FedEx

I ordered a phone with guaranteed 2-day delivery by FedEx. It was an emergency purchase to replace my unlocked phone for which Tracfone was unable to provide APN settings. I was unable to access data for maps, Waze, & MMS, all of which I for work & for my safety & my family's safety. Although I was guaranteed 2-day delivery, I tracked the order & learned the phone would be delivered in 5 days, instead. The package delivery required my signature. I actually stayed home from work so I wouldn't miss being available both for signing and receiving the package. My car was parked in front of my garage & breezeway, clearly indicating I was at home. I opened my breezeway door window so I could hear the driver both call & knock from where I sat, about 15 feet away, as I sat at my kitchen table working on my laptop. I also spent a period of time outside in front of my garage & breezeway walking to my mailbox & taking trash out to the trash bin in front of my garage just around the time the driver recorded having attempted delivery.

There was no way I would have missed delivery. Delivery was guaranteed by 2200. At about 1500 I checked the status to see if I could estimate delivery time, since I had not yet seen the FedEx truck or had delivery. I found instead that the driver had claimed he attempted delivery @ 1159. There was no notice left at my breezeway door. There was absolutely no evidence, as I had made it very easy for the driver to quickly obtain my signature & pass the package to me. 30 seconds max. I accommodated his needs & he screwed me.

Beside the fact that I lost a productive work day, once I knew the package had been returned to the FedEx base in Harlingen, TX, I was forced to drive over 65 miles round trip, in peak traffic, to retrieve the package. When I arrived, I requested to speak to someone who would be able to offer a remedy for my complaint. That person kept me waiting 12-15 minutes. When she appeared, she did not do the courtesy of offering her name, although I got a glimpse at her no-so-visible name tag. Her name was something like Melinda or Melissa Garza (or) Garcia Zamora, or Zamora Garcia. That would be enough information to identify her, at any rate. She in fact demonstrated NO COURTESY at any time. I was pretty miffed by the time I walked out of that place. Melissa/Melinda couldn't convey information regarding the process FedEx would engage in order to remedy such poor service. She just did her best to make me angry & regret I had even requested to speak to her. She prefaced her obnoxious, defensive, customer-blaming, non-contrite soliloquy with the proclamation that it was my word against the driver's word. Really. She didn't have a kind, compassionate, empathic, customer appreciative, or apologetic word. She went on about me possibly having a gated property, angry animals, etc. None of which I have or would be found in the neighborhood. It's a quick, short roll or walk up my driveway to a very accessible customer who had gone out of her way to make the delivery successful. IT WAS THE DRIVER WHO FAILED TO MAKE A SIMPLE, QUICK DELIVERY. Any attempt would have resulted in the delivery of the package I was on pins & needle about. He chose not to do the right thing. And so did Melissa/Melinda. The supervisor Melissa/Melinda had not heard a word I uttered & she could not have cared less that I drove over 65 miles because of the driver's failure to do his job. Neither one did their jobs effectively, or in a way that puts FedEx in a good light. Lack of honestly, civility, & basic kindness cannot be excused.

As for a process to address such poor service, FedEx only has an algorithm chat bot that does not recognize complaints, & a barely-English-speaking, totally useless customer service staff somewhere on another continent, that does not have a mechanism for acknowledging & addressing concerns or complaints. They are effete. And FedEx Corporate are NOT SERIOUS about addressing the most basic deficiencies & problems. If you are a delivery service but fail to deliver, you have failed! If that's OK with corporate, then you have a big problem. And in a place like the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where customer service & simple courteous social interaction are notoriously lacking, you would think there would be some training afforded the ignorant- just for the sake of the company's reputation. This is not a good example to the rest of the planet. We are not all a bunch of ignorant chumps. Someone will come up with competition just as one time a few decades ago, FedEx appeared on the scene. Sorry to see the demise of a company I once preferred for shipping. I'll have to think twice now, when I once automatically deferred to FedEx. But since I clearly don't matter to FedEx... so what. I will not spend another $1000+ on shipping with FedEx when I make my next long-distance move, as I have done in the past. It's not millions. But it might as well be as far as this failure & disrespect is concerned. Unbelievably egregious.