This is my post about two different companies, bound together through business.
Back in December when I was ordering Christmas gifts, my favorite seafood company had a shipping special of $1.50. This was too good to pass up, and I ordered gifts for a select group of family and friends. I also ordered some items for myself: their Christmas Breakfast and some frozen King Salmon.
On the day I was supposed to receive my delivery of perishables, FED-Ex’s tracking said that it was still out for delivery at 4:30. In the past, the Air Delivery guy was always here early, and he and the truck were back at FED-Ex by 2 PM.
I called SeaBear, and they contacted FED Ex, whose representative told them that I should wait because delivery can be as late as 6PM. Hogwash! I told SeaBear that the regular Express driver is never out that late. Did they call the driver? Obviously not, because right after we hung up the phone, the online tracking had been updated and it said my perishables were back at FED-Ex.
I called Seabear back and they contacted FED-Ex again. More fabrications from FED-Ex followed, with a claim that there was no address so the box never made it on the truck so they couldn’t find it. When I finally received the package, the original label from Seabear was clearly on the box. Fess up, FED-Ex, errors were made!
FED-Ex claimed that they would store the box in a very cold room. Well, it must have been cold compared to 100 degrees, because when they finally showed up with my package the day after they were supposed to, all the food was ruined. The Christmas Breakfast I ordered for an event was comprised of Croissants, Champagne Cream Cheese and Smoked Salmon. The latter were warm, which is quite a feat in itself since this is Chicago and December, which reads cold. The salmon was all warm.
The grossest was the croissants, which had warmed up so much that they not only were defrosted but all started to rise. When I opened the shipment, the box that held the croissants was bulging and there was one gigantic, yeast stinking amorphous blob that was supposed to be a dozen frozen croissants. Not only was all this food thrown out, since it was all spoiled, but I had to hope the replacement food would show up in time for the Christmas festivities, and SeaBear lost money on this order.
Because package delivery by both FED-Ex and UPS now tends to dump boxes and run, I didn’t want my stuff sitting in the vestibule where anyone walking by on the sidewalk could just help themselves, so my FED-Ex Air shipments are all designated from Seabear to be “Signature Required.” SeaBear had a meeting with FED-EX, and one of their Team Leaders sent me a letter apologizing for this mess.
FED-Ex’s outside mailing envelope clearly was marked by their company, “Signature required.” I didn’t get the letter until the next day, because the FED-Ex driver that delivered it did not ring my bell nor did he get my signature, as it was left in the vestibule unbeknownst to me.
Well, at least the spotty service was consistently applied.
More in the next post.
