or the next.
I found both the email and phone number for the FedEx VP of customer service. Got a return call in 30 min, delivery even faster. Delivery guy was NOT happy.
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^^^ This

I do this all the time when some company ****es me off. Have done it with Hertz, Enterprise, FedEx and UPS among others. I find someone higher up on LinkedIn, connect with them or extract their email address (there is a tool for that) and write to them. Most of the time it works and they resolve the issue fast.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
^^^ This

I do this all the time when some company ****es me off. Have done it with Hertz, Enterprise, FedEx and UPS among others. I find someone higher up on LinkedIn, connect with them or extract their email address (there is a tool for that) and write to them. Most of the time it works and they resolve the issue fast.
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This is the person at FedEx:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/briecarere/

Any idea how to extract an email address?
 
FINALLY! The package was delivered today, after I emailed the VP and she passed me off to a minion and I left a couple of phone messages with the minion's minion.

Here's contact info for those of you who are also having problems and are fed up with FedEx:

Brie Carere, Executive VP and Chief Customer Officer brie.carere@fedex.com (my initial contact)
Corneshia Thrill, Sr. Executive Management Assistant ph 877-477-3272 extension 999973 (tasked by Carere to address problem, and fixed it)
Raj Subramaniam, CEO djbronczek@fedex.com (would have been my next step)​

According to Ms. Thrill, there was some problem with the label and the package was oscillating back and forth between two locations. She had someone set a trap for the package to pull it off the conveyer the next time it was scanned and that caught and corrected the problem.

It's a very poor way of managing a company when a customer has to go to this level to get a problem handled.
 
Zeldman said:
Well, ya shoulda left them a tip....:lol:
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Heck, I never saw a FedEx person. This was their deal where the package goes to the post office and USPS hands it off to FedEx. FedEx got the package from USPS on Jan 30 and it proceeded into a black hole.
 
My oil sample to Avlab went into USPS on 17 January and it also has disappeared into a black hole. I keep getting tracking messages that show it has been between Mississippi and Tennessee about a dozen times and has been scheduled for delivery 6 times. NEVER again will I use "pre-paid" FEDEX "SmartPost" !!!!
 
Arrow76R said:
My oil sample to Avlab went into USPS on 17 January and it also has disappeared into a black hole. I keep getting tracking messages that show it has been between Mississippi and Tennessee about a dozen times and has been scheduled for delivery 6 times. NEVER again will I use "pre-paid" FEDEX "SmartPost" !!!!
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Email the VP like I did. Maybe if she gets enough complaints she’ll fix something.
 
And now (quoting Paul Harvey), the rest of the story...

So when I finally got everything handled and my sample ultimately made it's way to AvLab, I sent AvLab the FedEx contact info I posted in #33 above in case they had another customer in a similar situation. Turns out they did.

Last week I had a great phone call from Jim at AvLab to say "Thanks" for the help. He contacted FedEx with a shipping # on behalf of another customer whose sample was stuck, and mentioned that there might be more. He suggested there could be "detrimental results" to the aviation industry when these samples were lost or delayed and asked for assistance.

That email appears to have set off a firestorm at FedEx. There was a flurry of emails from the executive offices to minions, from minion to minion, and from facility to facility. As of the time AvLab called me, they had received over 700 samples that were previously stuck and were expecting as many as 1000 more yet to come. Jim said the lab is a bit swamped at the moment, but that's a better problem to have than PO'd customers.

So today I received a wonderful package from AvLab containing a gracious letter (pdf below) and a beautiful AvLab jacket from Port Authority.

I love happy endings, and now you know (Paul Harvey dramatic pause) the rest of the story!

:biggrin::happydance::goofy:


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Half Fast said:
And now (quoting Paul Harvey), the rest of the story...

So when I finally got everything handled and my sample ulitmately made it's way to AvLab, I sent AvLab the FedEx contact info I posted in #33 above in case they had another customer in a similar situation. Turns out they did.

Last week I had a great phone call from Jim at AvLab to say "Thanks" for the help. He contacted FedEx with a shipping # on behalf of another customer whose sample was stuck, and mentioned that there might be more. He suggested there could be "detrimental results" to the aviation industry when these samples were lost or delayed and asked for assistance.

That email appears to have set off a firestorm at FedEx. There was a flurry of emails from the executive offices to minions, from minion to minion, and from facility to facility. As of the time AvLab called me, they had received over 700 samples that were previously stuck and were expecting as many as 1000 more yet to come. Jim said the lab is a bit swamped at the moment, but that's a better problem to have than PO'd customers.

So today I received a wonderful package from AvLab containing a gracious letter (pdf below) and a beautiful AvLab jacket from Port Authority.

I love happy endings, and now you know (Paul Harvey dramatic pause) the rest of the story!

:biggrin::happydance::goofy:


View attachment 116621
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And the $70 charge for the jacket has been forwarded to FEDEX ATTN MS THRILL via UPS.

Cheers
 
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