I started so innocently...

A couple months ago, I sold a set of VW rims on EBay for quite a bit more than I expected. The buyer wanted them sent COD. So, I contacted UPS for a pickup and gave them all the info for the COD labels.

The next day, UPS picked up the two boxes at my work in San Diego. Off to the east coast they went.

As I recall, because of the weight, the two boxes were sent UPS ground. I monitored their travel across the US via the UPS website and everything seemed to be going fine. A week-or-so later, they arrived in New England.

This is where the fun starts....

As it turns out, the clowns at UPS didn't mark a collection amount on the COD tags--despite the fact that the amount was noted on the documents they gave me. When the boxes arrived, the driver naturally refused to deliver them without the COD amount. However, instead of contacting me or doing any further research about the COD amount, they immediately shipped them back to the west coast. A week later (give or take) one box showed up. Yep, one box. I turned out the boxes got separated and one was now lost.

Enter the crack customer service team... When I called UPS to find out what had happened, the customer service goon said they would "investigate" the whereabouts of my package. Well, apparently, these investigations take anywhere from five to one thousand working days. Every time I called UPS to check the status of their "investigation", I spoke to a different goon. Out of all the agents I spoke to, not one seemed to posses any amount of intelligence or compassion. I felt totally screwed every time I spoke to them, and there was nothing I could do.

The box returns...

Eventually, the second box returned--at least a month after my auction closed. It looked like it had been to Beirut and back--packed under a shipment of circus elephants.

When I contacted the buyer with my "good news", he no longer wanted the rims.

The rims were reposted on EBay. I got about half as much the second time. Good news was, the second buyer lived about and hour away and came to pick them up personally. No UPS.

My conclusion....

There are actually more gory details to this story--false promises of refunds and free delivery--that I won't get into. Suffice to say, even after all that, I never got my money back.

In my humble opinion, UPS is an outdated behemoth. All they have going for them is the fact that they were one of the first. They seem to be totally unorganized, don't give a shit about their customers, and can't execute anything but the simplest delivery plan. Even the USPS is better.

Thank god for FedEx.