Fedex Update

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It appears that there is one wonderful woman on the ground, Carmen, who works for Fedex.  Not only had she been telling the CAT people (those are the people who are responsible for helping customers) that she thought she might have the bag, none of them wanted to listen.  She found my cell and described the bag, and voila, she was right.  I am seriously curious how much Fedex spends on the extra layer of people in the CAT department. 

Yet, the story does not end there.  She put the bag on the back of a truck out of an area in Colorado to get to another area in Colorado to get up to us by yesterday morning.  I figured it wasn't going to happen so I waited one day and then tracked the bag.  The bag still said en route.  I made all the necessary calls again this morning.  One person actually told me Carmen wasn't in until noon and only she could help me (that was a CAT person).  Doesn't Carmen have a boss?  Aren't phone calls and information recorded in the system?  I found the boss, Marty, and he assured me that the bag was on a truck out to me and they were guaranteeing delivery by 1030am.  Guess what, the bag was already here from last night but Fedex didn't know that.  Unbelievable.  A multi-billion dollar company with hand-held computers that were designed years ago to input all information at each stop and they don't use them.

Then, another guy, Aaron, who is the manager of the ground facility, called me and he said he knew what happened in 20 minutes.  Shipping ground from the home is a problem because the people who pick up the bags don't have the proper equipment to tag the bag so they just slap on a tag.  The tags get lost and that is when the trouble begins.  Ours, lucky us, is an extreme case.

Carmen to the rescue again.  She found the other bag, sent me the pictures to confirm and it appears we will have all our bags before we leave.  Now I get the pleasure of attempting to get Fedex to pay for the boots, boards and clothing I had to buy.  I plan on getting the number of the President and calling daily.  Will keep everyone posted on what and if anything happens there.

But, I have also decided that I will be using Luggage Forward for life.  I used them when we had bags to get back from Paris to NYC.  It was seamless.  The charge is a little bit more than doing it myself but they are the ones who are constantly tracking and making sure all goes according to plan.  Luggage Forward will be picking up our bags on Monday to ship them back to NYC.  Keep in mind, you need to contact Luggage Forward 24 hours in advance so they can overnight the appropriate documents for you to use.

Comical, perhaps.  But, I'm on vacation and this really should be the least of my worries. 

Comments (Archived):

  1. Banet

    Call me crazy, but wouldn’t it be easier to just check your bags at the airport like most everyone else?I expect you go through all this to avoid the risk of having your bags lost or delayed… but from what I recall of your previous posts, Fedex isn’t doing any better than an airline does. :-/Peterhttp://www.FlashlightWorthy…Recommending books so good, they’ll keep you up past your bedtime. 😉

    1. rachel

      also now there are charges for bringing extra bags, by the time all is said and done for ski equipment it makes sense to ship.

      1. Gotham Gal

        Yes. I was blown away when they charged us $15 per bag to check. I mightas well have shipped ahead and carried on. If they charge $15 a bag thenthey better not lose them.

    2. Gotham Gal

      Also, when we went skiing over Pres Day Weekend, we shipping the equipmentout and then just did a carry on which is the most wonderful thing in theworld.

    3. Gotham Gal

      It isn’t crazy to do that but the airlines don’t do a great job with the skibags. It is really easier to not deal with them at all. We generally leavefor 2 weeks and one week is skiing, the other is in LA to see my brother andhis family so we send the winter back. Insane, yes, but it works.

  2. marshal sandler

    No Peter Fedex is better try it you may like the new age of travel-why stand in a line when you can move right to the plane no lad- not everyone carries their bag’s I am such a travel snob that I will only fly non stop- Fed Ex all my luggage to my hotel room, but when I worked I flew a minimum of 100 thousand miles per year TRAVEL KNOWLEDGE IS POWER I only Carry MY Kindle When I travel see I would rather read than carry baggage I am like Gotham Gal not everyone else, my time is valuable I If I want to shlep – a tedious or difficult journey I buy a horse and wagon HEH-