Velocity Express

Velocity Express abuses their employees, mostly messengers, couriers and other low level and less-​skilled workers. They also pay them minimum wage while overcharging clients. What is highly disturbing about this company, the «higher up’s», executives and the corporation itself receives a very large and disproportionate share from their clients and very little goes to the workers. The company where I used to work was a client of Velocity for over five years. My company used them for in-​house and outside messaging, mail room and other office solutions. In the beginning they used to charge us close to $ 20,000 a month for eleven workers. The costs however went up 10% every year, plus they reduced the amount of workers at our site while the price steadily kept rising. Velocity’s justification for raising the price whilst eliminating workers was that they needed to raise other workers’ pay and also pay for their benefits in which case never occurred at all. We asked the Velocity workers at our office for their pay stubs and what we found was absolutely appalling and disgusting. Some of their workers were receiving (at the time in 2003) $ 6.50/hour. What was also very disturbing the workers did not receive any sick, personal or vacation time and many of them have not received any raises. The other sickening part to this the workers were not technically employees of Velocity. They were technically outsourced by another company called «TBM». TBM acts an outsourcing company enlisting all their «employees» mostly lower level workers as «Time Service Employees». After some research my company found out that TBM is actually Velocity. Velocity is using TBM as a guise so not to pay their workers’ benefits nor give them any raises at all. When we asked Velocity about this they told us they’ll get back to us so to correspond with their corporate office to see what was going on in which they never did. Velocity Express is very dishonest and a very unethical employer. The corporation itself lies and cheat both the client and the workers just so they can make a profit. It’s no wonder why the messengers are so unprofessional and always upset. It is because of Velocity itself. My advice to any company or individual, do not use this company at all unless you want a poor representation of yourself and your business.

With some businesses, I would argue that any one bad experience shouldn’t merit such a scathing review. But in this case… there’s really no excuse.
10:30am: Call Velocity, ready with account #, the pickup & delivery addresses. Conversation gets off to a rocky start when I have to repeat each piece of information 3+ times. The operator gives me attitude, saying «I have NO idea what you’re talking about. Nope. Still can’t understand what you’re trying to say.» Well… I’m trying to give you an address? For a messenger? To deliver a box? (I don’t actually say this, I’m polite.) After 10 mins of this delightful rapport, he hangs up on me. No confirmation or anything, let alone a time to expect them.
10:45am: I call back and get someone else. Give the account #, ask if I can schedule an actual pick up time. No dice. He interrupts me, saying with aggressive and condescending emphasis, «ONE. HOUR. DE. LAY.» He hangs up. What? I’m getting annoyed at this point, but decide to move on with life and assume they’ll arrive in an hour.
Noon: I call back again, to check on the status. Yet another new person this time. According to her, there’s no record of my previous order. Rinse and repeat: I give her the info, and this time am able to actually request a pickup time. We agree on 1pm.
1:30pm: I call back, this time wincing as the mocking «Your call is important to us» theme plays on a loop. Eventually a guy takes my call, and explains that the messenger *should* be on his way. He hangs up before I can say anything else.
2:00pm: Still no messenger. I call back, give them my account number. The operator (perhaps one of the ones from before?! Who the f– knows) is IRATE this time, saying that the messenger has been downstairs for awhile now, trying to call me. I tell him I haven’t gotten any calls.
-«This is your # right? 358?»
-«Um, well, its a whole 10 digits, let me repeat it…»
Turns out they had the correct number on file from the start, so the «he’s been trying to call you» excuse was just dumb. The operator tells me «You better get down there before he leaves.» I sprint downstairs with the box.
2:15pm: Standing in the lobby, no sign of any messenger. Go outside twice to check. No messenger. Decide to go back upstairs since they have my work #, and could be «trying to call.»
2:20pm: I call back. «THE MESSENGER WAS IN THE LOBBY! YOU DIDN’T ANSWER! HE LEFT!!» My eye twitches. My stomach is tight. Anxiety. Anger. I explain that I was down there for fifteen minutes and nobody was there. I’m told they’ll send him back, but I need to go back down immediately.
2:30−3:00pm: For the sake of condensing this saga, I’m gonna omit the various other calls to Velocity. SparkNotes version: I went up and down twice more and waited for an alleged messenger who wasn’t really there.
3:00pm: I watch as the messenger enters the lobby, looking pissed, and slumps against the wall directly by the doors. Hi! I’m the only girl in the lobby, standing 10 ft away from you with a big box of shit… maybe I’m the customer? I approach him, hand over the box, sign the form. He shakes his head, repeating that «this is ridiculous.» Preach, buddy.
So. Velocity Express. I spent a good third of my day dealing with what should have required just a simple 5 minute phone call. The employees were just… mean. Never have I experienced such weirdly tense phone conversations with people in customer service, especially when I was calm and apologetic. Can’t a girl just get a confirmed pickup time?!
Yeah, I created a Unilocal account just to write this. I don’t regret it.

In order to track a delivery you need to create a user name, which it wouldn’t allow me to do. I’d fill out all the information but at the end you couldn’t start tracking anything until they sent you the confirmation email, which I never received. When I tried calling, the line went straight to voicemail even though their website says they’re available ²⁴⁄₇. Next, I went to the live chat to see if they could help me, but of course the online chat was just set up to email them, not to talk with a person or even get real time feedback.
Worst Delivery company I’ve ever dealt with.