Let’s say you own a business and are looking to hire customer service people. You would want to hire people who could understand the customer’s wants and aggravations. You would want to hire those who could really help your customers out. UPS has not done so. They used to but not anymore. Now all of their customer service people are Malaysian, or at least it seems that way to me. Even when I was referred to someone who was English, it ended up being a person at a UPS hub who couldn’t help me with what I needed.
I had a package that I needed UPS to come and pick up for my husband, and I was given the task of arranging its pickup. Years ago, that used to be an easy thing to do, and arranging the pickup was easy. I took care of all of that online and didn’t have to speak to anyone. The pickup was another story though.
UPS does make deliveries to me but not that often anymore, so I wasn’t sure when the next UPS driver would be coming up here. That is why I arranged for my husband’s package to be picked up. And there was a charge for the pickup, which I agreed to pay just for the convenience of knowing they would get the huge package he needed sent back.
On the morning they were supposed to pick it up, the package was ready and sitting outside on my front porch for them. I was out back with my dogs who never fail to alert me when someone turns in at the very bottom of my quarter-mile long road. We were out for quite a while, but no one ever turned up my road.
When we came back inside, I checked my email and found one from UPS waiting for me. It said the driver had tried to pick up my package, but it wasn’t ready. It wasn’t ready? And the driver had been up here and left without me or my two dogs knowing? No way had he come up my road without my dogs alerting me. And I had paid them!
So I called customer service, and I ended up having to speak to a person from Malaysia (at least I’m pretty sure it was Malaysia) even though they said they were in Stanton, KY. Since there was no one there they could transfer me to that spoke good English, that told me all I needed to know. And no matter how many different numbers I called, I kept getting someone with a heavy accent. So I just quit out of frustration. I would have the next UPS driver who came up here to take the package for me.
Do I have anything against Malaysian customer service people? No. I’m sure they are great people, but I have a very hard time understanding what they are saying; they do not have an easy time understanding me either. And since they aren’t from the United States, they don’t exactly understand how things work here.
This led me to search for online complaints that had been made about UPS even though I had never had any trouble with them before. Of course I hadn’t called customer service in many years, and the last time I asked to be transferred to an English representative, there wasn’t a problem in them doing so. Below are the links to the many complaints I found.
https://complainthub.org/ups-us-help/
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.ups.com?page=2
And a few days later, I did have another UPS driver come to my house to make a delivery. First, I want to say that every UPS driver who has come here has been wonderful, especially this one. He was very nice and understanding. I told him what I had been through with customer service, and I told him how I got an email claiming a driver had been up here to pick up the package when one hadn’t. And I told him that I wanted the fee I paid for a pickup to be refunded to my card unless it was going to him.
This was the first time delivering to my house for this particular UPS driver. He said he had absolutely no trouble finding my house, and that any other driver shouldn’t have any trouble either. He offered to take the package for me before I even asked him to. And he said he would tell his boss about my experience with customer service and the email I got saying a driver had been up here when he obviously hadn’t. Oh, and my money was refunded. So this frustrating experience had a happy ending although an apology from UPS themselves would have made everything perfect. The place did receive their package though and money was put back on my credit card.
What have your experiences with UPS been like? How are your UPS drivers? Are they nice and friendly? Not so nice? And how have your experiences been with customer service? Let me know in the comments.
Writing Prompts:There could be several different stories that you could write from the frustrating experience I had. You could take my experience with UPS and make a story out of it.
Your character could be a UPS delivery driver who is looking for a place where they are supposed to pick up a package but they can’t find the right location.
Or your character could be from Malaysia and be working as a customer service representative for a company in the United States. What frustrations and experiences does your character have with the people they are trying their best to help?
