FedEx

I’m not sure what has happened to FedEx - they used to be a faster, more reliable shipping alternative to the USPS. Sure, they were a little more expensive than the post office, but for the superior service, the cost was definitely worth it. My last two experiences with this company have been so dismal, I can’t think of any circumstance that would ever compel me to use them again, and the cherry on the top is, I got to pay premium prices for a trifecta of incompetence, condescension, and frustratingly inappropriate automation. The staff at their local branch offices is woefully undereducated on the new shipping regulations enacted by the EU since March 2023 requiring reams of remarkably tedious paperwork describing the contents of every package shipped abroad, whether commercial or simply as a gift to expatriated family. The result is a complete inability of the US staff of FedEx to help patrons navigate an admittedly Byzantine system of regulations within their international shipping company’s presumed area of special expertise - they are, in fact, unable to even identify whether paperwork required for them to ship to Europe is adequate to prevent a package shipped by them from completely failing foreign entry requirements. At the same time they will ask, unblinking, for hundreds to thousands of dollars in return for this “service” and their supposed unparalleled expertise in the field. Something doesn’t add up here, and, although the upper level management at FedEx may not recognize it, it is clear to me that the customers at my local FedEx branch (myself included) could smell the stench of this discord.

The result of this rank incompetence on the front end is, of course, utter failure to deliver “when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”. From the abject absence of any effort at education of their staff it’s clear that this is a policy decision from upper level management. I’m sure this saves money in the short-term, as do the endless automated phone trees, and sad news emails from “do not reply” mailboxes, but these types of money savers don’t sit well with paying customers, especially customers paying concierge-service level rates.

Good luck to you going forward FedEx; it seems that whoever is steering this ship is ready and willing to see it as Cast Away as Tom Hanks in the most memorable Hollywood depiction of FedEx on record. Prescient.