UPS delivery not so good anymore

[bryanchurch06]

I am getting a lot more crushed and opened packages from UPS these days. This was thrown on my porch and the ups guy literally ran back to his truck.

 

[m in sc]

Thats typically a hub specific issue. we have a particular FedEx hub here that's commonly referred to as 'the black hole'. if it goes to pineville... its gone for a few weeks.

call ups corporate. they will look into it. somewhat.

 

[bryanchurch06]

It's kinda obvious someone tore the box open to see what was inside, luckily they didn't want it. Hate to assign blame but the driver is the obvious suspect, hopefully if it happens at the hub someone would have taped the hole back up.

 

[m in sc]

he should have reported it per company policy if he got it that way & noted it in his delivery log. our old ups driver that retired is now our warehouse guy, hes been a huge wealth of information.

 

[SneakyDingo]

I am getting a lot more crushed and opened packages from UPS these days. This was thrown on my porch and the ups guy literally ran back to his truck.

Same for me actually. I didn't think much of it until you brought it up. I had two parts arriving, a fragile piece of equipment and my dog's medication - the medication was crushed, but thankfully didn't need that level of care. I have a decent amount of compassion for them. The wages and working conditions aren't great, and I generally only order from places with excellent returns policies. I also photograph any external damage to the package before I open it, for the reasons of returns.

Funnily, this is a highly philosophical debate amongst my friends for what to do in this situation. We're talking about UPS here but the generalized statement applies to any quality over time situation, such as toxic players in MMORPGs, quality control in honda shifters, etc. They only report the most egregious actions, while I report everything (if the system exists I even will comment saying that things were delivered well). I have evidence that their thought process is correct but flawed, and mine's correct but not directly actionable (if this were chemistry, I am more of a catalyst than an active component). People like me generally result in identifying issues earlier and low hanging fruits, while people like them generally result in identifying high impact issues.

The main difference in philosophy is probably that I've been on teams that have built 4 of those computing systems and several tutorials for my old company on how to do data analytics on "flaky" data and different models that can be used to optimize systems in different ways to prevent it impacting overall system performance.

 

[bryanchurch06]

In the late 90s I worked on the usps mns project, we upgraded the data wire and servers in post offices across the USA to allow them offer the same tracking services their competitors did. At the time it was the largest project rollout ever in the USA. Had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit about the postal system. The background check for a security clearance for the postal service at that time was no joke either.

 

[SneakyDingo]

The background check for a security clearance for the postal service at that time was no joke either.

That doesn't surprise me. Fun fact about me - I used to work for the equivalent of 411 in the USA, but in Australia (1223/12455 Directory Assistance or Telsta Call Connect). So I had to go through one of those background checks. When I was doing the interview, the background check was the last step where they didn't tell us that was needed until we had passed all the other tests. One of the "lolsob" moments was about a quarter of the room got up and left in the moment because they were excluded on the basis that they wouldn't be able to pass the check.

There's a gag-gift-but-excellent book I give to any student going into the legal profession that somewhat covers this. Messing with USPS and other infrastructure under federal domain (*cough cough* how very topical to have this discussion) is basically the entirety of the book, but in more mundane aspects. Highly recommend this as an entertaining read and/or coffee table book.

 

[m in sc]

overly squeaky wheels tend to get ignored as well. just .02.

 

[bryanchurch06]

overly squeaky wheels tend to get ignored as well. just .02.

That is my thoughts as well, whether we like it are not we are trapped in the system for better or worse, hell even the unibomber used the usps.