4 posts tagged “fedex sucks”

My Mini-DVI to DVI adapter and iWork 08 Family came today, via FedEx.  This is inline with their initial shipping estimates, so that's good for them that they estimated properly.

When my iMac came, on the tracking page it lists signature required.  I did, however, not sign for it.  Nor did the guy ask.  He didn't even have the little electronic signature reader.

The iWork and cable required a signature as well.  The delivery truck showed up, and I'm almost certain it was a mother-son team, and the son did not look old enough to drive.  He was old enough to collect my signature.

So, the guy delivering the $2000+ computer can't be bothered to get my signature, but the 14 year old delivery a $100 package can.

I love it.

Today, as most in the know know, is the start of OSCON.  I'm not about to spend the $1200 for the conference fee, and instead am just going to hang out with fellow geeks from out of the area, and crash the Expo hall tomorrow.  Which leaves today for some code hacking, and hacking I did.

Around noon, my blissful hacking was interrupted by the sound of a diesel engine wrapped by an aluminum shell with a FedEx logo on it.  I really expected the driver to emerge holding a small box, containing a MiniDVI to DVI converter and my copy of iWork.  I was shocked to see it not only was far too large to be a reasonable shipping box for those items, and it seemed much too heavy.  Probably in the ballpark of 37 pounds, even.

Rejoice, for the iMac was delivered:

It's an iMac. And an Optimus Prime to show just how large it is.  Taller than New York, at least.  So, I'm happily typing this up on the new system, which still has a ways to go to be setup but I got all the important geek stuff setup so I can actually get work done.  I'll be playing a bit of catch up, since it was an hour of lost time to get it switched over (after the countless hours of automated setup), but it is well worth it.

The best part, as of right now FedEx is still telling me that the computer is sitting in Olive Branch, MS.

When I bought my Macbook Pro, I wasn't expected to purchase another Mac so soon.  Well, it's just that good.  Seriously.

So, I ordered the iMac and then I realized that I don't have the family license pack for iWork, and I just bought iWork 3 months ago.  I google around and search the Apple site, but can't find any option to upgrade from the single license to the family pack.  A quick phone call to Apple's customer service department got me a discount on a purchase for iWork.  It's a bit more expensive than just the price difference, but they took care of me and that is really fantastic.  I also threw in the mini-DVI to DVI-D adapter so I can run dual-head.

Unfortunately, things still ship via FedEx:

I'm glad that OSCON is this week, so I have something to do other than fume over FedEx's ridiculous package routing.

Now I have an estimated delivery date.  Of July 25th.  Being overly optimistic is one thing, sending my package to the other side of the country is a different issue.  For those of you not so well versed in geography, here's the route:

That's a 9 hour drive, all on the interstate where you can get good gas mileage.  Instead, here's what they are doing:

Now, we have 2 days and 16 hours of driving time and 4,446 miles.  That is 3,900 more miles that my 40 pounds of shiny new computer is traveling.  The really sad thing is that according to this route, my computer has visited nearly as many US states as I have.
 
This is absolutely astounding.  I'm amused, confused and more or less going to not use FedEx.  I already gravitate towards UPS because there is a convenient store nearby, and the staff are knowledgeable.  My packages also tend to go in the same general direction as their destination, and get there reasonably fast.

FedEx, on the other hand, is one disappointment away from a hat trick.