UPS Shipping Horror Story

[silentrage]

I talked to a seller on Ebay about shipping his guitar, and UPS came up.
The story he gave me of his experience with UPS is nothing short of truly horrifying for people who like to buy/sell/trade music gear online and I felt compelled to share it. Don't know whether this has been posted before but if you havn't seen this, let this be a warning, and feel free to copy/paste this post on other forums.

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You're looking at a $1350 custom built bass drum after UPS had its way with it, apparently a forklift was ran through the package at a UPS facility, but I assure you this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg that is UPS's incompetence.

A full set of drums was shipped and fully insured at $2500. UPS had split the drumset into 5 boxes, and decided each will be valued at $500 with total disregard of what's actually in the box.

The shipper could only ever get $500 back, but even that's proved to be difficult, because apparently he's not the shipper.

You see, when you take something to a UPS store to ship it, you're not really the shipper, and you're not really working with UPS.

UPS stores are a franchise who work with UPS the shipping company, anyone who goes to a UPS store to ship their goods with on a 3rd party basis with UPS the shipping company, and thus UPS basically won't deal with you when something goes wrong.

In this case it took 3 months of constantly calling and complaining to get $500 for a bass drum that's worth $1350 and was fully insured.

I've never had first hand account of UPS's service quality, or lack thereof, and I can't attest to the accuracy of this story, but if it's all true, then I'd sooner ship my gear via Canada Post's moose brigade than touch UPS with a 10 foot pole.

[GH0STrider]

good thing I don't and never have shipped ups

[Petef2007]

That just defies belief.

Fortunatly, when i've shipped via UPS it's been fine, although from some of the stories i heard after this sort of thing doesnt suprise me

[Ze Kink]

Yeah, UPS FTL I've only got bad experiences with them. Stuff like that doesn't surprise me at all.

[vampiregenocide]

How the .... can they get away with that shit?

[wannabguitarist]

I only use USPS when I ship guitars. Mostly because the people at the local UPS store are ....ing retards.

Does anyone know if FedEx is any better/worse?

[bulletbass man]

^both are the same really.

Never ever have UPS pack your items for reasons like this. They do all sorts of stupid shit. Also though it's expensive it's best to go overnight or two day shipping. I've found that while it's more expensive it greatly decreases the chances of damage. So if your shipping a really expensive item which is fragile like a drum. it's definitely worth it.

[Hellraizer]

Ohh shit that sucks.

[Groff]

That's painful to look at

[HighGain510]

I had UPS take a 4x12 cabinet they were delivering to me and literally TOSS IT against my front porch. I saw it happen and tried to run to the truck to chew the guy out but he floored it when he saw me coming. Opened the dented box and sure enough the dent he left in the box went right into the actual cabinet. Won the claim (and they put me through all sorts of hoops to get it too, I SAW him do it so wtf?! ) but after that I never shipped with UPS again. FedEx or USPS Priority for me, only wayt to go IMO.

[Apex1rg7x]

I had a situation with UPS that never really turned into anything that i had to claim, just there ignorance and stupidity amazed me. I had bought a pair of aluminum heads for my camaro that cost me roughly $2000. I had them delivered to my work since we have UPS and Fedex in and out of there daily so i figured that would be easiest, but i happended to be standing about 30 feet away when i saw the guy pull the box off the back of his truck and basically DROP my heads on the concrete. I mean these are heavy ass aluminum heads that are expensive as .... and hard to get. I was so pissed that i just saw that i couldn't even say anything, it was so ridiculous. UPS sucks shit and i'll never use them unless i absolutely ....ing have to.

[Groff]

Originally Posted by HighGain510

FedEx or USPS Priority for me, only wayt to go IMO.

Even FedEx has their moments, but they are much better. USPS have never disappointed though.

[Guitar Nymph]

That's just terrible....

I've had a brand new jackson king v, packaged & shipped by ups, arrive with one of the points mangled & sticking out of the box. Ups wouldn't cover the damage..

[Esp Griffyn]

They have always handled my Xbox 360s well while they have been going to and from Germany for repairs, but I did see a UPS guy carrying a stack of boxes up some stairs outside a building, drop them, then go back down the stairs and then throw the boxes at the buildings door one by one. I hope no one was ordering fine glassware.

[Wi77iam]

HOLY SHIT
.... UPS! seriously, if i ever had that happen to me.. I don't know what i'd do. i'd be soo ....ing angry. well i've only had stuff shipped to me via USPS and thats all good USPS FTW!

[Bloody_Inferno]

I work at UPS and yeah the stories are true...

All freight companies are the same. You're just paying more with UPS/FedEx/DHL as opposed to local posts like USPS.

Rule of thumb, don't EVER let the transport companies pack your stuff for you. EVER. Bulletbass said it best. Do the secure packing yourself. If you're a first time customer, keep it open for inspection then seal it yourself before you hand it to the courier.

Some drivers are alright, a lot of them are just downright stupid. I know because I audit them and tell most of them off for stupid stuff like this.

[Stealthdjentstic]

Ouch, that sucks.

[nosgulstic]

my experiences with them have been good. i've never seen them drop my stuff and it usually come fine.

[Flax6177]

I always avoid shipping with UPS when I can and I prefer FedEx overall. All of my experiences with UPS have been bad. Damaged packages, late deliveries, and horrible service. FedEx has always been helpful to me, and I have never had shipping quality problems with them. Just my experience though.

[BigPhi84]

Wow, I'm speechless.

[silentrage]

Oh yeah, when I was in China, I went to the post office (China Post) to pick up a package, and I saw a worker carrying a big bag full of boxes and packages into the storage room which was in the basement, he just rolled it and kicked it down the stairs!!

[eegor]

I've never had any bad experiences with UPS, FedEx, or USPS. I usually ship UPS because it's cheaper than FedEx and the people at the post office are usually assholes.

[lefty robb]

I posted this on Jemsite a long time ago, This is my story from when I worked at UPS:

I now its a long read, but its worth it.

This might get really long, but if you ship stuff thru UPS, you should really read the Nightmare that is UPS. Please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes.

OK, lets see. I worked at UPS for like 3 years part time to pay for college (5 hours a day, M-F) All I did was load or unload the bulk trailers which were either short flats, 40 foot flats, and drop frames, which were short but had dropped floors with rollers down the middle and wooden flaps to cover up the bottom, damn did I hate those. I worked in the Shrewsbury, MA Hub, which is the largest hub in MA (theres only 2 in MA). It was actually built sometime in the late 60's from what I was told. At that time they barely did more than 10 or 20K a week in packages, although the plant was designed to handle 2 to 3 times that load. The plant did have some expansions later on in the 70's and 80's but nothing major (some more bays and better, faster and stronger conveyor systems and belts, the main lines could rip your arms off). When I was there during the off season (any months other than Nov-Feb) we would typically handle anywhere from 100 to 300K a week. The internet really made UPS what they are today with shipping contracts like Amazon and QVC.

SO I'm sure you can imagine what an increase in production without updating the system means to your package. The main belts are up to a few thousand feet in length and about 2 feet wide with metal walls about 10 inches high on both sides. They ran to different arms of the building (think of a bike wheel) each arm has so many bays (standard tractor trailer bays), and each bay has a specific list of ZIP codes that you could load into it. As the main conveyors moved, they would pass by 2 guys (called pickoffs) they each had 2 shoots or slides if you will. They would each read the ZIP codes as the boxes go buy and grab them, then they would put packages down (or throw) the packages down each shoot that went to the bottom belt (same size and power as a main belt), which had hydraulic arms that would block off certain sections and push the boxes down another shoot that's wide at the top (like 5 or 6 feet) down to 2 feet wide at the bottom where it goes into the truck. (yeah, like that doesn't spell disaster right there)

This system is designed for really any package under 70lbs. Anything over 70lbs is called "bulk" which is handled by hand (this is why you pay a **** load for it) down into the hub, sorted by hand onto trains, which is basically a little electric car pulling 5 or 6 carts behind it, like a snake. If you've seen Austin Powers and remember the car he tried to turn around in and got stuck in the middle of a hallway, yeah, exact same thing just without the train part)
So that means that a package that's 2lbs and a package that's 60lbs travels the SAME EXACT belts, hmmm, yeah, real ....ing smart right there.

During the off season you have a much, much better chance that your package will arrive fairly unharmed, and the smaller it is, the better, because like stuff over 70lbs, boxes under 1lb are also handled differently. There what UPS calls "small sort" and goes to another part of the building where there all put down small shoots, gets hand sorted and put into what looks like oversized PO Boxes, one guy on one side is sorting them into each little compartment (each a different zip) and another guy on the other side taking the filled up compartment and putting the contents into a big white nylon bag called a Smalls bag, or just a "Smalls" as we used to call it. the bag gets its own special label which is programmed with the contents of the bag. Usually these bags would have 5 to 15 boxes in them, depending on the size of the boxes. you see us loaders have to scan each box that goes into a trailer, because you guys love to track your boxes, and UPS also uses it to track the loads and production volumes, and how much each person is loading for the day etc etc. We had a scanner that wraps around your wrist with a separate laser head that straps to the index and middle finger, and you use your thumb to trigger it. (something like the old Nintendo Power Glove) and everything was on a radio wave WAN.

After thanksgiving, its a real nightmare at UPS, the volumes can get astronomical, one X-Mas we did over a million packages in a week. Can you imagine what a plant that shouldn't realistically get more than 200k in a week, getting over a million?!?

This is where the true nightmare begins.

The conveyors turned into raging white water rapids full of boxes as long as the eye can see. But in reality it was so jammed it was hardly moving. No no, not the belt underneath the boxes though, oh no, it was still moving at the same speed it always did, turning the boxes black from rubbing on them, almost to the point that they would burn. You have to understand, these belts aren't smooth at all, they have a fairly rough grip to them. The motors were so strong that if a heavy package was onto of a light one, and that light one was on the belt, it was like rubbing cheese on a grater, tearing through the cardboard and spilling to contents all over the belt, which we would eventually get coming down the shoots into the trailer. albeit usually not in one piece. These items were usually thrown out of the trailer onto the floor (which is like 4 feet down and about 10 feet away) where they would be collected up at a later date, usually at the end of the day. If your lucky you would also have the box or hopefully the shipping label to them, but this is far less than a 50% chance since the belt just eats things up and also the fact that no one actually gives a .....

So that's what just the main conveyor can do. As the packages progress to then of the belt and down the slide into the trailer, there's a compressing effect going on with the slide. If your lucky, you package will either fall over the shoot down like 10 feet onto cement or hopefully fall into the trailer. If your really unlucky, your package with get crushed as the slide gets narrower. Have you ever watched the guy pull the lever on a garbage truck and watch and hear the garbage getting pressed into the truck? These shoots do essentially the same thing, and the sound, well, it sounds JUST like it, as the contents break and the cardboard tears and rips into each other, and well sealed packages actually burst open under the enormous pressure making a loud popping noise showering you in packaging peanuts and foam. its a continuous wave of overflowing packages into these trailers where we would just throw your boxes into huge piles that eventually fill up the entire truck from bottom to top. And these trailers can be in excess of 10 feet tall so you can imagine what happens to the boxes on the bottom. See, if there isn't a retarded amount of boxes being thrown into the trailer, your suppose to make nice, neat walls in the same manner of brick building, or a giant game of Tetris depending on how you look at it. Yeah, not during X-mas though. its basically a mad dash game of luck, chuck and stuff. And that's just for the flat beds. If your in a drop frame and you get loaded like this, you basically open up the floor and let the bottom fill itself in any chaotic matter. what, one side a little to full and the flaps not closing, .... it, jump up and down on it until it compresses the boxes.

What, no stool to reach the top? See nearest package and using as your own personal step stool, oh darn, my foot went thru the box, how sad, don't have time to take it out so lets just stuff more boxes on top of it, ....ing it up even more. This is the general mentality of all of the workers at UPS, or Under Paid Slaves as we all said. We worked for as little at $7 to $8/h, plus we had to pay for health insurance, and Union dues, not to mention these trailers were either freezing cold or boiling hot, and most of the time your boss was younger than you. So really you just can't imagine why people would have these attitudes, its boggling.

Heres some fun things that happened while I was there.

We would have contests to see who could accurately re-enact the famous Ace Ventura UPS scene, with one of our costumers packages, this included playing soccer with it.

We would have vigorous tape ball fights, and if this meant jump onto boxes or jumping into a pile of boxes to avoid getting hit, oh well. We would also have water balloon fights.

I have witnessed HAZMAT boxes full of dangerous chemicals and acids and what not, spill onto other packages. Yes these items go into the same trucks but are handled like bulk. That shuts the plant or that wing down for a while so the cleanup team can do there thing.

A co-worker jumped down off a ladder, didn't watch where he was landing, clipped a box, went through it up to his knee, and broke his leg inside the box, I heard the snap. that was a laugh.

Drugs were/are a common place. People smoked weed in the trailers, or, like my old buddy Phil, actually came to work most of the time with a bloody nose or developed them during the day, or he would drop acid or E in a trailer, and we would just screw with him all day, so fun.

During the busy season it was a common place to see supervisors kicking boxes with both feet through the shoots to keep the belts moving. (think sliding down a slide, but instead of sliding, you got hundreds of boxes in front of you and your using your body to force them down, like stuffing a giant turkey with your feet)

Sometimes supervisors would call off a trailer a little to early (they used a computer to tell a waiting truck to connect to a trailer and pull it away, and bring an empty one) if this happens and you can't get the door down in time the last few walls of boxes would spill out all over the outside bay, if your lucky, if not, they would pull away and the initial jerking doesnt spill it, it would when they hit a bump and spill over the traffic lane, a few hundred feet away, getting the boxes runover by other trucks. and if its a really fun day, the portable roller systems we use in the flat beds, which attach to the shoots, would still be in the trailer too, so when they pulled away, a huge roller unit weighing over 1000lbs would also fall onto the boxes.

ok, enough typing for now...

[hufschmid]

I only use UPS for the past 10 years or so to ship my guitars around the world and so far I have never had any problems, only customs who took the packet aside to check the content....

[RenegadeDave]

We use UPS and FedEx to ship plans around. UPS is awful. FedEx is pretty much as mechanized as they can be. Pick ups and drops off at the same time every day. UPS drops the ball constantly. We hate it when people ship us UPS, because an "overnite" can sometimes turn into 3 days. Luckily, we're moving away from paper plans so there's no need for them (as much).