[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Wow! Such anger! It's almost frightening... Please calm down. No one is attacking you or your family. It was a rant about poor quality customer service. That's all. Not even poor service by you or yours, but by some other company. Yet I can see you turning red from here!

Nope. What irritates me is your insistence that Saturday, Sunday and Christmas day are "working days." Seriously, even in India, all businesses are closed on 12/25. Aren't you living in California, in the United States of America?

You keep talking about the inner workings of the carrier business.
I do NOT care.

You keep talking about acts of God.
I do NOT care.

You keep talking about my receiving a package for Christmas.
Sorry, but my shipment had nothing to do with Christmas delivery.

No, I didn't. I a) explained why your package didn't magically fly from Miami to L.A., because you obviously are clueless as to how they actually get there, thinking that a logical person would understand the process; b) I reminded you that major ice storms shut down tons of airports in the US, thinking that a logical person would understand that, and c) I never said bupkus about "Christmas," other than, zillions of utterly irresponsible and selfish people ordered "important" gift items at the last minute, and then bitched and moaned about how they weren't on-time for their most-cherished loved ones. I believe I mentioned that if they had REALLY been worried about X being to person Y on time, they could have actually gotten their lazy asses out of a chair or recliner or sofa, bought it and wrapped it themselves, but, hey. What do I know?

Blaming ice storms doesn't impress me. A properly operating company does. And somehow, I can't seem to imagine that every airport all over America was shut down during those few days. A few, perhaps. But then, that's just another excuse. And in business, there is no excuse.

Since you can't seem to understand the concept of how a hub-and-spoke cargo operation works, and why having even 10 or 20% of the airports closed down or with massive flight delays would affect the hubs, and the subsequent shipments, there's no point in discussing it further. Frankly, I would have expected more from someone who's implying that he graduated from the Academy, but...{shrug}. It seems that if you intake the information, you'll have to admit that maybe, just MAYBE, your package was delayed (not late: delayed), due to weather, and since you can't blame UPS for the weather, you're not willing to go there.

I'm not sure which military you were in, but if I was ordered to be at a certain place at a certain time, and I wasn't there, according to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, I was guilty of 'Failure to Repair,' and if the situation was seriously compromised because of my Failure to Repair, regardless of my reasons, I would stand Courts Martial. There is no excuse.

It's very common at West Point for two upper classmen to give orders to juniors to be two different places at the same time, time-wise, impossible to meet. Meeting one, the junior cadet is required to march punishment tours for failing to meet the other. Saying 'I couldn't be there because I was ordered to be somewhere else' is not justified no matter how logical it may seem to some. But it does teach the cadet that there are no excuses for not fulfilling obligations. There is only one answer a cadet is permitted in that situation; "No excuse, Sir."

Actually, that's complete and utter crap. The "two places, one time" nonsense is only for the cadets and it's a form of the usual military and puerile "initiation" that is prevalent in ANY college, and very prevalent in the military. Having participated in some Art. 21 hearings, etc., while I was in the military, your view is, well, wrong. There are absolutely "excuses," and it happens ALL THE TIME in the military. I served during the end of Viet Nam and I served in USAREUR while we were being bombed on-base by BM II. Excuses are rampant in the military, and they "work" every day. I absolutely don't know what military YOU served in, but I suspect that your recollection is a bit tainted, or colored with some color of glass. What you're recollecting sounds more like the "no excuses" idiocy at the Citadel or other military undergrad schools than the real military, where, as I said, excuses are rampant, troop movements FREQUENTLY miss schedules, trucks are FREQUENTLY late, and the like. Particularly in wartime.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that this was some Christmas present for me or from me. It was not. Your not so subtle innuendos about selfishness are really rather nasty and rude. Where did you get the idea that I said I should get my package before people who ordered before me? I WASN'T EVEN GETTING A PACKAGE! Attacking me is quite offensive, don't you think? I had though you better than that.

I'm not attacking you. I'm attacking this seemingly rigid position of yours that "no excuse exists" for not getting you the package "on time," when they absolutely DID get it to you ontime. You keep ranting like they were bringing you blood transfusions or some type of medicine without which, you'd die. It seems grossly disproportionate, particularly given that it was on time in ANY event.

I guess I wasn't clear in my other posts so I'll repeat it; the company should have hired enough seasonal help and equipment so that everyone got their deliveries on time.. unless of course every freight airport in America gets shut down, right?

My complaint was about customer service, aimed at a company that failed to fulfill it's promise. Regardless of your counting the days, the package was NOT delivered when it was promised.

OK, then, obviously, some employee of some other company promised you a delivery date that was different from what UPS states. Can we see a redacted order and shipping confirmation that showed that it was going to be delivered in 3-4 calendar days? A slip from UPS saying you'd have it on the 23rd? Anything that clearly states something different from UPS's clearly identified shipping times and promises? Something that would explain why you are so irate about this? That demonstrates that they really did break their promise to you? Actually, you know what? Please, don't bother. I think it's pretty clear what's happened here, and I'm done with this particular mini-thread on the V&R thread.

We do NOT KNOW that it was delayed because of airport closures.
You may jump up and down and scream it all you want, but we really DO NOT KNOW that it was delayed because of this.
It is JUST AS POSSIBLE that the delays were caused by insufficient numbers of temporary seasonal help. And again, that all goes to customer service. In this case, poor customer service.

I'm not the one jumping up and down and screaming. YOU are. You're the one ranting about how they didn't have enough employees, enough service, bad customer service, etc., yet, from what everyone else here can see, they absolutely delivered the package to you in 4 business days. I just don't see what you're complaining about, at all, nor why it made you "rant." Or why you're so caught up in the whole "no excuses" concept that you can't admit that it made it to you in 4 working days. {shrug}.

I don't care about this, not one iota. I tried, repeatedly, to answer what I thought were actual questions (or reasonable ponderments, as most folks don't know the inner workings of a cargo line) as to how the system works, but as I said earlier, you apparently don't understand what I'm saying to you; you patently still think that Sat, Sun and Christmas day are 'working days' and that cargo travels on passenger liners. I obviously can't argue with any of those ideas, as they seem to be impenetrably embedded. So, hell, stay angry. Boycott UPS. Knock yourself out.

Seriously: done with this part of the vent/rant thread. I've explained how the h&s works. I disagree, rather vehemently, about the portrait of the military you painted, which actually made me LOL, because the military I served in had more days like Catch-22 than days like "Jack Nicholson's soldiers in the Gitmo movie." And I served in Intelligence. (Yes: and sh*t still went wrong all the time. Miraculously, only complete and total screw-ups got Courts Martialled.) You're going to believe whatever obdurate thing you want to believe, so...I give up. The folks who've read along with this can make up their own minds. Discussing this any further is just

I hope, however, that you enjoyed your Christmas holiday--oops, sorry, working day--anyway. I realize that the rest of us had off while you were working, but I hope you enjoyed the day. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year to you, Stitch. Bye for now--catch you next year.

Hitch