Instructed to Deliver Damages???

[User Name]

Today on my way to the clerk area to turn in my nss number and such packages, I was writing up two packages that I did not deliver because they were damaged. One package was an envelope that had the contents missing and the other was an Amazon box that had broken glass inside. Anyway, I was finishing up and a supervisor asked why I didn't deliver them, I showed him and he said that I should deliver them and let our claims department handle it from there. Are you kidding me, the Amazon box had glass coming out all corners and the envelope had nothing inside and this guy wants me to deliver them. He said from now on to deliver all packages no matter what the shape. I don't understand how this is good for the customer to receive an empty envelope or damaged merchandise. Have any of you been instructed to do the same.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Today on my way to the clerk area to turn in my nss number and such packages, I was writing up two packages that I did not deliver because they were damaged. One package was an envelope that had the contents missing and the other was an Amazon box that had broken glass inside. Anyway, I was finishing up and a supervisor asked why I didn't deliver them, I showed him and he said that I should deliver them and let our claims department handle it from there. Are you kidding me, the Amazon box had glass coming out all corners and the envelope had nothing inside and this guy wants me to deliver them. He said from now on to deliver all packages no matter what the shape. I don't understand how this is good for the customer to receive an empty envelope or damaged merchandise. Have any of you been instructed to do the same.

I always try to put myself in the customer's shoes and ask myself if I would like to come home and see a (possibly) damaged package sitting by my front door. You did the right thing and I urge you to continue taking care of the customer. I am surprised that your sup said that as we have always been told that if we catch the damage before we deliver we pay the claim at the wholesale value of the product but have to pay retail if we deliver it and a damage claim is initiated; in fact, we are told to "Future" these packages so that they can be either rewrapped and put OFD or RTS if the pkg cannot be made ready for delivery. Again, you did the right thing and I urge you to continue taking care of the customer.

 

[scratch]

There ain't no way I would deliver a package that is obviously damaged. Username, you did the right thing, that supervisor is nuts. Like Upstate said, you should look at this from a customer's point of view. If I came home from work and found a package with broken glass coming out of it or empty, I would raise all kinds of hell at the delivery company and the shipper. As a Driver, you are going to lose more money for UPS to take the time to go back and pick it up. And you will have to deal with a irate customer on top of that. I have always recorded damaged packages as damaged and turned them into the clerk that night.

 

[looper804]

We are told to sheet them as refused,didn't wan't.How long has that sup been with the company.I'm guessing not long and probably won't last long instructing drivers to deliver empty/damaged pkgs.

 

[buttere]

We are told to sheet as damaged and do not deliver.

 

[upsdude]

We are told to sheet as damaged and do not deliver.

Same here. It is what it is!

 

[Cementups]

If I know somethig is noticably damamged I will knock and ring the bell, apologize to the customer about hte appearance of the package and see if they would like to refuse the package right there on the spot. For me it has always worked out so far that the customer is really appreciative that I took the time and effort to make sure they were satisfied. Of course they aren't happy that their package is broke but at least i didn't run up and drop it on the porch and run back to the truck and pedal down before they even knew I was there.

 

[Bad Gas!]

Sometimes it boils down to between sup that drove pkg for awhile and a sup who was groomed out of college or parttime and drove for 30 days max...My sup drove pkg for 5-6 years swing-driving..He wouldn't advise leaving a busted up pkg...Now my dispatcher who knows everything and drove pkg for a month would give the bad advice..
There are other situations that come up from time to time where it helps to have a sup with driving experience...They understand from on-car experience not on paper experience..

 

[Jack4343]

I had an issue last Mother's Day with a broken vase full of flowers from 1800Flowers.com. I sheeted it as damaged and brought it back. The preload supervisor gave me the package back the next day and told me that I had to deliver it because we had an agreement with the shipper to deliver all packages of theirs, damaged or not. Anyway, I did deliver the box full of broken glass and flowers to an 70 year old lady on my route. She wasn't home and I left it at her door. I waited before I DR'ed it because I wanted to explain the details to her and to warn her when opening to box so she didn't get hurt but she wasn't there. Several days later, I had another box to deliver to her and I saw a brand new box from 1800Flowers.com sitting on her doorstep from Fed Ex! I will never forget the lessons learned from that experience. I will NEVER deliver another known damaged package on my car. If I am instructed to do so, I will go over their head all the way up to our Building Manager. I will lay the broken box on his desk and ask him if HIS mother would like to have this package delivered from us at her doorstep? Never again!

 

[stevetheupsguy]

If I know somethig is noticably damamged I will knock and ring the bell, apologize to the customer about hte appearance of the package and see if they would like to refuse the package right there on the spot. For me it has always worked out so far that the customer is really appreciative that I took the time and effort to make sure they were satisfied. Of course they aren't happy that their package is broke but at least i didn't run up and drop it on the porch and run back to the truck and pedal down before they even knew I was there.

I had an issue last Mother's Day with a broken vase full of flowers from 1800Flowers.com. I sheeted it as damaged and brought it back. The preload supervisor gave me the package back the next day and told me that I had to deliver it because we had an agreement with the shipper to deliver all packages of theirs, damaged or not. Anyway, I did deliver the box full of broken glass and flowers to an 70 year old lady on my route. She wasn't home and I left it at her door. I waited before I DR'ed it because I wanted to explain the details to her and to warn her when opening to box so she didn't get hurt but she wasn't there. Several days later, I had another box to deliver to her and I saw a brand new box from 1800Flowers.com sitting on her doorstep from Fed Ex! I will never forget the lessons learned from that experience. I will NEVER deliver another known damaged package on my car. If I am instructed to do so, I will go over their head all the way up to our Building Manager. I will lay the broken box on his desk and ask him if HIS mother would like to have this package delivered from us at her doorstep? Never again!

I couldn't have said it better.

Just today I was delivering pkgs to a surgical center. I told the guy that it appeared that something had spilled all over his pkgs. He accepted one and refused the other. This is just good old fashioned customer service.

Today, while delivering to Best Buy, the FedEx girl walked in the back door, I was at the dock. I noticed that she had a mangled box and asked the receiving guys if they wanted the box. They accepted the box and I thought to myself, at least I'm not alone out here.

Good customer service is the key to keeping UPS strong in a very weak economy.

 

[BrownSuit]

Today on my way to the clerk area to turn in my nss number and such packages, I was writing up two packages that I did not deliver because they were damaged. One package was an envelope that had the contents missing and the other was an Amazon box that had broken glass inside. Anyway, I was finishing up and a supervisor asked why I didn't deliver them, I showed him and he said that I should deliver them and let our claims department handle it from there. Are you kidding me, the Amazon box had glass coming out all corners and the envelope had nothing inside and this guy wants me to deliver them. He said from now on to deliver all packages no matter what the shape. I don't understand how this is good for the customer to receive an empty envelope or damaged merchandise. Have any of you been instructed to do the same.

This is actually against policy. All packages that are damaged, or found to be damaged in the system at this point are "supposed to be" returned upon noticing the damage to the shipper so that the claims process can be started.

We are NOT supposed to be delivering damaged merchandise.

Feel free to remind your OCS that this is something that our Chairman and CEO was very adamant about at the start of the year. If we didn't fix damage problems, we weren't going to have customers very much longer.

Don't be afraid to mention this to the center manager, this is a BIG deal and again goes against what was clearly outlined to all divisions at the start of the year as part of the Growth imperative.

 

[rocket man]

I think I no you did the right thing.WE were told to dr anything any where. TOday 3 drugies were watching me screw it i left a notice. ill try tomorow.IM SICK OF FOLLOW UPS.

 

[satellitedriver]

If I know somethig is noticably damamged I will knock and ring the bell, apologize to the customer about hte appearance of the package and see if they would like to refuse the package right there on the spot. For me it has always worked out so far that the customer is really appreciative that I took the time and effort to make sure they were satisfied. Of course they aren't happy that their package is broke but at least i didn't run up and drop it on the porch and run back to the truck and pedal down before they even knew I was there.

This how it should be done.
If the pkg is so far from repair, the driver should have the final word on it being delivered.
BTW, most damaged packages that I refuse to delivered are loaded in that condition, so they have "flowed" through the system in this condition and that is just flat out wrong business procedure.

 

[brownrodster]

Our damages are sheeted as missed.

 

[Coldworld]

This is actually against policy. All packages that are damaged, or found to be damaged in the system at this point are "supposed to be" returned upon noticing the damage to the shipper so that the claims process can be started.

We are NOT supposed to be delivering damaged merchandise.

Feel free to remind your OCS that this is something that our Chairman and CEO was very adamant about at the start of the year. If we didn't fix damage problems, we weren't going to have customers very much longer.

Don't be afraid to mention this to the center manager, this is a BIG deal and again goes against what was clearly outlined to all divisions at the start of the year as part of the Growth imperative.

how many of these damnages are cause by belts, overcrowed buildings, etc. This is a hUGE problem, and EVERYBODY who deals with ups on a daily basis knows ups as a company who "breaks ". Fedex is not known for this. What do you think the difference is. This is one reason why ups looses customers, and ups suits know this but it must not be that big of deal for them if this company looses customers or they would do something more than try to blame it on the preload. sometimes loading 6 cars really is too much. now theres "talk" of layoffs??? and having less people do more, big shocker, just wait to see how many damages there will be, and how many more customers were going to smoke out and have them begging for fedex. People were cutting our own throats with this kind of foolishness, when is it going to stop, were handing our customers over to fedex on a silver platter.

 

[over9five]

I would work as directed and deliver the damaged box. I try to always do what the boss says.

That's why he wears the tie, and you don't.

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

I would work as directed and deliver the damaged box. I try to always do what the boss says.

That's why he wears the tie, and you don't.

No she? ;/

 

[trplnkl]

In our center we have to call in to talk to a sup before we can record a damaged package(new policy to us), they have mentioned this to us several times in PCM. I guess they think they can tell over the phone if a package is really damaged or not. User name, if it were me, I would first go over the head of the DS sup that told you that, then I might even go higher than that if needed. Until I reached a point where I felt confident that I would not be disciplined for failing to follow instructions, I would do as instructed.

 

[cino321]

Today on my way to the clerk area to turn in my nss number and such packages, I was writing up two packages that I did not deliver because they were damaged. One package was an envelope that had the contents missing and the other was an Amazon box that had broken glass inside. Anyway, I was finishing up and a supervisor asked why I didn't deliver them, I showed him and he said that I should deliver them and let our claims department handle it from there. Are you kidding me, the Amazon box had glass coming out all corners and the envelope had nothing inside and this guy wants me to deliver them. He said from now on to deliver all packages no matter what the shape. I don't understand how this is good for the customer to receive an empty envelope or damaged merchandise. Have any of you been instructed to do the same.

If he has a problem with damaged packages being sheeted damaged, tell him you could always sheet it missed instead.

 

[JustTired]

Obviously, there must be a difference in the center numbers between a damage that is delivered and one that is recorded and not delivered. I'm guessing it's just another "numbers" game. The old "spend a dollar to save a dime" routine.