Do you really believe that?
With respect Hoax, I came from Customer Service when I was hired back in peak of 1984. Corporate began downsizing the department in the mid 90's. The department was abolished completely by 2000, with the exception of PCA-Preferred Customer Associates, which was abolished by the end of the 1st quarter this year, 2009.
I have always been told that Customer Service was a cost to UPS since we didn't make money for the company. We took pickup orders, solved customer problems and assisted the sales force. Now the Customer Services jobs are held by a vendor company, only they don't problem solve or help the sales force. They strictly send messages to the centers. Service issues are dumped on the sales force, taking up all their selling time. How can they sell and handle the many service problems?
During the first couple downsizes they eventually closed the phone centers and created Customer Support which continued assisting the sales force in solving customer problems, which was a much smaller unit. Before long Customer Support was abolished as well.
BD is the new name for what used to be considered Customer Service District Office who managed the sales force, with customer service under the same umbrella. In the old Customer Service days, my district had about 90 C/S reps during non-peak season and just over 200 during peak. That number does not count the sales force. Customer Service, or better known as CSTC is gone. DI - Delivery Information, is gone. Payroll, I hear is gone, although some say it's just been relocated. Pieces of Finance are gone.
With all the downsizes that I've seen over the last 15 years, IMO, it won't be long before UPS consists of drivers and management. I truly don't believe that there will be any admins left. There are not that many of us now. I am very Thankful to be able to come to work. I know my days are numbered, in the end. I hope I can hit retirement age before they boot me out the door. I say my prayers every single day!
If we don't do something to fix the service problems our customers are going to divert and UPS will begin to downsize centers.