To help the story along I'm going to give you a fake address like mine. 107 5th Street, Apt 302, West Town. This was last year, so some details might be slightly off (I forget which day exactly was Sunday) but everything is true as best I remember.
The building is set up so there's three entry doors on the first floor, 105 goes into the first business down there, 107 opens onto stairs going up to the apartments, 109 opens onto a hallway with small offices. Generally when I have a package I ask 105 to watch out for it, or go down and visit with 105 around delivery time since the apartment stair door is frequently locked and delivery people never go up it. So it is an inconvenience to accept packages that can't be left by the box.
The site I was ordering from had $5 FedEx shipping, and next cheapest was $6-$7. This was first of Dec. so I figured I was safe going for the least expensive. Now first suck (though I didn't know it) was on their end. They put "107 5th Street 302", no apartment indicator.
Day 1. So I'm watching shipping, and hey, out for delivery. Great. Then no package, no slip, website updates with Delivery Attempt failed. I check with 105, they were out for lunch during the usual delivery time. No prob, next delivery attempt tomorrow.
Day 2. Out for Delivery, I go down, spend several hours in 105, a Fed Ex package comes for 105, nothing for 107. "That's FedEx Residential, this is FedEx Business, it's on a different truck" Delivery failed, No Such Address, I was there the whole time.
Day 3. Supposed last delivery attempt. I call, check, they ask to confirm the address, I read it out to them. I go down to wait. No package, failed delivery notice goes up at noon. I call. Service representative tells me that the driver's having trouble finding the address, but if I waited she would call and tell him to drive back along 5th Street until he saw me. I go outside and wait until 5:00. It's Dec, so I'm bundled up and using a camping sleeping bag. No truck comes by.
At this point I should also say that as most of you should know, 'call' does not mean dial and get a person. Oh no, dial, go through automated process, then get put on hold, then person.
Day 4. After the sleeping bag incident, I call again and tell them to change the address to 105 5th Street, West Town. 105 has no trouble getting FedEx stuff, no problem, right? Ha. Once more, failed delivery after waiting for hours.
Day 5. Sunday, at this point I have about a week before Christmas.
Day 6. Call, they go "107? That’s a bad address." No no, 105. They didn't change the address? Failed Delivery. Ask if they can tell the truck to go back around, representative tells me they have no way of communicating with the trucks when they're out. (Also, FedEx packages come to 105, 107 is literally two feet away from it. I’m thinking tell the damn delivery people to look SLIGHTLY to the right and they will see the big door that says 105.)
Day 7. Get online representative. Ask them to look up what address is on the package. They C&P 107 105 107 107 West 302th 5th Street 302 5 West Town Apartment 105 Street Town West Town. Only much longer. It turns out that every time they were checking the address they were adding in the new info without deleting any of the old or being too careful where the new info went. Tell them to DELETE THE BAD ADDRESS AND REPLACE IT WITH "105 5th Street, West Town"!
Day 8. "Package has no address, cannot be delivered."
Day 9. Call up again, and go online. At this point I'm having my guy negotiate with them because I start crying every time I go to dial. Get the address put in. Failed delivery.
Day 10. They reinstated the garbled foot long address instead of the one I told them. I have tried everything. I can't pick it up in person because it keeps saying it's coming out of a distribution center with no pickup window over an hour away. I'm resigning myself to just not being able to do the presents. Christmas is under a week away. All of a sudden there's a knock on my apartment door. The downstairs door was unlocked for once and they came up. The delivery guy had ignored the 'correction' slips on the package, looked at the original address, and pointed out smugly that 302 didn't have APARTMENT in front of it, so the address was bad, but he finally figured it out.
At this point I was too emotionally wrung out to do anything but take the package. And that is why I will never, ever, use FedEx for anything, ever again. (I did get the jewelry done in time, just barely.)