UPS – Nope, just nope

I recently made use of UPS to have a tool flown in from Austria to Durban and I can say with complete confidence that I have never experienced such an impressive level of complete incompetence, total apathy and non-existent attempt to correct THEIR mistake.

On 12 October my package arrived in South Africa. Because my company name has a vague semblance to another, my package was diverted by Zoliswa, without permission or even checking if this is correct, to Cape Town and documents sent to an unknown clearing agent there. No update or information was given to me and emails resulted in no response at all. It took ages and very many call centre phone calls to finally track down this clearing agency who confirmed and showed me proof that they immediately (the very same day - 12 October) redirected the paperwork back to Zoliswa at UPS, informing her that I am not one of their clients and they will not be doing the clearance. So as of 12 October Zoliswa sat on this, ignored the situation and simply saw no need to rectify it. The early morning of 23 October is when I finally tracked down the mysterious clearing agent and confirmed that my package is still in Cape Town. The clearing agent kindly copied me in on her email to Zoliswa at UPS (and several others) once again instructing her to please act upon this delivery to Durban urgently. I also then contacted Zoliswa and the other copied in parties to request that this please gets prioritised - my client urgently needs this tool. It’s now been 3 full working days and nothing has been done.

Mistakes happen – I get it. But their inaction and disinterest in rectifying the mistake is what should be a cautionary tale to all. Avoid UPS at all costs.