You are making some unfair assumptions. I was not angry when I called. I was also not angry about the package not being delivered. I knew there might be weather and volume delays. I simply wanted to retrieve the tracking number and find out where the package was, especially after being told by a supervisor on the first call that there were no FedEx packages scheduled for delivery to the delivery address. Of course he lied.
I asked the woman for options. She said there were none I asked if she could simply look at packages from zip code X sent on day Y to zip code Z and see if there were any. Believe me the delivery zip code is not one that is commonly shipped to from my zip. A simple system query. She said it was impossible. She lied.
I’ve designed commercial databases and know how they work. No one wanted to help a customer with a reasonable question. At no time did I raise my voice.
All Chase had was the date and amount of the charge for the package delivery. That’s it. I asked. FedEx was willing to help Chase but not the paying (ex) customer. And why was FedEx willing to help Chase? Because I told Chase to dispute the charge and the person at FedEx determined that it was more paperwork to deal with the dispute than to simply answer the question (which was supposedly “impossible”).
FedEx lied all the way through. It’s as simple as that.
@busdriver11…the package was late…and contrary to what several reps ssid, there obviously WAS a quick way to cross reference some info and find out what they did with the package… which means that fedex wasted a lot of her time trying to track down the package.
From the date and the amount, Chase could pull up addl info from your card account, your charge, then some refernce to FedEx’s transaction with them (as #11 suggests. ) It doesn’t seem likely Chase just called with the date and amount, even with the zip codes. Just saying.
The existence of a database (and I agree they exist) doesn’t mean low level folks have access to it. You were right to call the card co. They likely ran this through their own FE relations team. You escalated via that 3rd party, Chase. Glad it worked.
Glad it worked out for you. Knowing how tracking systems work, and that Fed Ex has one of the more complex ones out there, there is no way they cannot track a package without a shipping number. Among other things, their back end databases are relational and can allow any number of queries (so for example, they could quite easily query for 'give me a package sent to zip xxxxx to a Jane Doe"). I would agree with @lookingforward that it is possible that the front end person cannot do that kind of query, often their front end people have the same web ui you can log into, which means what they can do is limited. On the other hand, there are support people who could do that,I guarantee you that, but they likely discourage or outright forbid giving queries like this to back end support, because it is time consuming and costly. The rationale about not having this capability on the front end people’s screens would likely be that time is critical on the front end like that and they have metrics that they want X calls/hour taken care of, complex queries would take more time.
Personally, though, I think that is the beancounters at work, because it isn’t rocket science to develop a query front end for the front end people that could do relatively complex queries quickly, it isn’t rocket science at all (building a web ui that supports complex sql queries is something a competent programmed could turn around quickly, heck there are tools you can use that would allow building that in no time at all). The problem is the ‘efficiency’ experts and the ‘financial analysts’ don’t care about customer satisfaction, they would rather have an operator handle 30 queries an hour with a lot of pissed off customers then 15 where they all are satisfied. Given the volume fed ex does, they figure that customer service doesn’t matter, especially since they know that neither UPS nor the USPS are going to exactly be much better (basically, it is an oligopoly).
There’s a reason they want phone people answering more cslls, that’s the client, too. I don’t want to wait on a call with my easy question because low reps do deeper searches.
It’s not necessarily that cold experts don’t care. It’s the nature of what does satisfy more customers, more of the time. You rarely build systems for the exceptions. The ordinary is what defines broad satisfaction, the tasks they handle thousands of times/week.
Where I live the pass off from UPS to the USPS has become common and is problematic. Over the past year I have had multiple packages that when tracked make it to the USPS and then somehow get lost in the shuffle.
Lookingforward, the issue wasn’t that they wouldn’t help it was that they outright lied and said it was impossible to help until Chase got involved. Then miraculously the search capability multiple employees told me did not exist “appeared”.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised in the now “post fact” society we live in. Lying is totally acceptable.
OP, I get it, really. (Don’t get me started on Verizon.) And you have my sympathy. But I can see it as: the low level/everyday people you dealt with couldn’t do it, didn’t know what else existed. Even if told, they couldn’t access what you need. Part of me is surprised the Chase rep did, pleased she did. But she’s likely trained in conflict resolution. And has some back team supporting this. (Yes, FE should have referred you to theirs.)
I agree with this. The OP’s assumption is that every single person she talked to just lied. Not that they didn’t have access to all types of information, not that they’re not authorized or trained how to access it, not that they didn’t understand how to do it…but they all just lied. And that the reason Chase was able to get the information was that, “Because I told Chase to dispute the charge and the person at FedEx determined that it was more paperwork to deal with the dispute than to simply answer the question (which was supposedly “impossible”).”
Honestly, how could anyone know that? I doubt if one employee of a company dealing with millions of transactions is really thinking or caring that much about one dispute. They do what they are authorized or trained to do. And how could anyone know that Chase only had the date and amount of the charge, did you ask them specifically how they tracked it down? When I look at my credit card bill for a FedEx transaction, there are always 12 digits that identify each specific transaction, plus a reference number. There are certain numbers you can use, along with a zip code and date of the transaction, that the credit card company could use to hunt that down. Who knows what other information they have?
I was trying to change from a fedex delivery to m picking it up at a fedex location. I couldn’t do so without a fedex account so I signed up for the basis free program. Magically it took my address and showed me a list of all packages coming to my address.
I did not have any problem with Fedex but I had problem with UPS. I ordered a phone and had it shipped next day to my D in NYC by UPS. She could not stay home to sign for the package. UPS made 3 deveries with 3 notices but there was no option to pick up at local UPS center. The phone was finally returned to the vendor.
Busdriver11, when multiple employees tell me that there is absolutely no possible way to get information without a tracking number and of course there is if that isn’t a lie then what is? Or when an employee tells me that the person on the 800# that told me to go to the shipping location “and they can help you” lied and they tell you that just to get you off the phone? I’m being told by FedEx employee that they lied!
Let’s call it what it is. Or has the definition of truth from politics now seeped into real life?
I believe that at least a couple of the reps you talked to were less than truthful. But, really that is beside the point…they all were less than helpful and it was a terrible customer service experience that I absolutely believe management would want to know about. I bet on any given day, there are many packages that don’t arrive on time and for which the customer can’t locate the tracking number. If you paid for any other service which you did not receive as agreed, most people would be appalled if the contractor suggested he/she had absolutely no way to check any records and determine whether or not you had really ordered that service.
Of course, we should all keep receipts and records to protect ourselves, but things happen. Contractors have a responsibilty, too.
I just got back from shipping a FedEx package. Before I left, I asked the friendly guy behind the counter, “What happens if I lose my tracking information?” He said, “Since you are using an account, call Account Services and they can help you find it”. As Kajon just mentioned.
Then he said, “But if you paid with cash, they can’t track it, so I always tell people to be careful to keep the tracking information. And if you used a credit card, I don’t think you could track it either”.
Nice guy, didn’t think he was lying or blowing me off, it was just a generic question. If he had told me to ask someone else that couldn’t help me either, I’d assume he was just wrong, and not lying. There definitely should be a way they can find things besides the tracking information, however, if I wasn’t using an account, I’d be very careful not to lose that.
Given the nature of customer service these days (or lack thereof), I suspect the employees weren’t lying, they simply didn’t know you could search by other factors. Shipping systems like fedex and UPS use have a ton of information on each order, they have the shippers name, they have the recipients name, the address, a ton of keys that can be searched by. Knowing the way customer service is managed, they likely give the person enough training to look up an order on the UI they use, and probably don’t even have escalation procedures, like ‘if the user doesn’t have their tracking number, tell them to call XXXXX and warn them it might take some time to get back to them’. If they don’t want to back up frontline support, then have an e-mail address where you can send alternate information and someone will get back to them, there are a ton of ways to do this without interrupting the main flow of customer service…but basically they don’t bother, given how much they ship losing a customer to bad service simply isn’t a big deal, the way that the US auto industry for years didn’t care about safety or the quality of their product, there was no reason to shrug. Good customer service only works if people have alternatives, and with shipping whether you use UPS, USPS priority or express service, or FedEx, no one makes customer service a big priority.
I wonder if it is a security issue too. Perhaps I know an expensive item is going to be delivered to an address. Maybe I try to get the delivery date so I can go there and steal it from the front porch. If I had the tracking number or an account number, the carrier can assume have a legitimate connection to the package.
