Delivery can be hit or miss. I have an excellent UPS guy who always delivers the packages exactly how I want them. FedEx seems to have random drivers. OnTrak (who Summit uses) is even more sketchy. Sometimes just looks like kids driving their parents car out delivering packages.

I don't think I've had anything lost on my end recently but I've had stuff I shipped lost. Or perhaps I should say "lost" since I don't really know what happens. Once or twice a year I'll ship something to someone and the tracking number says it was delivered but the guy sends me an email and says he never got it. Fortunately that doesn't happen very often.

Funny you mentioned about how hard it is to contact an actual rep from fed ex (and not some outsourced customer service person who can only answer the most basic questions). I responded to a call from an elderly woman who had sent 8 thousand dollars in cash through the mail after being fooled by a phone scam. She sent it overnight delivery via fed ex. I must have been on the phone for a good 35-40 minutes until I was finally able to reach a security rep who was in a position to locate the truck and stop it just prior to reaching it's destination. It came just in time as I had to break from that call for a higher priority one just as the security rep had a fed ex dispatcher stop the truck. Once I got in touch with the security rep they were a pleasure to deal with (and the security rep was a retired detective who knew his job very well). Getting through the automated line, then through the outsourced help line though was a major pain.


From what I have seen, I believe Fed Ex uses a higher number of temporary or part time drivers versus UPS where most of the drivers I have met are career drivers. I actually had a Fed Ex temp driver steal my I phone from off my challenger. I was working on the car in the driveway with the the phone on the driver's side fender pulled right up to my door. I walk inside for a drink, hear my dogs bark and look out to see a fedex guy walking back to the truck after dropping off a package. I walk outside to grab the package and my phone was gone.

-UPS lost my new in the crate Lenco 4-speed for over a week. I had to make a "federal case" in person to get the all rolling.

-FedEx left a large sum $$$ cashiers check in our driveway next to the gate post unannounced and in the rain. The gatepost is 1/4 mile from the nearest building.

-USPS lost so many packages by theft out here in the wild wild West that you can't have them delivered to you door if your address is beyond 95xx. You must pick them up with the little yellow card and a photo ID now.

It pays to be cautious no matter where you live. Dope addicts are everywhere these days and it seems everybody I know has one in the family or did (RIP) at one time. That said we have 32 cameras on the ranch!

UPS deliveries to private house:
All you get is the "3rd and final notice" (no knock, no bell) stating that there were 2 previous attempts but you weren't home, call this number which no one answers.

Career driver: can't be fired, union intervenes.

This just happened to me last week.
I bought a window regulator and motor assembly for my gmc dually from rockauto, which they shipped via UPS.
UPS claims via tracking # that it was left at my front door at 11:30am. I left work at noon to get it, and it was not there.
I disputed it with rock thru rock's website. They put a trace on it, and it will take 8 days.
UPS delivers at least monthly to my house from summit and others, and I've never had a problem before.
Also the shipping weight of the missing package was 1.7 pound. The reg and motor weighs at least 6 pounds plus packaging.

From now on, I will change delivery to hold for customer pickup.

My favorite FedEx story: waiting for a car part on a Friday afternoon... "on vehicle for delivery today". Nobody ever came, but suddenly the website shows "Delivered 8:27 pm". I even looked in all the possible places for the box. Nothing.

Next day, Sat. morning around 11:30, the driver's WIFE (who was not a FedEx employee) pulls up with her personal vehicle full of FedEx packages and hands me the box. When I asked WTH was going on, she just said "oh, he got really busy last night" and drove off. Called the 800 number to complain about flat-out lying, couldn't find anyone who gave a... care. Not surprised.

Our UPS guy has been on the job a long time and his elevator moves. No problems with him ever.

10 years ago I had two boxes 2x2x3 ft that they said was delivered. Not at my place so called the office, they didn't have a clue and said when driver got in they would find out where they where. Well while waiting I got a call from a gentleman who said the boxes where at the end of his driveway, 26 miles from my address. His driveway is 1/4 mile long over a hill at the end of a dirt road, he just happened to be outside and heard the truck. Luckily my shop name was on the address and the guy looked it up to call me. I have a city adress and the boxes where delivered in the county, go figure, total idiot. These guys own there trucks too. I will not use them today.

Got ya.

I have to overnight parts all the time to service machines and we use fedex. every time there's a problem its because the normal driver is off. my ups guy is great, he just texted me yesterday morning at 7:30 in the morning to tell me he has a set of tires and boxes from summit wanted to know if my wife will be there or he would call me and I give him my code to the garage and he puts my parts in there. he's great.

USPS fun....

I bought a 58 lb chunk of lead off EBAY for ballast, it arrived in a small "If it Fits, it ships" USPS box.

I'll bet there were a lot of pissed off people along the way.

Yeah I'm guilty of that. If Eberg orders a bunch of damper tools from me or other small steel part I usually ship them in a USPS priority box. Those medium boxes will hit 50 lbs pretty quick when packed solid with steel parts. I'm sure some folks get surprised when that 50 lb box hits them coming off the conveyor line!

After having packages taken from my porch a couple of times over the last few years, I bought one of those "Ring" doorbell things. It's great. Whenever motion is detected on my porch, I get a message on my phone. Camera works great and you can speak to the person on your porch. Awesome product.

USPS has had a set of 4 speed pedals I sold at the dead mail/recovery center for a month now. Tracking number says it made it to Des Moines then to recovery center. Some how the address label is now not readable. I did put an extra label in the box but so far it still has not been delivered and probably won't be after reading all the stories about lost packages sent there. I have done a lost mail claim, email sent to USPS and had my post master do lost mail claim.

I had two different instances from Summit, Nevada wharehouse. On-Trac was the culprit both times delivering to the 3000 block when my address is the 6000 block. The last one (just last week) was recovered by my USPS small mail man who brought it up to my house after noticing it sitting down there somewhere. On the very cool side, Summit sent another box next day air the minute I noticed the tracking had said delivered and it wasn't. They sent UPS to pick up the extra one. The first time it happened it was about $16 bucks worth of carb bleeds and stuff. The extra one showed up about a week later and I just kept it. Maybe last weeks snafu was the old karma chameleon.

interesting.... I've had summit on UPS only for years due to Fed Ex probs here locally on a couple occasions. "IF" you miss Fed Ex, or they won't drop the package, you have to drive to the local processor station which is 25 miles away.

I prefer UPS and have never had any issue using them. Maybe the fact that I've been close friends with a couple of UPS drivers (retired or active) helps in some odd karma-ish way. The only problem is the convenient UPS customer counter at the local Office Depot closed (looks like they do FedEx now), and the UPS center is 20+ miles way, and in the opposite direction of where I drive to work from home. Bummer.

There are two FedEx/Kinkos locations have I used, one close to home and one close to work. If it wasn't for the fact that they've been hit-or-miss on getting packages delivered on schedule, and then this latest PITA w/ the subject Jeg's order, I'd feel better about using them. But I don't.

USPS... I guess they've gotten better, but I can't forget two particular instances: one was a part that took at least 2 weeks to get from VA to CA, and another where I sent a money order to a person to buy a part and it ended up in the Twilight Zone. I gave up after him not getting it after a couple weeks, put a tracer on it, and sent the seller another m.o. so he wouldn't think I was yanking his chain. He got the second one when expected... and the missing one showed up the week after the replacement had already arrived. Seriously???

No, karma is when your order NEVER shows up and you're out the purchase $$$ 'cuz you kept the replacement order instead of sending it back.

What you experienced last week was merely "an inconvenience."

Don't worry, I'm sure karma will still be back to bite you.

Just yesterday I was waiting on a summit order
and I seen the truck drive away from my house..
I looked out the door and nothing... I walked
out to the mail box(I live in the county)..
nothing... I was starting to wonder.. on the
way back to the house I figured I'd check the
front door.. yep its there.. I have 2 signs..
one on the front door and one at the back of
the house garage.. it says in LARGE letters..
ALL DELIVERY'S TO THE BACK DOOR... I guess the
driver was new and cant read.. only one other
time did I have a problem... a carb went to
some one else.. that box was torn open but Summit
took care of it

In another time, delivering mail was one of the things I did for a paycheck. Not everyone handling parcels looks like The Rock. Plenty of females and older people doing the job, and they have to deal with the "if it fits, it ships" boxes. I would suggest making sure that it is properly taped and secured to keep the stuff inside form coming out of the flimsy boxes. Mark the boxes, large and easy to see, "HEAVY" and include the actual weight so people know what they're dealing with before they drop it or hurt themselves.

FedEx uses contractors who employee delivery people who are usually overloaded, overworked, on an impossible schedule and underpaid, and as a result, turnover is fairly high. I try to avoid them, regardless where I get stuff. My UPS guy is good as gold, often brings the Smartpost crap to me a day early instead of dumping it at the Post Office, and gets to my place early and the same time every day.

I built a home for the guy who owned the Southwest franchise of UPS, all of NM, SW Texas and all of Colorado...$$$ type guy.

He said it's cheaper for UPS to just toss the box out of the truck and pay whatever claim comes from it than try to re-deliver, re-deilver...etc etc...