| Author | Message | ||
     Twig |
I'll try to keep this short as I can, and to the point. My wife's dad died three weeks ago. Two weeks ago, the day after the funeral, a family meeting was held to see who wanted what from his personal belongings. So, me and wifey get stuck with shipping a huge family portrait. $102 by UPS, USPS would not take it, too big. Packed it ourselves cause we had a perfect sized box for it. Took about one hour, and was very well packed. We tracked it to Norfolk, VA, and see damaged in transit. So, they send it back to Greensboro, glass broken and the print scratched all to hell. Wish I could show a pic of the box. Unbelievable! Now we find out since they did not pack it, we do not get insurance back. And the sendee will probably back out as well, as far as reimbursement. But, thank the lord my wife is handling the estate, and in time we will get the dollars back. Bottom line is I'll NEVER again ship by UPS! | ||
| Oldog |
I'm sorry to hear this. once in a while they realy wreck things at ups. | ||
| Swampy |
UPS dropped a Blast engine that Ezblast shipped me and broke the muffler bearing boss off the case! | ||
| Cyclonedon |
UPS "usually poor service" | ||
| Ezblast |
Yeah - ups sucks - EZ | ||
| Oldskoolef |
United Package Smashers | ||
| Seanp |
I'll be the outlier here and say that I've had very good luck with UPS. I've shipped all sorts of stuff all over the place, and never had anything broken or smashed or lost. I buy stuff from Amazon a lot and it usually comes UPS. The last couple of big trips I've taken two-up with my wife, we've shipped a box (or two) with clothes and other things via UPS, and they've always made it through. The UPS drivers I deal with, (here and in CT) are great guys, and they actually remember who you are. Here's a quick story - my mother died last fall. I was up at her house in December cleaning up the place getting it ready to sell. I'd bought something from Amazon and had it shipped UPS to her house. The guy brought the package to the door, and it was the same UPS driver who used to deliver to our house and to where my mom worked when I was a teenager, 20 years ago. He remembered who I was (even though I hadn't seen him in forever) and said he was sorry to hear about my mom. I was really touched that he actually remembered and took the time (we chatted for a few minutes) to be a person rather than just some dude in a brown suit dropping off a box. So anyway, yes, just like in any business, they make mistakes. But hey, you see a whole lot of people on here who have bearings fail in their Ulys, problems with their Firebolt headlights, or transmissions lock up in 5th gear on their 1125s. But do we just use a broad stroke brush and say "Buells suck!" or do we say, "Well, that happens." | ||
| Slaughter |
I've ALSO shipped and received gazillions of things by UPS. I've NEVER had problems with packages that I have packed but sure have had problems with packages I received that were packed by other people. If you use THEIR guidelines for packing - double-boxing valuable and fragile things with something like 3-4 inches of peanuts between the inner and outer box, unless the truck crashes and burns, you will NEVER have issues. I was told by them to use the idea that it is a box of FREIGHT and will be handled as such. That means it WILL be dropped and it WILL have heavy packages stacked on top of it. I have seen many people loosely packing things in crumpled newspaper and then expecting them to arrive undamaged. A "perfect sized box" will do you no good if it's something fragile. YOU MUST DOUBLE-PACK with GOOD separation between inner and outer packaging. They even have drawings posted all over the UPS depot on how packaging should be done. I know it sounds harsh but if it were that valuable, I'd blame the person doing the packaging for not taking into account HOW things are actually handled in normal shipping. (Message edited by slaughter on August 01, 2008) | ||
| Rick_a |
I've learned that things need to be packed in such a way that it can be dropped from several feet, thrown across a room, and handle a few hundred pounds on top of it. If you send anything fragile do not write fragile on it. Seems like an inside joke or something. It will surely get terribly abused. Any claim filed will either be dismissed or take several months to "process." That said my job uses UPS exclusively and they're generally ok. Unfortunately this 48 page tarrif should be well understood before you ship your goods http://www.ups.com/media/en/terms_service_12312007 .pdf | ||
| Kilroy |
From someone that used to work in a UPS sorting facility in college. There is nothing intentional in damaged items. Simply the volume that comes through makes it impossible to handle anything carefully. I would sort multiple packages PER SECOND. You look at the zip code, and toss the package into the appropriate chute. Then grab the next one and repeat. Meanwhile, there is a 4 foot wide conveyor belt coming by you at about 1 foot per second, completely full of packages that need to be sorted. Pack your boxes KNOWING that they are going to be handled roughly. This probably holds true for USPS, Fedex, DHL etc as well. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I ordered some bar risers for my Uly from Precision Engineering last year. UPS tracking showed them in transit for several days, then "out for delivery" in my hometown. This status continued for like 1.5 weeks. Finally, someone in my neighborhood called (who didn't know me) and said they had found a packing slip and some aluminum pieces lying in the street a few blocks away from my house. Sure enough, it was my bar risers. Box was never found. UPS never could get their corporate brain around the fact that I had the parts but they hadn't delivered them to my house. What a CF. BTW- Precision Engineering offered to send me new risers free of charge which I declined. They are First Class. | ||
| Xl1200r |
I haven't had any problems with UPS, but I usually ship USPS because they're usually much cheaper. I won't get into it about whether or not you packed the picture well enough... But I will say that if you packed it yourself and that keeps you from getting your insurance back, then they shouldn't have charged you for it in the first place. | ||
| Dnchevyman |
I worked for a NASCAR team for a season and a half. We sent our sponsors a trophy froma race we won. UPS RAN IT OVER!!! I dont know how, but in transit, it was RAN OVER!! This thing was a 4 foot tall crystal trophy....jeezus. people make mistakes though. | ||
| Firebolt32 |
They seem to not want to pay insurance out. My company shipped my tools to a job site UPS and the box was destroyed. This was a pretty heavy duty box. They claimed due to not have one of "their" locks on it I would not get reimbursed.  . Company ended up replacing it for me. | ||
| Irideabuell |
I use Fed Ex services exclusively (Express, Ground and Smartpost). We ship roughly 40,000 packages annually and have had minimal issues with them. We do receive packages from vendors via UPS and they do not provide the same quality of service as Fed Ex, however the driver that services our location is a great guy. He makes it very clear that he only guarantees that he will get it to the destination, but doesn't guarantee the condition the package will be in once it arrives. He says it joking, but is he? | ||
| Azxb9r |
I think that the UPS insurance covers loss not damage. If you have them pack it, and purchase the insurance, then it is covered against damage. Sorry to hear about your misfortune, it is so disappointing to receive something only to discover that it has been damaged. | ||
| Bbbob |
I had the same thing happen about 2 yrs ago. I shipped a 40 yr old tube receiver, packed it myself, brand-new boxes, double boxed, lots of bubble wrap & peanuts. I worked 2 summers as a shipping clerk for Harvey Electronics in high school & college. The box arrived looking like a bomb squad used it or practice. UPS used the same line with me, we didn't pack it. I was persistent, my argument was the roughed up condition of the box. Would they have accepted a box for shipping in such condition? No. Then the damage must have happened in transit right? They eventually paid on the claim. | ||
| Toona |
You can appeal the claim denial. You can get the form on their website to file an appeal. You will need all packaging used to prove how it was packed. Just be prepared that if they eventually pay the claim, they will take said item into their possession and not return it. If they pay you for it, it becomes their property. | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
I have always had decent luck with UPS, it's DHL that is on my crap list. With UPS I always wander over to my local ups store to let them pack it. That's the only way to get full insurance at no/little cost. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
UPS are commonly known as Useless Parcel Service in my family for many reasons. Fedex & DHL are no better (or worse) though. I always have customs trouble with them all. They try to charge me import duty on behalf of the customs, & then charge me a handling fee for the privilege of paying them. I try & use national postal services wherever possible. | ||
| Davefla |
Some words that say it all for me: FedEx Ground/Home Saturday delivery, at no extra cost. I've never had a claim problem with UPS. But then, I overpack everything: putting boxes inside of bigger boxes, peanuts around all sides, etc. I've seen 3-Day Select packages take five days, with no explanation given for the exception. I've seen one box of three in a shipment from the same vendor arrive a day later with an "address correction" shipping label (at my cost payable on the next order according to the vendor - who hasn't gotten repeat business.) But the original wasn't unreadable, except for the electronic scanner 'code' section, apparently. I've heard complaints from the secretaries about driver rudeness. But the best story was from when our building first opened in 2003. The driver complained loudly that we didn't have a shipping/receiving department, and that he shouldn't have to go to individual offices. We pointed out that the building, while in fact over a quarter mile long, has only two stories, stairways every 250 feet, a paved service driveway running the full length of the building's rear, was no worse in layout than any other commercial building or apartment complex... and that FedEx and DHL didn't seem to have a problem with it. OTOH, I've had lots of good experiences with UPS, too - Ground shipments from a couple hours' drive away are almost always delivered overnight, for example. But the FedEx office is closer to my home than UPS, and they haven't let me down yet. Maybe they're like Avis: Number Two tries harder? | ||
| Sticks |
From what I've been told by UPS material handlers, they actually try to break things for fun. I have had nightmares trying to find an economical way to ship artwork. My partner and I thought we would be creative once and ship a piece as " art supplies " with DHL. Technically it was comprised of art supplies, canvas, paint, frame etc. It was in a 2 x 4 and plywood crate in a cardboard box and we made the mistake of indicating that it was fragile. It really wasn't fragile unless you maybe say ran a forklift through the plywood. After this experience we always flew to the customer and took the work as carry on. Whatever you do, never put fragile on any package if you have to ship with any of them. UPS, Fedex, DHL, especially. They consider it a sort of challenge to go out of their way to rough handle these. |
