I did give B&H another try last week, and because they shipped the order FedEx, and did not give me any other option, it was again a total cluster. I placed the order on Thursday and needed one item as soon as they could get it to me, so I willingly paid an extra $20 to have it Next-Day Air'd and let the rest of the order go FedEx Home Delivery, because I was in no rush. Friday morning I get an email from B&H saying the FedEx Home Delivery package will be delivered to me on Sunday (which is BS because FedEx Home Delivery doesn't deliver in my area on Sundays) and the package that I paid an extra $20 for delivery would be delivered to me on Monday, with a signature required as it was an expensive item.
As usual, Friday morning I check the FedEx site and it says my FedEx Home Delivery package would be delivered by the end of day Friday (which again I knew was BS as the package hadn't even been picked up from B&H yet and it was already 11AM my time in Chicago). As suspected, no package arrived on Friday. Late in the day on Saturday, the FedEx Home Delivery package arrived, a day and a half before the package from the same order where I paid an extra $20 to have it overnighted. Mid day on Monday the FedEx driver leaves the "Overnight-Signature Required" package on the front porch, getting no signature, and no verification that I actually got it.
Plain and simple, FedEx sucks, and B&H shows they don't give a damn about their customer's needs or preferences because they refuse to give us any other shipping options.
Best,
-Tim
Just another anecdotal contribution, but this must be a Chicago thing in particular (though not exclusively). A few months ago, I ordered speakers from an audio vendor. For nine (9) consecutive days, Fedex Ground claimed that it had attempted to deliver the speakers, but I was supposedly unavailable to sign for the package---nine separate times! This was an outright lie.
Firstly, as with many of us now, I work from home; I was there at all of the reported times of their purported attempts. Secondly, to access my apartment building (or me), there is an entrance intercom that is linked to my phone. That is, I could be in a different state, and if someone needed to access the lobby area, I would receive their call and I could ‘buzz’ them in (I’ve actually done this from a different state!). They never called up, not once, and my phone carrier has a verifiable record of this fact. They also claimed that they left door tags, but this was not true either. Besides, if they did leave tags, then why didn’t they use the adjacent intercom.
They simply lied and dragged out a remarkably infuriating situation for nearly two weeks. Numerous calls to customer service were futile, of course. I finally managed to reach a local manager, and we agreed to send the speakers to a nearby Walgreens, which has pick up service. Nearby, as in on the same damn block---they could do one but not the other: too exhausted to argue further. I quickly learned, however, that the speakers were left off at one of their shipping centers, which I could not reach because I don’t have a car.
Finally got the speakers to the Walgreens, but as I had actually feared pretty early on, they were markedly damaged. Had to return. And yes, I did inform the audio store about this mess as it developed. They were apologetic but nothing more. Not too pleased about that either.
I understand that everyone has horror stories from every carrier, but I never experienced anything this deliberately corrupt. And since then, I’ve had somewhat similar experiences from Fed Ex Ground in that they once again claimed I was not available (although in these recent cases, they succeeded by the third attempt). Still, just in principle, to put the onus on the customer for a failed delivery when it is demonstrably untrue is inexcusable. I’ve had no issue with any other carriers at this location; none.
