Fedex Waives On-Time Guarantee Starting Cyber Monday | Hacker News Reader

Fedex Waives On-Time Guarantee Starting Cyber Monday

refundretriever.com

47 pointsbdcravens17 comments

Fedex is a strange company. I recently had an item shipped and it was listed for delivery on Friday. It was signature required and I happened to be out of the house when they tried to deliver it; I was left a notice saying they would attempt a delivery the next business day. The next day - Saturday - while I was at the rink skating (hockey) they tried to deliver it a second time. I couldn't believe it because typically you pay more for a Saturday delivery and I hadn't done that. The slip said they would deliver the 'next business day' again but now I had no idea if that meant Sunday or Monday. I tried to call them no luck... I was home sunday so no biggie, no delivery.

On Monday I worked from home to make sure i was there for the package; they didn't attempt to deliver it however. The next day - Tuesday - I finally got the package; I asked the Fedex guy why on earth they tried to deliver it on Saturday when I didn't pay for it, and then after marking it 'next business day' they didn't come monday (and monday wasn't a holiday). The Fedex driver told me they - the entire company - is closed on Monday - and that they have never delivered on Monday.

I didn't want to ague with him but I was pretty sure that wasn't right. I looked into it after he left and apparently there are two Fedex's, the one we all know and typically think of as FedEx and they usually deliver from m-f during business hours; there is a second variation though called Fedex Home (or something like that) and this is who was attempting to deliver my package. Fedex Home does not work on Monday but does Saturday deliveries.

I have no idea if this is public info, or if there is even a way to specify which you are using when you place an order. It's highly confusing and honestly I'll just avoid them going forward, it was a huge mess.

So I do shipping and logistics for a living. It is true - FedEx doesn't deliver on Monday.

When we asked why, their sales guy responded - very coolly - "we don't deliver on Monday because the package would have already been delivered on Saturday!" It almost made sense!

So now there's the question of why there's a FedEx "home" versus "regular." The reason is because there is different pricing for the different services. If you're delivering to a commercial address, this is generally cheaper and easier, because they always have someone to pick up the package and the truck is usually making a delivery every day. With residences, they don't have that predictability.

(More information - I love this stuff - when you buy something on, say, Amazon, the final shipping price that Amazon is charged depends on commercial vs residential address, and there are extra fees for multiple delivery attempts. This is true across all couriers, except USPS.)

For comparison, USPS delivers on Saturday, and UPS will deliver on Saturday for an extra fee.

Anyway, just thought I'd add some other interesting (maybe not necessarily useful?) tidbits to your post.

It actually makes perfect sense, and is a really good idea. For people having packages delivered that require a signature, and can't just take the day off work, their only real option is a weekend delivery, or waiving the signature. I'd MUCH rather be able to receive a package on Saturday at the expense of Monday, and I'm guessing most of the working world would as well.

> FedEx doesn't deliver on Monday

Kind of implied in your comment, but to be explicit, this is only true to residences (and if you try to mis-ship a package to a residence, you'll get dinged a residential delivery surcharge)

Because FedEx and FedEx Ground/Home Delivery are basically two different companies. FedEx Ground is RPS which became part of FedEx in 2000. FedEx drivers will not touch FedEx ground packages and vice-versa. They also are compensated differently. Ground drivers are paid on a per package delivered system and essentially operate as independent contractors. A friend of mine used to work for FedEx Services as a programmer and told me a story about our local Ground hub and how all the drivers chipped in to a pool so they could hire someone to load up their trucks in the morning so they wouldn't have to (some to sleep in later, some to deliver more packages in a day).

The FedEx we know, isn't actually FedEx. Nor is FedEx Home.

FedEx is really the airline (all the time) or long-haul, inter-city transport (most of the time).

The guys who come to your doors to do a delivery are generally not FedEx employees, instead they work for a local franchisee who scored the winning bid to serve that particular route (similar to candy/soda vending machine "contract routes").

FedEx Home is another flavor of this.

As is FedEx Custom Critical.

In general, residential delivery is one of the more expensive operations a carrier can undertake (at least in the US). So almost everyone who does large volume is scrambling to find cheaper ways to deliver their goods to you, such as:

- FedEx SmartPost (FedEx on the long haul, USPS on last mile)

- UPS SurePost (UPS on the long haul, USPS on last mile)

- LaserShip (Pick up from local Amazon warehouse, deliver to last mile)

- USPS Contract Delivery Service ($carrier on long haul, independent contractor for last mile)

- USPS in general (FedEx, UPS, or contract carrier on long haul, USPS employee for last mile)

You missed that the "FedEx we know" is FedEx Express (or the red one). Those are time definite deliveries shipped by air seven days a week.

Even ground/home delivery has guaranteed delivery times, it's just end of day (guarantee suspension and weather issues notwithstanding)

(Disclaimer: I'm Director of Technology for Refund Retriever, where we audit and dispute late deliveries, etc.)

Federal Express Express, eh?

Keep in mind that those lesser expensive options have no on-time guarantees

I've had by far the best results with just regular USPS. FedEx is usually the worst, I've had them not even bother knocking and just leave the slip for the next guy multiple times (literally watched them do it on camera). UPS can be bad like that too but not as bad as FedEx.

The FedEx you're probably thinking of is the Express division. It's the original service oriented around high-priority packages getting places quickly via plane.

This part of the company uses purple/orange colors, and is staffed by FedEx employees.

The FedEx Ground (business) and FedEx Home (residential) operation is an entirely separate transportation network, formerly called RPS before they were aquired. They don't share long haul trucks or delivery trucks. And they're staffed by contractors, not by FedEx employees. The Home Delivery part of the operation operates Tuesday - Saturday.

Perhaps I'm mis-reading your post, but I felt it necessary to point out that FedEx absolutely does deliver on Mondays.

fwiw TFA is about FexEd modifying their guarantees for delivery during the holiday period, but not by much (e.g. Express packages can be 90 minutes late from the commit time).

As others have mentioned, package carriers are strange beasts, mostly defined by their regulatory status. FedEx is an airline (really) while UPS is a trucking company. This has deep implications for all kinds of things. Years ago FedEx bought a "UPS-a-like" company and re-named it "FedEx Ground". This entity is regulated like UPS which is why you see different trucks delivering for FedEx in the same area (orange are "Real FedEx -- Express" while green are "UPS-FedEx -- Ground").

The Monday thing applies to a service called "FedEx Home Delivery" which afaik is a FedEx Ground service aimed at retail deliveries to residences. That service it appears does not deliver on Mondays. This has nothing to do with TFA.

from TFA: "The money-back guarantee for FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery services will be suspended temporarily for packages picked up on Monday, November 28, through Saturday, December 24, 2016."

"Suspends", not "Waives". Wrong direction.

Good catch. Perhaps mods will edit? (I can't it seems)

Worth noting that in the past it was using near mid-December when the waiver kicked in (UPS still is near mid-December, though it'll be interesting to see what happens next year)

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