Purchase from Google, delivery by UPS

[Paul_Heery]

I just had an interesting experience with Google & UPS that I thought I should share. Here it is in chronological order.

November 17th
I ordered two (2) Nexus 5 32GB phones from the Google Play store. I knew they were out of stock. But, upon placing my order I was provided a ship date of December 3rd.

November 27th - the day before Thanksgiving
We were visiting relatives in Florida when I receive an email from Google saying that my phones would be shipping early and I should receive them by end-of-day Friday, November 29th (Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving).

November 28th - Thanksgiving day
We fly back to Connecticut on an evening flight and get to our house around 10:30 PM. I found a box from UPS sitting outside on the front steps. UPS had delivered the phones to our house on Thanksgiving Day! They were dropped off just after 6:00 PM that day. I got a little pissed as they had left phones that cost over $800 just sitting out in the open without requiring that they be signed for. But, I got over it.

December 3rd
My wife and I were in the kitchen making dinner when we heard a UPS truck pull up out front. My wife asked what else I had ordered, to which I replied "nothing that I can think of". Then, the doorbell rang. I put down what I was doing and went to the door. As I opened the door, the UPS guy was already back in his truck and driving away. I looked down on the step and saw a box that was the same size and shape of the one that was delivered on Thanksgiving day. I took it inside, opened it and discovered two more Nexus 5 phones. Once again delivered without the need to be signed for.

I checked the packing slips from both shipments. They were the same order number. Then, I checked my AMEX statement to make sure that I had not been double billed and I found that I had not been billed by Google for anything. At this point, I was sitting with over $1,600 worth of phones that I had not been charged for. I decided to let it sit for a couple of days as surely someone would recognize a mistake had been made.

December 5th
Today, a charge of $865.68 showed up on my AMEX account. This is the amount for two phones plus the appropriate sales tax. I had planned on paying this all along,so this was no surprise. At this point, I decided to call Google Play sales and ask them WTF was going on.

In reviewing what had occurred, the Google rep actually said "holy s#!t". It turns out that the two phones that I received on Thanksgiving had completely fallen through the cracks. Google had no record of them being shipped to me and because of this, they had no intention of billing me for them either.

He got a supervisor to help deal with this and we had a good laugh. I am returning two of the phones as they were not really mine anyway. The folks from Google were very appreciative of being informed of their mistake. They were also quite surprised that these things were being sent without signature or proof of delivery requirements.

BTW, the phones are great.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

They were also quite surprised that these things were being sent without signature or proof of delivery requirements.

Our "UPS guy" seems to treat deliveries to our home as a personal challenge--to see how far he can throw.

[craigster59]

Dang, and I was hoping for a Nexus 5 32GB phone in the PPOT Gift Exchange!

[pitargue]

A sign that Google makes too much money.

[stomachmonkey]

I think the most telling thing in your story is that you called and alerted them to their error.

Good on ya.

I've had similar experiences with UPS.

There are delivery levels that do not require a signature unless you specifically ask for it.

Ground is one of them.

Found that out when I was expecting delivery of a new computer.

Wife was home all day and I called a few times asking if it had arrived. Nothing.

Get home from work and there it is sitting on our front doorstep.

Our UPS deliveries never came after 3 pm so it had been sitting there a few hours.

[t-tom]

I had ups leave a pair of energy veratis speakers on my uncovered porch in a rain storm. Then denied the claim for a month

[strupgolf]

Originally Posted by pitargue

A sign that Google makes too much money.

Also a sign the OP makes too much money. $400 phone ?

[gacook]

I've got no problem with UPS leaving packages without signature (as a customer, you CAN ask that they have you sign for the package when you order stuff). What DOES aggravate me is that the delivery guys don't even ring the doorbell to let me know they've visited. I remember back in the day, they ALWAYS came to the front door and rang the bell/knocked and handed you the package personally (same with the mailman); now, not so much.

[gacook]

Originally Posted by strupgolf

Also a sign the OP makes too much money. $400 phone ?

That's on the cheap side these days...for a smartphone, at least.