Packages lost by FedEx?

[microwiz]

I got the URL to the tracking information page (courtesy of the OLPCNews forums) shortly after Christmas - December 26 or 27 - and was puzzled to see that apparently my XO had shipped on December 13th, but never made it any further than arriving in Chicago.

Now, many calls to (and much misinformation from phone people at) OLPC later, I'm still no nearer to having my XO. I went to FedEx and had a package trace done - they confirmed it was lost, no longer present in the Chicago center, and gave me a case number, which I provided to OLPC. Today I discovered that all that information had apparently been lost by OLPC - it wasn't part of my record at all! It seems that whoever I had given it to before had neglected to enter or save it anywhere.

The person I spoke to at OLPC handling FedEx claims also stated rather flatly that they can't cross-ship another laptop, which sounds rather like I'll have to wait out the claim, and I won't be receiving an XO in timely fashion, if at all.

I'm very close to the end of my rope at this point - my next step will be to dispute my transaction with Paypal, for an item never received. OLPC's own January 15th 'deadline' seems like a good line to draw in the sand for that.

(Do actual OLPC employees read this forum? I hope so.)

[microwiz]

Here's a link to the full saga at the OLPCNews forum, including recent developments.

[zz9]

I have read your saga microwiz, and unfortunately mine seems worse!

I am a day one morning Canadian donor (of course, makes matters even worse).

4 emails back and forth to John Hall assuring me my laptop was at 'the warehouse' and that it was in the 'shipping queue' - these emails started on Jan 21 2008. I asked if my PO box was a problem and supplied an alternate address, John assured me he had personally checked and all was fine, I should have laptop in 2-3 days. I waited 4 days and contacted him again, and he said he checked again on my status and all was fine, would go out ASAP (see communication below).

So, finally today I realized I could actually track the package on fedex, not by using the tracking number, but using 'track by reference' since I never got a fedex tracking number, only an OLPC 700000xxxx number.

The results of tracking this on fedex are disturbing and yet oddly do not surprise me:

=============
Jan 21, 2008 9:24 AM
Delivered
Mississauga, ON

6:42 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
MISSISSAUGA, ON

Jan 18, 2008 4:36 PM
Arrived at FedEx location
SAINT-HUBERT, QC

Jan 17, 2008 5:35 PM
Shipment exception
SAINT-HUBERT, QC
Cannot locate recipient

4:00 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
SAINT-HUBERT, QC

Jan 16, 2008 4:42 PM
Arrived at FedEx location
SAINT-HUBERT, QC

11:35 AM
Delivery exception
SAINT-HUBERT, QC
No attempt made, delivery scheduled for next business day

7:46 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
SAINT-HUBERT, QC

Jan 15, 2008 12:52 PM
Delivery exception
SAINT-HUBERT, QC
No attempt made, delivery scheduled for next business day

7:02 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
SAINT-HUBERT, QC

Jan 14, 2008 9:09 PM
Departed FedEx location
MISSISSAUGA, ON

12:33 PM
Arrived at FedEx location
MISSISSAUGA, ON
===========

So, we see it went out from warehouse in Ontario, came to Quebec, within 20kms of me, then went BACK to Ontario, where, on Jan 21st, someone named J. Farouk signed for the package, accepting it for delivery, thus marking the status as delivered! The signature proof is up on the fedex site.

So, the package was delivered to the wrong PROVINCE, with no notice to me at all. If I had not figured out fedex tracking, I would still be waiting on PatriotLLC, who would still be saying, 'it should be there soon'.

So, now I have to open a case with fedex (did it immediately). I have to track down all these people who are trying to hide from me and attempt to force someone out of inaction and covering their bottoms.

Perhaps the worst part of all the faked 'checking' Patriot supposedly did, ie: from Jan 25th, 4 days after my laptop was fraudulently marked as delivered, Mr. Hall says:

----
"Your order is definitely at our warehouse as communicated earlier this week.

I know they are working as quickly as possible to get them out the door.

Please expect to hear something next week but your order is definitely going out very soon.

Thanks for your patience."

Note the 'definitely' TWICE. If anyone had simply tried to track the package they would have seen the exception - let alone they should have been notified of a delivery exception automatically (hey it is only 2007-8, can't expect much).
----

This is not the end of the story, this will drag on for months I am sure. I have tried to keep slightly amused at the total lack of organization, technical support and client tracking systems/databases, but am no longer amused. I have grave doubts my donated laptop will ever get anywhere, most likely it will be stolen off a pallet as well somewhere, and lost in the annals of BrightstarPatriot/OLCP customer databases.

These stories need to be told, this was a debacle of the highest order.

[Goatview]

Good lord. If I were you, I would call BS on John Hall and send him your saga. What a phoney! I thought I was getting somewhere with him because he at least used my name in the emails but now it turns out that he probably answers everyone the same and never looks ANYTHING up at all. I suppose it will get censored out again, but here's John Hall's email: jhall@patriotllc.com. Other than sending him an email to say he's been found out, I don't know why anyone would want it anymore.

Jeez. I was feeling a bit hopeful this morning but now I'm back to totally pissed and skeptical as hell.

[microwiz]

Actually I'm pretty sure that Steve H. was right, and John Hall and Patriot don't have much to do with FedEx-side claims and replacements

Brightstar is the shipper, so apparently they have to do all the claim stuff. I hopefully will have good news out of Brightstar in the next day or so, so please take a look at my thread on the OLPCNews board if you haven't already:
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1076.0
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1076.new#new <- this one takes you to the latest postings only if you're already following along.

Thanks and good luck to you!

[zz9]

"Actually I'm pretty sure that Steve H. was right, and John Hall and Patriot don't have much to do with FedEx-side claims and replacements "

Note I have never contacted Patriot or Mr. Hall regarding fedex claims etc. I was contacting him regarding the shipping status of my laptop before I realized fedex had lost it, and he claimed repeatedly that the laptop was waiting to be shipped, when in fact it had already been lost for 4+ days, and had had a delivery exception thrown 10 days prior.

I have now also sent a *single* email to help@laptop.org with all details.

If any volunteers would like to contact me, I will be very nice and polite I will work with you to resolve this. I place the blame for this part of the shipping where it belongs, with fedex, brightstar and patriot.

However, the initial problem did stem from OLPC accepting PO Boxes as shipping addresses.

[zz9]

I have also unfortunately been through this with fedex before, and so I can give you some hints:

1. Get the name of the person assigned to your investigation, and unless they are a supervisor, get their supervisor's name as well. Take all names of everyone you talk to and note them down with time and number called. I was asked to present some of this info as supporting evidence at one point

2. Get a direct contact to them (investigators), they (fedex) will always say someone will call back, and they very rarely do (had 7 non-contacts last time, I initiated re-contact every time but one). I managed to find the email of my investigator by looking at forwarded headers in the generic 'we are investigating' email they sent me. I was lucky. I also got it out of them that the investigation was happening at a specific site, and I looked up the local phone number for that warehouse and called and asked for the claims department. This turned out to be the same person I had been emailing.

3. They (fedex) will likely not contact you on resolution of the claim. They will just cut a cheque to the original shipper and then it is up to original shipper to put you back in the system. My last experience was I could not find the status of who paid who and who was actually responsible for shipping me my product (the customer service reps at fedex can no longer give you ANY information once a claim is in process... this is infuriating, because there is also no official claims department you can connect with). In the end, the product just showed up at the door one day while PR people on both sides were still denying responsibility for the claim.

I tell you this both to help you, and to highlight my frustration at the current situation.

[Infamy]

ZZ9,

If you could, please send us an email at help@laptop.org, with a link to this thread(or restate the situation in the email). That way all of support can see it, and run it up the ladder.

-Infamy

[zz9]

Hi Infamy, and thank you very much for caring

As noted in my last post: "I have now also sent a *single* email to help@laptop.org with all details."

Have not had any response. I did not link to this post, but all relevant info was in my email. Do you suggest I send another with this link? I would hope that either way someone will look at it.

[Infamy]

Nah, one is fine. We can append the link to your ticket. You should see something regarding it by tonight. Thanks!

-Infamy

[zz9]

Never got any response from any of these people of course, I would have been shocked if I had. help@laptop.org is not much help.

It turns out fedex is not at fault whatsoever, the entire blame falls on OLPC and its associated partners. The shipping address was wrong (well, no, it was a PO box, which I thought had been 'fixed'), and instead of trying to redirect package or holding it, Brightstar apparently signed for the package(!), marking it as delivered according to fedex, and has been 'returning it to shipper' since Jan 14th. So obviously, it is back in the US, sitting in a box somewhere being ignored.

Great fun this is! I love sitting on hold trying to track down packages, getting assurances they will come tomorrow (fake and false of course), getting ignored, insulted and lied to blatantly by PR and support reps. The responses I got are even better since when I was asking, the laptop had already been sent back to the US!

Don't bother saying I was not lied to, I am not going to pussyfoot around this. I have been told lies multiple times and from multiple sources in an effort to stall me. I must admit it would have worked too if my laptop had not gone missing in transit, because I would have it now and would not care as much about the preceding problems.

I'll apologize in advance to the volunteers here, I do not include them in my wrath. Infamy, you really are doing this community a great service even just by hanging out here and trying to help...

[zz9]

Supervisor cheryl just told me they have no idea of average turnaround time for brightstar enquiries. I asked if she had ever made a request to them in the past months, yes she had multiple times, but had no idea how long it took them to respond. No, there is no way to contact brightstar, my only follow-up possibility is to spend an hour on hold with donor services.

This after having to correct them repeatedly on the details of my package. According to their 'databases' (I am loathe to call them that), the package had not shipped yet (although I was D1)... They did not find this strange, nor the fact that a fedex tracking page clearly had the same OLPC reference number, and showed package getting sent back to them. They cannot track it at this point.

I was told to:

1. Wait for supervisor to call me back (I declined and waited for one).

2. File a claim with fedex for it (I had just finished speaking with fedex, and they assured me that package was out of their system, it was delivered to brightstar, no claim is possible, since package was delivered).

3. To wait for laptop since it had not shipped yet (see above).
3a. That the tracking page on laptop.org said it had not shipped yet (as if that was a definitive source of pertinent information, rather than the total mess we know it to be).

4. To contact help@laptop.org (they could not/did not respond to my support requests - apparently email snafu on their side (I guess it is possible, but still oh so sad) - they also do not have access to the correct database according to one of their volunteers I managed to contact).

5. Wait for a call back (this from supervisor cheryl).

and lest we forget

7. We can't re-ship you a laptop anyways since we DON'T HAVE ANY.

Keep on reading, plenty of fun still to come!

[Infamy]

zz9,

PMed you regarding this. Wheels are turning...

-Infamy

[pgf]

there's another sad misdelivery story over at the olpcnews forum....
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1964.0

[microwiz]

Yeah, compared to that guy, I had it relatively easy!

In fact I think I had it easier than a bunch of people whose status was "Delivered - no signature confirmation requested" - because it was not too hard for me to get FedEx to conclude that the status of the package was in fact lost from the Chicago, IL FedEx hub/depot/center/whatever, and that they would approve a claim once it was filed.

That same guy appears to have had FedEx respond to him that the status of his package was "properly delivered to the correct address" - but the address that OLPC had for him was slightly incorrect.

I wonder what the next step for him should be? (Besides posting in this forum himself, that is.)

Oh, good, I think I see him(?) here now.