Christmas packages from my dad and stepmother were scheduled to arrive on 12/21. they went out on the truck that morning, but when we had not gotten anything by 8pm I doublechecked the tracking and it was still on the truck, with delivery rescheduled for the next day. We did indeed get the package about 7pm on 12/22. Fine...nothing that needed to be opened until Christmas day, but a little annoying nevertheless.

That same day, we found out that UPS had rescheduled the overnight delivery of a plant we were sending to the a funeral of a friend's mother. Rescheduling an overnight delivery to the NEXT day? This was on the other side of the country, in South Carolina.

Proflowers was decent enough to offer to refund the entire cost, but we only took them up on the shipping part. We just hope it got to its intended recipient, since he was only in his hometown for a few days. I'm not sure why they were even shipping UPS, since in my experience Proflowers has always used FedEx.

And then there's the cheesecake. My mother ordered a cheesecake sent to us on 12/19. It was shipped UPS 2nd Day Air, with Highly Perishable marked in several places on the foam container.

I'm not a mathematician, but two days from 12/19 is 12/21...not 12/24, which is the day we got it. I checked on the tracking and there was this message:

THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY CAUSING THIS DELAY;FORWARDED TO THE FACILITY IN THE DESTINATION CITY

So now we have a spoiled cheesecake, and the company (Cryer Creek Kitchens) that overcharged my mother for this cheesecake is closed for the holiday, and their online contact form does not even work.

Screw you if you want customer service, my friend.

My experience with UPS has not been all bad this year...I've been working with a great account rep on behalf of one of my clients, and he's been very helpful. But damn...the delivery end of this sucks...and isn't that their business?

Update, later this evening: I just saw my brother at a a Christmas Eve dinner and he said he had an almost identical problem shipping steaks to our dad for Christmas...supposed to be shipped 2nd day delivery, but did not arrive at Dad's until five days later. Yum...rancid meat.