help with stolen goods in Vancouver area

[Jeff Alton]

Hey LowerMainland guys, need a little help. The wizards at UPS left packages at my place on Wed night (not authorised) and they got stolen before I got home. It was a complete XDi twin plug system right down to the ignition wires and an SRP front sway bar. Long story about insurance and what UPS thinks about it, but lets just say I am out a whack of cash! My guess is the POS punks who took it were pretty disappointed when they openned up the boxes and have tossed the stuff in a dumpster, but.......... Let me know if you hear of this stuff being for sale locally please.

Thanks, Jeff

[jeffgrant]

Damn... sorry to hear about it Jeff.

[Jeff Alton]

Thanks, are you comming out on the 7th? I have some new wheel options for you if you are still looking at all. Waaaaaaaaaay cheaper and equal quality!

Cheers

[don911]

That sucks. Sorry Jeff.

[porschenut88]

bastards!!!

[RANDY P]

keep an eye on ebay

[MotoSook]

That sucks Jeff. Good guys like you don't need that crap. I hope you can recover the goods or at get an insurance payout. Good luck. If UPS doesn't pay, many get your home insurance carrier to pay and then they go after UPS?

[FrayAdjacent911]

make UPS pay for it.

[efhughes3]

Jeff-Sorry to hear about this. And I wish BAD KARMA on UPS. These guys can get ridiculous in their actions and statements when stuff goes awry. Keep pressing their button, if they left stuff outside without a signature, they are responsible.

[Jeff Alton]

Thanks guys, I have some coverage on my home plan subject to a 5oo dollar detuctible...... so not too much to recover there. UPS drives me nuts, they almost cost me a set of 3.6 heads once, another long story!

I am pretty sure it is in a ditch or dumpster or something as most people probably don't even know what they are looking at when they see this stuff!

Almost want to put some boxes on my front door step and hang out around the corner.......

Cheers

[afterburn 549]

the up -side the thieves do not know this is a tight group, and if this stuff shows up where it should not..........................I,- we,- will do the right thing

[Jeff Alton]

That is what I am counting on if they know what they took, proably won't get too far trying to unload them in out great little community that we have here!

Cheers

[Carrera3.5L]

Jeff,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. This whole scenario doesn't sound right to me (as far as UPS' role), so maybe I can give you some insight with dealing with UPS AND the sender of the merchandise.

You should certainly have recourse with UPS. My company ships 40-60 packages per day with UPS. In my experience, they are the best in the business, especially when it comes to errors on their part. We have had numerous problems over the years with Fed-Ex and simply will no longer use them unless the customer specifies. I won't even broach USPS or Canada Post.

Anyway, the UPS driver SHOULD have gotten a signature, be it from someone at your residence or even your next door neighbor. However, it is not uncommon for a courier such as UPS to leave a package on someone's doorstep or behind a fence, gate, etc without obtaining a signature. The individual driver has discretion whether or not he deems it to be a "safe" area to drop off the package. That doesn't mean that UPS no longer has any liability.

Unless the instructions were specific that "no signature required", you should be able to be reimbursed by the SENDER (the person/company with the UPS account), who is than reimbursed by UPS at a later date. I am assuming that the sender was bright enough to insure the package, right? If not, and unless you asked him/her not to insure the package, they share some blame in this matter as well and should work with you for a resolution. Insurance is cheap, .40 per $100 ($USD of course) in value, there's no reason not to have it.

Why are YOU doing all of the fighting? I am going to assume that you purchased these products from a company and not from an individual. If so, THEY should be the ones going to bat for you. When we have an "incident" with UPS, the customer doesn't deal with UPS other than providing them with information. We don't pass the buck and wash our hands of the matter. Companies have lots of leverage with UPS (moreso than an individual consumer), heck we have our own UPS Preferred "representative" who attends to these types of matters for us.

To give you some insight to the process, if a problem not unlike this arises (and the only info I have is what you have posted), UPS will issue to the shipper a "claim reimbursement" form for completion and return, which in all of our cases at least is accepted. Having this claim in our backpocket and knowing that we will be reimbursed, we reship to the customer (at UPS' expense) and although his/her order may arrive a few days later than originally anticipated, everyone is eventually happy.

In the interim, UPS launches their own "investigation" with what they refer to as a driver "follow-up". The driver is sent back out to the "scene of the crime" to try and remember any details and maybe even get lucky and find the package. Once this is completed and UPS is satisfied that YOU or someone around your residence didn't take the goods and are trying to pull a fast one on them, they begin the paperwork process to reimburse the sender, which can take 2-4 weeks before their account is credited.

The gist of the story is that the sender should be actively involved in this process since THEY sent the package and may have some additional leverage with UPS. The worst case is that UPS is getting an earfull from both the sender and receiver. UPS is held responsible because they simply left the package without obtaining a signature.

Many years ago, we actually were part of a sting operation with UPS because some kids had stolen a credit card, were ordering parts from us (and a few others) and had it shipped to the stolen cardholder's address. Apparently the person whose card was stolen had no idea it was missing and wasn't home during the day. Anyway, when the UPS driver left (without getting a signature), they simply scampered out of the bushes, grabbed the merchandise and took off. This happened a few times with us before UPS got wise to it and got the local PD involved. Sure enough, the UPS driver dropped off another package, the kids came out of the shadows to grab the loot and there were UPS reps and a couple of cops waiting for them. True story.

Unless there is more to the story, I would be hammering on the sender (ESPECIALLY if a company) more than I would be hammering UPS. The sender should be actively working with you in these types of matters.

Now if your parts were sent on your UPS account, there isn't much the sender will be able to do.

Ralph

[Jeff Alton]

Thanks Ralph. One item was insured was purchased from a well known vendor who I have done a bunch of business with. He did start the "trace" which is the first step that UPS does. He claims that the package was not insured, he only insures it at the customers request....
I assumed it would be insured (perhaps foolishly) as everything I ship is always insured, I thought it would be standard business practice. Like I said, I have done a fair amount of business with this company before and they have always treated me well.

The other package was purchased from an individual, and he insured it for what we agreed on (long story, my mistake) and has yet to start the "trace" but I believe he will start it on monday. I trust him to make the phone call and take the required action.

The lady at UPS who I talked to said the driver has some discretion about leaving the packages and they are responsible, but sender number 1 claims to have had problems in years gone by getting resolution from them. Not sure how all this is going to work out.

My problem, I am a nice guy. Not sure how much of a stink to raise with sender 1 as like I said, his company has been good to me. Very, very helpful and helped me set up some business contacts etc.....

At any rate, I am filing a police report in the morning and told the UPS person that was what I was going to do when I returned her call. (had to leave a message) I said I needed to protect myself and for all I know the packages were never left as I never saw them. My home insurance company also requieres a police report but for the 500 in coverage I have for "spare auto parts" I am not sure I want to even make a claim and have my rates go up....

*EDIT* editied a comment I made about one vendor as I had misunderstood, my apologies.


Thanks again

[Joeaksa]

I have had the same situation with UPS and FedEx ground. I tell every shipper to not "pre-release" any package for me. This way the idiots have to have my signature.

Have lost parts, tires and so on that they just left at my doorstep. I travel for a living and am gone at times up to 2 months, so the kids around the place can go wild.

I always was lucky and collected from UPS and FedEx. Would push them to get your refund. Tell them that you want to see your signature on the slip. In my case it was "self released" (code for "I left it at your door" when you were not there by the driver) and usually if you did not sign for it they will pay.

JoeA

[real550A]

Sounds to me like you're too early in the process to feel "screwed". Let this thing play out, and the chips will fall in your favor. All UPS is automatically insured for the first $100.
Save yourself some stress, and let things take their course.
Oh, and GOOD LUCK!

[David]

I'd see if the vendor has a serial number on the ignition system incase you see a similar system for sale on ebay.

[svandamme]

did you pay the initial order with credit card?
if so , nothing received, cancel the charge...

whoever sent it can duke it out with UPS and/or the shipping insurance.

[Jeff Alton]

I don't feel screwed just yet, I was just a little choked with UPS as they have damadged goods before and lost other things. I just don't have a lot of use for people who toss people's stuff out the back door of the big brown truck. I have found a box marked fragile beat to hell and then found the cylinder heads inside damaged almost beyond repair. So, I don't care too much for "Big Brown".

Real550a, good advice, thanks. I am almost at my wits end with this project and stress is certainly what I am feeling! This was almost the last straw on this car form me, almost. I also feel stress becuase it strains the relationship I have with the sender, who has been very good to me, eveyone has to put bread on the table and I don't want anyone to be out any money.

I want to be clear that I have no hard feelings with the people who I bought the stuff from, they have done nothing wrong. I saw stuff for sale and bought it. They were kind enough to sell it to me at great prices. I feel bad they even end up having to start the trace and deal with UPS.

I will just wait and see how it all turns out. The point of the thread originally was to let people in my area know this stuff may be out and about and to keep and eye or ear open for it on my behalf.

Cheers

*EDIT* for spelling and diction.....

[Carrera3.5L]

Jeff,

I wish that I had customers like you. Mine don't seem to be willing to forego hundreds or thousands of dollars when something goes wrong with a shipping courier.

With respect to your good relationship with your vendor, don't let your emotions prey on the fact that it is a business transaction. Look at the flipside, the vendor (who I will assume has the same feelings toward you and values you as a customer) should be bending over backwards. If he "forgot" or simply didn't insure the parts, that to me is bad business practice and shame on him/her. It's not like it adds a significant total.

If you hit a brick wall and no one seems to want to help, let me know. PM me the tracking number(s) and I'll have my UPS rep look into and she can tell me what this whole issue is about.

From the information you've provided, this really should be a slam dunk. I guess some companies just handle these things differently. If you were my customer, your parts would be reshipped to you on Monday.

Ralph