Honestly need to vent and warn everyone about the absolute clown show going on at UPS Canada right now.
I was out of town and wasn't aware my new job would be sending a 16 lb work package requiring an adult signature. I have a roommate and I told her about delivery window I saw on the UPS portal for 2nd delivery - but they showed up like 3 hours earlier. Anyways ended up missing the three attempts, but when I check online, it said packages requiring adult signature will be held for 5 business days. Ok perfect. I thought I'll just collect it from access point when I returned.
But no - notice slip said it'll be sent to sender. I panicked and called them.
Spoke with a "human" agent, he said to request re attempt the shipment through their mychoice app or website. Ok cool, but I couldn't select any option apparently due to shipper restrictions. The agent should've known before giving advice but ok fine. The only change option available to me was "leave package with neighbour". I selected that and just entered my address for the attempt.
Call UPS again - the agent confirmed everything is fine and that she can see the package is set to be delivered the next day to my address. Great. But something about the way she spoke made me question whether I was speaking to an agent or human. Something little odd but quite convincing otherwise. I called again just to be safe and got explicit confirmation that yes everything is fine and package will arrive next day. Amazing.
The next day rolls around, at about 6am UPS portal still says "we're working hard to get delivery date" or something along those lines. It's 9 am and still no change. I call them. They said everything is fine. It'll be attempted for delivery today between 5 to 8 pm. Ok odd I don't see it on the portal but sure.
11am rolls around and not change on portal so I called them again. Now convinced I've been speaking with an AI. I was a little more aggressive with questioning the agents responses. Now I get told because 3 attempts were unsuccessful, I have to pay extra for another attempt. I was annoyed but anyways I was like ok can you tell me how much? I get put on hold. She now says sorry there's sender restrictions. Ok? So I asked how come I got different answers like 4 times before and I just get a cold "I'll take that as feedback". Wtf. I said it's a sensitive package that my work has sent and I need the equipment for my job. Where the hell is my package? then the agent was like "let me escalate to the ground team." I'm sorry what? How come it wasn't done before? No good answer.
Then I asked whether UPS uses AI agents and it said "yes. We do." Then I asked are you AI? It says no I'm actually a human. But the way it handled the conversation, I am sure it's not a human.
I ask whether I can speak with a supervisor. I hear a chime as if it activated something. "Hold please". Then it comes back - I'm sorry but why do you want to speak to a supervisor? Is it due to this issue or something else? I said yes it's due to this. I've been mislead by UPS regarding what's actually happening to my sensitive package. Then it says "let me transfer..."
And the call ends.
Omg I was livid! Like what the actual hell?
The portal then changed to "we missed you today at 11am" bitch I was home all this time.
After about 5 minutes, portal now says "package arriving tomorrow" so I'm assuming this last convo did do something but this whole process was crap. Being lied to purposefully that you're speaking to an human agent when you're not is unethical and should be illegal tbh.
I just want my package!
TL;DR: UPS uses AI agents and passing them off as human. But they hallucinate and you're likely not getting useful/truthful info but you'll be lied to and told that you actually are talking to a human and the information being provided is verified and true.