Based on Paul's response to my e-mail, looks like there was an error and they hadn't shipped my package. Sucks but he was really cool with his answer and fast on getting me the refund. Just hard to value those promos at almost $15 plus waiting past Wednesday.
So i work for fed ex, as a courier. (Shhh)
Its not too bad. Its not to great. UPS isn't much better, from what my customers tell me (many of them prefer FedEx). Internationally I can only imagine.
When it comes down to it? All of them are the same. DHL (what little it still does), FedEx, UPS, International Air Mail, whatever - they are all surprisingly good, when you consider the small fact that for my terminal alone (one of two in the city) we easily go through 30,000 boxes a day. Thats one terminal, in one city, in the US. FedEx has terminals in every major city in the country, and internationally. Millions upon millions of boxes a day. I deliver 150-250 boxes a day, in what is basically box that is about 25miles on a side. I pick up another 100 or so (more during the month between thanksgiving and christmas!)
When you consider those numbers, 99% successful service rate... still leaves hundreds of thousands of boxes that didn't get delivered properly. The terminals strive for (i think) 99.5 or something. It might even be 99.8 (I don't know, i'm not in that side of the business) and even such things as 'I got to the business and they were closed today, unexpectedly' hurt that number.
So, while it sucks that you didn't get your package ( and I totally feel for you - i really do, even I, in the business of shipping on the personal end, dealing with people who missed their box yesterday - don't like it when my box doesn't show up on friday and I have to wait even till monday. Waiting weeks cause of a customs delay where some S.O.B. forgot to send the paperwork... I'd be british levels of annoyance too!) please do realize that it doesn't really matter what company GtG ships with. They all could have had the same thing happen to them, and even with a 99.9% success rate, thats still hundreds of thousands of boxes that don't get properly delivered a day.
GtG prefers FedEx because of past experiences. Is this experience enough to make them switch services? Maybe. But no matter what service they use, someone somewhere is going to be unhappy. Something is going to go wrong somewhere. Some box is going to get crushed in the conveyor belts and not sent on. Some frieght truck with a couple hundred of them is going to get in an accident and everything catches fire. Some crate is going to get stuck in customs. It sucks, but its the facts.
I just wanted to write that out, not in defense of FedEx (Lord knows I have my issues with what little i deal with every day) but in defense of the realities of the shipping industry, especially in this day and age of Amazon Prime, every big site offering free shipping, and huge precentages of everyday shopping moving to online. Take it as you will!
Small consolation, perhaps, but if you'd like to get together to play a game using my copy, let me know.
That offer is valid for anywhere in the US by the way. Andy has a bus pass and likes to ride the asphalt.
He has is own Mobile Defense Platform.
I appreciate this isn't GTG's fault, but after the third week in a row where I've told the my mates VOTM isn't going to be here for our gaming night and following on from the WOTC debacle, their name is pretty much mud here as far as preorders / buying direct goes.
... And I've just had a notification from FedEx - parcel due tomorrow. Words eaten.
Yep, released here as well!
Ire level now reduced to "having a nice cup of tea in front of the telly".
I have also received the notification. Fingers crossed it actually makes it here!
Helpfully I already had a cup of tea in hand when I read this. Huzzah!
Oh man, hope that 'by 12pm' really means 'by 12pm'.
It's not even that I'm impatient or anything (I'm way too chill for that), it's just that I have a plane to catch at 2.
Thank goodness the land invasion was averted.
…For now. Whether it remains that way depends on Fedex
Well, let's hope I'll have good news too in the coming days - recruitment of my land invasion troops is still going on.
As an Englishman I always have plans drawn up to invade France. If this happens again with the next expansion…
Well, in my case at least, 'Parcel will be delivered Wednesday by 12' has become 'Will be delivered Thursday by 12'. Trying to get them to hold it for another week is actually surprisingly difficult, given the fact that they already managed to get it delayed for half a month without me doing anything.
Just received my order. Everything seems to be there. Thanks, GTG.
Just received it too. Time for a cup of tea cofee
Mine has arrived also - the turnaround from customs releasing the pacakges to them arriving on doorsteps has been like lightning. No wonder GTG were frustrated.
Everything looks pretty glorious, I can see our US chums have been getting excited!