Living in New York City, UPS is the absolute worst way to receive your packages. Getting packages sent to my home are impossible. First, they come in the early afternoon while I'm at work. They'll leave the note that says they came and an option to sign the back and let the UPS driver leave the package at the door. However, they never do that. It's as if they ignore the note and just leave another one.

So I just have to wait out the three attempts. After the third they leave it at the operating facility. The operating facility is on the other side of Manhattan. This is NYC, they service hundreds of thousands of people and there is exactly one place you can go to pick up your package. Ridiculous. Meanwhile, I can walk 20 blocks in any radius and see 4 UPS stores.

FedEx does the same thing. 3 attempts and if no one is home they'll take it to the nearest FedEx Store. This just seems incredibly logical to me. Why doesn't UPS do this?

Unfortunately, only a handful of websites tell you what shipping method they use. So to be safe, I have all my packages sent to work. However I ordered something the other day that was too big to get delivered to work. I didn't want to have to lug it through the office and then carry it home. So I took a chance and had it delivered to my apartment. I was hoping they wouldn't use UPS... but they did.

So I went on their site and tried to see if they could either change the delivery address to my office or, ideally, hold it the nearest UPS store which is just a block away. They had the option to do either but it costs $5 to get them to hold it at a UPS store. FIVE DOLLARS. I'm making their jobs easier and they're charging me for it. This is a service that FEDEX offers for free!

GOD DAMN I HATE UPS.

/Rant

Are you in an apartment? Can't your doorman sign for packages?

And if you're in a home, you can have them leave it on the porch (assuming that it's a safe area to do so).

My apartment building doesn't have a doorman.

I've asked them to leave it in the vestibule, which they have access to. Depending on the item, I'm comfortable with this. However, they don't do it. Even when I sign the back of their notice and put a note as to exactly where to put it.

Well the problem here is that UPC sucks.

See the longer characters on the ends and middle? When they're the normal length as the rest of the numbers/lines they represent a 6. Therefore the mark of the beast is in each UPC.

Doesn't the UPS store have mailboxes? If you get a lot of packages, maybe you should just get one of those. That way, they can just deliver it there and you'll just have to remember to check it when you are expecting something.

Doesn't make sense for me since the majority of packages I get I can get delivered to work. This was a big item.

Thanks though, but I'm not really looking for solutions to this issue. Just a place to bitch about them.

<---- UPS Driver.

I believe that myChoice has two levels.

Free - you can "sign" online for release - change address for $ - send to UPS store for $5 per parcel.

$40 per year - same as above but send all parcels you choose to UPS store for FREE.

I know that it sucks but I tell my customers decide which one is better for your situation.

Why not just change your shipping address to your local UPS store? Not sure if it works like FedEx but they just hold it there until you pick it up and there is no charge for said service.

Problem is, like you said though it's difficult to determine when you're ordering something what shipping method they're going to use.

Thanks. I had to sign up for the "free" mychoice to get this package delivered to the store. It's a great solution but the fee is ridiculous. FedEx does the same thing for free.

Yep that's the problem. I'll look into what shipping method a company uses but it's only sometimes stated in their shipping policy.

Hmmm, so I so I always get things, well not always but whenever I get something shipped from Dell because I know they require a signature, shipped to my local FedEx Office without a problem. This week I was getting something from the Microsoft Store and since I'm not sure of their policy I just had it send to the local UPS Store and boy was it different. I got there and they looked at me like I was an alien, they were questioning me about MyChoice and asking if I called them first. It was just like Lurking said above, they charged me $5. I can't believe they're trying to make this a money maker.

Previous to this I've never leaned either way between FedEx and UPS, they both were the same to me but now I'll definitely make a conscience choice to use FedEx whenever I can.