A UPS Story

[Jay Jessup]

This is not a rant on UPS but a hopefully not too long catalog of things I did wrong that led to a long ordeal with a happy ending.
I had a very unique Sho-Bud Pro III for sale on the forum but no one was interested so I listed it on Reverb and after a few months was able to sell it. I took it to a UPS store along with three other items I was shipping out at the same time.
Mistake #1 might have been using a UPS store but the bigger goof was watching the guy slap a label on it and not insisting he put some tape over it to make sure the label stayed put.
Mistake #2 was not checking the tracking information that same evening. If I had I would have seen the other three packages arrived at the local UPS depot but the steel didn't! It for sure left the UPS store with the other three but the label must have been knocked off and it never scanned in at the depot. Had I checked the tracking all the rest of the issues would not have happened.
I did check tracking on Wednesday evening after all were supposed to arrive at their destination. I initiated a lost package investigation the next day, the UPS store was 0 help in this process and the UPS investigation process is totally opaque, you can find out nothing about what they are doing to try to locate your item until they conclude the investigation which they have 8 business days to do, extremely frustrating. After they said they couldn't locate the package I refunded the purchasers money, he did say he remained interested if it ever showed up and was true to his word.
I naively didn't know that UPS regional depots have a customer service area and you can just walk in and get help or ship packages without going to a UPS store so that was big mistake #3. From now on everything I ship out is going to be taken to that depot--one less step for things to go wrong!
This was a huge box weighing 85 lbs you don't just misplace something like that so it had to be somewhere. What I came to find out was that when a package has no label on it, it gets shipped to a central location so my steel was most likely shipped to the Kansas City (I think?) lost and found warehouse within a day or two after I shipped it. In spite of my description of it and the unique size they claimed it wasn't there---hard to believe they really did anything to locate it but I have no proof of that.
A month later I was still stewing over this even though I had a check in hand from my insurance company and my wife asked why I just didn't go to the depot so I did that and happened to get Allyson who not only knew what she was doing but really seemed to care. After taking all my information she called the lost and found facility and got nothing, she then went out into warehouse and asked around but it had been almost a month so nothing there either. When she came back to the office she tried calling lost and found again hoping to get a different person and Score! Within minutes she had pictures of the guitar up on her computer to show me!!
They had removed the steel from the shipping box and the picture of the almost pristine case convinced me it was my guitar but they also opened the case and took the steel out and sent pics of that as well!
I agreed to send it on to the original purchaser but then of course I was nervous about how they'd repack it and would it all arrive in good shape. Thankfully it did so the story has a happy ending and I tore up the insurance check.
One other item I've since learned is that some people also attach a shipping label to the instrument or case itself in case something like this happens, that might be good insurance for the future.
Over the years I have shipped and received many items from large to small and none of them have ever been lost and if not for the mistakes in knowledge and judgment I mentioned above this one wouldn't have been either! Never to old to learn!!

[Jerry Overstreet]

Happy ending to a scary story. Just a ? though....you say your insurance paid you for the loss...was this from insuring your pkg. through UPS or some other agency?

Just curious, 'cause many times people have a hard time getting shipper's insurance, or declared value, to pay up.

[Jay Jessup]

I have an insurance policy on all my instruments so I don't use UPS insurance. UPS insurance is pretty pricy as the value goes up and I have quite a few mandolins and guitars that I am planning to sell in the next year so I think the premium will pay for itself over time.

[Jim Shultz]

Before I retired, I traveled quite a bit with video and photo gear. Another suggestion is to put address information (destination and origination) and other contact information INSIDE the case. That way if the outside label is lost, and someone like the UPS folks (or TSA folks) open the case they have additional information to work with.

Just my thoughts.

[Tony Prior]

Great vending !

many times its the PERSON not the company such as UPS. But we are who we are so we blame the company.
.

Not all that long ago my wife was at a trade show in Roanoke VA. Her CC terminal power supply died. It was Friday AM, I had a spare . I told her I will send it FED EX overnight.

I went to FED ex, told them this has to be there TOMORROW AM, as in SAT Morning delivery, overnight. URGENT. The kid says , ok, that $26.

NEXT DAY. Sat AM no delivery. I called and the tracking said it was at the Roanoke HUB but scheduled for Monday delivery. HUH ??? They said it was marked for overnight but not for Saturday that's a special something or other . Overnight on Fri means Monday not Saturday.

I drove over to the FED EX store and the same kid was there, I told him what was going on and that It needed to be delivered,. I paid for Saturday delivery. He said, NO, you paid for overnight which is Monday ! HUHHH ?? WHAT !!!! I asked for the manger, who was the owner , also the kids Father. They blamed me.

I asked the kid if he recalled me saying it needed to be there by Sat, he said yes but you only paid for OVERNIGHT which is Monday. I just looked at the Father/owner and said, are you getting this ? He said maybe you weren't clear, I responded well he knew what I said, he said so, how much clearer can a person be. HE CLICKED the wrong box on the delivery option, not me. My wife ended up borrowing a PS from a friend so at least she was ok.

[David Ball]

Last year, I bought a nice Sho Bud permanent off of Reverb. Via UPS, I received one of the 2 boxes (pedal rack and legs), but the guitar disappeared. Reverb quickly refunded my money, and didn't want the legs/pedals. Sad story, since it was a very early Madison cabinet end in unmolested condition.

Fast forward a few months, and the guitar shows up in Kansas City. UPS sent it back to Reverb, Reverb sent me pictures of its condition (still fine). I re-paid Reverb and got the guitar a couple of days later.

I have no doubt that it was either a label that fell off, or a package that just never left its point of origin and got sent to Lost and Found in Kansas City.

But, I've always put a copy of the shipping label inside the case of any instrument I've shipped just in case....

Dave

[Gene Tani]

I watch Fedex, UPS and other carriers load/unload a bunch of stuff everyday and yes a lot of stuff is dropped, thrown and otherwise mistreated a lot.

So sender and receiver's name/address/phone/email inside the case but also take lots of photos of the steel (serial #), case, and outside cardboard box so you can document what you dropped off at the UPS/Fedex outpost.

[Donny Hinson]

How can they lose something as big as a pedal steel guitar? Actually, it's not that hard.

[Bob Hoffnar]

I have an insurance policy on all my instruments so I don't use UPS insurance. UPS insurance is pretty pricy as the value goes up and I have quite a few mandolins and guitars that I am planning to sell in the next year so I think the premium will pay for itself over time.

Check with your carrier to make sure you are covered. It can get tricky with things you have sold. It is also very easy for an adjuster to do a quick google search to find out that you sold something. Let us know what you come up with.

[David Nugent]

Placing an index card inside the case with the complete address of the purchaser as well as your own may likely help the shipping company in the event that the label becomes detached and the item is lost or misdirected.

[Dennis Montgomery]

I watch Fedex, UPS and other carriers load/unload a bunch of stuff everyday and yes a lot of stuff is dropped, thrown and otherwise mistreated a lot.

I sold an MCI SD10 a couple years ago and showed up at my local UPS store with it packed and ready to ship. I used a box I had laying around that had a couple "Fragile" stickers on it. The UPS store clerk said she'd highly recommend covering those "Fragile" stickers. I was shocked and asked why. She said it's sad but true that boxes with "Fragile", "Do Not Drop", and similar labels are more likely to be thrown around, treated rough and dropped than those without. Not by the final delivery drivers but by others along the way who take offense with those labels telling them how to do their job

Don't know how true this is, but this is what she said she's learned working in the delivery business.

[Jay Jessup]

Bob, I asked that question before I ever bought the policy as that was the main reason I was getting the policy and they said yes. Kinda funny in hindsight as the check for the loss arrived very quickly but once the steel reappeared it took several e-mails over a 10 day period to let them know I'd found it and to give me direction on what to do with the check.

I have an insurance policy on all my instruments so I don't use UPS insurance. UPS insurance is pretty pricy as the value goes up and I have quite a few mandolins and guitars that I am planning to sell in the next year so I think the premium will pay for itself over time.

Check with your carrier to make sure you are covered. It can get tricky with things you have sold. It is also very easy for an adjuster to do a quick google search to find out that you sold something. Let us know what you come up with.