Want reliable, on-time packages? Use another company!

I had to ship 3 passports to Malta from South Africa. The company who requested it, issued 3 separate waybills. One package was delivered within 4 days. The other two first got stuck in Germany due to some security scan. No idea why because it's the same documents. Then it got delayed in France, due to a "non-UPS labor dispute". Again, if it's non-UPS, then why is it holding up UPS shipments. In total, 2 of the 3 packages were delayed by 3 days. And every time I phoned, the info I got was behind on what I saw on the tracking page. No help whatsoever. Also took them +-8 hours to reply to a mail. The receiving company did what they were supposed to do & issued a returning waybill. After 3 days, I called up the local branch as the package was not yet picked up. No explanation as to why.

We have flights booked for Monday, 27 March. By some miracle, tracking on the UPS website showed a delivery date of Friday, 24 March. That's until 9am, the morning of the 24th... Tracking suddenly updated to "additional transit time required as the delivery is in an outlying area". 50km... Yes, I know, a massive distance!

Called up the branch. They have to scan & hand it over to a sub-contractor, which will only receive it at 5pm. This means, my package will only be delivered on Monday. Additional transit time is a lie! My package is not moving anywhere for 8 hours. Asked if I could drive to the depot & pick it up myself. The answer is no, because it has to be scanned. How long does it take someone to hold up a barcode scanner to a package & press a button??

Earlier this year a document required my physical signature. I used DHL. It was sent from South Africa to Malta & back again. The entire round-trip took 8 days. No issues, no delays, nothing.