GEngel-usmc Loc: Spencerport NY - I miss Lakeland, FL

UPS Pkg from VA Medical supplies supposed to be delivered on Tuesday. Driver posted ‘delivered at 1:17 pm’. Checked door at 1:20 pm. Not there! Medical supplies require signature. No bell, no knock. I checked my front door camera recording and a ‘Budget’ Van pulled up across the street at 1:16:58, so time is right.

Trudged across the street at 10 this Wednesday morning and neighbor said HIS Insulin was delivered yesterday and he put it in HIS refrigerator. Luckily, he didn’t take any yet. Checked the delivery box, and the insulin packages, yep, my wife’s Insulin, her name on the insulin. Good thing he didn’t inject yet. Possible medical emergency and lawyer time.h

Called UPS #’s to report it. Forget it, no people to talk to. Called UPS Mahway, NJ Corp HQ, computer responses, no actual operators to answer phones. All computerized operators to avoid human interaction on all lines!

Notified VA Pharmacy and mentioned possible legal issues averted. Requested VA change UPS to an actual delivery service. I offered to provide time and date-stamped video to VA. VA responded with an actionable notice to UPS.
This UPS crap is really getting bad. I mean, we’re talking medical deliveries!

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

Seems like your neighbor would be more likely to face any so-called legal actions for tampering with your package. Unless there is a state/federal law against accidentally delivering a package to the wrong address. But in the end, everyone is safe and that is the most important thing!

Cheers!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I check the label on ALL packages we receive.
Ya never know.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

I always check the name on a package delivered to me BEFORE I open it. A friend of mine has a cattle farm and her cameras showed a UPS driver (young girl) pull into her driveway, walk over to the fence beside the house and toss her package over the fence, into the pasture with the cows!!!

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

Tricare/Expresscripts sends through the US Postal service. On this one particular occasion the post office sent me a message that my package wasn't deliverable due to a bad address label. [Really??? You can send me an email to tell me you can't read the address but can't send one to ask for the address or to come pick it up???]

I call Expresscripts and they tell me I have to wait a week....just in case it gets delivered. (Thank goodness this wasn't a medicine I needed right away like your insulin) After the week I call Expressscripts again and tell them that I'm not out of my medicine but am down to 10 pills. They tell me they have to wait for the post office to return the bad labeled item to them before they can resend. I ask them what happens if they've lost the package and it never gets returned? She says they have procedures to follow and this is part of the procedure.

Down to 5 pills I call again and this person sent another bottle.

I watched the tracking on this package and it took the post office 30 days before they processed the bad label package to send back to Expresscripts and 15 days to get to the company.

My UPS driver is awesome and my Fed Ex driver is the sweetest guy. I get 100 lbs of cat litter every 2 weeks delivered by Fed Ex and he always puts it close to the door so I can get it in or if I'm here he offers to put the boxes inside the door so I don't have to lift them. I offer to carry one of the packages and he tells me his mama would "whup him good" if she found out he let me carry a heavy package.

The postal service is our nightmare delivery company. One day mail arrives at 10am and the next its 8pm. Packages may not deliver on the delivery date even though it's "out for delivery."

Best wishes that your driver gets it figured out and good for you checking with the neighbor. That could have been a horrible experience.

Merry Christmas to you and everyone you care about!!!

Dodie

buckwheat Loc: Clarkdale, AZ and Belen NM

I requested the VA use only the USPS because of the issues you stated. I live in a rural area and UPS seems clueless as to how to deliver a package to me. My wife gets one of her meds delivered by FedEx, and we get it like clockwork.

stanikon Loc: Deep in the Heart of Texas

1. Neither UPS nor the others hire rocket scientists to make deliveries. Not an excuse, just a fact. And they all make mistakes sooner or later. Switching to another service won't help the problem. Don't delude yourself into thinking an "actionable notice" will fix it, either.
2. Your neighbor is partially at fault.
3. Having live people to answer phone calls is expensive. I understand that, and don't mind it, but I surely do appreciate it when they have an option to talk to a real person (who is not in India) when I need to.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have a different UPS driver for every delivery, so there are frequent mistakes. It's not like we don't have numbers posted on our houses.

GEngel-usmc Loc: Spencerport NY - I miss Lakeland, FL

Thanks, Jerry (Catskill) - My house numbers are 2 inches high, black on white, and reflective. Didn’t help.
PS, I married my Marine wife in town of Catskill, NY. Happy days 39 years ago. Ooops, still!

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

We lived in Grove City, OH for several years on Shirlene Ct. There was a Shirlene Dr. that connected to our Court. There was a 4380 on each street. Guess who can’t figure out the difference. UPS, Fedex, & USPS all made the same mistake. We got to know the guy on Shirlene Dr. well.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

There are LAWS, and then there is civil liability, which is not necessarily related to legal statutes. Someone may be liable for damages if they failed to do what a "reasonable person" would have done (deliver to the correct address, look at the name on the package that was delivered to them, make sure that they contracted with a reliable delivery service, etc...) - so civil action could be filed against many parties had there been damages from this mistake. This is why there are oh so many lawyer ads on television!

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

The VA pharmacists try to be careful about how medications are shipped, but sometimes policies hamstring them. A few years ago the VA (at least in this region) stopped requiring signatures from recipients of controlled drugs (such as opioid pain medications). That undoubtedly saved some money, but I think was a big mistake. If a patient said that they never received their medication, there was no way at all to determine the truthfulness of that. I think that for most of these medications, which are usually inexpensive generics, it would be safer to simply send the prescription electronically to the patient's civilian pharmacy and pay the pharmacy to fill it rather than pay the shipping costs. But no one asked me...

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

I think you missed the overall sarcasm of the state/federal law statement. My point was calling the VA and mentioning possible legal issues is like farting in the wind. It sounds like fun until it isn't.

kivasdad Loc: central Fl

I received a package via UPS yesterday. The driver knocked on my door and delivered my package into my garage. I if I needed to sign for the package and he said at this time of the year they just make sure someone is home.

sheldon minsky Loc: iron mountain michigan

As a retired Chief of Pharmacy at the VA, may I suggest that you contact your Congressman or Senator with your problem. You would be surprised at how quickly your problem will be resolved once the VA receives a congressional inquiry.