Have any strange delivery experiences being rural?

[Buggs67]

Our experience has been good with everyone except FedEx. We are up a 1/3 mile gravel driveway that is well maintained and USPS brings packages to the door ad leaves them out of the weather on the porch. Same for UPS and Amazon.

Only FedEx has sucked. When my backhoe thumb arrived they threw it in the snow bank under the mailbox. Eve after I had put down 2 FEL loads of gravel/sand on the entryway. They also delivered packages to the neighbor we share most of the lane with.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Since I’ve been working from home all FedEx business deliveries come 2-3 times per week. Because they come so much the driver just sees the street name and assumes it is me. So when the driver dropped a few packages off one day last year I received one for my neighbor as well. This was definitely not the first time that happened.

Anyway. That night when I opened the boxes I found one box with new adult toys and a couple DVDs. I checked the label and realized it went to a house down the road where a seemingly conservative couple lives. I taped it up and was going to give it back to FedEx but I knew the couple are out every morning for a few hours so I set it on their porch at that time.

I never heard anything more.

That's hilarious and reminds me of a similar story. USPS delivered a package that wasn't meant of our address and we opened before reading the address just like you. This package had a sexy nurse outfit in it. The package was ripped badly so we just taped it up and put it back in the mailbox. In the moment I didn't look closely at the address which was one road over with several houses on it. Our neighbors on our road had fun speculating who it was when I related the story to them.

 

[Dftodd]

Since I’ve been working from home all FedEx business deliveries come 2-3 times per week. Because they come so much the driver just sees the street name and assumes it is me. So when the driver dropped a few packages off one day last year I received one for my neighbor as well. This was definitely not the first time that happened.

Anyway. That night when I opened the boxes I found one box with new adult toys and a couple DVDs. I checked the label and realized it went to a house down the road where a seemingly conservative couple lives. I taped it up and was going to give it back to FedEx but I knew the couple are out every morning for a few hours so I set it on their porch at that time.

I never heard anything more.

There are 2 other houses on the street with a house number 1 digit off from ours.

We get each other's mail fairly regularly.

Mail gets delivered to a series of lock boxes in a central location in the neighborhood. They even have some over sized boxes for packages. Key for that box will be left in your box if you have a package.

Anything that won't fit in the box will get left on your door step.

If I recieve a neighbors letter, I'll drop it back through the out going mail slot. If it won't fit in the slot, I'll just drop it on their step and ring their door bell.

Mail man/ lady is always screwing up though. And apparently screwed up pretty good the other day. One of the neighbors left a nasty gram taped to the front of the lock box. They weren't happy that the key for there packages was left in someone else's box and they had a couple packages missing.

 

[ning]

Next to zero issues with deliveries here.
Only two problems I've had in years:

1) Ordered something from Home Depot. They sent it via OnTrac. Ontrac claimed they delivered... like at 9pm. I got the notification, looked all over for the package, nowhere. I told HD no delivery; they said bs, our shipper says they delivered! I filed with my credit card.
A MONTH later my cc says "shipper says they delivered". I call HD and ***** them out, they send me another package. THAT VERY EVENING lo and behold my original package, dated the previous month, shows up. When the new package came from HD, I kept it - it took me hours to deal with this.
Ontrac sucks.

2) Ordered something off of ebay, paypal pay. It got delivered... supposedly. I complained and paypal says shipper showed that the tracking number was delivered.
I went to the post office, and they said yes, it was delivered, to this address: ***** I'm like what, that's not my address. Yep, the shipper sent it to the wrong address, right zip code. I'm done with paypal, that's the last time I'm screwed by them, because of course you get one appeal and their check that the shipment made it to where the shipment was sent succeeded, but not that it was sent to me, and they closed it. I closed my account with them.

#1 is on OnTrac and HD. I'm somewhat leery about ordering from HD because of this, but still do it from time to time. If they screw up, I'll do what I can to get my goods and maybe more for my efforts; if they want to step up and be good for the customer and not waste my time, I wouldn't need to keep their consolation gift.
#2 obviously isn't USPS's fault, and thanks to them I actually knew that I got screwed (the address where it was delivered didn't respond to me query about the package; I think they were in on it somehow or just didn't give a $%#@).

Otherwise: our USPS here is great. No complaints by me, though people on NextDoor complain about everything. UPS is fantastic. Often comes in the man gate and drops things at the doorstep but more often leaves things at the gate or just inside the gate. No theft issues (yet). Fedex is very good, not quite the extra mile but no complaints.

 

[KennyG]

For us, USPS, UPS, and Amazon are good. Once in a while an Amazon driver can't find us and I have to talk him in. FedEx is a complete disaster. I've had several packages not arrive and they don't seem to have a way to track them.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

UPS Freight which is now T-Force Freight has always provided good service. I've recieved several 3 point implements from them in good order. Driver usually asks how to use them or what they are for and requests updates on how the implement worked out for the application.
Old Dominion Freight has also provided excellent service backing down a 400' driveway to deliver to my shop.
Never had a problem with UPS or Old Dominiion deliveries, tracking items are always getting closer to the destination when I check.
UPS and FEDEX here are both good delivering to the doorstep.

Watching the tracking on USPS shipped parcels is sometimes hilarious, shipped a parcel to Colarado from Washington state. Item ended up in Hawaii, then Alaska, then went to California. After California it was in Texas, then to Nebraska. Parcel came back to my address undelivered. Just makes you wonder what is going on. Take it back to the post office and they send it off again. Goes striaght to adressee. Go figure.

 

[JasperFrank]

Interesting that on Labor Day, a USPS carrier came up the hill and dropped off a large box, package right in the middle of our drive way entrance. We normally get a note in the mailbox, "Too Far," if it can't fit the mailbox, on the main road, and pick these up at a nearby pickup USPS location. This driver just tossed it out on the driveway. Even though the house is only 170 feet away and clearly visible with a good and wide circular driveway. This was on Labor Day. This was odd, as USPS never drives up the road with packages too big to fit a mail box. And it was on Labor Day and an Amazon Prime delivery. Today, I found all our mail was on top of our mailbox, and not in it. Me thinks, we have a new delivery person on meth.

 

[dstig1]

Overall we don't have many issues, but at times we have. We had a long time postal carrier retire on us and good service went to crap overnight. We got tons of neighbors' mail and packages, and vice versa. First time I actually went to the PO to complain about anything and the guy in charge said he knew all about it and we were getting what were essentially temps until they got through the process to get a new permanent driver. Once that happened, it went back to normal. Once in a while we get something for our next door neighbor but that is nothing more than he grabbed one piece too many or similar. No biggie. And they have always driven up to the door with packages unless the driveway was impassable in the winter. UPS is probably our most common one and gets a bit scared of the rather steep ~1000' driveway (paved) in the later part of winter and will more often leave stuff in a plastic bag by the mailbox, but again no biggie. Fedex has been fine too. We are not terribly rural being maybe 6 miles out of town and also near a major metropolitan area (~20 miles), and maybe that has some impact on this too.

The Sure Post thing or whatever it is works poorly IMO. I also talked to the postmaster about that when I complained that one time (above) as I was waiting for a late package and it was showing as transferred to USPS and they had it like that for days. He said it is a "trick" that UPS does where they load it on a trailer and mark it transferred but they don't send the trailer until it is full which can take days or more. He said they have no control over it at all. I think it showed up a day or two later.

My thoughts on all this is that is has a lot more to do with the driver and their work ethic than which specific logo is on the truck. I've had a few oddball screwups like UPS one time put a white Mcmaster padded envelope in a snow bank, nowhere near the mail box and I never found it until spring as it was perfectly camouflaged. Might have been a substitute driver for vacations or sick day, but who knows?

 

[ponytug]

Next to zero issues with deliveries here.
Only two problems I've had in years:

1) Ordered something from Home Depot. They sent it via OnTrac. Ontrac claimed they delivered... like at 9pm. I got the notification, looked all over for the package, nowhere. I told HD no delivery; they said bs, our shipper says they delivered! I filed with my credit card.
A MONTH later my cc says "shipper says they delivered". I call HD and ***** them out, they send me another package. THAT VERY EVENING lo and behold my original package, dated the previous month, shows up. When the new package came from HD, I kept it - it took me hours to deal with this.
Ontrac sucks.

2) Ordered something off of ebay, paypal pay. It got delivered... supposedly. I complained and paypal says shipper showed that the tracking number was delivered.
I went to the post office, and they said yes, it was delivered, to this address: ***** I'm like what, that's not my address. Yep, the shipper sent it to the wrong address, right zip code. I'm done with paypal, that's the last time I'm screwed by them, because of course you get one appeal and their check that the shipment made it to where the shipment was sent succeeded, but not that it was sent to me, and they closed it. I closed my account with them.

#1 is on OnTrac and HD. I'm somewhat leery about ordering from HD because of this, but still do it from time to time. If they screw up, I'll do what I can to get my goods and maybe more for my efforts; if they want to step up and be good for the customer and not waste my time, I wouldn't need to keep their consolation gift.
#2 obviously isn't USPS's fault, and thanks to them I actually knew that I got screwed (the address where it was delivered didn't respond to me query about the package; I think they were in on it somehow or just didn't give a $%#@).

Otherwise: our USPS here is great. No complaints by me, though people on NextDoor complain about everything. UPS is fantastic. Often comes in the man gate and drops things at the doorstep but more often leaves things at the gate or just inside the gate. No theft issues (yet). Fedex is very good, not quite the extra mile but no complaints.

We had a long series of issues with On-Trac. Packages that looked like they went to Alaska and back bouncing around loose in the back of a van. Packages hidden in the leaves by the road, otherwise known as tossing them in the ditch. Lots of packages supposedly delivered to our number three streets over. (Yet sometimes we did get them days or a week later, with the other street name scrawled on the package.)

After awhile, I learned to just lean on the vendor and point out as they choose the shipper, it was their issue- I didn't have the package.

These days if On-Trac is the shipper for a vendor, I keep looking. To me it is a sign of a poorly run vendor.

Over the years FedEx ground's distribution center has given us no small amount of grief. Recently, a manager traced a series of problems to their shipping software putting our packages on a truck route that didn't actually include our address.(!) I am hoping that cures the issue.

Overall, our delivery folks do a great job, though I wish FedEx would allow its drivers to have gate codes.

All the best,

Peter

 

[5030]

My only 'bad' experience (if you want to call it bad) is when we get a farm delivery with a tractor trailer and the driver comes without a pallet truck and I have to drag the pallets back to the end of the trailer with a chain and pallet grabber. PITA and it takes a lot of time and invariably our stuff is in the nose. I don't have a loading-unloading dock so it resorts to dragging and many times the pallets come apart too.

All the light item deliveries (Fed-Ex, UPS, DHL and USPS), all the drivers know to have dog biscuits in their pocket for our pup. He's fenced in, in the front yard but sounds nasty when in reality he's a milk toast Australian Shepherd and all the regular delivery drivers know his game. He wants a biscuit and a scratch. Smart pup. Loves people, not a mean bone in his body. He's got them all trained.