* Tradução Portuguesa mais abaixo!

[EN] My patience just reached its limits today so yes, I really have to rant about this. I am getting mad with incompetent people, specially for a service paid as premium. This is about UPS. Sincerely, I never had a single problem with them in here (Switzerland) but obviously they are everything but serious in Portugal. Yes, I had more than one (more than ten at least) extremely bad experiences with them a few years ago when I was still there. And guess what? Things didn’t evolve at all. I am filing a complaint on their site. In the US headquarters one, since if I complain to the Portuguese one, I am sure my rants will end up filed… in the recycle bin. As everyone else’s. I am also pointing this post in the complaint and will post the reply here (if I get one, which I hope).

The story: I decided to buy something online (for a gift). Everything went smoothly on the website, where I ordered stuff before several times and everything always arrived quickly, to Switzerland. But I kind of started having that weird feeling as soon as I saw UPS as the international shipping method. That’s because I needed it shipped to Portugal. I proceeded. With some irony I told the recipient in messenger after she gave me the address details, that with luck it would take 2 days from US to Portugal, then would get stuck for a week or so. Guess what? Everything went smoothly (even with Germany as an intermediate stop) and as expected before the tracking starts showing PT (Portugal). Then the circus begins. And as far as I can see my estimate was beaten, since the goods did not arrive as yet of today (day 8). Let’s see how lucky we are and if it does not take another week (or more).

But what the %*£¢ is happening? Portugal is smaller than any US state. Is UPS in Portugal using donkey pulled vans? Let’s do some quick analysis:

I used to look close at UPS tracking when in Portugal, because they always find a way to mess things up (maybe the donkeys are not pulling the van…). I don’t like to risk an order being sent back, specially an international one. My opinion? Nopes! One of the recipients of this gift, as soon as I said UPS, automatically replied “I’d call them daily, last week I ordered [whatever] and they messed it up and didn’t call to check the address (which was OK)”. So, day one (in Portugal), they actually call, but not UPS, the customs, asking for an address and tax number to send a “handling” bill to the recipient. That would be also another good post. OK, ignoring this “surprise attached to gift” (nice % of its value), after that, the tracker only got updated at end of day, as “ON TRANSIT”, for a few days (yes, 178 Km it’s outrageously far away). And this is not because it’s being sent to some remote place. This is from Lisbon, the capital, to Beja, a capital of district, and I should remind, 178 Km (110 miles).

Since the status was continuously “ON TRANSIT” always updated at end of the day, I was starting to get nervous. I suggested the recipient to call them to check what was happening. Apparently, they didn’t found the address and didn’t call or did anything so the goods went back to Lisbon. Since I knew the quality of the service, as well as the other recipient in another town did know, I gave them the work address, of the company where this first recipient is full day and yes, deliveries happen all the time. Address was re-confirmed. Tracking updated to “ON TRANSIT AGAIN”. Next day I get nervous when I see on the tracking site “INVALID ADDRESS” (end of day). Hey, why do you ask for the telephone number? So, goods back to Lisbon or wherever. I suggest the address of my other friend, also a recipient for this gift. She has experience with their lack of professionalism regarding deliveries and has their number for support (used every time an order is done and odd things appear on tracking (than means always)). She also had something delivered (with a few quirks, of course) by them a week before. Only almost 24 hours later the tracking gets updated to “ADDRESS CHANGED, ON TRANSIT”. So I expect next day everything will be OK, right? That should HAVE BEEN today and guess what I get on tracking on the mid of this afternoon? “INVALID ADDRESS”. Yes, they did not find somewhere they should already have in their database. I can bet they didn’t bother a lot. So, they leave it for tomorrow… again ,and there’s no phone call or whatever. My friend calls again, the address is OK. Obviously something is not. So, for tomorrow what should I expect to see on tracking? “GOODS ACCIDENTALLY SENT TO CHINA”?

I actually learned quickly that using normal courier services in Portugal, even as slow as they are, they are way more reliable than UPS in there and you don’t have to pay premium for a broken service. By the way what does UPS stand for? I am sure U is not for Urgent, P for Professional or S for Serious. As I noticed before some websites have in their disclaimers that “international orders take about 4 days (…) Portuguese clients please allow up to 30 days (!) before contacting us”. And it’s not only myself noticing that. I wonder how related that is for the fact that UPS is used by most online services for deliveries worldwide and the companies are tired of complaints that their stuff doesn’t arrive or are worried with online fraud. I did it a few dozens of times until one suggested to look for erratic tracking. That’s routine now when I order something to ship to Portugal with UPS. I don’t even bother with others, unless it takes too long.

An advice to UPS everywhere else, but specially on their headquarters, PLEASE, keep an eye on what’s happening in Portugal. I have no idea if you just took over a cheap delivery company in the country and just re-branded it or whatever, but something is wrong. I would risk to say that everything is wrong, starting in management and customer services and going down to delivery. And that’s not new. It was like that already at least 5 years ago. PLEASE, buy GPS units for the delivery vans. I know that even a MAP would be too much for them to use, as well as the CELL PHONE they don’t, but in that case, stop hiring chimpanzees. Now seriously, have you heard about QUALITY CONTROL? I know you did, but for sure not in Portugal. Please, keep your eyes open and comply with the service that people pay for and which is not cheap at all, at least for the country I am talking about.

A rant from an extremely unhappy customer
Fernando Colaço

PS > I might add more in here, since I have no idea what’s going to happen within the next days (weeks?)

 

[PT] Traduçao brevemente aqui

[UPDATE] part II posted here. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 21:24 and is filed under Emigrantolandia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.