Big Mistake

Wayne Coe

Forum Owner - Moderator
I made a BIG MISTAKE that I won't ever make again and just want to warn all of you.
As most of you know, I'm just a small fish in a big pond. I am trying to supply knifemakers and blacksmiths with some of the things they need, motors, belt grinder workshops, and forge supplies. This is not a big business to me and any loss really hurts.

Last week I mailed two motors to Dave at Great Lakes Waterjet, Inc. I sent them parcel post and the post master asked if I wanted to put tracking on them. I commented about insurance and she said that tracking would be enough. Well, Dave got one motor 4 days later. The box was torn up, the switches that were sent were pulverized and the fan cover was ripped off and destroyed. The second motor (separate package) has yet to show up. I can't even start tracking for another 9 days. The Postal Service is only to quick to ask me, "Well, did you buy insurance?" No, I was told the tracking would take care of it. Well, guess what Dogs, it doesn't. I have filed a complaint on the grounds that the Postal Service has not exercised "Ordinary Care" or even "Reasonable Care". We will see where that goes.

I must say that Dave has been a real gentleman about this whole thing and it has been a privilege to do business with him. I feel that I have gotten to know the "Real Dave" through this and look forward to visiting with him at the Blade Show.

I will now give you all my personal guarantee, "I will never ship anything to any of you without insuring it.

Thanks for listening.
 
It's a hard lesson to learn Wayne. I've read of entirely too many horror stories. I've started making it a point to place a minimum of $100 insurance on anything I ship just because it holds them more accountable.
 
I moved from Arkansas to South Carolina in 1992. I shipped almost all of my belongings in eleven boxes with UPS. I was going to insure each box for a thousand dollars. The "lady" told me tracking would be fine and they would stay together, so I saved myself about twenty bucks and put the tracking label on a box full of books and insured them each for four hundred. They lost the box with the tracking label and about fifteen hundred dollars worth of books. I was told I should have gotten more insurance.
 
I always insure for over the amount for this reason. It might be me but I feel better knowing that the postal worker sees something has been insured and delivery confirmation. It might not, but if it helps get my stuff to and from a destination and makes someone think twice--it is worth it to me. Too long has the delivery agencies been allowed to accept sub-par work and service but what other choices do we have.
 
Yeah, tracking numbers... at best they work great, at worst they MIGHT tell you the last place your package was seen. Maybe.

I once bought a very nice Gibson acoustic off Ebay and followed it around online (with the tracking number) for weeks. I can't say why, but it took a heckuva round-about trip from his store to my house. Neither the seller nor I thought to insure it. It was "only" worth $1000 but to me that's a big chunk of change.

It finally showed up in my town, but when I called the location it was supposed to be at, they had no clue what I was talking about. Many more calls and chewed-up fingernails later, I found it in an unheated warehouse on the other side of town.... this IS NOT a good thing for an acoustic guitar, in Wisconsin, in the dead of winter. I had actual headaches thinking of my dream axe languishing on an ice-cold concrete floor, riddled with cracks and a messed-up finish. :eek:

I got lucky and the guitar is fine, but I would have been out-of-luck if anything had happened to it.

As a sidenote, I worked as a "casual" employee one summer at the main PO warehouse in my town. Let me just say that "FRAGILE" on a package is a joke to those people. I watched as full-time folks laughed and played basketball with "fragile" packages. I'm sure most USPS employees are much more professional, but it only takes one fool to ruin your package. Pack it like you intend to throw it off a tall building!
 
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I once shipped 2 SpeedGlas lenses back to the factory for repair. One was under warranty. USPS. I did insure them for $600 total. When nothing was heard for a while I called Hornell they never showed up. It took me months to get my money for them and at first they would only shell out part of the money for one and not the other because it was broken. Many letters, phone calls later I got a little more. If they had got them to Hornell I would have gotten back 2 lenses worth about $250 each for $100 to repair the one not under warranty. I think I got like $260 total and a lot of frustration. Sucked even with insurance..
 
The whole thing is don't ship anything "Parcel Post"! Spend another dollar or two and ship "Priority Mail". We just learned the hard way.:(
 
When you send something the cheapest way without insurance you are taking a chance. Most of the time it arrives safely but sometimes you get burnt.
Spend the extra money and take the worry out of it.
 
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Dave I agree with you and insurance isn't that much for piece of mind. For some reason when I insure it it makes it in one piece.
 
I hate to hear that Wayne. I hope that the PO finds the other motor or at least rules in your favor on the complaint. I have went through the same thing with UPS on a package before and they are no better than the PO.

BJ
 
I have had good results using the USPS priority mail boxes. There system seems to process those standard size packages well. They have only lost one, of three hundred or so, in the last six months and I figure that one may still show up. Its only been six months and things get lost down under.:)
The insured sticker seems to help.

Sorry to here that my friend. Its tough, as a small supplier, to lose any product shipment.

Fred
 
Parcel post can take up to 15 days sometimes. It is good for low value, bulky items. Priority Mail doesn't track but it does get there quite a bit quicker.
 
Sorry to hear Wayne. You might have to be the "squeeky wheel" to get results.
Don't judge a man when things are going well, you'll find the true man when things don't go right. Sounds like Dave is the right kinda guy.
OK, I got it. Track and Insure. Go
Dozier
 
Priority mail isn't always a priority to USPS. I had a package shipped with tracking by priority mail. Two weeks later USPS said they couldn't find the package. Bummer!!!! Seller did send another item. I doubt they got reimbursed from USPS.
 
Let's remember not to bash USPS in this thread. I personally haven't had any issues, except one box was declared to be delivered, but wasn't in the mailbox. Stolen, perhaps. It wasn't worth much though.
 
Just to take this precaution a step further.

"Tracking" with the USPS is not the same as "tracking" with UPS. With UPS you can give them the tracking number and they will tell you exactly where that package is--even if it's on a truck.

You won't get that level of detail with USPS. Their tracking will tell you when it arrives at the original (sending) post office, and when it arrives at the recipient post office, and when it is delivered. I had to track down a package one time that was lost in transit (it eventually arrived 2 weeks later). I could get no information off the website. When I asked a person at the post office to find where the package was at, en route, I was told "I'm sorry, our system doesn't work that way."
 
I have dealt with the claims department of USPS, UPS and FedEx at one time or another. UPS and FedEx was a horror show to deal with. USPS was very accommodating and payed off fast. They just have one stipulation, you need to have insurance. Sending something that's important by registered mail and having it insured is the safest way to ship.
 
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