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Beware of UPS scam

5K views 46 replies 25 participants last post by  shootnclays 
#1 ·
Here's how it worked.
I took a Kolar Trap combo to my FFL. Had him sign a written letter that this gun was perfect, like new and insured for $9000.00. This took Place on December 5 2007, a Wednesday. I wanted the gun shipped to the buyer's FFL Second Day Air, so it would not sit around a warehouse for a weekend. I promised the buyer it would be there Friday, December 7th a Friday, that's 2 days. I paid $96.00 for this shipment.

To make a long story short, I called my FFL, he said nobody from UPS showed up on Wednesday,( they do everyday). Then UPS show's up Thursday December 6th, finally it showed up on the tracking number as received by UPS.

The Gun will be delivered Monday December 10th, UPS doe's not consider Saturday or Sunday as delivery days unless you pay 20 bucks more.
So for a Second Day Air delivery turns out to be a 6 day delivery which only costs $31.00. They made 61 bucks for nothing. My FFL would not make it right and either would UPS.
Do not use UPS, I will not ever again. And I won't send my guns through this FFL again either.
 
#2 ·
It will arrive in 2 business days from the day it was picked up so exactly what is the SCAM? Is it the FFL's fault UPS did not show up? I really dont understand your problem unless ... well ... if it was all that important you could have always paid for shipping yourself by calling UPS and charging it to your credit card and have them bring a call ticket to your FFL on Wednesday afternoon when YOU scheduled the pick up.

I understand you mad and upset but is it all really worth getting in such tizzy over?
 
#4 ·
We have a UPS store in our area. I saw their advertisement on tv of how they will pack and guarantee your shipment from damage. I went to the store and asked for that deal, when i brought out my stock, they freaked out. OH, they cant send a GUN PART they said. Only the main hub of UPS will do that. So needless to say, i will never give the UPS store any of my business again. I also let them know how stupid they are and i sent an email to the office but they wouldnt reply. So UPS can Kiss my A**. Bob......
 
#6 ·
Lumper:
This happened last Wednesday, December 5 before 11AM . I had the gun checked and certified it was ok to ship. UPS is supposed too go to this FFL daily , which I confirmed with him. They, meaning UPS, did not show up for the pick up.
The scam is, they (UPS) showed up the next day) Thursday December 6th and picked up the Gun. Now it's Thursday evening and it gets scanned,at 7:30 PM that day, Sent off and arrived in another city(won't mention names) no need too, so then it arrived Friday evening at the airport or UPS destination. UPS won't deliver on Saturday or Sunday,unless you pay extra, and it was supposed to be there Friday December 7th. Understand. Too make it simple for you, Wednesday to Friday is only 2 days. correct? so then why did I pay for that to be delivered on Friday, rather than MONDAY>>> Think about it.
Second day Air means nothing to UPS.
Lumper. I did pay cash for this shipment, just so you know.
 
#8 ·
Shootnclays- It would seem to me that at least part of the problem is that UPS did not stop at the gun dealers place on Thursday. Usually UPS does not stop at a business unless they have a delivery or have been contacted about a pick up by the business. They do not just drop by places to see if there might be any packages. A contributing factor might be the season. Lots of people mail packages in December.

You did not get what you paid for. Blame for your problem could be with your FFL, UPS or the season.

Pat Ireland
 
#10 ·
Pat:
I did talk to my FFL, he told me that UPS stops by everyday at his store. This FFL is a licenced Fishing Guide and Browning, Beretta gun dealer. He has been in the business for 20 years at the same address.
I don't blame my FFL, and I don't blame the season. I do blame UPS.
2nd day air means it gets there 2 days after it's picked up, period.
That was Wednesday, should have been there Friday during the day, now it's Monday delivery schedule. You tell me what that means please.
 
#11 ·
doggai:
I respect your comment. I now understand perfectly. I will never ship anything again Via UPS. Screw me once, Shame on you. screw me twice it's my fault, and that will not happen.UPS gave me a song and dance about this S(h*it, but one thing is for sure, I'll never ship anything with that lousy company again.

I just hope the guy that bought my Kolar gets it in one piece!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
#13 ·
Pat, you are 100% wrong on that issue. You can opt for UPS to stop at you place of buiness every day. We ship out about 3-7 pieces a day from my pharmacy and they are setup for a daily stop, whether or not you have packages to ship. There is a fee for this service unless you are over a certain number of packages per week.

Otherwise, if you do not have this service at your business, you have to call and schedule the pick up or drop it off yourself. In working with UPS for about 8 years now, I have never had them not stop by for pickups. Maybe a new driver on the route?

I agree with the statement that this a problem with the FFL not UPS. How is UPS to know when it was SUPPOSED to go out. They just pick up the packages and sort'em by what service they are to be delivered. When UPS did not stop by, your FFL should have taken it to the local UPS drop off or, at the very least, contacted you to let you know that the package was not picked up and given you an option of what you would like to do...

Just my 2 cents...

John
 
#15 ·
jevolia:

John:
I called my FFL dealer today, we discussed the problem. He stated he was in the shop from 9am 50 5:30PM, waiting for the UPS driver, never showed up that day.
He tried to get me a refund on the 2nd day air charge, but since it is in progress, UPS and the FFL can not do anything, was my answer on the phone with both my FFL and UPS. Nothing was done.
Sooooooo...... WTF is this about. Do we just stand around and take, oh well's or I'm sorries? How much will it cost to get it right?
 
#18 ·
I have an account with UPS and the driver stops everyday, BUT, does not have to, because I do not have a CONTRACT with UPS for them to stop everyday.

If I have a package that must leave that day, I don't rely on the driver stopping. I'll call his cell phone or the terminal, and ask for him to stop.

If the dealer says that UPS, MUST STOP everyday, he should have a contract to prove it. Only then would the problem fall into UPS's lap for any refund, for a breech of contract.

As for Fed-X...they suck. They do not deliver to my area on Mondays (told to me by Fed-X) and can, and generally do, try to deliver AFTER 6:00 in the evening here at the shop.

As for the post office, I sent 3 guns to Alaska...it took three months for them to arrive in Fairbanks. The tacking numbers only tell you what PO they have past through, not where they are at that moment. I've sent parts out on many occassions to customers only to have them arrive 2 weeks later.

My 3 cents

Doug
 
#19 ·
Pitfalls everywhere. I stopped using UPS because of high costs and problems with damage claims. Then I found out about the employees stealing handguns deal. Nuff said.

I have good luck with USPS, but they need education, many do not know they canship firearms and have to be shown. So I bring a printout from Joe Potosky's website along.

Fedex has been good, but they are a few miles further than USPS so I do not use them as much. NO problems so far.

My opinion: Brown stinks.

HM
 
#20 ·
Lumper, in the email i asked why a gun stock cant be sent. A gun stock doesnt shoot shells, it is not capable of shooting. There is no difference in it than a stick. If a piece of wood cant be shipped cause it is a GUN PART, then somethings wrong. Someone can harm you with a stick, rock, golf club, knive, etc etc, but you can mail these items with no problem. SO, whats the deal with a gunstock???? They shouldnt allow anything to be shipped period if you can't ship a piece of wood!!!!! Like i said though, i will never ship anything through the UPS store again and i have asked my family and friends not too. I am not talking UPS in general as the UPS store is not part of UPS. And the raving lunatic remark is just stupid and the gun haters love to see that. Bob....
 
#21 ·
If this was done at 11:00 AM, then UPS should have received it from your FFL that afternoon. Afternoons are when UPS picks up items; they deliver prior to that. They always do pick-ups on their way back to their terminal. And, if they happened to receive it when they delivered some goods, it gets scanned then and there.

I have to suspect the FFL did not get it ready for shipment, or they should have then either delivered it to UPS, or they do not have a daily pick-up agreement with UPS. You should have been told, and then you could have dropped it off at the UPS terminal.

I take my important items directly to either the UPS or FedEx terminal and they get scanned then and there.

WW
 
#22 ·
On a USPS shipment I requested cash on a 2 hundred dollar sale of a non shooting related item to someone other than on this site.It cost more for that transaction.

The clerk wrote the ticket wrong and I saw it and told him. He than scratched through the error and corrected it. It was not very clear and I asked if they would be able to make it out for this reason. He said "yes".

Well, guess what, I get a check and not the cash as I had requested and had paid more to receive. The person had asked about the charge difference between cash and a check and the postal delivery told him the check would be less. The buyer then subtracted that difference and made the check out for less than what I wanted for the item if he paid by cash as we had discussed that he would do. Delivery person must have been new???

I then take the check to the post office to get it cashed. Guess what...They do not cash personal checks. I said I had paid for cash and the delivery person made the mistake so you should cash the check. He would not because the check may not be good. I said that is exactly why I did not want one. I asked for the supervisor. He came out but also would not cash the check. I then requested the difference I had paid to get the payment in cash since they had failed to do it correctly and also the check was for less than I had wanted. He would not do this either.

They have you over the barrel and there in not much you can do about it and the small amount of money does not warrant much effort spent.

I did not even bother the buyer. I just chalked it up to experience. Ray
 
#23 ·
Whiz White:
The FFL dealer I used, does have a contract with UPS, which states they go to his place of business everyday for deliveries and pickups. The dealer waited until 5:30PM on Wednesday for a pickup, and the UPS driver never showed up.
So this being a Wednesday, it should have been delivered on Friday, that's 2 business days. Now it's going to be delivered next monday 3 days later.
Second day Air?????I think not. It is a scam indeed. You pay for something and you get no satisfaction, what would you do?
 
#24 ·
CCW1911:
see the above post I left for Whiz. My FFL dealer does have a contract with UPS, plain and simple, they never showed up to pick up the gun, they picked it up Thursday, which means, it will not be delivered until next Monday.UPS is supposed to check every contract customer daily, they failed, not the FFL dealer. So tell me where the second day Air cost prevail over a 6 day ground delivery, no difference at all but the cost is well over $60.00. Why?.
I ended up eating this tab, but I told my FFL, I will never use UPS ever again because of this. He only uses UPS, so I'l get another FFL dealer in the mean time.
P.S. I packed the gun myself in the dealers shop, it was ready to ship that day. If it not a scam, then it's false advertising, meaning fraud, what's worse? UPS did not follow their own policy and after speaking with 2 reps from UPS, they said we can't help you, sorry.
How sorry is that!
 
#25 ·
Pat: No harm, no foul. You have to be wrong 1-2 times per year, or else we all think that you are a robot, right? :)

WANRNING: LONG POST AND RANT AHEAD!

I have no experience shipping firearms with any of the big three (UPS, USPS, FedEx) but we have mailed prescriptions to patients that live 1-2 hours away that don't want to drive back to the store to pick up their Rx. Here is why we settled on UPS (which, BTW, is like picking a President -- UPS is definitely the lesser of the three evils).

We used USPS Priority Mail as our #1 shipper for about 4 years. No problems, packages almost always got there the next day, if not two days (mind you, about 99% of what I am shipping is less than 100 miles away). Then came the second week of December one year. We shipped three packages to Santa Claus, Dale, and Jasper, IN, all are within a 60 mile radius from our store. Shipped Priority Mail. IT TOOK EIGHT DAYS FOR THE PACKAGE TO BE DELIVERED! I could have walked them there in that time. Also, with USPS Priority, we would get delivery confirmation but no tracking information. So, we had no idea where these packages were. Here is the big kicker -- I went to the local USPS branch to get a refund, since they advertise that Priority Mail will get there in 2-3 days. Well, that is NOT a guarantee, that is just an estimate. By the end of that calendar year, we used USPS no more.

Then we switched to UPS. No problems, guaranteed one day delivery to all of our shipping area, etc, etc. If the don't make it in one day, it is a quick e-mail to our account manager, they credit the shipment and we credit the patient. But then, at the beginning of this year, they had a huge rate hike. Costs me $8.50 to ship a 1 lb package to a rural address. So, we looked at and used FedEx for a while. A little cheaper, guaranteed next day delivery to all of area, pretty much the same as UPS. In the first month of using them, we had to provide DIRECTIONS to FedEx to find where to deliver the package FOR TWENTY DIFFERENT SHIPMENTS! About 50% of these shipments live inside a incorporated city limit in the state of Indiana, so it is not like all these guys live in the stix. I am sorry, but if you are in the delivery business, shouldn't be able to find out where to deliver a package to? On 80% of the shipments, doing something a simple as using Google Maps gave the EXACT point of the delivery address. Some shipments were delayed up to 4 days. When we asked for a refund, we were told no. We did not provide a good enough address for FedEx. Funny, they all worked for UPS, for some patients upto 3 years.

So we are back to UPS. We have the deal set up as someone stated above. I do not pay or have enough volume to get daily pick up, but the guy next door does and our UPS drivers around here have all been pretty cool. They stop by everyday anyway and we have his cell phone number as a back up. Hell, I got a couple of the guys in my football pools.

Sorry for the rant -- but I thought people should know about the USPS especially. It came as a give surprise to me that Priority is not a guaranteed 2-3 day delivery.

John
 
#26 ·
Hmmmmm Seems like you should use DHL. Their insurance costs are only 70 cents per $100 of value. Lets see now: a $5000 gun would cost only $350 for insurance. But fear not, you'd get it in 2 days.

Had a $900 camera shipped from NYC and was charged only $63 for insurance.
 
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