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iPhone 14 Pro God I hate UPS

Jeweller

Jeweller

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 17, 2008
168
85
Denver
Just a little first world venting here. Also curious if anyone else has ever had issues with UPS as I've never had a problem with any other delivery service. Anyway, I was supposed to have my 14pro delivered on the 16th and made a point of being home for the entire and in IMO ridiculous delivery window of 9am-7pm. Didn't opt to pre-sign as there's been a lot of porch-pirating going on in my neighborhood lately and mine is pretty exposed with no good hiding places, especially for an $1,100 phone. Having still not received said phone by around 5pm, I checked the tracking info and it went from "out for delivery" to something like "address is invalid and needs to be modified." Weird, as I've had many packages delivered by UPS to the exact address they have on file and that Apple instructed them to deliver to. As implied, I have had prior issues with UPS not leaving pre-sign packages on my porch and not dropping them at the correct designated pick-up location (UPS Store) but I've never had them basically say my address does not exist. And of course I double checked and, yes, they had my 100% correct address. So my next move was to contact UPS customer service which, like all, starts with an automated system meant to aim you in the right direction. Problem with theirs is, it never actually allows you to talk to a real customer service representative and keeps pointing you back to their horrible website with it's vague tracking details. Needless to say, after several attempts I gave up.

Now on Apple's end, the order page conveyed UPS's inability to deliver to my address and suggested I contact My Apple, which I did. The person I spoke to was just as confused as me as to why UPS decided my address was invalid and put in an order to have the package sent to the nearest pick-up location. She was super friendly but made the mistake of telling me that UPS should receive this order immediately and redirect the package the following day. So I woke up yesterday expecting to receive an email from either Apple or (less likely) UPS instructing me as to where and when the package would be available. Instead, UPS's tracking now once again showed "out for delivery" between 9am-7pm. So I though, ok fine, I'll spend the whole day at home awaiting the big brown truck to bring me my expensive phone that I have to sign for because I have no other option and would rather not wait until Monday or Tuesday because, you know, work and life obligations and whatnot. And I'm sure you guessed it...no show! "Out for delivery" all day, scanned back in at their hub at 10:04pm for whatever inexplicable reason.

So yeah now that's two wasted days for me. Three if you consider me actually typing this nonsense today, Sunday, and of course contacting Apple again this morning. Again, another very friendly and seemingly helpful customer service rep. This time, however, I was informed of an important detail of their process that the other one must not have been aware of. It takes up to 72 hours for them to get UPS to make any change to the delivery information. Meaning nothing will change until Monday at the earliest as far as where they are supposedly attempting to deliver and my package likely won't end up at a nearby UPS store before Tuesday. Fine, I'm really not in a hurry to get the stupid phone but I do hate wasted time. I know, I know, that's probably how you, the reader, feel right this moment. Anyway, it still doesn't explain why UPS didn't just deliver the package yesterday at some point during their 10 hour window. Long story short, I suggest having your packages delivered to a neutral location like your place of employment, if possible. That way you never have to worry about someone being there to sign for it and, being a business, it's address will probably not get flagged as invalid or whatever.

Again, sorry for the rant but my significant other was getting sick of hearing me complain and I needed to get my "cool story, bro" out of my system. Thanks 😆
 
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Nice!

I ordered something from someone last Tuesday (the 13th) with a 1-3 day delivery promise…via UPS. Watching the tracking progress, I saw that it had arrived at a major hub 45 minutes from me on Wednesday (the 14th) evening and had a delivery window of 11:30am-3:30pm Thursday (the 15th), signature required. Had to hang home all day and…no delivery. Status never said "out for delivery", either.

I did call UPS a couple of times with this but they're no help.

The next change in tracking came on Friday (the 16th) at 6am. It was in Louisville, Kentucky…over 9 hours from me and now had a delivery day of Tuesday (the 20th). At 10PM Friday it made it 2 hours closer to Lexington KY. The next morning, Saturday, it left Lexington and got back to the hub that's 45 minutes from me at 4PM. And they still say it won't be delivered until Tuesday…and I'll have to be on alert again all day and won't even be able to go out my back door on the chance I miss them.

Commiseration!
 
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Jeweller said:
Just a little first world venting here. Also curious if anyone else has ever had issues with UPS as I've never had a problem with any other delivery service. Anyway, I was supposed to have my 14pro delivered on the 16th and made a point of being home for the entire and in IMO ridiculous delivery window of 9am-7pm. Didn't opt to pre-sign as there's been a lot of porch-pirating going on in my neighborhood lately and mine is pretty exposed with no good hiding places, especially for an $1,100 phone. Having still not received said phone by around 5pm, I checked the tracking info and it went from "out for delivery" to something like "address is invalid and needs to be modified." Weird, as I've had many packages delivered by UPS to the exact address they have on file and that Apple instructed them to deliver to. As implied, I have had prior issues with UPS not leaving pre-sign packages on my porch and not dropping them at the correct designated pick-up location (UPS Store) but I've never had them basically say my address does not exist. And of course I double checked and, yes, they had my 100% correct address. So my next move was to contact UPS customer service which, like all, starts with an automated system meant to aim you in the right direction. Problem with theirs is, it never actually allows you to talk to a real customer service representative and keeps pointing you back to their horrible website with it's vague tracking details. Needless to say, after several attempts I gave up.

Now on Apple's end, the order page conveyed UPS's inability to deliver to my address and suggested I contact My Apple, which I did. The person I spoke to was just as confused as me as to why UPS decided my address was invalid and put in an order to have the package sent to the nearest pick-up location. She was super friendly but made the mistake of telling me that UPS should receive this order immediately and redirect the package the following day. So I woke up yesterday expecting to receive an email from either Apple or (less likely) UPS instructing me as to where and when the package would be available. Instead, UPS's tracking now once again showed "out for delivery" between 9am-7pm. So I though, ok fine, I'll spend the whole day at home awaiting the big brown truck to bring me my expensive phone that I have to sign for because I have no other option and would rather not wait until Monday or Tuesday because, you know, work and life obligations and whatnot. And I'm sure you guessed it...no show! "Out for delivery" all day, scanned back in at their hub at 10:04pm for whatever inexplicable reason.

So yeah now that's two wasted days for me. Three if you consider me actually typing this nonsense today, Sunday, and of course contacting Apple again this morning. Again, another very friendly and seemingly helpful customer service rep. This time, however, I was informed of an important detail of their process that the other one must not have been aware of. It takes up to 72 hours for them to get UPS to make any change to the delivery information. Meaning nothing will change until Monday at the earliest as far as where they are supposedly attempting to deliver and my package likely won't end up at a nearby UPS store before Tuesday. Fine, I'm really not in a hurry to get the stupid phone but I do hate wasted time. I know, I know, that's probably how you, the reader, feel right this moment. Anyway, it still doesn't explain why UPS didn't just deliver the package yesterday at some point during their 10 hour window. Long story short, I suggest having your packages delivered to a neutral location like your place of employment, if possible. That way you never have to worry about someone being there to sign for it and, being a business, it's address will probably not get flagged as invalid or whatever.

Again, sorry for the rant but my significant other was getting sick of hearing me complain and I needed to get my "cool story, bro" out of my system. Thanks 😆
Click to expand...
Having used UPS many times for my small business all year around, being the receiving end sometimes gets messed up.

Have you noticed that service guarantees no longer work even if you paid for next day or second day air service.

I have noticed since 2021 - UPS has changed their service guarantee post pandemic because of their staffing shortages and management priorities.

When my arriving packages show up in my UPS app and then updates every day that a "service delay" has caused my packages to arrive later than expected.

It might be that the driver is unwilling to finish their load and make an excuse "unable to find recipient" or "address invalid" so that they can end their shift on time or early.

UPS management that once used to praise themselves for timely deliveries have changed a lot.
 
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Sometimes I feel like these shipping companies don’t actually want to deliver these packages.

At least the local UPS station will call me back. FedEx is a black hole. They never call and it’s always the next day. They don’t even estimate the time of delivery. I mean it’s 2022.

I feel your pain on this one ha!
 
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Jeweller said:
Having still not received said phone by around 5pm, I checked the tracking info and it went from "out for delivery" to something like "address is invalid and needs to be modified." Weird, as I've had many packages delivered by UPS to the exact address they have on file and that Apple instructed them to deliver to.
Click to expand...
That's code for "I got so behind in delivering all the packages on my route that I did not deliver the rest".

I know this, because it's the akin to the excuse that my US Postal Service mailman uses. Her excuse is usually something like "Property address is inaccessible". Which I know not to be true because I live in a HOA community and we have giant clusterboxes at each end of the street. I suspect that with both USPS and UPS the system demands some 'reason' as to why a package was not delivered. So…they lie.

As to why UPS did not deliver the following day, I would speculate that being late once before it was no longer a priority for the driver. It will be delivered eventually.

I have a regular Rx delivery from a company that uses UPS. Their delivery terms require delivery by 12pm and I suspect they have something over on UPS because I've seen the delivery drivers hustling to meet that time window. So the only thing I can suggest is a service that guarantees delivery before NDA's 12pm time.
 
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Apple_Robert said:
On Friday, UPS left my watch and phone on my front porch for any passerby to see and I was home at the time of delivery. There was no knock at the door etc. I thought you had to sign for iPhone deliveries.
Click to expand...
UPS hardly knocks on my door, even with that. I have no trust in any company saying that 'signature is require' because UPS pays zero heed to that.
 
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Apple_Robert said:
I have found that out a few times. Good thing Apple has such great customer service. Otherwise, things could look very glum on delivery days.
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I had a Walmart delivery once of a couch (disassembled in box). They left it on my front porch and I didn't get delivery updates about it. I only knew because my Ring camera was showing it right out in front!

Fortunately, at that time, work was less than 15 minutes from home so I came home right away. Now I work from home so I am watching the delivery process in my browser on a separate monitor while I work.

We had three iPhones delivered last year and had I not been watching they'd have been right out there. Someone on reddit says that a signature (for T-Mobile phones) is now required but I don't buy it.
 
Jeweller said:
Just a little first world venting here. Also curious if anyone else has ever had issues with UPS as I've never had a problem with any other delivery service. Anyway, I was supposed to have my 14pro delivered on the 16th and made a point of being home for the entire and in IMO ridiculous delivery window of 9am-7pm. Didn't opt to pre-sign as there's been a lot of porch-pirating going on in my neighborhood lately and mine is pretty exposed with no good hiding places, especially for an $1,100 phone. Having still not received said phone by around 5pm, I checked the tracking info and it went from "out for delivery" to something like "address is invalid and needs to be modified." Weird, as I've had many packages delivered by UPS to the exact address they have on file and that Apple instructed them to deliver to. As implied, I have had prior issues with UPS not leaving pre-sign packages on my porch and not dropping them at the correct designated pick-up location (UPS Store) but I've never had them basically say my address does not exist. And of course I double checked and, yes, they had my 100% correct address. So my next move was to contact UPS customer service which, like all, starts with an automated system meant to aim you in the right direction. Problem with theirs is, it never actually allows you to talk to a real customer service representative and keeps pointing you back to their horrible website with it's vague tracking details. Needless to say, after several attempts I gave up.

Now on Apple's end, the order page conveyed UPS's inability to deliver to my address and suggested I contact My Apple, which I did. The person I spoke to was just as confused as me as to why UPS decided my address was invalid and put in an order to have the package sent to the nearest pick-up location. She was super friendly but made the mistake of telling me that UPS should receive this order immediately and redirect the package the following day. So I woke up yesterday expecting to receive an email from either Apple or (less likely) UPS instructing me as to where and when the package would be available. Instead, UPS's tracking now once again showed "out for delivery" between 9am-7pm. So I though, ok fine, I'll spend the whole day at home awaiting the big brown truck to bring me my expensive phone that I have to sign for because I have no other option and would rather not wait until Monday or Tuesday because, you know, work and life obligations and whatnot. And I'm sure you guessed it...no show! "Out for delivery" all day, scanned back in at their hub at 10:04pm for whatever inexplicable reason.

So yeah now that's two wasted days for me. Three if you consider me actually typing this nonsense today, Sunday, and of course contacting Apple again this morning. Again, another very friendly and seemingly helpful customer service rep. This time, however, I was informed of an important detail of their process that the other one must not have been aware of. It takes up to 72 hours for them to get UPS to make any change to the delivery information. Meaning nothing will change until Monday at the earliest as far as where they are supposedly attempting to deliver and my package likely won't end up at a nearby UPS store before Tuesday. Fine, I'm really not in a hurry to get the stupid phone but I do hate wasted time. I know, I know, that's probably how you, the reader, feel right this moment. Anyway, it still doesn't explain why UPS didn't just deliver the package yesterday at some point during their 10 hour window. Long story short, I suggest having your packages delivered to a neutral location like your place of employment, if possible. That way you never have to worry about someone being there to sign for it and, being a business, it's address will probably not get flagged as invalid or whatever.

Again, sorry for the rant but my significant other was getting sick of hearing me complain and I needed to get my "cool story, bro" out of my system. Thanks 😆
Click to expand...

I understand your pain, and I feel sorry but that's UPS, hopefully you will get it soon.

in 2020, UPS delivered my 11 Pro Max to the wrong address on release day, I called Apple and they were super nice about it, but of course the replacement was counted as new order which pushed the delivery 6-7 weeks. After 2 days, a random guy showed at my place and delivered the phone! he said UPS left it at his front door, he was traveling and just drove to the address on the box.

I called Apple and they said they will cancel the replacement, which somehow it did not because a couple of weeks later I got a new iPhone 11 Pro Max similar to the one I ordered and for free.

I called Apple and returned it the next day.
 
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eyoungren said:
As to why UPS did not deliver the following day, I would speculate that being late once before it was no longer a priority for the driver. It will be delivered eventually.
Click to expand...
This is such BS to me. Penalize more as it gets later or the already late will just get worse and worse.
 
compwiz1202 said:
This is such BS to me. Penalize more as it gets later or the already late will just get worse and worse.
Click to expand...
Well, it's a bit like Amazon drivers in the sense that they have an impossible workload and limited help. If management is penalized and in turn puts more drivers on the road to handle the load I'm good with that. But when, as a driver, you depart the facility at 6am and are not returning until 9pm or 10pm at night I cut a little bit of slack. I used to work for UPS (1992-1999, Ontario, Calif. hub) so I'm familiar with how management treats the employees.

My USPS mail carrier is different. She wears the USPS uniform but uses her own vehicle for mail delivery. I'm not sure why that is, but I suspect it's some special route or seniority beyond the norm - therefore if she actually chooses not to deliver my package(s) because she feels like she's had enough for the day (as I speculate to be the case) I get upset. I've seen her loading the clusterboxes many times, so saying that my address is inaccessible is BS to me.
 
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Awesome, thanks all for making me feel better about the situation. Glad I'm not alone but wish I was and my experiences with UPS could all be chalked up to bad luck. Never considered the address not being legit thing to be an excuse by the driver for not having time and/or feeling like delivering a package. Seems like there would be more follow up by management when such claims are made. And I work in the restaurant industry so I know what it's like to be understaffed and overworked but we get the job done regardless. And while I have no doubt the phone will eventually be delivered to my REAL address or rerouted to one of their drop-off locations, it would have been nice to have gotten it on release day 😂
 
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Apple_Robert said:
On Friday, UPS left my watch and phone on my front porch for any passerby to see and I was home at the time of delivery. There was no knock at the door etc. I thought you had to sign for iPhone deliveries.
Click to expand...
You do. In fact, the whole signing is non-negotiable and if you aren't home they'll try two more times after which you'll need to pick up with ID on hand at your local Fedex/UPS Hub.

Why they didn't do that is beyond me.
 
With UPS, I used to get a lot of fake "delivery attempted" when I was sitting right next to the door. The package would come the next day.

After moving, I have gotten some fake "delivered" because there is a concierge and they can't lie about attempting delivery when no one was home. The package would come the next day.
 
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Apple_Robert said:
On Friday, UPS left my watch and phone on my front porch for any passerby to see and I was home at the time of delivery. There was no knock at the door etc. I thought you had to sign for iPhone deliveries.
Click to expand...
Oddly I had to sign for my Mac Studio but not my Studio Display (we-elll, it was a few hundred dollars less...?)
 
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Jeweller said:
Seems like there would be more follow up by management when such claims are made.
Click to expand...
To give you some perspective…

As I mentioned above, I worked for UPS for seven years (met my wife there). I worked inside the hub. We had at one point a supervisor that was transferred to our sort as the manager. His previous job was managing the ramp workers. The ramp workers are those loading/unloading the air containers from the aircraft and the tug drivers that transport the air containers to and from the inside of the hub.

So the reason he was moved was because one night he messed up and 'forgot' that there was a fully loaded 747 aircraft on the ramp. The sort I was on, Intra sort (9pm to 1am) is a Next Day Air sort. So that meant all those packages were Next Day Air.

Rather than fire him outright, for some stupid reason they put him in charge of our sort. And that's when things went from bad to worse.

This was the mid to late 1990s. So, rest assured that UPS can get very creative in NOT following up!
 
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I did not have to sign for my iPhone 14 Pro my regular driver just handed it to me. Then again he deliveres to my house regularly for the past 5 or more years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
@iChrist wonder where you could have walked in the time it took you to read and respond to it. Not to mention I was pretty straightforward about it being a useless rant.
 
Definitely frustrating. I had a similar issue with Amazon for a long time. Luckily they got it figured out. Hopefully UPS will get your stuff resolved.
 
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