My Crappy Fedex Experience

I mentioned a while back that Fedex was on my Crappy Company list and that I'd explain why later.  Now that the whole situation is resolved and I'm not as angry as I was before, I thought it would be fun to fill you in.

In early April my in-laws asked if I could find a specific porcelain statue for them on Ebay.  They do not have their own Ebay account and I had done this for them before a few times, so I found the statue they requested and made our bid.  We won the statue and I paid $848 on April 13.

On April 20, we received a Fedex door tag that said that we weren't home and they would try again tomorrow.  I called to explain that we work until 5pm.  The rep said that since it was Fedex Ground, we couldn't schedule a delivery time but we could have the package re-routed.  I agreed and gave them my work address.  After typing all of that into the ticket, the rep paused and then simply said that my address wouldn't work since my name wasn't the one on the package - my husband was the listed recipient.  I asked if I could provide my driver's license to verify the same address, but she said no.  I had to call back with my husband's work address. 

The next day, April 21, we had another door tag on our house.  I called and asked why the package wasn't re-routed to my husband and they said that a signature-required package couldn't be re-routed at all.  I asked why I had spent 45 minutes on the phone the day before if it wasn't possible.  I was then placed on hold.  When the guy finally came back, he apologized that I was misinformed and said they'd stick to their word and re-route the package to my husband.

My husband received the statue the next day, April 22, and dropped it off at his parent's house on his way home.  When his parents opened it, the statue was missing part of its head and hand...they were shattered.  I emailed the Ebay seller and he responded that he'd get the claim number from Fedex since it was insured and I'd need that number to have it shipped back.

I finally received that claim number on April 26 and called Fedex to have the package picked up.  The guy on the other end of the phone walked me through all the info they needed including my in-laws address and then asked me how we were going to pay for the pickup!  I asked why we'd need to pay since the package was insured and they told the seller that they'd pick it up.  He responded that all pickups required payment.  I asked what our free option would be and he gave me an address close to my in-laws home.

On April 27 my in-laws took the package to the address we were given and were told that the Fedex Express office could not take a Fedex Ground package.  My mother in-law asked why the rep gave us this address and she responded that she didn't know.  She then pointed to a phone on the wall and told my MIL to call and ask.  After talking to another guy, my MIL was told that the package would have been picked up for free and asked why we didn't do that!!!  She told them what I was told and they apologized and arranged a pick up time.

The package was finally picked up on April 28 and Fedex still had not refunded the seller's money when I inquired about it on April 29, May 3, and May 4.  Ebay refunded my $848 on May 18 after the seller refused for several weeks - he wanted to wait for his reimbursement even though he still had my cash in his Paypal account.

To summarize, I ordered this stupid statue on April 13 and didn't receive my refund until May 18.  I spent at least 2 hours on the phone with Fedex and another hour on the phone with Ebay.  All of this could have been avoided if Fedex had paid attention to the box that said "This Side Up" or even if they had given a refund faster.  They "misinformed" me about package re-routing policy, the package pickup policy, and even the address for the location they wanted us to go to instead!  I'll never use that Ebay seller again since he took my money hostage, but I also won't be using Fedex voluntarily after all this.  Argh!!!

Have you had any super fun dealings with Fedex?  Would you like to vent too?