UPS Lost my Latitude D420 (or it was stolen before arrival)

I wonder how often this happens, I was closely tracking a Dell D420 that I had ordered and it got to NYC last Friday. It went out for delivery a week ago and UPS just kept updating their site saying "Out for delivery". I call them and they say "oh it'll be here today" for 3-days in a row. Finally I call Dell and UPS admits they have no clue where it is anymore and lost in their system. So now Dell has to reprocess the order and ship another D420 which of course will take 2-weeks. Totally sucks, but I'm more peeved at UPS than Dell because UPS would never admit it was lost and Dell was very apologetic and are rushing another order and were totally helpful on the phone to getting this resolved.

UPS Tracking for D420

NEW YORK, NY, US 07/07/2006 4:39 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY <== (Lost at this point)
NEW YORK, NY, US 07/06/2006 8:55 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
SECAUCUS, NJ, US 07/06/2006 8:31 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
07/06/2006 12:42 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
NASHVILLE, TN, US 07/05/2006 3:06 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
07/05/2006 2:12 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN

 

That doesn't sound good. I whonder how often this happens.

I hope you didn't need that notebook immediately.

 

Well if it was out for delivery then you would think that it either got delivered to the wrong place or the driver stole it? I think is a common occurence. Probably the reason why dell has an agreement with UPS for signature on all laptops - at least that is suppose to happen.

 

Yeah, if it was out for delivery, that means its on the truck.

At that point it's the delivery persons responsbility to make sure he gets it there.

Someone has some explaining -- Just be glad you're getting the laptop still.

 

Note the first time I've heard of UPS problems like this... Fedex all the way!

 

wow.. that would drive me crazy to wait even longer..

 

It got delivered to me, instead. I wish!

I am sorry to hear that. UPS typically requires ID confirmation and signature. It should not have been misdirected to someone else.

 

At the top of the UPS web screen, does it say who sign it?

I remember one time I order a 24" monitor and I waited for days. I found out the UPC code was so rub up, it is unreadable, plus the guy ship it next door!

 

That EXACTLY happened to me when I ordered the Dell 710M.

But that's ridiculous, I had my replacement within a few days sent out with overnight delivery, free of charge on my part of course.

 

I am from canada and mine,M1210 was missing as well.
Dell canada reordered the m1210 again but they don't even have express shipping. I have to wait another few weeks to get it.
abaxter , you should ask some compensation for the delay.
I got some discount but that still pisses me off.

 

I don't think it was ever delivered. The tracking doesn't say delivered, only out for delivery.

 

Andrew, I am sorry to read about your loss. This is bad news not only for you but for everyone who is waiting to read about the D420. I came to this site just now to check if there was already a review for this new notebook. I guess now we'll all have to wait another couple of weeks.

 

It was never delivered anywhere, nobody signed for it but apparently if it says "out for delivery" it means it was put on a truck. It's very annoying because I should have had this notebook a week ago if it *had* made it that morning on the 7th. Whether it fell off the truck, a driver decided a new laptop would be nice or somebody climbed aboard the truck while it was parked and walked off will never be known I guess. And I'm not getting any more discounts from what I had already gotten. I didn't need it immediately other than to review, but was excited and anticipating it with excitement. Now I'll be just waiting again. Sucks, all around. And I can't believe some of you have had the same experience recently too.

 

abaxter, I cant belive you still get excited by new laptops
How many have you handled ?

 

That sucks man, the D420 looks like a great laptop too.

If I didn't already have my E1405 and if I had twice the cash I would have gone with the D420.

 

I had a bad shipping experience with Dell, but thankfully it had nothing to do with my laptop. Every accessory I bought with it that shipped via DHL was lost for 3 days. Finally a neighbor comes home from vacation and sees all of these Dell packages and is honest enough to bring them to my door. I was so PO'd because they were supposed to be signature required but the driver just dumped and ran. I was tempted to not tell Dell that it was found (I would really love duplicates of a couple of things I ordered), but I figured that honesty would be best. I have 2 items on backorder and have been assured that DHL will not be used to ship those items.

All of this was after they cancelled my order 4 times saying I had no Dell account when I had a $4000 limit. They claimed technical error and gave me free overnight shipping, but I wasn't able to get anything more from them when the DHL delivery went south.

 

I have heard way too many stories of people who have had bad experiences with UPS. Lost packages, damaged goods, high brokerage fees, people on the phone who don't help...

Myself, i don't actually have any first hand experience with UPS, but UPS bashing is popular on other forums i read.

 

hmm, good question, I don't know how many. Ultraportables and new features still get me in a tizzy though, yeah! speaking of which, Dell informed me of a pretty cool laptop "feature" announcement they'll have on Monday regarding all of their notebooks. Stay tuned -- nothing huge but cool nonetheless.

The fact that UPS did not call back to follow-up when they said they would really annoyed me. It contrasts an experience with FedEx last month where I forgot to include a customs form with a shipment so they called, had me fax something, then called again when it was received and confirmed to me my shipment had left. That was good customer service, UPS losing the shipment and then not calling back after a promise they would to follow-up on the case was not pleasing. Living in New York can be such a cluster sometimes though, it might just be symptomatic of UPS service where I live.

 

oh snap.. My w7j is being delivered by UPS. Bad thing is it got to my state today, but since they don't deliver weekends, I won't get it till monday. Who knows what might happened to it.

Oh god, im scared now. :X

 

That is what killed me about DHL. They seriously didn't care that they had $1500 worth of stuff that was lost. I guess it happens all of the time? No one bothered to call back when they said they would. I was told once that the driver just didn't want to come out that far today. After I called Dell and they conferenced me in with their DHL rep, the station manager had the nerve to call me and ask me to stop calling about the packages because he was getting too many urgent messages about them. All I did after that was call every 15 minutes until the neighbor showed up with the packages.

I find it really odd that they require a signature for a $5 book from amazon but just toss electronics worth thousands off the truck without a second thought whether a sig is required or not.

 

I've had so much bad luck over the years with UPS that I avoid them at all cost. I tell friends to use UPS if they want something delivered absolutely positively somewhere at some time. It may not be where they want it delivered or by the time UPS promised, but it will probably be delivered (delivery to the correct address is optional).

I have a D420 in route and I should have it by Monday. Kinda excited to give it a look over. I've already set myself up to be disappointed by the craptacular 4200 RPM 1.8" hd and the 1GHz Core Solo (just when I got used to being able to nicely multitask on the Core Duo). Anyways, I'm sure I will be impressed with the size and weight. I love the feel of ultralights. I'll probably wind up sticking with my M1210.

 

When i got my laptop i drove to the UPS place bc i missed the devivary (bc it was on the 10am truck and not the after noon one) and i live in a residental area so i dono why UPS is so dumb to send it in the morning when it can be done just as easy in the afternoon

and i didnt want them moving my laptop too much bc they do tend to break things .... and when i came there i opened it up to make sure it was working befor i signed anything!

 

i'm expecting a e1505 monday, yet it was supposed to be delivered today.
The status says "In Transit - Re-Scheduled", don't know what happened there...

 

Maybe you live on a block that can only be reached by making a left turn, something that UPS tries to avoid according to a recent article: "You wouldn't think of something as benign as avoiding a left-hand turn could conserve fuel, but Atlanta-based United Parcel Service (UPS) swears by it."

 

Fedex is not any different.
I got 1x2GB ram delivered by fedex 2nd day(signature required) last week that was left in front of my apartment door where anybody can easily steal/take it away...

 

Yes FedEx is the best delivery company out there. DHL's tracking system is horrible. It seems like it doesn't update in real time. UPS is slow, 3 day Newegg shipping is 4 days. I ship a Fedex envelope every Friday for work. They pick it up at around 11 AM on Friday morning in Minnesota and it is delivered in PA by 11 AM Saturday morning. Not once has it been lost or late.

 

Fedex is the best, UPS is ok if you cannot get fedex, and with DHL... well they just plain old suck azz.

 

UPS' service is complete rat crap.
After the "missing" 710M, Dell sent out the new replacement with overnight delivery with FedEx and I received it very quickly (3 days to manufacture and get to my house).

UPS called 2 weeks later, asked me if I had received my order (you've gotta be kidding me), asked if I had talked to Dell for a replacement, than lackadaisically apologized.

 

I want to take a guess! This may not be right but I know this is coming soon. Pre-n or 802.11n is coming shortly. On the two M1210s that I have there are three wireless antenna connections adjacent to the WiFi card. Traditional a,b, and g use two connections for diversity while n will use at least three. I've had my M1210 apart and the third antenna is mounted below the screen. BTW, this antenna is not to be confused with the wireless broadband antennas also present on some M1210s.

 

IMHO, FedEx is no better than UPS. FedEx delivered my stuff to the wrong house at least 3 times in the last 5 years. No such problem in the same time frame with UPS. If you look at the percentage of problems each shipping companies has in the last few years, they are not that much different. UPS ships so many more times the packages than FedEx, that's why it appears that they have more issues.

 

That sucks, I've thankfully never had the experience of losing something valuable in the mail. I have, however, had stuff damaged through the awful treatment by delivery company staff. I live in the UK and a few years ago I really fancied getting an American SNES so I could play lots of RPGs that never came out here. I ordered one off eBay and it was sent by Initial Citylink, who obviously tried to deliver midweek in the morning when everyone is at school or work. My mum went to pick it up, but saw the horrible sight of the guys dropping boxes out the van onto a concrete floor because they couldn't be bothered taking the time to do it carefully. Needless to say, when I got it home there was a large hole in the back and lots of broken plastic in the box. When we phoned to complain they were like "uh, not our problem, phone the company you bought it from". The moral of the story is that if you live in Britain, never ever get something of value delivered by Initial Citylink.

 

Over the span of ten years and receiving probably 200 - 300 packages I've had one issue with Fedex (misrouting a package) and close to two dozen issues with UPS. You name it its happened to me. I HATE UPS. Not only do they have issues delivering packages it's a PITA to track a package. Fedex seems to update their data more frequently. You can tell where a package is at all times with Fedex. UPS sometimes doesn't update scans until late at night and it seems that a lot of packages miss scans as well. So an overnight package just shows up with no scans at all.

I could go on and on about the total sucktitude known as UPS. Everyone one has their own experiences with each carrier.

 

Not nearly as many packages as above, I havnt had to many issues with either ups or fedex. Atleast they give default tracking numbers.

Abaxter, it does sound like something fishy happened on the truck. Out for delivery mean it was scanned and loaded into the final truck. How ever ALL packages get scanned when they leave the drivers hands. Even if they leave it on the front door, they scan in and press the driver release button. Also its not easy to avoid signatures and impossible to over look (the main package info screen denotes it, and the signiture screen pops up when releasing it). So the driver has some explaining to do.

You can't expect %100 of packages to get through ok, thats unrealistic, thats why they have insurance. As you can see, dell was easily able to see the problem, claim the insurance, and order you a new laptop with express delivery. UPS also did nothing to "hide" it (but they didnt seem to energetic about letting you know. ^^ You would think a notice in the system pops up when the truck signs back in with packages undelivered. Even if the truck is late, UPS trucks dont return home untill ALL packages are delivered.

 

Well, UPS delivered the D420 on their second try yesterday finally (meaning a new one was built and shipped from Malaysia and the first D420 is being enjoyed by somebody somewhere else -- or it fell off the truck and is just rotting somewhere). So sad, the wasted time and money. Insurance costs. I wonder if the UPS terrible earnings announced today had anything to do with internal inefficiencies and increases in insurance costs for lost packages

And UPS just lost somebody elses Dell Inspiron on this forum too http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=67460

 

Good luck with it Abaxter.


Nice Avatar

 

Glad to hear you finally got it. My new one should be here some time next week if everything proves true (ran into a solid bit of delays on ordering it)...

 

My own experience is exactly the opposite of yours. I do a whole lot more shipping and receiving than you for both personal and business. UPS is by far better of the two IMHO, especially if you wanna talk business ethics.

 

Review! Review! =)

 

So did you finally get a Core Solo oder Core Duo version (or is it still not out in the US?). And when might we see first thoughts? Im so curious...

 

And, how do you like it, Andrew?

 

See this is why you should get an Apple. I ordered my apple at 11:15am on saturday before new years, and the order was processed within minutes and it was shipped out of Apple's warehouse at LA at about noon. I received the package the day after new year's around noon-ish. Yay fedex.