What can brown do for you?

greenLED

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I found this story on PCMag.com I thought of posting it in the C&J, but since I don't have a say in the whole thing, I thought I'd rather post it here an solicit your comments. Have you had similar experiences with UPS? So far, all of mine have been flawless.

In a nutshell, a package got damaged in transit (eBay transaction), UPS picked up the package for inspection and sent it to "the shipper"... only to be lost in a limbo. Read on:

What brown did for me
 

Beamhead

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gone "Squatchin" :p
I avoid UPS at all costs. More than once I have tracked a package to my city only to see it get mis-routed to another state.
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They are expensive and slow, I get a chuckle every time I hear or see what can BROWN do for you, if it's brown.....
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EDIT: :stupid: A comment on the article mentioned. It is true that the shipper is the one made whole via UPS's insurance, then it falls upon the shipper to make the shippee/recipient whole. The seller/shipper should refund the Ebay purchaser IMHO.:confused:
 
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The_LED_Museum

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What can brown do for me?
It can bob around in the toliet bowl until I yank down that little chrome handle on the front of the cistern and flush it away. ;) :toliet: ;)
 

IsaacHayes

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expensive, slow (often missing air shippments garuentees), and packages get roughed up. I worked for a company that delt with UPS quite often as a packing/shipping store.

If you over pack your item then usualy you are ok. If you can go fed-ex, as they are cheaper and are on time if not sooner usualy. With UPS if you do send it garunteed and they don't get it in time, you can try to get your money back unless it's due to natural weather/etc that caused the delay. You do get $100 declared value and tracking automatically though Fed-Ex does the same.

And yes that's standard procedure, UPS picks it up to inspect it. Then if they see it's damaged by them and not poor packaging (which if you don't pack it super well, they will say tough luck and not give you anything), and the shipper proves it's value some how, then they will issue the shipper a check for the declared value and shipping charges, and then they ship the item back to the shipper.

If you are a buyer, and don't trust the shipper to take care of things, or they don't know the steps they will have to take, it can end up being a bad thing.
 
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carrot

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What can Brown do for you?
  • Give you the freedom to explore
  • the freedom to focus
  • the freedom to take risks
  • the freedom to fail
  • the freedom to succeed
  • Encourage and develop your inherent strengths
  • Give you the opportunity to discover new interests and passions

Oh, you meant that brown. They ought to be more careful with people's stuff... I mean, slicing at the shipping boxes with axes? I mean, you'd think having paid them and all, they'd at least have the decency not to use your stuff for anger management. It's stories like these that make me wary of postal services...
 

zespectre

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I finally gave up trying to get UPS to deliver to my address. I avoid using them like the plague but if a company only ships via UPS then I have them hold it at the depot and I go pick it up.

Hell of an inconvenience as the depot is 30 miles away, but at least nothings gone missing or been "accidentally" returned to sender since I started doing that.
 

gadget_lover

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I don't understand the person's gripe. It's pretty clear that the shipper is the UPS customer, and that the recipient is not. It's also pretty clear that they did what they were supposed to in that they returned the package to the shipper. It's not UPS'es fault that the shipper was a private company that went out of business. Many, many people are screwed when a company goes out of business while holding customer property.

Now I do understand that the buyer paid the seller to ship the package, and that he was, in fact the one paying for the shipping and the insurance. How he expects UPS to know this I don't know.

We get packages from "brown santa" very often, at least weekly. I know of only one screwed up delivery in the last 5 years. The shipper keyed in the wrong city. The package got within 10 miles of my house (based on the zip) when it was suddenly diverted to the other town (which had a zip 1 number different) 300 miles away.

This was not something I could blame on UPS, since they made the logical correction. A city is harder to mistype than a zip. They did not realize that the shipper looked up the wrong city based on an incorrectly keyed zip.

I like brown. They are very, very good to us. And he brings me flashlights. :)

Daniel
 

Brighteyez

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My comment? Highly unprofessional for a professional journalist to air his rant in his work. Worse yet, he's abused his privlege as a columnist by using the column that he should be writing and filling it with the kind of diatribe that anyone can find on any web forum or newsgroup. Michael ought to fire him personally and immediately. Quite honestly, he's just lowered himself to being another eBay whiner. I'm not one of those people who go around writing 'letters to the editor' on every little disagreement I might have (as a matter of fact, I've never written one.) However such an abuse of this nature so infuriates me that I just may write one to someone at Ziff.

I'm sure there is someone here who works in the package transportation industry (i.e. UPS, USPS, FedEX, DHL, et al.) who can confirm it, but generally the carrier will only deal with the individual filing the claim, and personally, if that were me, I'd applaud the carrier for telling a third party inquiring about my claim "that it's none of their business." Additionally, it seems pretty clear to me from his own words that's he's looking for a "deeper pocket" so to speak, to cast blame upon when he should actually be dealing with the seller and the store that he bought he amp from.

Just my point of view



greenLED said:
I found this story on PCMag.com I thought of posting it in the C&J, but since I don't have a say in the whole thing, I thought I'd rather post it here an solicit your comments. Have you had similar experiences with UPS? So far, all of mine have been flawless.

In a nutshell, a package got damaged in transit (eBay transaction), UPS picked up the package for inspection and sent it to "the shipper"... only to be lost in a limbo. Read on:
 

CLHC

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My mom used to get weekly deliveries from UPS for her work. They always came damaged and the driver's usually in a foul mood. I've heard the neighbors comment to us that the UPS driver is rude and doesn't seem to care about how to deliver the "goods" but just literally "drop" ship the boxes in our driveway.
 

Empath

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I'd hold UPS blameless. UPS may have been responsible for the damage to the amp, but the buyer accepted that the seller would be the insured. Had the seller not gone out of business, it would have been the seller's responsibility to continue the transaction from there. It wasn't UPS's fault that the seller went out of business.

UPS's inclusion in the argument is a red herring. The seller is at fault. However, going out of business may have meant seizure of everything on his premises by the courts or creditors. The buyer's claim is against the seller, which may or may not exist any more, depending on the nature and status of the business. The buyer is a creditor that can pursue his claims in whatever method the status of closure permits. UPS is out of the picture and never did have the responsibility or authority to override the status of the insured, or determine themselves judges of the transaction.
 

NeonLights

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I work for UPS and have personally handled over three million packages in the 5 1/2 years I've worked for the company. Most of the ridicule and slander directed towards UPS as a whole is undeserved, but some of it unfortunately is well-deserved. People have no idea what goes on behind the scenes at a UPS hub. My building isn't one of the bigger hubs, but we still handle around 1.5 million packages a week.

I see maybe half a dozen to a dozen damaged packages a night out of the 8000-1000 packages that come though my area on a shift. Many of those damaged packages are due to improper packaging. It seems like some people think their packages can just be thrown together with whatever packing materials they have sitting around, even if the boxes have been used repeatedly already and many people pay no attention to how much weight the box can actually handle. Some items do get handled roughly by people or machinery, but many of our employees are college students making very little money. Our starting wage has gone up $.50 in the last 20 years. I'm not making excuses for people who are careless, but you get what you pay for. Would you want to pay more for shipping so we could get paid a fair starting wage? I didn't think so.

As for slamming the company as a whole, we've got over 300,000 union employees (the union is part of the problem) who handle packages on a daily basis. Some of them are bad eggs, and some delivery areas handle packages worse than others, just like some areas get worse USPS or FedEx service than others. Slandering the entire company for a bad package or two is just utter foolishness and ignorance. We have a lot of competition and wouldn't have gotten to be the largest package shipping company, and wouldn't remain the largest if we weren't doing a very good job overall.

FWIW I do see quite a few packages come through every week containing flashlights from Dorcy, Streamlight, and BrightGuy, among others. I would say I'm extra careful with those packages, but I try to treat every package with care.

-Keith
 

CLHC

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NeonLights said:
I would say I'm extra careful with those packages, but I try to treat every package with care.
Good! I have friends that work for UPS too, and they are outstanding fellows that take their jobs seriously and perform them professionally.

Way to go Keith! :wave:
 

LaserFreak

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I for one have never received a package from UPS on time. Not once. Even the tracking info tells ya that it will be delivered on such and such a day, but every time I order something that gets shipped UPS it usually shows up a day afterwards. If I were a retailer, I would ship packages through Fed-Ex and not touch UPS with a 10 foot pole.

I will, however say that I've never had a damaged package from UPS. Kudos to them for that. I've never received a damaged package from Fed-Ex either.....
 

NeonLights

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LaserFreak said:
I for one have never received a package from UPS on time. Not once. Even the tracking info tells ya that it will be delivered on such and such a day, but every time I order something that gets shipped UPS it usually shows up a day afterwards. If I were a retailer, I would ship packages through Fed-Ex and not touch UPS with a 10 foot pole.

How many packages would that be? 3, 10, 100, 1000? Did you know that even regular UPS ground shipments are now guaranteed to be delivered on time? You could be getting free shipping on every package you receive! Have you ever tried to make a claim with UPS or with the shipper? Have you ever complained to UPS or to the shipper?

-Keith
 

gadget_lover

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It you never get thimgs on time, or if your packages are a;ways damaged, call the local manager and let them know. I conclude that most of UPS is pretty darn good, since most of MY packages arrive in good shape and on the predicted date. That indicates it might just be your carrier or distribution center.

Daniel
 

magic79

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Empath said:
I'd hold UPS blameless. UPS may have been responsible for the damage to the amp, but the buyer accepted that the seller would be the insured ... UPS's inclusion in the argument is a red herring. The seller is at fault.

You are right on the money Empath. This would be like getting an undercooked steak at a restaurant, and expecting the farmer to reimburse you!

I sent Machrone an email (which he answered almost immediately!) stating a similar argument: The payment and contract are between the shipping company and UPS. The reimbursement is between the seller and Machrone.

In his answer he said "So I discovered Mark. I've written a followup column."
 

Coop

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UPS isn't all that bad... I had a few bad experiences with them, but most of the time they do pretty good.

If you really want to experience crap service in sending packages, try GLS (Global Logistics Service). These guys really are crap. I never had any goods damaged or missing, but I heard a lot of bad things and had a nice experience myself with them too:

I was working on my car outside the appartmentbuilding where I live. The GLS van pulls up the parkinglot. The driver is filling out a form, walks over to my mailbox drops off the form, gets back in his van and starts to back out of the parkinglot.
I walk over to my mailbox. grab the form, read it. It said that he found me not to be at home and that I could pick up the package at the depot. There was some traffic, so the guy was still busy getting off the parkinlot. I walk over to him, knock on his window. He stops and tells me how lucky I am to catch him. He said he had rang the doorbell at least 5 times but there was no answer. I had been watching him the whole time, even greeting him while he walked past me to post the form. Lying *******... and I heard a lot of stories like that about them...
 

LaserFreak

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NeonLights said:
How many packages would that be? 3, 10, 100, 1000? Did you know that even regular UPS ground shipments are now guaranteed to be delivered on time? You could be getting free shipping on every package you receive! Have you ever tried to make a claim with UPS or with the shipper? Have you ever complained to UPS or to the shipper?

-Keith

Nope I haven't. It didn't ever occur to me. I just always assumed my package would come late and dealt with it. Most of the time you don't have a choice as to who the seller uses to ship items. Incidentally, I've only had about 3 packages delivered to me via UPS...all different retailers, too.

Oh, and BTW, your crack me up LED Museum! Exactly what I was thinking..wasn't going to post it though....LMFAO :crackup:

"What can brown do for me?
It can bob around in the toliet bowl until I yank down that little chrome handle on the front of the cistern and flush it away."
 
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IsaacHayes

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Having delt with Fed-Ex and UPS, I can say we had less troubles with Fed-Ex as far as delivering air packages on time. Out of several UPS drivers, only one was a bad egg, and not only did he mis-treat our packages but he also go into fights with other drivers!! But he was the only one who ever gave us trouble.
 
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