Just in time for the holidays, UPS has apparently come up with a cost cutting measure that they’re trying to sell as being beneficial to customers. Note: This new “Access Point” program only works if the driver actually attempts to make the delivery.

I only found out about the change because yesterday they failed to deliver a package to me even though I was home all day and had received packages from USPS (in the morning) and Amazon’s new courier service (in the afternoon). I don’t have the TV or radio/music on when I’m working & waiting for a package, so there’s no way I’d miss it if a driver came and rang the bell at my building.

No notice was left stuck to the door, no one rang, NOTHING—yet I, the customer, was supposedly not available? This happens with UPS every other month or so. It was annoying in the past, but with this new Access Point program it’s a major problem for me that no further delivery attempts will be made. I don’t understand why USPS, FedEx and Amazon’s courier service can all deliver my packages without issue, but UPS face plants with regularity, ergo they’re not saving me “a trip to a distant customer center” they’re just wasting my time and causing me aggravation.

So if you’re planning on sending important packages this holiday season, you might want to take this into consideration when choosing a shipper. Ditto if you’re an Amazon Prime member who’s counting on two-day shipping, especially if the package is heavy or bulky and the recipient doesn’t have a car or is elderly/disabled and can’t physically pick up the package and carry it back home.

Kathryn Maloney let loose on Twitter in July, chiding United Parcel Service Inc. for sending her package to a grocery store for pickup after making just a single delivery attempt at her home in Brooklyn.

She had ordered a 35-pound air-conditioning unit and didn’t fancy the six-block walk home in 97-degree heat. As Amazon.com considers speedy, pinpoint drone dropoffs, UPS’s reliance on retailers “makes zero sense to me because to me it seems so regressive,” Maloney said in an interview.

In time for the holiday season, UPS is rolling out to 100 cities a program
that requires people in some neighborhoods to fetch packages at nearby locations — such as a druggist or dry cleaner — if they weren’t home to meet a driver. UPS says the service, introduced a year ago in New York and Chicago, will trim costs by ending second and third delivery attempts, and can save consumers a trip to a distant customer center. […]

More: UPS Asks People to Pick Up Packages Themselves

Well, we’re on the third consecutive day of UPS failure to deliver now. The exact same thing happened yesterday as what happened Wednesday: They agreed to make another delivery attempt to my home—luckily I got home from my doctor’s appointment early as the redelivery was supposed to happen on 11/6 not 11/5, but that’s another story (and another failure on UPS’s part).

Guess what happened? I get home at 3:45 PM and there’s no notice on the door, so I’m thinking, “Great—at least I didn’t miss them.” 4:00 PM passes… 5:00 PM… 6:00 PM… At 6:21 PM I refresh the tracking info and see yet another claim that at 6:12 PM—nine minutes before—the driver attempted to deliver the package and I wasn’t here. WTF? I run outside to se if there’s a notice on the door. Nope. Same as yesterday, no driver rang my building’s bell, no notice was left, NOTHING.

To make matters worse, I was also told by a UPS customer service rep last night (via email) that I’d receive a phone call from the local office by 10:00 AM today—it’s almost 2:50 PM now and not a peep from them. Online tracking once again says it’s out for delivery… to the access point. I’m livid.

FWIW, this isn’t the first time I’ve had a problem with drivers never showing up and then saying I wasn’t home. It’s infuriating.