Heirloom gone. Fed-ex
 

Mods: Pls move to OT. Posted in PARF by accident. Thanks.


Heartbroken over this. 22 years ago I bought my dad a Tudor Prince Chronograph for his 70th birthday. He loved that watch...wore it every day of his life until he gave it to me shortly before he passed away last May.

He had never had it serviced and it was running slow and the date wheel was wonky. So, via the Rolex forum (they make Tudor), I identified a highly recommended repair shop in FL. I sent it to him and the service was completed at a cost of $1k.

He sent it back to me via Fed-Ex 2 day shipping with adult signature required. Fed ex never showed. Tracker was updated to indicate “no delivery date available”. I call FedEx yesterday and was told Package was “undeliverable”. She said it was badly damaged and would be returned to the sender. She said I should call him.

My guess is, if he receives anything back, it will be an opened and empty box, but we will see. He said in 30+ years this is the first time something like this has happened and it was insured. Bottom line, it seems I personally have no claim because he was the shipper, not me. He seems like a good guy with a solid reputation, but apparently I’ll be counting on him to follow through with FedEx.

I’m hopeful that there will still be a watch in the package even if it can’t be repaired. I received no notice from FedEx, just an update saying adult signature required with no available delivery date...that’s it. Glad this didn’t happen while my dad was still alive...he’d have been heartbroken too.

Hopefully it turns up. I've had some really wonky tracking with FedEx over the last couple years. Package says it's in Georgia and I go to water plants and it's sitting by my front door... Stuff like that.

Choco that really sucks. I hope you find it. FWIW I've had UPS lose items that were important to me too.

Thanks...just talked to FedEx again. They confirmed that the package contents were NOT lost. But it was a “security” matter and requested more info from them. Supposedly I’m going to get a call or email from them for more info and to see if it can be delivered to me even if damaged.

Recently got a wood crate delivered by FedEx.

The driver said, "Next time, don't use FedEx."
Even she was appalled by the way it was tossed around.


But is any delivery company better? They all rely on thousands of employees with differing levels of integrity.
If I was CEO, I'd be constantly pulling my hair out.

I need to get my sub done and that is what I am fearful of. I don't want to mail it anywhere. I don't care about the insurance.... I want the watch.

I hope you get it back

There is no real safe and practical way to ship an item without getting silly overboard.

We used to have have to ship out our Leica (WILD) RC-30 aerial camera to be serviced by Leica, and calibrated by the USGS. It was a $490,000 camera system, and weighed just under 500 pounds. We had to strap it to a new pallet in the factory shipping boxes. It had shock sensors on it, and we had to get outside insurance for the shipping insurance. It cost us 20 grand to do all that, and it always came back in great shape. I suspect no one had any idea what it was, it was huge and heavy, and even if stolen it was registered to us and no one could use it without a Cessna 206 or similar airplane with a 20 inch hole in the floor of the airplane.

Any small valuable item is easy picking for a thief.

Sorry for the loss if your heirloom.

My son worked nights at a FedEx loading dock while he was in school.

Everything you've heard - and more - is true. He couldn't believe the absolute disregard his fellow employees had for property belonging to other people. In fact, he said that abusing packages almost seemed a point of pride with some of the employees: imitation soccer, basketball, etc. He expressed his concerns to his direct supervisor, then to the facility's night manager. Nothing changed.

After that, he stayed only long enough to find another job.

_

One of my buddies worked at UPS at the local warehouse. He said most of the employees loved to play how far can I kick the package marked Fragile! The more fragile marking it had, the more it was kicked.

I wonder what they had against Italian packages.

_

Beautiful story turned horrible. Could you share the details of the repair shop. I have my dad's Rolex which I would like to fix a couple of things and after reading this I don't mind driving over.

Hope its salvageable.

They had a package sitting for me at the ground delivery hub 60 miles away. No walk-ins for self pickup. Package sat there for 4 days until I called them and told them what was in it.... showed up first thing next morning.

Package content? 4lbs of black powder and 4lbs of smokeless. All properly labeled, hazmatted, ORM-Dd, etc.

If you have something small and of high-value, I suggest that you send it USPS registered mail. That stuff is always handled by hand and everybody in the chain has to sign for it.

Any updates on this?

We had a check which was sent in town. It was a refund and damages for when I sent Joe-Bob a transmission. The check did not make it 4 miles before it was lost. It even had tracking on it, signature required.

Everything sucks.

Yes...quite a twist. It seems the company that repaired dads watch used a shipping broker in California for bulk FedEx pricing. That broker notified their customers yesterday that one of their shippers had been shipping contraband (no specifics) via the same FedEx account.

Bottom line, the watch is fine, but it had been flagged, along with several of their packages, and sent to Mississippi where they are authorized to open and assess contents. Supposedly has passed and now in route back to the shipper.

Eventually I’ll get it back, hopefully. Here’s what’s bothersome. First time I called FedEx I was told it was badly damaged and returned to sender. Both were untrue. Second time I was told it was flagged by security and they would call me within the hour with details. Crickets. Third time I was told it had been returned to the sender on Monday, 9-13. Also not true. The only way I found out the status ... assuming it’s true ... is the repair shop researched several missing packages, all with high end watches and were told that they’re all in Miss, either by FedEx or the broker, I’m not sure which.

Why FedEx would have their process include lying to customers...with no consistency, is beyond me. And, telling me the package was badly damaged and undeliverable only made it worse...especially if not true.

The truth would have been much easier. “We apologize sir, but your package was selected for assessment due to routine security measures. Its fine and you should have it in a few days. We apologize for any inconvenience.” But nope...3 completely different lies. Quite a process they have there.

FedEx trashed a very heavy amp head I sold on eBay. They did make it right, overpaid me for the claim, refunded my shipping fees and delivered it back to me for free.

I bought my dad an IWC Aquatimer and shipped it USPS to him in NJ. It took 30 days. By the time tracking show it as being at the local post office, the damned place was closed for a few days due to power outage from a storm. Again, 30 effing days to get from AZ to NJ. But then that's how long my taxes sat in a post office in Phoenix before getting to Berettafan in MD.

No one brought this up yet ?!!?

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Personal courier for all heirlooms, always !

I shipped a sweet guitar via USPS years ago. Paid extra for something or another.

Perfect transfer.

They claimed the Hope Diamond had shipped that way years earlier.