“…we had to drive about 3 miles roundtrip to the nearest mailbox to send mail.”
Don’t you have a mailbox at work? This is what I use when I don’t see a mailbox en route to work or shopping.
We are fortunate that most of our shopping centers and malls still have mailboxes where the carriers will pick up outgoing mail. That’s what I do with all our mail–never leave it in my mailbox s you never know when someone will decide to check it out.
I’m a “mobile” employee, meaning I basically work from home. So no regular commute that passes by a mailbox either.
OK, I have a FedEx rant today, too. My S shipped a box to us from Houston. It was fragile, very heavy (48#) and needed to get here before Christmas. He paid a lot to get it here on time and he paid extra to require a signature on delivery because of porch pirates. I made it a point to stay home today to take delivery because if we didn’t get it today, we wouldn’t be home tomorrow for redelivery. So I’m at home, watching TV while eating lunch, and I get a text from FedEx that my package was delivered. The doorbell never rang, no one knocked, so I went to check the front porch and, sure enough, there it was. A few minutes later I got an email saying that the package was delivered and was signed for by me. I checked the proof of signature online and there was a little bitty squiggle that looked like half an S. If the package had been stolen, my S would have had no recourse since I supposedly signed for it. I mean, I know they’re busy this week but come on! X(
@patsmom - That’s terrible!
Recently a fed ex story (package being thrown) came across my newsfeed. I just googled to find it again and here it is:
http://www.ktnv.com/now-trending/watch-fedex-driver-thows-package-out-of-truck
But my search also brought up this story which shows several such incidents over time… Yikes!
I’d definitely complain about the signature issue, patsmom.
I’d complain too. Personally, I’m pretty happy with UPS and somewhat happy with USPS. FedEx is much more expensive and I rarely use them at all. Forging a signature Is wrong! I don’t see why they couldn’t have simply rang your doorbell. It would only have taken a few more seconds.
Fedex Ground is very poorly managed and run. It’s a bunch of independent contractors. The compensation model is such that I’m not surprised by such issues. Have a nice chat with your local Fedex Ground guy during the slow season and it will be very eye opening. I much prefer UPS. That said, I’ve been very lucky with all my deliveries so far this year and I do all my shopping online. Fortunately, we live in an area where package stealers would be very rare and packages are usually just of the drop and dash variety. UPS has been running their trucks with two guys - the regular driver and a seasonal temp guy so they are super quick.
I am relieved porch thieves are pretty rare in our area. D however had several packages of edibles shipped usps NEVER arrive when she lived near USoCal. Fortunately she only lived a year at the address where I couldn’t reliably mail things to her and I figured it out after the 2nd package never arrived. The usps folks were totally unhelpful and unsympathetic as I hadn’t paid for tracking or insurance and it was before you got automatic tracking on flat rate boxes.
I used to work a lot of trade shows a while back. We’d always ship our booth fedex, but every once in a while it would be late. We’d call fedex and they’d claim it was dropped off at the receiving dept for the venue, but when I’d go looking for it the receiving guys would typically laugh (or sometimes scowl) and say that’s what fedex tells people when they aren’t able to deliver stuff on time and just wait a day. Sure enough the packages would show up the next day (a day late).
“D however had several packages of edibles” What kind of edibles? Maybe that’s why they disappeared. 
I gave up on shipping baked goods to my kid that goes to school across the country. Even with tracking and priority shipping they taken a few extra days to get there (and its not the school’s fault!).
The boxes NEVER arrived. They were candy from HI and other things I’ve shipped USPS flat rate many times before and since. I’m glad it was only that one year when she had a bad mail carrier or ??? Where the packages weren’t received. I went to the post office that served her area and they weren’t interested AT ALL.
@patsmom Well, just went to the porch and have the same story as you re: Fedex today. Husband was expecting a case of wine to be delivered yesterday. Didn’t come and they said it would be late due to weather. She had a teensy bit of snow. One of us was hanging around today because it requires a signature of someone 21+. There it was on the front porch. Just dropped and dashed.
Hopefully they didn’t crack the wine! We tried shipping wine from niagra on the lake to CA but couldn’t find any way to do so. Tried shipping from D.C. to CA and again couldn’t. We were surprised and disappointed it was so tough.
@HImom There are a lot of licensing regulations between states that require fees, etc. Most smaller vineyards aren’t going to jump through the hoops, especially for states they don’t traffic with much.
Yes, we just ended up putting the wine in suitcases and triple bagging it and hoping it would be ok in checked luggage. It was but sure was strong disincentive for purchasing wine!
I called FedEx to complain and they took my info and gave me a “complaint number” and a phone number for the Revenue Services Department to request a refund of the signature fee. It was only $4 and my son is the one who will have to call since he’s the one who paid it. He may not bother for 4 bucks but it’s the principle of the thing!
Just got a call from FedEx re: my complaint. A woman from the local office and the contractor were both on the line with me. She thought I was saying that the package was never delivered. I explained that it was but that no signature was ever given. The contractor said that his driver swears that I signed. The woman started asking if maybe my husband signed or maybe my housekeeper signed. Uh, no – we were both at home, no housekeeper, no one rang the bell or knocked and certainly no one signed. The “proof of signature” was a 1/2" squiggle – no name, not even a letter. She just apologized and told me to call the 800 number for a refund but it was obvious that she believed the contractor and not me.
I used to like FedEx but never again.
That’s irritating, @patsmom, that they were skeptical and that she herself could not process the refund instead of forcing you to make another call.
Was waiting on a gift I ordered. It came late, and DH raced it to FedEx, asking for a rush delivery of 2 days, willing to pay a pretty penny to get it sent to Iowa from Texas (D1 is doing Christmas with her BF’s family this year). The guy laughed at him. Then looked at him with pity. Then said “I’m sorry, but I just don’t want to promise you something like that when I know it probably won’t happen. Probably 5 day delivery at minimum.”
Sigh, I guess it will be a Happy New Year’s gift.