Common sense is obviously somewhat lacking at the French Fedex’s offices during the summer. At almost the same time last year I had a run in with them (my first of many) which you can read about here.
It would appear that their corporate brain goes on vacation during the month of August. Or, maybe they’re working in collaboration with organized crime and earning themselves a neat profit from criminal activities?
What leads me to think this?
Fedex have mastered the knack of finding unoccupied properties during the summer months and marking them clearly as targets for all and sundry to see.
How do they do this?
They put a bright yellow sticker on your front door saying that you’re not there!!!
Yes, seriously. Whilst La Poste, DHL, UPS and other courier companies are behind the times and simply leave a calling card in your letter box, the intelligent folks at Fedex have over-engineered the calling card and have diversified their business activity at the same time.
Thankfully, the bright yellow sticker was only on my front door (which is street facing nevertheless) for one day, but imagine if I had been decided to stay away for longer? As it was I had been away for 5 days due to a bereavement in Hubby’s family, but I could have quite possibly stayed longer in which case my property would have been advertised as empty all that time! Or, some clever monkey could have nicked the post it for a bit of fun and I would have been none the wiser that they had tried to deliver.
Seriously Fedex – get a grip and use your brains! Do you really want to be responsible for burglaries and missed packages when you could just go back to basics?
I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. Is there anything at all you can do about this?
Hi Ayak, I told the idiots at their customer service dept yesterday and they did not seem bothered at all. I couldn’t get them to understand the security risk! I’ve now sent an email but I doubt I’ll get any response.
Maybe someone from Fedex will read this post and see common sense?
Maybe you should try going through the US office instead and perhaps send a scathing note — use some bright yellow stationery if you’ve got it! — and see if that does anything. I would be surprised if they do the same thing in the US.
ha, now there’s an idea! I’ve written to the French customer service team (after having to convince them to give me an email address) and have already had a reply to apologise (I am in shock) and to say that my email has been passed on to the appropriate department who will be in contact shortly.
I do hope they change, it’s so stupid!
they say the Mother of the Stupid People is always pregnant… She must be carrying mainly fedex frenchies :))
LOL!
Thank goodness I’ve never had a delivery from FedEx! Could you sue them if you did get burgled?
I should imagine you could, but that’s if the postit note stayed stuck to your door long enough for you to come home and find out. It’s so so stupid, I still can’t believe it!
Don’t be such a killjoy – it’s how we choose our holiday accommodation. We pack up the car, hop on the ferry and drive around France looking for yellow notes. 😉
okay, okay – I’ll put red flags above the houses which have the yellow notes, will make them easier to spot from a distance. Maybe if you write to Fedex they’ll do this FOC for you?
There was a family here in Georgia who came back to find that there house was completely occupied by another family. The crooks sold the families house while they were gone away. Not very smart of Fed-Ex.
Wow, that’s amazing and completely worrying 😦 Were the family gone a really long time or something? It’s really scary to think that someone could not only move into your home but sell it too!
If you received an apology it must be August…an understrapper is running the customer service team while the regular dragon is sunning itself on Paris Plage.
that’s what I though too 🙂
@Kelleyn: no way! That cannot be true!
It is a totally true story. The crooks waited for the family to leave and then went in and forged all the documents to sell the house. It was a total mess for the family because they had to prove that they didn’t sell their house. However, it had nothing to do with Fed-Ex leaving a note on the door. Sorry if I gave that impression. One can never be to careful these days when going on vacation. We always let our neighbor know when we are going to be out of town.
Hi again Kelleyn
“One can never be to careful these days when going on vacation” – This is my point exactly! When we go away we always let are immediate neighbours know and make an effort to ensure that the house does not look “empty” which is why Fedex made me so angry. All efforts are worthless if someone puts a sticker on your door saying you’re away 😦
What a poor, poor family. I take it they didn’t have a mortgage as otherwise it maybe wouldn’t have been so straightforward if the crooks had to start repaying money and removing legal charges. How awful to think that they had to prove they didn’t sell the house whilst on holiday! The legal system sounds very relaxed if this type of thing can happen, very scary!
I’m confused – I thought all shipping companies did this. I’m pretty sure I’ve had similar notes left on my door in both the US and in France (from UPS & DHL too). And sometimes LaPoste tapes stuff to the mailbox as well.
Now that you mention it though, it is a really dangerous!!!
Hi Ksam,
The other shipping companies I’ve had delivery from (UPS, TNT, DHL & La Poste) all leave calling cards in the letter box so much more discreet. I do hope other firms are not using similar methods as it’s quite scary. All a crook would have to do is follow a delivery van!
How extraordinarily irresponsible.
Receiving an apology in France? Dis-donc! You must either frame it and offer it as an exhibit to a museum, or sell it on Ebay – it’s so rare that it must be worth a fortune to a collector of rarities.
I know! I think it is my first apology so maybe I’ll have to moan more! This is part of my new being assertive role so I wasn’t going to let them get off with it and I made my point of view VERY clear in a VERY explicit email written in French and English just in case they decided not to understand my French…
Yes, I think I will frame it but I’m really holding out for a letter to say they’ll change their ways first 🙂 I can live in hope…
Rosabell’s comment made me laugh out loud, and kelleyn’s story made me gasp! Holy squatters, Batman! That’s *incredible*.
Piglet, you have a right to be very upset about this. Silly FedEx. You already got a reply to apologize, though? WOW.
Keep us POSTed (heh heh!) as to whether you hear of any changes!
(P.S. I left you another reply to your comment on my blog. Instead of blogging I have decided to just keep writing in comments, haha! 😉 I’ll get around to posting soon…)
LOL! Love your play on words there Karin 😉 Kelleyn’s story is really scary, makes you wonder doesn’t it?
Yep, I got an apology within less than an hour of sending them an absolutely stinking email with picture demonstrations of what had happened! Someone there must have felt incredibly sorry for me, or worried that I would send the pictures to the press or something (I had threatened in my email!). Looking forward to see what will happen next!
I managed to get there PigletinFrance…but still as Promo’Arts.
I loved this article!!!
I find fascinating as I am terribly busy in August that France comes to an entire lethargique stadstill – administrations and private enterprises….
There u are dashing round like a blue nosed fly trying to get things done, only to hear “ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh non, not at the moment, he or she is on holiday”…so you ask for the person who is taking over…..blank surprise on the other end of the line! And that is of course if anyboday bothers to answer a question on the ‘phone or reply to an e-mail!
But according to my friends the most terrible upsets come from banks – as soon as your “responsable” dashes to the seaside with Mrs. and his tribe….you get your overdraft forbiden, your cheques thrown, and endless mistakes on your account!
In Fed Ex I think they put “dummies” there, but in fact no real people are there at all! Its just for the gallery
Diane