$300 livestock purchase ruined! seafood stew anyone?

[Brenden]

I purchased $300 worth of hermits, snails, starfish etc It was shipped next day UPS. At 1:00 I called UPS and they said they only promised delivery by 7:00 so a 6:00 still nothing I checked on UPS.com and it said it was delivered. I once again checked both doors like I did several times throughout the day. I finally found my package thrown in the driveway laying in full sun. It had live fish, fragile marked all over it and sorry UPS threw it in the drive on the backside of my car without so much as a knock on the door. I know the place I purchased my wet/dry will not ship UPS and LR.com said they only would as a last option. I see why.

 

[badfish]

ouch, is it covered? I know UPS usually has insurance on all packages. Sorry to here that.

 

[Brenden]

Yes it was insured but you can never get UPS to pay. They always blame the other party. The guy I bought my wet/dry from said he shipped one UPS and it arrived broken so he filed a claim. They responded with improper packaging. He made another one and took it to UPS for them to package. It also arrived broken. He filed a claim and they denied it with improper packaging. He showed them the receipt were they had packaged it and they still denied it. So he threatened them with a lawsuit and they responded see you in court. Everyone I have dealt with is staying away from UPS for the same reasons. I had a problem with my order from hirocks.com. It was thrown in the driveway with 3 of the 7 boxes burst and rock all over the driveway. I filed claim UPS denied. Hirocks sent some replacements for the rock that was missing and said they would deal with UPS. (hirocks.com is highly recommended))

 

[Fluff]

Wow, thats aweful Brenden. Who did you order from? I hope they can make it right. Did anything survive? Don't give up on the snails. I would put them in a tub of sw and give them some time. I've ordered snails and they were shipped dry, priority mail. When I opened them up, I was sure they'd be dead, the package was so hot, but dang if they weren't all still alive.

 

[flamingonhot]

Thats one reason i don't order stuff over the internet.

 

[Brenden]

I have acclimated for 2 1/2 hours so far. There is some life. The stuff I know made it I am going to put in and the stuff that appears to be dead I am putting on a piece of screen in the tank. I will give it a few hrs to move and if it does not then I will get rid of it. Several things are obviously dead and mashed.

 

[X the Outsider]

I'm sorry. I would save the box, and call them as soon as possible. Personally I've never had a problem, but I don't doubt they exist.

 

[natman2]

This thread has me feeling a bit uneasy as I am expecting a lighting set via UPS today or Monday. I did have the foresight to have it delivered to my parents address. They are retired and pretty much always at home. I had visions of UPS tossing it at the door of my condo (or worse) and then have someone walk off with it before I had a chance to get home.

Unfortunately the economic trend in this country seems to be for companies to hire unqualified people so they can pay them a low wage and then give them unrealistic work loads all so they can show a larger profit. which means larger bonuses at the executive and managerial level and customer be damed. Very bad business indeed.

Of course all of this will quickly change when people stop buying anything but the necessities not because they don't have the money but because they know there is a very good chance they will be dealing with unqualified service employees or end up with damaged or otherwise worthless goods. I think we are getting closer to this than the CEOs would like to believe.

 

[lando]

Oh man, sorry for your poor service. I just won a Corona neon bar sign off ebay. UPS delivered it. I knwe as soon as I picked up the package something was wrong. All I heard was broken glass shifting around and the box was deformed on one side, like something heavey was sitting on it. Sure enough, I opened it up and found my sign broken in several spots. I called the company and he told me not to even call UPS. They have a third party insurer for this becuase UPS is so hard to deal with. Once again, they blame it on poor packaging. I blame it on some idiot setting another heavy box on one that is maked "fragile". Frustrating, huh?

 

[Phyl]

Any time I price shipping between UPS & FedEx; FedEx comes out so far ahead I wonder why I ever bother pricing UPS. They must give great discounts to big companies because otherwise I don't understand why anyone uses them. Even DHL replaced a 250$ product that arrived broken, no questions asked (and it only cost me 10$ to have the part that broke replaced).

Good luck being made whole on that. It just isn't right. A company that knowingly ships UPS given their track record really should have 3rd party shippers to bear the brunt of the cost of replacement.

 

[Jermz79]

Let me tell you guys ...

After visiting all the sorting hubs for UPS, FedEx, DHL (formerly AirBorne) and USPS. These people are very underpaid and overworked in these facilities and to tell you the truth don't really care about your "Fragile" items!

I have learned by working many years in the packaging and processing dept. of several companies that writing fragile on a box is an open invite to damged goods, kind of like "Hey Kick me and toss me around and oh yeah make sure you set a 100lb box on me too."
I only use UPS and have really never had a problem with them, BUT I do insure that when any packages are shipped to me the shipper DOES NOT put fragile on the box anywhere!!!! UPS by far had the best sorting processes that I seen.

Packages are going to get tossed and flipped around but even more so when they know there is something of value inside!

Lando - if you don't mind me asking how was your neon light packaged? Neon tubes are extremely fragile and can burst from just being exposed to the wrong temperature. It may have indeed been falty packaging, especially if the person who sent it to you has their own insurer. Sounds like they expect a lot of broken signs!

 

[lando]

Lando - if you don't mind me asking how was your neon light packaged?

All the tubes were wrapped in foam. The light was then wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in a bos with closed-cell foam all around it. The bos was sealed and then placed in a nother box with closed-cell foam all around it. It was in there very tight and was well packaged. I have ordered from this company before with great results. The item arrived in perfect shape, nothing broken.

 

[schoeplein]

There's a reason Dell switched from UPS to DHL. Too many claims of stolen computers, lost computers, broken computers -- and DHL costs less. FedEx does all of our international, 2nd-day and overnight shipping.

When I was in sales and we still used UPS -- I can't believe how many times customer's requested Adult Signature Required and would call me and say, "He just handed me the box. I asked if there was anything else and the guy just questioned me." Its something like an additional $2 to require an Adult Signature. Sometimes they'd just leave the package there -- sometimes up to $10,000.00 in server equipment. Talk about a scary thought. General shipping rules are, if its over $100 a signature is required - a neighbor, apartment office -- but to leave that much equipment freaked out my customers.

USPS sent me a package marked with live product; my only complaint was that no card was left at my door stating that I had a package so my 200 snails were left in the apartment box by the normal shoebox mailboxes -- so they sat in the box for two days because I dont check my mail every day (partially my fault). In any case, about 35% of the snails survived! (which was still way more than I needed, LOL).

 

[Jermz79]

Hmmmm ... welp then it was defintely a UPS problem. It's just horrible that people spend good money on items like this only to have them destroyed in transit.

I think that is why I am so leary of ordering any corals or fish online!

 

[schoeplein]

Hmmmm ... welp then it was defintely a UPS problem. It's just horrible that people spend good money on items like this only to have them destroyed in transit.

I think that is why I am so leary of ordering any corals or fish online!

Dont be afraid of ordering online -- just use FedEx. Their overnight rates are typically cheaper anyway.

 

[Brenden]

Jermz79 a long time ago I worked at UPS over the holidays and also had a friend who had a regular job there. I have to argue with your statement

UPS by far had the best sorting processes that I seen

On my friends first day they said here put this stack of boxes on this conveyor. He proceeded to pick up a box and place it etc. The guy stopped him and said this is how we do it here. He wedged the box out on the bottom of the stack causing the stack to fall over on the conveyor.

 

[ellisz]

I have always liked my UPS delivery guy. I have left notes to put stuff in the garage, etc and they will do it. My delivery guy is a relative now so if I need anything special, he can help me out sometimes.

KNow your delivery people

 

[Jermz79]

Brenden there is a difference in working at a city facility and the national sorting facility.
When I said the sorting facility I meant the National one sorry. By far UPS has the best processes. I have visited each one of the main sorting facilities and seen some crazy things happen.
For Example the Fedex facility has there cargo conveyer about 30 feet in the air ... when a plane comes in and the semitruck brings those packages to the main facility it backs up to a huge door and about 15 people jump in and just start tossing packages ... big, small whatever! The packages then run along this conveyer and at the very end drop 30 FEET 8O down to another sorting conveyer, where people begin to toss them onto different conveyers depending on state, route, zip and service requested.
I'm sure it happens all the time at every facility for every shipper, it's probably one of those things that comes back to personal experience.

 

[SirLight1337]

This is also why i fired UPS. A customer shipped my company 40K dollars worth of gear. UPS lost the shipment then Insisted that we received it and must be lying to them . They also personally fucked me for over 300 dollars from buying something, me shipping it back and supposidly it got broken. Filed a claim and they ignored me even after the box was insured for the full value. DO NOT USE UPS. You know what i think of when i think of brown ? It sure as *edit* aint UPS.

 

[aqh88]

I've never had a problem with UPS. I've had fish arrive alive and in good shape. If they have a package marked fragile keep cool and it's 108F outside they call us up and tell us that they are bringing it and keep it in the front of the truck instead of the back with no temperature control. The ups delivery guy never leaves them at the wrong door and knows where my stepdad works so if nothing else he's delivered packages there.

now fedex...
......
Let's not go there. I would be happy if they just delivered on time to the right door when there's a sign saying "do not leave packages here deliver to the downstairs glass door or leave in the garage" much less if more than half my fish survived.

I'll use USPS to ship snails before Fedex.