Another post office fiasco

[brandoncook26]

I worked at UPS for 10 years and I would almost rather drive a package to its destination than to take a chance on shipping. I had things damaged I ordered and it was hard for me to get reimbursed, and I worked there! The only thing you can do is pray it will arrive in one piece.

 

[Danktrees]

are you supposed to deal with the local p.o. when something like this happens? cuz with canadapost i just call in and they ask me to send proof of value which is easy enough since they dont know anything about cues so u can basically send them a picture of a cue with the price and they'll pay it. once i just sent them the paypal invoice and they paid it out full even tho the invoice doesnt even say which cue the payment was for.

 

[cuedoctor]

not to knock the p.o...but i work there..and i have seen how some ppl handle them packages...they seperate them in different containers, some near them and some within throwin distance..and if they dont belong in the container close to them...it goes flyin in the containers further away..just the way it is..

I work there also and if its like a box of checks or something thats not going to hurt someone with a stray throw then sure it gets tossed to the next buggie but if your office is throwing boxes the size of pool cues thru the air across the room then there's a problem with your local management for allowing it..send me the zip:angry:

 

[Beware_of_Dawg]

I had a shotgun snapped in half shipping with DHL, been a year and I'm still wrestling with them to give me the $500 insurance pay-off on a $1200 shotgun.

 

[SCCues]

I would suggest that anyone shipping a cue should go the hardware store and buy a piece of heavy walled PVC pipe and cut it to size, a 10 foot section will cost you around $7.00 or less and cut in two will ship two cues and you can literally run over it with your car and not damage the contents.

For the ends you can buy plastic caps that slide over but they are a little costly, about as much as the pipe section for each end, what I used to do was cut very heavy cardboard in a circle to fit on the end and just duct tape it in place, works great.

Wrap the butt and shaft section separately in bubble wrap and snug them into the pipe then put the pipe in a box.

I shipped tons of very expensive fishing rods this way up to 9 feet long and never had one broken using this method.

This is a great idea and I want to thank you for posting this. I'm going to do this the next time I ship a high dollar cue.

Thanks again,
James

 

[SCCues]

I worked at UPS for 10 years and I would almost rather drive a package to its destination than to take a chance on shipping. I had things damaged I ordered and it was hard for me to get reimbursed, and I worked there! The only thing you can do is pray it will arrive in one piece.

I've been reading this thread and this post really makes me nervous when I think of all of the high end cues i've shipped and had shipped to me. Does anybody care about their job in the shipping business? This is terrible. It sounds like we are rolling the dice when we ship a nice cue.....

James

 

[ridewiththewind]

I've been reading this thread and this post really makes me nervous when I think of all of the high end cues i've shipped and had shipped to me. Does anybody care about their job in the shipping business? This is terrible. It sounds like we are rolling the dice when we ship a nice cue.....

James

Unfortunately, you are rolling the dice these days. I know that between UPS and FedEx, they pay their package handlers for sh*t, which would explain why they do not care...not their stuff. Additionally, you have terminal managers who have regional managers breathing down their necks to keep their service numbers up, and work hours down. They do not care how the volume moves, only that it does.

Now throw in the drivers, who are limited to the # of hours they can be on the road everyday, and their ever expanding service areas...leaving many less than 30 seconds per stop to stay on schedule...many do not get to eat lunch, unless it's on the move, and many take their bath room breaks in the back of their vans......TRUE STORY! :yikes: They do not have the time to wait for someone to answer the door for a signature...or to find a suitable hiding place, or even to leave an Attempted Delivery slip with the appropriate and needed info for customer retrieval.

And of course...now local delivery terminals and PO's direct phone #'s are a closely guarded secret. Better kept than that of our national security...LoL.

When people begin to struggle due to low pay, and the constant threat of the loss of employment over their heads....morale and job satisfaction decline expeditiously.

Lisa.

 

[bigshooter]

On the other side of the coin I bought an electric guitar on ebay from some kid in California and he apparently didn't have a big enough box so he left the top twelve inches of the neck (headstock) sticking out of the package! :yikes:

So the guitar arrives at my house from California to Nebraska in pristine condition, I couldn't believe that UPS would even accept it packaged that way, unbelievable.

 

[ridewiththewind]

On the other side of the coin I bought an electric guitar on ebay from some kid in California and he apparently didn't have a big enough box so he left the top twelve inches of the neck (headstock) sticking out of the package! :yikes:

So the guitar arrives at my house from California to Nebraska in pristine condition, I couldn't believe that UPS would even accept it packaged that way, unbelievable.

Wow! Did you get big time lucky! I have seen guitars shipped in their own cases with the headstock snapped off due to something heavy being loaded on top of it. Of course, if I would have had a package come through that way...I would have repacked it properly at the terminal.

And yes, I am amazed that UPS accepted it that way for shipping as well....FedEx would not have...least not in my area...they would have required a repack before accepting for shipping.

Lisa <=====did LOTS of repacks!

 

[Bamacues]

On the other side of the coin I bought an electric guitar on ebay from some kid in California and he apparently didn't have a big enough box so he left the top twelve inches of the neck (headstock) sticking out of the package! :yikes:

So the guitar arrives at my house from California to Nebraska in pristine condition, I couldn't believe that UPS would even accept it packaged that way, unbelievable.

You were lucky as crap!! I own a Martin, a Taylor and a Les Paul. I can just see shipping one of them and leaving the headstock sticking out of the box.
Joe

 

[pfduser]

I hate the post office!

 

[alstl]

Word of friendly advice. Registered mail might be a better option for a high dollar cue. The merchandise will get handled more gently and you can insure for more money.

 

[ridewiththewind]

Word of friendly advice. Registered mail might be a better option for a high dollar cue. The merchandise will get handled more gently and you can insure for more money.

I was going to do that on the last item I shipped out, but the computer would not allow for it with Priority Mail...not really sure why, the Postmaster did try several times. The USPS has changed around a lot of policies. One's best bet is to check what currrent policies are now before shipping anything out.

Lisa

 

[Q-Street]

Some time ago, I shipped a guitar to a friend and insured for the price he purchased it for (from ebay, near my location). He said to insure it for it's replacement value, not purchased value.

Just this week, I sold a $1500 (replacement value) guitar on ebay and am glad that I insured it for what it would cost to replace it because the guitar arrived w/ cracked bottoms. %#$%

Now, I just have to pray that I'll get some sort of reimburstment, this sucks that shipper is at the mercy during claims.

 

[desi2960]

keep pestering

after reading this thread, i decided to make some phone calls. after i discovered the well hidden phone number [ they do not want you to call ] i spent about 1/2 hr explaining my problem to an operator, my claim could not be found on any of their computers. i was told that a supervisor would call me back with in 8 hrs. finally she found my claim according to her they had misspelled my name ' churck'. finding this error she said i would be receiving my check within a week. i know this doesn't help you but because of this thread, i got on the phone and got my money back. chuck ' churck' starkey

 

[Bamacues]

after reading this thread, i decided to make some phone calls. after i discovered the well hidden phone number [ they do not want you to call ] i spent about 1/2 hr explaining my problem to an operator, my claim could not be found on any of their computers. i was told that a supervisor would call me back with in 8 hrs. finally she found my claim according to her they had misspelled my name ' churck'. finding this error she said i would be receiving my check within a week. i know this doesn't help you but because of this thread, i got on the phone and got my money back. chuck ' churck' starkey

Thanks for the info, Chuck. I have made 5 calls so far, and have call tag numbers for each. Some progress has been made. Now, instead of saying the claim has been denied, they have sent it to someone for a review. Hopefully, that person will have more experience with the accurate prices of custom cues.
Joe

 

[hang-the-9]

Thanks for the info, Chuck. I have made 5 calls so far, and have call tag numbers for each. Some progress has been made. Now, instead of saying the claim has been denied, they have sent it to someone for a review. Hopefully, that person will have more experience with the accurate prices of custom cues.
Joe

I hope this works out well for you. Have you tried supplying them with copies of the Blue Book or something similar for them to base the price on? There is probably some semi-player on staff that told someone that no cue is worth more than $200.

 

[alstl]

I was going to do that on the last item I shipped out, but the computer would not allow for it with Priority Mail...not really sure why, the Postmaster did try several times. The USPS has changed around a lot of policies. One's best bet is to check what currrent policies are now before shipping anything out.

Lisa

Registered mail is completely separate from priority mail or any other type of mail. Registered mail is handled apart from the rest of the mail in the mail stream. It costs a little more but the chances of it getting damaged are very minimal compared to the rest of the mail because it doesn't get shipped in a large container with dozens of other parcels.

Think of it this way. You put your $500 pool cue in a tube with bubble wrap and insure it. The clerk places it in a large metal container with wheels on it. During the course of the day another 20 people come in and mail parcels and they all get placed in the same container with your pool cue. Some of those parcels may weigh as much as 70 pounds. The container gets placed in a truck, the truck driver goes around a curve, a 70 pound parcel falls on your 19 ounce pool cue, the 70 pound parcel is going to win that battle.

If you send the same cue via registered mail it doesn't go in that container. The truck driver has to sign for your pool cue before he leaves the post office. When the truck driver arrives at his destination he hands your pool cue to somebody and they sign for it. When it finally arrives at the delivery post office somebody signs for it and when the buyer picks it up they will have to sign for it. I'm too poor to have a high dollar cue to ship anywhere, but if I did it would go registered mail. It costs a little more but it is worth it to me.

 

[Roger Long]

Sounds to me like a pool playing postal worker shot with it the night before it was scheduled for delivery...and LOST!

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

I personally found dealing with U.S. Postal Service Claims, much easier then FedX, or UPS who standard reply is it is not our fault, or it was not packaged right. almost all my claim have been small, and as I said the U.S. Postal Service is better to deal with.

I did have one large CLAIM with FedX Ground, where their Truck Ran over a my Wooden box containig a Reproduction F & I Flintlock, it was a REAL PAIN dealing with FedX.

So NEVER AGAIN will I personally use FED X.