rcarol

Within the last few months, I have purchased several high-ticket items. I purchased an Olympus OM-D E-M1 MK III from B&H. It was to be delivered by FedEx with signature required. It was delivered and placed on the front of my steps. No signature was ever requested. They were too lazy to place it behind my plants so as to be invisible to passersby. Then I ordered a lens from B&H as a gift for my brother. Once again, no signature was requested even though a signature was required. This FedEx delivery was also placed in plain sight. Then my wife ordered a new gas cooktop for our kitchen from Amazon. It was a 50 lb. package which was delivered to my neighbor instead of to our house. I'm 80 years old with congestive heart failure and my wife and I had to muscle the damned thing home. Where do FedEx and Amazon get their drivers? Are they inept or just lazy?

gmontjr2350 Loc: Southern NJ

"Overworked" is the term you're looking for...

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

As with any business there are going to be good and bad employees. In my area, I have an awesome Fed Ex driver but my USPS delivery person is below par. Amazon and UPS are fine.

Every 3-4 weeks my Fed Ex guy delivers 160 lbs (4 boxes, 40lb each) of cat litter to my house. He gets it on the porch, close to the door and stacked so it is easy for me to lift. On several occasions he has offered to put it inside the door but I decline because I need a little exercise, too and he has many more deliveries to make. He waves and honks when he sees me outside and occasionally will stop for a minute or 2 to ask how I am. Several times a year I purchase a gift card to thank him for all his work in delivering my items.

My Fed Ex driver works 6 days a week and has worked up to 16 hours a day. They are expected to make all their deliveries and while some deliveries take a matter of seconds, other deliveries may take several minutes. They, too, have to struggle with items that are heavy and difficult to handle. Like you and I, they are human, they make mistakes.

Have you tried befriending your driver? A short conversation asking him how he is doing and getting to know him a little can go a long way. If he is informed you have medical and physical issues he may make more of an effort to make your deliveries easier for you. If he doesn't know you have these issues he will assume you can handle it. Your driver isn't a mind reader. Yes, you could have a driver that is an a****le but you might find he is a really nice person who just doesn't know you need a little extra help.

As for the signature required, some areas may still be under Covid protocol and not require a signature even though they should. You can always ask the driver why no signature was required.

Best of luck with your future deliveries!!

Dodie

rcarol

[quote=luvmypets]As with any business there are going to be good and bad employees. In my area, I have an awesome Fed Ex driver but my USPS delivery person is below par. Amazon and UPS are fine.

Every 3-4 weeks my Fed Ex guy delivers 160 lbs (4 boxes, 40lb each) of cat litter to my house. He gets it on the porch, close to the door and stacked so it is easy for me to lift. On several occasions he has offered to put it inside the door but I decline because I need a little exercise, too and he has many more deliveries to make. He waves and honks when he sees me outside and occasionally will stop for a minute or 2 to ask how I am. Several times a year I purchase a gift card to thank him for all his work in delivering my items.

My Fed Ex driver works 6 days a week and has worked up to 16 hours a day. They are expected to make all their deliveries and while some deliveries take a matter of seconds, other deliveries may take several minutes. They, too, have to struggle with items that are heavy and difficult to handle. Like you and I, they are human, they make mistakes.

Have you tried befriending your driver? A short conversation asking him how he is doing and getting to know him a little can go a long way. If he is informed you have medical and physical issues he may make more of an effort to make your deliveries easier for you. If he doesn't know you have these issues he will assume you can handle it. Your driver isn't a mind reader. Yes, you could have a driver that is an a****le but you might find he is a really nice person who just doesn't know you need a little extra help.

As for the signature required, some areas may still be under Covid protocol and not require a signature even though they should. You can always ask the driver why no signature was required.

Best of luck with your future deliveries!

Firstly, we rarely ever see our drivers so befriending them is impossible. They don't even ring the doorbell to let me know that i have a delivery. Therefore, I installed a "Ring" doorbell that notifies me if a person has come near my front door. But that does little good if they deliver to my neighbor instead. When my mother was alive, she used to talk to her delivery drivers on a regular basis. That doesn't happen where I live. The few times I've seen a driver, it seems that it is one I've never seen before.

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

[quote=rcarol]



Sorry to hear that. I hope you find a solution.

Dodie

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Do you have a local camera shop?

rcarol

Samy’s. He doesn’t sell cooktops though.

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

I'm not a big fan of Fed-ex, but I got free Amazon Prime when I got cell service from Metro PCS 3 years ago. I figured that since Prime membership was over $100 a year that it would only be for 1 year. However, here it is 3 years later I still have along with free Prime Video and Music.

I find the Amazon drivers to be pretty good. When the truck is within 6 stops of my house I get a notification with a map showing the current location of the truck and telling me how many more stops before it gets to me. When it gets to about 2 stops I go to the front porch and wait.

If I'm not there I get a delivery notification e-mail that includes a picture of my package on the porch. More often than not the package will be hidden from view of the street.

Fed-ex, UPS and the USPS are a different story. The package is usually out in the open.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

I think it goes by the general area. They have trouble getting workers and thus they don't really manage them for fear they will leave and the people themselves either take pride in their work or not and it can be so different from one town to the next. This is not the only industry to suffer from poor attitude workers.

HamB

160lbs. Of cat litter!
Do you keep lions as pets?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I have one cat. He goes through a 30 lb bag of litter in about 2 weeks. As he gets older (now 18) he cycles more water through him, and that uses more litter. My wife is sensitive to odors so the box gets cleaned twice a day or more.

So I would guess the cat is much older or there are 3-4 of them.

OR, it's a VERY active cat and a lot of the litter ends up outside the box and gets vacuumed up.

And, at my age, a 30 lb bag is manageable, but the closest Walmart only sells it in 50 lb bags. I have to use a dolly to get it into the apartment, or pick a different Walmart. I prefer the bags to the plastic buckets because the bags are useful to collect trash after the litter is emptied. Plastic buckets are more of a hassle to dispose of.

HamB

With two cats we had an automatic litter box.
After each use it would sweep plastic teeth through the litter and dump the refuse into an attached bin.
The semi enclosed design helped keep the litter in the box and off the floor.

One cat had an issue with the box. After each use she would wait outside the box and when the sweep would start she would beat the heck out of the sweep arm....

Lucasdv123

I bought a $150 door bell that can be heard anywhere in my house if only they would ring the damb thing. I have even called FedEx and told them to knock and ring the door bell.i have 2 survailance cameras on the front door.one on each side of the door but I don't look at my monitor 100% of the time.fedex dropped 2 packages on Thursday but didn't take a pic, knock on the door, or ring the door bell.i know cause I saw it 30 minutes after I saw the email of the delivery.no excuse for that.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Delivery drivers have a tough schedule to meet. They are either so busy they are afraid to lose their jobs if they do them right, or they figure 98% of folks won't care if porch pirates steal their stuff. Or... They just don't care.

One of our neighbors ordered a new piece of particle board furniture (a study desk for a grandchild). It was delivered to MY house, placed on the ground just outside my garage door. I was in a hurry to go somewhere, so I opened my garage door, hopped in the car, and backed out. I could not see the desk in my backup camera view! The car crushed the crap out of the desk, rendering it useless. Of course, the neighbors came and got it and dealt with the courier to get it replaced. I was embarrassed, but they laughed it off and blamed the courier.

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

LOL!! No, just 16 cats.

Dodie