FedEx pointed out that shippers of high-value goods "can request Hold at Location or Direct Signature Required services, or redirect a package to FedEx Office”
Can’t tell you how many times FedEx has just completely ignored the direct signature required part. If it’s not something like alcohol where the government will crack down on them then they don’t care.
You can look up the signature for the package on their app. I can’t sign my name in Times New Roman…so clearly I didn’t sign for that. If I do sign for it then it’s an image of my actual signature.
They also have a bad habit of delivering stuff to my neighbor without ever setting foot on my property because apparently they can’t read house numbers…FedEx is terrible in my area.
FedEx is terrible in my area
FedEx is terrible in everyone’s area.
The big thing is unlike UPS, they use a lot of contractors for delivery, and well, you get what you pay for.
FedEx is amazingly bad
It baffles me that “delivering” packages like this is a standard practice over there. I’m in the EU, and if I’m not home by the time the delivery is attempted, the company would call and ask when is a good time to try again, or would leave the thing to be collected at an office.
Most of us wouldn’t buy from someone who made us jump through hoops like that.
I would not buy from someone who used a parcel service that just dumped my stuff outside.
You’re free to opt in to having your time wasted if you want.
It’s not really a lot of hoops to jump through, and this seems to be standard practice by DHL, UPS, FedEx and others, over here.
I actually appreciate getting the options on delivery day. E.g. I usually get to choose what collection point they leave the package at (so I can pick a spot I pass by going home from work or whatever), or if I want them to come back the next day, or have it dropped off at my office (not always an option, kinda seems to depend on how stressful a day the driver is having). I certainly prefer it to risk having the package stolen, then reporting, waiting for a new delivery…
Of course, if the package is large, heavy or otherwise unwieldy it might be a pain not having it delivered directly to the door, but if I’m expecting such a thing I try to be home to accept delivery.
Call it what you want; anyone who changed their policy would go bankrupt overnight as they lost 95% of their sales volume, because no one else does that silly nonsense.
You’re free to waste time going to pick up “deliveries”, and this has more or less always been the case. But that’s a dealbreaker for the vast majority of the population, because no other competitor will pull that nonsense.
Welcome to the rest of the world mate. This issue here is another “no way to prevent this, says only nation where this happens” as The Onion would say.
OK, in the rest of the world you have dogshit service. Why is that relevant to the fact that Americans are unwilling to do business with companies that don’t respect our time?
Stolen packages aren’t an actual problem at any scale, and I’m willing to bet shrinkage from theft is meaningfully lower than it is in physical stores. Expecting people to sit around all day waiting for deliveries is a terrible trade off for a rounding error worth of loss to the retailer.
Bring back chopping off hands for thieves.
