I take a couple of prescription medications for my narcolepsy, to enable me to be awake enough to drive, work, etc. The company that handles our prescription insurance coverage (Caremark) also has a mail-order pharmacy that they run, and they will fill prescriptions in 3-month supplies for the price of a 2-month supply. I decided to transfer my prescriptions from our local pharmacy to the Caremark pharmacy so I could get them at a lower cost.

Because my medications are considered controlled substances, they cannot be called into the pharmacy; they have to be written on a paper slip and then mailed to the pharmacy. I obtained the written prescriptions from my doctor's office, filled out the necessary forms for the Caremark pharmacy, and sent the prescriptions and order off to Caremark. After receiving the prescription slips from my doctor's office, I waited too long to send the order to Caremark. By the time I sent the order I was getting very close to running out of my existing supply. Caremark's website says that customers can expect to receive their order 10 to 14 days from the date Caremark receives the order. I sent the order via USPS Priority Mail on January 14, so they had to have received it on January 16.

Late in the afternoon of January 18, their website was still not showing my order in my account section. I called them to inquire about it. They were rather unhelpful, although they did offer to call my doctor's office to obtain the prescriptions over the phone - that effort quickly fizzled into thin air once they realized my medications are controlled substances. They had no answer to my question of why my order wasn't yet showing in their system if they had received it 2 days prior. Towards the end of the phone call I finally directly asked them, "How long does it take for an order to show up in your system once you receive it?" They answered that it sometimes takes a couple of days. Well that would have been nice to know 20 minutes ago when I first asked why my order wasn't showing up in your system!

When I filled out the prescription order form I selected the 2-day expedited shipping option, since I knew I would be running out of my current supply very quickly. I figured if 10 to 14 days was the normal delivery timeframe, then 2-day shipping would surely bring the timeframe down to 8 to 12 days, if not better. They eventually shipped my order on January 26 - 10 days after they received it. Since it was a weekend, the 2-day shipping actually resulted in a delivery date of January 29 - 13 days after they received my order. So much for trying to get the order quicker by paying extra for faster shipping.

Anyway, that brings me to the FedEx part of the story. The tracking page for the shipment showed that a signature would be required. It was scheduled to be delivered at my home on January 29. Unfortunately, nobody would be home to sign for the package. I would be at work, and my wife and son would both be at school. On the morning of the 28th, I noticed that the package was at a local Kentwood facility, just minutes away from where I work. I decided to call them and see if there was any way I could possibly just pick up my package from the FedEx facility. I wasn't really expecting this to be an option, but I was getting desperate and I decided it wouldn't hurt to at least ask.

I called their toll-free number, selected the appropriate options to get routed to a representative, and my call was answered after less than 1 minute on hold. (Pleasant surprise!) I briefly explained the situation regarding my package, that it required a signature for delivery, wasn't scheduled for delivery until the following day, but that it was waiting at a nearby facility.

"...so I was wondering if there's any way I could..."

The representative interrupted me with, "just pick up your package from the facility?"

"Well, yes!"

"I don't see why not. Let me check and see if the package is off the truck and available to be picked up."

Come to find out, the package wouldn't be available for pickup at all that day, but it would be the following day (the scheduled delivery date) if I wanted to pick it up then. I confirmed that I wanted to do that. She proceeded to put a note in the system instructing that the package was not to be put on a truck for delivery, but held at the facility for pickup. Then she asked for my phone number so they could contact me if there were any issues, confirmed the address of the local facility, and gave me their hours.

At this point I'm feeling very positive about FedEx. I was expecting my request to be denied. Instead, it was not only granted, but also anticipated, and processed in a prompt, smooth, friendly manner.

The following morning my cell phone rang as I was getting into my car to leave for work. It was an automated call from FedEx. "Is this [my name]?" "Yes." "You have a package waiting for you at [this facility]. You may pick it up anytime during normal business hours, which are 9am - 8pm. Please bring a government-issued picture ID with you."

Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that! That was a very helpful call! (Ok, so it wasn't all that helpful because I already knew all of that info, but I still thought it was a rather impressive feature. It would have been extremely helpful had I not already had all of the information about the shipment.)

I stopped by the FedEx facility later that afternoon to pick up my package. That also went very smoothly. The lady staffing the counter was very cheerful and friendly, and she retrieved my package within a minute or two.

This was quite a different experience then my previous FedEx experience with their SmartPost shipping option. This experience left me feeling very satisfied and impressed with FedEx' customer service and their willingness to allow customer's to intercept their packages at a FedEx facility. Huge kudos to FedEx for this one!

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