Not if they’re going to make shipping a package online so flaming impossible.
I used to have a UPS account years ago, but apparently they purge them after a year of inactivity. So I went to their website to try to ship a package this morning.
So they give you the option to ship as a guest, but then the website throws an error and tells me I must login.
In the meantime, I get an email from PayPal stating that there’s a pending charge.So there’s obviously no problem with UPS getting access to my PayPal account. Take note of that, there’s going to be a test.
I wasn’t really all that excited about registering, so I end up calling their customer support people, who promptly shunted me off to a technical support department.
Tech support has me try submitting the shipment again. Same error message. And another pending charge in my PayPal account. The rep told me I needed to create an account.
Fine. I’ll create an account.
Oh, this is getting fun. Try again with a different email account, a different user name, the whole works. Same result.
Call tech support back. The lady manages to create a profile for me, although every bit of information I gave her was horribly mis-spelled, including the UserID.
OK, I can live with a UserID that’s not one of my choice. Go into my profile and change all the information. She directs me to the area where I can add my PayPal account as a default payment method. Go through all the steps. The PayPal side seems to work fine.
Another error. The lady tells me helpfully that there’s something wrong with my PayPal account. Oh wait, remember? You can actually submit requests successfully so oh, gee, I guess there’s not. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been using this account successfully for years. She tells me it’s because I have tried to access the account unsuccessfully three times, so I have to wait a full 60 minutes before trying again.
No, sorry. UPS threw the error the first time I tried shipping a package this morning. I ask her for someone in her department who is able to really dig in and find out why UPS is throwing all these errors. She says there is no one, and that I’d have to try contacting the programmers at corporate.
Good luck with that.
OK, fine. I guess I’ll make a credit card my default payment method.
This is my standard business card which works like a charm everywhere else in the world.
Call Tech Support back. They helpfully direct me to the number provided with the error message, saying that I have to call that number to get any help.
So i call. And get a recording. Naturally, this is Saturday and no one can take my call until Monday.
By now, I’ve spent over two hours just trying to ship a single package.
I have come to one inescapable conclusion:
It’s clear UPS doesn’t want my business. Their clunky and inoperable website, and the inability of their representatives to help me overcome these myriad problems, has guaranteed that they won’t get it.
The Old Wolf needs a drink and it’s a bloody shame he’s teetotal. He’ll just have a good cry instead.
