From: mark@trillian.jsc.nasa.gov (Mark Manning)
Subject: UPS:Unlimited Possibilities for Screwups!
Organization: Simulacron I
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 14:45:34 GMT

This is a not so nice posting about UPS.  So if you like UPS
you should stop here.  Fair warning has been issued!  :)

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Yesterday I received a package.  The package was in a fair condition
(slightly crushed and disfigured).  It was obvious why the kind of
box had been pick and why the person packed everything so carefully
inside.  Because the package had been sent via UPS.  Now, I wouldn't
say this except for the ORIGINAL quality of service which UPS had
versus the quality of the service which I observed yesterday.

UPS used to be very customer oriented.  To make money was their
objective, but the objective was stated along these lines:  We are
going to give our customers the best service they can get for the
money they are paying.  We will be kind, curteous, and service
oriented.  If the person isn't home we will leave a note on their
door saying we were here and that we will try again tomorrow.  We
will do this three times and then send the item back to the originator
if not picked up within a week after the third try.

UPS now couldn't give a damn about their customers.  From talking with
others yesterday night I found the same responses.  The same outlook,
the same feeling - for UPS.

UPS's credo is now: We serve the almighty buck.  When we get a package
it will be crammed in with everything else.  If the box will crush -
we'll pile more on top of it to make it do so.  Then we will simply
drop the box off the end of the truck onto the dolly if it is heavy,
or not care if we drop the package at all otherwise.  Delivery is all
important. Nothing else matters. We get no money if a package isn't
delivered - so by damn - that package is going to get delivered.  Even
if it means we have to leave packages behind bushes, between screen
doors and front doors, or even out on the landing at an apartment
complex where who knows who will pick it up and leave with it.  It
isn't our problem - it's the customers!  The customer should be able
to read our minds when we are going to arrive at their home and should
be there with outstretched arms to take the package. We'd like it
better if they grovelled as well, but you have to pay to get that.  So
the surprised look on their faces when that glass lamp shade arrives
in pieces is enough for us.  Sure we could leave the package at the
apartment house's office - but why should we?  That takes time. Time
that could be spent otherwise driving to the next stop on my list.
Money, money, money!  Got to make those deliveries!

Now, to be fair, every UPS person I've talked to has been kind and
considerate when spoken to.  The trouble is; they just don't speak to
you very much.  Mainly all they ever say is "Sign here" or "Is this
you?"  UPS also doesn't like their drivers to drive like crazy people.
However, I have, personally, almost been driven off the road a couple
of times by a UPS person who had missed his exit on the freeway.

So what am I saying?  Basically that there is something wrong with how
UPS is operating presently.  That it seems to me the problem is with
how they are delivering packages.  That they need to return to their
procedure of not just dumping the item at the customer's home. I'm
sure this won't happen though.  Money making gives people such a
secure feeling that, like Linus, they can't do without it.  But that
is how things are.  And you know, it's really too bad to see the
regression of the word CARE in UPS.  Since this leads only to the word
BARE.  Which is what they are leaving us with a feeling of.

Just my $0.0201 worth with interest applied.
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