Shipping questions
2As we push into the cooler months I’d like to start buying more wine. What is the current state of UPS shipping? I know with Fedex I was able to easily reroute a shipment if I was not going to be home on the random delivery date. Initially when casemates made the switch I did not have that flexibility as I tried and UPS said no but they would hold it at the customer center an hour away with an open for business time of about 4 hours a day during a time most people are at work. I was lucky that I was home the day that shipment arrived but it was not the norm.
During the holiday they don’t even attempt to ring the bell in my area, they instantly walk up with a sorry we missed you sticker if it’s something that needs a signature during a weekday. Has anything improved or do you just have to hope someone is home on the day it ships or risk having it sent back?
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@wyk3d It really depends on where you live. Sign up for UPS my choice. It is free. It will tell you were the alternate locations in your area are. I don’t have any close to where I live, so I am pretty much screwed. However, I still buy my wine here as the varieties and the prices are great.
For me, UPS started to become more user friendly for a short time, offering the ability to redirect to some local retail outlets. They quickly eliminated that and now only allow redirects to UPS stores. The local UPS driver refuses to deliver the packages there, instead choosing to ride around with my wine for a week at a time before dumping it at the UPS hub, about 45 minutes from my house.
The lady who works at the hub keeps trying to tell me that it’s up to the shipper if the package can be re-directed and I keep telling her that the shipper is not restricting the ability to redirect, it’s the driver who refuses to honor the redirect for some reason. She also keeps pointing out that “The UPS store isn’t us, they are independent businesses” and that they are used to getting paid for receiving packages and do not have to accept the redirects.
Meanwhile, the guy at the UPS store said they are willing to accept the packages although he did seem to say so somewhat begrudgingly and mentioned that he usually only accepts packages for people who pay to have a mailbox there.
It is no longer worth the hassle for me to attempt to redirect UPS packages, so my orders are now back to being few and far between.
Of course, YMMV.
Although there are stories of shipments being redirected to retail outlets that doesn’t happen where I’m at. Sounds like that is far and few between. My UPS store won’t guarantee acceptance if I don’t have an account with them. However I’ve become buds with my usual driver and he has spread the word to his usual subs that it’s ok to drop wine here no signature. And recently UPS opened up a new Customer Center a lot closer to home.
Wow. At first, UPS would only hold the wine at an inconvenient location. Then they switched and allowed you to pick a UPS store - yay! Now, they will not let me redirect my package to a UPS store until a delivery attempt has been made. This means the wine is going to sit on a warm truck for at least one extra day. Since my first delivery attempt is Friday, it will probably be sitting on a hot truck until Monday.
I’ve said this before and cannot stress enough. GO BACK TO FEDEX UPS IS THE WORST AND THEY’RE HORRIBLE AND I HATE THEM.
@LSeewoester I agree, please go back to FEDX, but in the meantime, have you tried this…when you order, enter the address of the nearest UPS Store, not your home address. Makes it nice, for me at least, because it goes straight to the store by 10am and sits in the A/C until I get there. No more beat up boxes! Otherwise it’s on that hot truck until 3 or 4pm, maybe even 5!
@kitkat34 @LSeewoester
Brown is a rather appropriate color for them.
Sorry. UPS it is. their UPS drop off program still new and maturing when it comes to wine. very sorry for the pain in these early stages.
@Winedavid49 I just wish it worked in rural communities. UPS has no drop off program anywhere close to me. It really sucks and it does come into my buying decisions.
@Winedavid49 It is encouraging to see that you are following the issues and hopefully pressing for them to be solved.
@Mark_L big brown is a big ship.
@Mark_L @Winedavid49 @chipgreen @wyk3d @rjquillin Just logged into the revamped UPS My Choice site. There is now an option, “My Delivery Preferences”, to send all of your UPS packages to a UPS Store or access point. No mention of alcohol being included or excluded, no mention of having to have an account if you choose a UPS Store as your option. And of course one may not want all of your packages redirected. But also it seems easy enough to toggle the option on or off.
Anyway, fwiw, never noticed it before. And curious if alcohol is indeed included.
@chipgreen @kaolis @Mark_L @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @wyk3d I tried to divert a shipment to a CVS access point in CT about a month ago but it caused an issue and UPS said they couldn’t deliver wine there so I had it redirected to the UPS customer center. Now the customer center is no longer appearing as an option - only UPS stores and UPS access points so not sure if the process has changed
@chipgreen @ctmariner @Mark_L @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @wyk3d Took a look at my options, and as you say, the Customer Centers are not listed. Looking closer it is stated as:
“UPS My Choice®
UPS Access Point® Locator”
I guess that doesn’t include Customer Centers? Because they are not technically Access Points?
Kind of dumb
@chipgreen @kaolis @Mark_L @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @wyk3d Yep - trying to figure out how to get it directed to the customer center when it’s no longer listed or whether to risk an access point again!
@chipgreen @ctmariner @Mark_L @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @wyk3d Ok, some wine on the way here via UPS. They make it very easy, kind of, to redirect. However it is $5.99 an occurrence, or apparently you can join My Choice Premium for $19.99/year and the fee is waived. For me the Access Point list changed with alcohol, only UPS Stores and Michaels with CVS dropping off. And as @ctmariner mentioned, the Customer Centers are not on the redirect list. Odd
@chipgreen @kaolis @Mark_L @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @wyk3d Getting the same message about $5.99 fee and “offer” to sign up for premium which is normally $40!
@ctmariner @kaolis @Mark_L @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @wyk3d
Great strategy. Entice businesses with low bulk shipping rates then sock it to the customers of those businesses with a bunch of additional fees knowing that, as end users, they have no choice of shipping companies.
Then call that subscription service “My Choice” in an ironic twist!
@chipgreen @ctmariner @Mark_L @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @wyk3d Correct. Casemates got a deal, but not necessarily casemates customers. Although it does seem to be evolving. And WD says UPS is here to stay. However if I had a vote, it would be FedEx all day from an end user standpoint.
Sorry for the hassles. But yea, i am protecting the deal price. That i can assure you. i mean, I’ll defend our deal price integrity against anyone’s. 14 years running.
@Winedavid49 That is why we are still here. I think for some of us, if we could choose and pay extra to have Fed Ex, it would be great. It is a logistical headache, but it might bring more sales for people who the Brown is not user friendly.
@danandlisa @Winedavid49 or, if at all possible, an option to pay extra for fed-ex shipment to see how many people really want it.
Has anybody else had this problem?
All the tracking emails I get from UPS now don’t link directly to the tracking page. I click on the tracking number, and it takes me to a page to log in to MyChoice (as if that somehow enables tracking?). Then I log in, but it doesn’t redirect me to the tracking page. The only way I can track them now seems to be by copying and pasting the tracking number from the email into the tracking box on the website. Super irritating.
Anybody else with this issue or is this something weird with my emails?
@klezman I signed up for text messages to alert me (the day before and the day of) of a delivery. If I follow the links on those texts, it usually allows me to track the truck on the day of delivery. I find this the most useful.
@Mark_L I prefer that things work as intended and clicking on the link in the email takes me directly to the tracking page as per usual. I don’t like text messages and I already get enough emails about the shipments.
@klezman Yup same problem but when I sign it I can get to the tracking but have one more click to get to it grrr
Got a notice from UPS that a shipment (WineSmith Sparkling Grenache) is arriving tomorrow (even though the order details say it should arrive next Mon or Tue). Problem is we are leaving town tomorrow morning (returning on Saturday). Didn’t want to take a chance on a failed delivery strikeout, so I had to have the shipment redirected to a UPS Store to pick up on Saturday (we will be passing right by it on our way home). Of course, UPS now charges a $5.99 “convenience fee” for this.
@Mark_L And now (after I paid to have it delivered to a UPS Store tomorrow) UPS notifies me that the box will be delivered (to the UPS Store) today.
We had a case that was supposed to be delivered last week. Out for delivery, then suddenly changed to no one available (despite the presence of 2 adults and 4 very alert dogs!?). Next day out for delivery again, no attempt made, just check back for rescheduled date…never happened and now they say they can’t find it, and not very helpful or nice about it.
Took a gamble on an offer and it’s projected to come on 1 of the 2 days that it absolutely can’t come. Good times, not paying a convenience fee because I don’t find that convenient at all. What happens after their attempts and no delivery? Does it go sit in the customer center for a few weeks before it gets sent back? Refund? Anyone with experience I that?
@wyk3d
The general policy is 3 delivery attempts, then it gets returned to sender. If you miss the 3rd attempt, you might still be able to pick it up at the distribution hub if you act quickly. If it gets sent back, you will get a refund from Wine Country Connect once they receive the returned wine.
@wyk3d you can put on a vacation hold to delay it from being delivered but I don’t know if they charge a fee for that.
@Twich22 there’s a fee for everything ups offers, a 9.99 charge.
I have my choice. Last shipment, I didn’t receive a notice that I had a package coming my way from UPS. I don’t know why, it was okay because I knew, but not 1 minute after the guy drove away I got “your UPS package has been delivered.”
Oh well, also irked me (hooray meh reference) that I had to run back upstairs to get my ID because the new driver couldn’t obviously tell I am close to doubling the legal age to receive wine. My old fedex guy would leave packages unsigned, even pre-covid.
But, it’s not going to stop me from ordering casemates.
So I’m waiting on a case of Anne Amie, and I’ve logged into the UPS website every day for the past week to track it’s progress, and every day it says the same thing. In transit, arrived in Charlotte at 4:13 AM on November 23rd, estimated delivery between 9:45AM and 1:45PM on November 25th. I’m beginning to suspect they’re going to miss that delivery window.
@xandersherry Today I learned that the UPS support bot isn’t particular helpful.
@xandersherry I should add, I’ve been reasonably happy with UPS’s performance until about a month ago. Including this MIA case, they’ve messed up three of my last five case deliveries. Fingers crossed that it gets better again.
@xandersherry
Just as a data-point, a similar issue happened with a shipment from wine.com. It sat around, according to tracking info, at the source location for well over a week, perhaps even two. Finally I called and they initiated a trace, where they claimed they found it damaged at it’s destination and then returned it to the shipper.
Have contacted wine a few times now asking their intentions, with no return call or other response.
Brown is brown and wine.com is lacking in CS.
@rjquillin @xandersherry
I actually had very good c/s from wine.com through their chat portal. Of course, it was poor c/s that initiated the chat but they fixed it. Shipped in high heat, had 2 bottles with obvious damage. Submitted pics of the pushed up cork on one bottle and leaking through capsule on the other and got a full refund.
@rjquillin Thank you for info. After my fairly useless conversation with the bot, they finally at least updated the scheduled delivery date (for the first time in over a week) to 12/3. So, hopefully it just shows up, but if there’s no further progress in a couple of days I’ll give them a call as well.
Every time, EVERY TIME, UPS fails.
Text from UPS - Dec 4
‘Delivery scheduled for Fri- Dec 11’.
Email from UPS Dec 11
’ Rescheduled Delivery Date: Monday, 12/14/2020’
Email from UPS Dec 12
’ Hi Bruce, we’re sorry we missed you.
Rescheduled Delivery Date: Monday, 12/14/2020’
This is EVERY TIME I have a wine delivery from UPS. They text me and say ‘Delivery on Tuesday’, then at 5:00 PM Tuesday night the delivery is changed to Wed try scheduling you time at home around that. What a pita.
CASEMATES, you have pretty good deals but I’m probably done till UPS is done.