I hate UPS

[Hey QuicksDraw!]

It's not a good sign. I'm so upset right now I've got the vapors

[TriggerT]

I feel your pain. They lost or broke 4 itmes I shipped through them within a two week period this past Christmas season.

[Thomas Moore]

i hope you had your ammo insured for the ten times the amout it was worth

[snokid]

Don't bash me but...

That is where I work.

A lot of times lost packages are more the shippers fault than buster brown's fault.

I can't tell you how many times I see packages with the shipping label just stuck on the package with masking tape or something simular.

Here's what I do when I ship something with ups.

I print out a label on the computer and I also put one in the package incase that label does come off.

I put the label on the package with packing tape with at least one of the strips that holds the label on going all the way around the package.

I use a box that will hold what I'm shipping, no shoe boxes for 20lbs of ammo.

I'm not saying that they can't loose something still but that helps a lot.

here's how it works

you ship something

your driver picks it up and puts in the back of his truck

back at the building a monkey unloads your package and puts it on a big supermarket style belt

it travels down to another monkey who determines which trailer it needs to go in, then he pushes it to that next belt.

then it slides down a chute, where another monkey scans and loads your package into the trailer.

The next monkey (me this is what I do) drives your trailer to the next closer building.

Now your package is unloaded out of that trailer and loaded into then next trailer as sent to the building in your area. then it's unloaded again.

Now that it's at your building the monkey's get back to work and the package travels down a belt where 3 or 4 monkey's decide which truck it needs to be put on. And that driver delivers it to the customer.

as you can see several people need to be able to read your label and it will get handled many times. belts sometimes will load up and your package will skid along on the belt which will take off just about any label.

hope that helps someone not loose a package. BTW this is how the other shipping company's also run.

Bob

[TriggerT]

Even if they were insured, have fun getting your money out of UPS. Does the phrase "Blood From a Stone" mean anything to you.

[Skywalker]

Does the phrase "Blood From a Stone" mean anything to you.

In Italy we say something very similar: trying to get blood from a turnip.

[EricW]

UPS isn't always perfect, but they're a total joy to work with compared to FedEx. Over the past 4 or 5 years, I've had a 100% failure rate with FedEx. I've NEVER had anything delivered properly EVER.

At least UPS will actually work with you.

[JFlowers]

While like any company, most of those who work for UPS are great people, I had the misfortune to have a package run into one who was not. Some years ago when shipping frearms was much simpler, I shipped a very nice Weatherby Mark V to a gunsmith out west for some repair. The smith told me upfront to invest in a solid gun case and ship the rifle in the case, the case in a box. I did and grumbled about the extra shipping that it cost me.

The 'smith got the rifle without problem, did the work, and shipped it back. When the package arrived it was in sad shape. Based on the damage to the box, the scars on the case, and the boot prints... it was pretty obvious someone had laid the package across an open space between two supports and jumped up and down on it! I was appalled that one of UPS's workers would treat any package this way. The driver was appalled as well, but basically shrugged and told me to call the office.

The party I reached at UPS did everything but call me a liar and accuse me of fraudulently creating the damage. After several phone calls and a series of conversations whose pleasentness decreased each time, I got a final answer from UPS ... "well, since the primary item you were shipping was not damaged we see no claim here for payment". The case had saved my rifle, and UPS thought that was good enough!

Fortunately since that time, I have had great experiences with UPS (and less than stellar with FedEx).

[EricW]

It's too bad that USPS doesn't take guns anymore. They are my hands-down favorite shipper. I've yet to go to the USPS counter and had anyone be less than totally helpful. And they are reliable. I heard some scuttlebutt a while back that bulk diamonds are ususally shipped via USPS, uninsured, in a plain, brown wrapper. Sure, part of it's for security, but the choice in carriers has to tell you something.