UPS Customer Service Failure



This is Brown

 You can pull out all the procedure manuals you like, UPS employees and supervisors - it doesn't change the fact that your delivery service failed me, and your customer service was designed to be impotent in fixing that failure.  I'm not holding my breath that UPS will change its policies, nor am I deluded enough to think that UPS is the only shipping company that has inane procedures.  I can only hope this serves as a warning to companies and individuals - including myself - that doing things "by the book" does not mean you're doing them in a way that you and your customer come away happy about.
So I have a little story to tell about how "not to do" customer service.  Let me know if you think I'm overreacting... I'm curious.
The Message
A few weeks ago, Joey DeVilla of Microsoft went out of his way to send me a Windows Phone 7 test device for my WP7 app.  After a week of testing, I attempted to send the phone back via UPS on November 2nd.  Late last Friday (November 12th), I received a voice mail message while I was at the PASS Summit telling me they couldn't deliver the package, and it was very urgent that I call them as soon as possible. The message said they couldn't find the address I was trying to ship the package to.
At this point, I assumed they were calling me to verify that the address they were shipping to was the same as where I'd requested the package to be sent.  I also assumed the worst - that they did have the address I gave them... but I'd given them bad information.  In either case, I was preparing to ensure I gave them the correct address so that they could deliver the package.
At this point, I was slightly annoyed that it had taken them 8 business days to report to me that they were unable to do a job I'd asked them to do overnight.  I was completely willing to take responsibility for giving them bad information, but couldn't understand why it would take them so long to contact me about it.
The Phone Call
I called back Monday morning (November 15th) to find out exactly what the problem was - and the UPS store clerk told me they couldn't locate the address I'd shipped it to. Fair enough.  Like I said, maybe I got it wrong.  I asked for a customer service number so I could try to clear this up.
I called UPS directly, and explained that there seemed to be an address problem.  I rehashed the information with the service rep for a second time, but this time she explained their delivery failure process.  It was one I was familiar with, being on the receiving end of deliveries, and missing the delivery driver.  The driver would try to deliver the package three times over three business days, leaving post-it notes on the door with time windows of when they'd try delivering the next day.  If that failed, UPS would send a postcard through the mail to inform the recipient a package was waiting for them.
But I still didn't understand why it took UPS eight (business) days to get back to me about a bad address since that procedure didn't seem to apply to my situation, so I asked her when they had first tried to deliver the package.  She said November 3rd - the day after I'd shipped it.  It seems to me that if I'd given UPS a bad address, the driver would have realized it then, and started some corrective action.  At this point, I began to understand that the service rep and I were having a failure to communicate.
Apparently they did take corrective action... but that action was according to their (generic) "delivery failure procedure".  The service rep explained to me (again) that since the driver couldn't deliver the package on the first attempt, they would have left notes, and tried two more times.  Since those attempts failed, they mailed a postcard to the address instructing the recipient to call them for pickup instructions.
At this point, the call went from bad to worse.  When UPS didn't receive any call within five business days, the package was rerouted through their system (and is now on its way) back to me.  So not only did they take two weeks to not deliver the package - they contacted me too late to help them fix the problem.
The Failure To Think
I have to say I have absolutely no problem with attempting redelivery and sending a postcard - but only when the cause of the delivery failure is that the intended recipient was not at the destination to accept the package.  In that situation, attempting to "get the attention" of the intended recipient is the goal, and those post-its and postcards are valid tools.
But this is your procedure when you can't find the address?  Seriously?  Put the package back on the delivery truck for two more trips, because somehow, the destination will suddenly magically appear on the street?  (Or because you're assuming that the driver you trust to make deliveries was incompetent enough not to locate it the first day?)  When banging your head against that wall doesn't yeild results, you send a postcard to an invalid address, because Canada Post will somehow be able to locate an address that doesn't exist better than your driver can?  Seriously?
Since I still had the service rep on the phone, I started off by validating to her that their "failure to deliver" procedure was just fine for an unreachable recipient, but then said it didn't make much sense for an unreachable address.  In an attempt to jumpstart the thinking process, I asked her to clarify the procedure (again).  When she reached the point about attempting to deliver the package for three business days, I interrupted (politely) and asked where the driver would place the post-it note to inform the recipient they were unable to deliver the package.  The service rep paused briefly, apparently handling my "illegal argument" by ignoring my question, and pressed onward to explain that they then sent a postcard.  I interrupted again and asked them how would Canada Post find the address if they couldn't?  No answer.
I asked for a supervisor and we basically did the same dance.  I refused to accept that their procedure was valid for the situation, and they refused to accept that the situation didn't benefit from their bulletproof procedure.  I specifically asked what I could do to help them deliver the package and was told that I couldn't do anything (now) except for pay them to ship the package again, once I'd received it.
The Failure to Serve the Customer
Despite reaching a higher authority, I didn't reach a higher cognitive capability at the call center.  I'm almost convinced it simply doesn't exist at UPS.  The "procedure" crutch was used several times.
If the horse isn't quite dead yet, here's the "procedure" they applied:

Problem	Course of Action
Driver "fails to deliver the package" the first time	Leave a post-it, and attempt another delivery the next business day
Driver "fails to deliver the package" the second time	Leave a post-it, and attempt another delivery the next business day
Driver "fails to deliver the package" the third time	Send a postcard to the destination address
No response from the recipient within five business days	Return the package to sender, inform sender delivery failed

Again, I have no problem with that process if "failure" is (specifically) "there was nobody there to deliver the package to."
But isn't the situation a little different if they couldn't find the address?  Why waste everyone's time (and gas) trying to find something that (apparently) doesn't exist two more times?  Why try sending a postcard to an address that you've just confirmed doesn't exist?  On top of all that rediculousness, UPS calls me after they've started the process of sending the package back to me.  It's already on the plane back to me.
Is This Rocket Science?

Problem	Course of Action
Driver determines the given address doesn't exist	Contact the shipper to confirm delivery address

Unlike people that "don't make it" in Query Optimization, those that "don't make it" in the package delivery business don't fall back to building rockets.  Seems like they fall quite a few rungs down and go to work for UPS.
I won't be using UPS (by choice) any more.  (At least until FedEx or Purolator screws up worse, I suppose - I'm a realist.)  On top of UPS' failure to deliver my package, they failed to service their customer properly.
The result is that they can gleefully check off all the little "customer service" boxes they want to... but in the end:

1. They shipped a package twice across the continent... after only being paid to do it once.
2. They wasted several trips for the delivery driver trying to drop a package off... to a non-existent address.
3. They wasted call center time leaving me a voice mail message telling me there was a problem with my package... that I could do absolutely nothing about.
4. They wasted 30 minutes of call-center time explaining a procedure... that didn't apply to the situation.

Bottom line - UPS lost money on this transaction.  Do you agree with my conclusion that they needlessly lost a customer too?
UPDATE 2010-11-29: I just checked what happened to the package I resent using Canada Post - and lo and behold... it's delivered.
I received the package back from UPS on the 18th, and sent it back out again via Canada Post on the 22nd.  Canada Post didn't update their tracking information to show me when it left their local depot, so I stopped watching - but they show the package was delivered on the 25th - in three days time.
I gave them exactly the same address as I did to UPS.  This only serves to validate my opinion that some part of UPS is (or multiple parts are) incompetent - and they should be avoided.