[Final pdate at the bottom - now Monday and received.]
My luck with shipping agencies is poor. This week someone pirated my credit card, my US one, so I had to get a new one sent out. As I am traveling this next week the credit card company UPS expressed mailed a new card to me. Everything is great.
(Side note: I am very happy with my credit card company and their fraud prevention. An email note and a couple of calls and we are sorted. I have little paperwork but I feel they got me covered. Nice.)
Anyhow, so I am following my UPS package via tracking number. This morning I see it has arrived in Singapore and call the service center to ask if it will be delivered today. As it is Saturday, my thinking is I can go pick it up if necessary as I need it. Good news: UPS Singapore rep tells me it is set up for Saturday delivery and will arrive between 8 and 5. Well, I wish the time frame was more distinct, but I am happy.
Until now. I check the on-line tracking site and this:
Uh oh. It's now 1:50PM, I hadn't bothered to check the site for a while but suddenly it's not coming. So I call UPS. A get a new agent who says he's sorry, but it won't be delivered until Monday. I am furious. First agent one promised it will be delivered and now the story has changed (after waiting around six hours). Agent two's solution? I can go to Changi to pick it up. That's a $45 round trip cab ride, or a couple hours of MRT and walking. If I'd known that I had to pick-up myself today I would have taken MRT in the morning. Now I have dinner plans and little interest in hauling out to Changi as I've got other things going on at home.
The line drops. Great.
I call back a third time to get a third rep who is great. A couple of questions, an apology, and they put it on a truck. Delivery by 5PM if they are able.
The irritation for me is the second person I talked to: "...no record of your earlier call..." "...sorry, the other guy should have checked the Saturday delivery more carefully..." "...no, it will be delivered Monday..." "...sure you can go out to Changi..." I wonder who trains these people.
I hate this stuff. Another full day captive in my house waiting on a deliver company. I hate phone reps didn't provide accurate information or solve problems
We'll see. If the package/my credit card come today I'll have a fond memory of the third representative who handled my case so fast. If not, argh.
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So I waited until 6 PM, no delivery. I am very unhappy about UPS. I now will have to wait until Monday to contact them. My guess? They'll promise a Monday delivery, with another 10 hour window to wait around, and I don't trust them to deliver now anyhow. A complete drag - I have some services that need to be updated and wanted to do this all while I had my main computer set up. Come Monday my gear will be packed out for sea shipment - not impossible, but more complicated.
And the goof of it all is that after 4PM their call center shuts down, and their web site didn't offer any useful information past their update around 2PM when they promised a 4-6 delivery. Nothing, no call, no delivery update, no card.
Sum total: 10 hours lost waiting on UPS, three phone calls, two broken delivery dates, and unknown when I'll get my card. Thanks UPS, you ruined my day.
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Monday, 8 AM in Singapore and I call Customer Support. One "I'm sorry" and "...we'll try to deliver today..." and finally a promise to try to deliver as soon as possible. I pressed for a time and the agent was hard pressed to give one but finally caved in and said by noon. We'll see. Classic line from this call: "Is this a residence?" Yes, same as the other three calls. There appears to be no call history for the agents to review or they are not reading it. Let's see what happens today.
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11:05 AM UPS arrives. Finally.

