I bought a book. I bought it online at Amazon and had it shipped to my brother's. He offered (I asked) to drop it off at the squint's hotel while they are in Houston visiting a customer. All looked rosy. Amazon then opted to use a fly-by-night shipper called "Velocity Express". A bunch of clowns. I watched in online in dismay as they managed to not deliver the book for two days in a row. I tried calling them on the weekend but the clowns were off doing what clowns do on the weekend. My brother called this morning and it seems that in their wisdom they decided to return the package to Amazon "undeliverable". Seems they could not find the house.
Now I was irate. I called Amazon. I expected a long wait with millions of reroutings. Wrong. Ten seconds on hold and boom, I got to talk to Tracy. She took care of everything. They are reshipping my book (a different copy) with either UPS or Fedex overnight. No charge. And they're terribly sorry. Just so you know, Tracy does not choose what shippers are used, so it's not her fault. And Yes "Velocity Express" are a bunch of clowns. Hopefully I will even get my book - it's the bible, so I expect divine service. Although it's a New Testament with Apocrypha (the not-holy bits) , so maybe my god is pissed, and she is sending me a message.
A very long arm
15 hours ago
11 comments:
FYI: A package, six by six inches square, arrived for you yesterday. gb
I absolutely agree, Velocity Express is the worst.
I ordered a Kindle jacket. I paid for it to be shipped 2 day air, to arrive on a Saturday.
I get an email morning saying its out for delivery by some company called Velocity.
Never heard of em.
Did a search and found a few things...
They were just in bankruptcy a year ago or so.
They rely for delivery people on anyone with a car who needs a few extra bucks.
A lot of people here on Amazon have had bad experiences with them.
An hour after I get the Out For Delivery message, I got a text message saying a delivery was just attempted, and will try again.
Well that couldn't be right, someone WAS there at the time, waiting.
So I called Velocity. I figured this could still be fixed since the delivery attempt had happened only moments ago.
I verified the delivery address, and it was correct.
I don't know where this Velocity guy went, if he really went at all, but it couldn't have been the delivery address.
The Velocity customer service guy said OK, I'll call the driver and tell him to come back.
I said, if there's any questions or problems, tell the driver to call me. Do you want my number? He said, we have it, told me what it is, correctly, and I said great.
Then a few hours pass and I know something's wrong.
So I call Velocity again, and this time I'm told the delivery will be Monday.
I'm furious.
Not only did the guy not deliver it the first time when someone WAS there, but he also didn't deliver it the 2nd time, didn't even try to, apparently, and didn't call me.
When I complained to Velocity, the guy said, "Hey, if you really needed it so badlly, you shoulda used UPS or FedEx"
Is that the most incredible customer service defense you ever heard in your life?
"If you really expect to get something on time, why the heck would you hire us?"
I'm so mad I'm going to write a couple of choice letters to CEOs.
I'm going to tell Bezos that if I EVER get Velocity for the delivery company again, I'm buying an iPad, selling the Kindle, and never buying anything from Amazon again.
I'm going to tell the Velocity CEO that I hope Amazon pulls their contract.
My guess is Amazon is a pretty important customer for a company trying to get back on its feet.
If they were smart they'd treat Amazon shipments with a little extra sense of importance.
Idiots.
I have a feeling whoever was delivering that day just decided he had something else to do, couldn't find anyone else to make the delivery for him, so he forged a bogus delivery attempt.
I'm truly astounded that Amazon would use a company like that. It reflects very poorly on Amazon and I'm really, really disappointed.
Amazon refunded my entire shipping fee, which I'm happy about, of course.
I'm also going to recommend to Amazon that they not pay Velocity for this particular shipment.
Maybe after eating a few shipment costs, Amazon will drop these incompetent idiots and let them go back into another bankruptcy where they belong.
Well, Anonymous, I couldn't agree more. Velocity Express are a bunch of clowns.
Not just clowns... ASS clowns
In all fairness, I have to make the following announcement
I sent what I wrote above (more or less) to the corporate folks at Velocity.
I have received a few replies from them this morning, and I spoke with Velocity's VP of Operations.
Without getting long-winded and going into specifics, I'll just say that Velocity's response to my problem is hands down the best response I ever received.
They were very gracious, completely sincere, helpful, understanding, all that.
They really impressed me.
I did have a problem I feel should have been handled better.
But I now believe Velocity is genuinely sincere about, and dedicated to, making sure it my experience was an anomaly.
I hope Amazon and Velocity continue to work together, and I hope in that time Velocity proves to be a reliable delivery option.
Maybe the driver that day is one, but the VP of Operations is no ass clown.
Thank you for following up. What can I say except "Only In America". I don't know how many times I've complained over here about things only to be told "What do you care!".
It's good to know people actually do care.
I have to disagree with anonumous here.
The VP ass licking now should not be taken seriously. The customer had a promise of delivery, the delivery company not only did not live up to their side ofthe contract, they acted like asses.
A company who hires asses like that with zero training and zero employee comitmnt should close down, rethink their strategy and then maybe give it another attempt.
These guys will continue to give poor service and then suck up to the few who complain further.
I have to agree wholeheartedly about Velocity Express being a bunch of idiots! I am currently in the middle of a huge fiasco tyring to get a small package that Amazon chose to ship through them. I have already informed Amazon that they have probably already lost me as a customer because if I can't trust their delivery service to deliver the package on time as promised then I will shop elsewhere.
I just canceled my Amazon Prime account thanks to these assclowns at Velocity Express. They've made two straight f'ed up deliveries and they were the first two deliveries from them to me. The first was delivered on time, but in my my mailbox. That's a federal offense. The second, they delivered two days later than the delivery date, after falisfying a delivery confirmation, and once again into the mailbox.
Amazon won't promise not to use them for me again, and I can't take their pizza delivery drivers going into my mailbox, lying about delivering when they didn't and delivering late. Check this thread out:
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html%3Fie%3DUTF8%26cdForum%3DFx20DX5GEB7TUX8%26cdThread%3DTx1U5LLUOL7BCJ7&ei=iHyIS8_PHZXKsAOYkOmGAw&sa=X&oi=nshc&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAsQzgQoAA&usg=AFQjCNHPBVNCsgjhnsITF_hlVWOrhNue2Q
These delivery folks have a hard incentive to lie and deliver late, thanks to the volume of their deliveries and the payment method by Velocity. And you're not alone when it comes to these lies.
I was a huge Amazon fan, I have a kindle, loved the convenience of shopping with them, but now, I'll only buy things from them when I can't find them any where else. Amazon kind of sucks right now.
Add me to the disgruntled "where the hell did my package go" crowd. I would have chalked it up to a bad day at the office for them but they lied to me and said they did not have the package. I do not like being lied to by someone I'm paying money to.
Either Amazon or Velocity Express or both are mucking things up and don't care. I have a feeling that Amazon is losing money on the Prime subscriptions and so they’ve gone with a low ball regional bidders.
By simply reading all the recent reviews about Velocity Express one gets the strong impression that this company has a problem with its 'on the ground' workforce; either the people delivering the items and the drivers or the people manning the distribution points.
Personally I'm glad that you got a gracious response from the higher ups but I think that with so many people having so many issues with this company it means that there is something critically wrong with how it’s being operated. I wish Amazon would stop using them.
I'm astounded at their customer service. If I need something critical and at the last minute I –do- use next day via fed ex. But if I plan and know I will need it by say Friday I order two or three days in advance. That doesn’t mean the item isn’t critical or required and yes, it should come on the day promised. Even Fed ex screws up but not this often.
Oh, I had to vent. Thanks, ;)
I only buy digital media (MP3s, Kindle books) from Amazon now.
I had 3 deliveries screwed up by Velocity Express. I complained to Amazon and they said, "We're sorry but we don't let you choose carriers"
Ok - now I buy from Best Buy, Walmart, Target, or at other online sites.
I don't want to waste my time trying to track down bogus deliveries. I work from home and they wouldn't attempt delivery but say they would.
Anyway, it sucks because Amazon used to be my go-to place for ordering most things. Now it's a PITA to deal with Velocity Express and Amazon shows no willingness to fix it.
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