[jyl]

You're right, this is partly a FedEx rant. I suspect the driver stole the phone. He allegedly left it at 12:44 pm and my wife arrived home at 1:00 pm - hmm, a rather narrow window for anyone to steal the phone. My street gets very little traffic - maybe one pedestrian every hour.

But I was surprised at Verizon's attitude. Their marginal profit from me is about equal to the revenue. Doesn't make sense to lose a future profit stream of $1,800/yr, to save a one-time $500 or less. The phone companies talk about how sophisticated they are at maximizing ARPU and segmenting more vs less profitable customers - it is all BS, their customer service is as bad as ever.

This isn't a UPS rant. One difference between FedEx and UPS is that FedEx Ground drivers are not employees, they are low cost independent contractors. Morale among those drivers has been problematic, and we've noticed a lot of turnover. UPS drivers are employees and often career employees. We have had the same UPS lady for years, we actually know her by name and she always brings packages around to the side door and carefully stashes them.