I was lucky enough today to start a new fight with UPS freight. My last one was beause I shipped a 2180 newly built VW engine to a friend in Texas. I carefully packaged the engine to prevent any damage short of a bulldozer running over it. I put the engine inside 2 vacum sealed bags. Then centered it by hanging from a rope into the center of a crate that gave a full 12 inches clearance to all sides and the top. Then I filled the box with X12 expanding foam. When fully expanded and cured, I cut the rope, trimmed the foam down to allow the top to be put on the crate. Handed it over to UPS Freight in my driveway.....luckly all recorded by my wife, including the crating process.

Well the box disapeared in shipment. 11 days later UPS informed me they found it and delivered it. Then I got the picture and IRATE email showing the engine with every cylinder damage, engine case cracked, wrapped in shrink wrap and cargo strapped to a pallet. Well I send the video and all pictures to UPS, it only took 6 months and filing in small claims court where the judge ordered them to pay.

Today I got a charge on my credit card for a over length crate from a shipment back in March 2021. I sent two boxes to myself from Florida. The crates contained 3 Pteryodactl Ascenders broken down into 2 crates, one at 100x24x26 570lbs and one at 36x25x29 360 lbs. The bill today was for $164.63 for the following crates 98x25x29 and 109x24x34. Well yes the 100 inch one is really 98 inches I did add two inches to for wiggle room and I did the same witht he 36 inch long crate, it was only 34 inches.

I contacted UPS Freight, the person seemed nice, it is a change for them however I remembered they were just purchased by a Canadian company from UPS. Anyway I sent him all the pictures of the two crates taken during the loading along with the drivers signature on the pickup document stating both crates were in good shape and meet the dimensions on the BOL. I should say the 100x24x26 and one at 36x25x29.

Well 30 minutes later I get an email from billing stating.... I will copy and paste so it is correct:

"Hello David,

Thank you for your email. I have checked on the records and unfortunately, the attachment will still not suffice for the correction request. We will need a full proof of commodity for the item that was shipped. “Proof of commodity” is described as an invoice or packing slip along with a pre-printed spec sheet or catalog page, which lists the commodity description, weight and shipping dimensions. If an invoice and packing slip are not available, then a copy of the spec sheet or catalog page information identifying the freight must correspond to an order/product number, which can also be found on the original bill of lading.

A new bill of lading covering the same shipment or another copy of the original bill of lading with typed or hand-written description, weight, density or class changes will not be accepted as proof.

Once proof of commodity has been received, I will submit a correction request submitted to tour research team. I will wait for your response.


Sincerely,
Michelle M.
TForce Freight Customer Support"

So what the hell does what is in the box have to do with the length the crate is? It did not come from a business, I did not purchase it from a business and there is no spec sheet for aluminum tubing that reference the dimensions that were shipped.






So all this is not enough to prove one box is a whole lot shorter than the longest dimenstion they tried to charge me for?

What is in the box is irrelavent, what they are trying to do is say I violated the agreement by not listing what was in the box correctly, which was aluminum tube, bolts and nuts, dacron fabric and 3 snowmobile engines.

So now back to court again over $350 bucks, I am also demanding a refund because the delivery driver refused to unload my crates, he said i had to do it with no help or he was taking them back and tell dispatch they were undeliverable and then i would have to do to the terminal to pick them up......I have 5 witnesses, 2 are my neighbors who helped unload the 570 lb long crate along with my video security system......yep UPS refused to accept the driver refused to unload my shipment, it is the same driver who said both boxes were 100 inches long.......see a pattern?

It seems to be a world wide trend that courier/carrying companies be absolute ass hats?

It is the same here in Australia... if there is any way for the company doing the deliveries to make it difficult, they will... and man, are they good at doing it. Experts.

.

My first reaction reading this is your very clever method of suspending the VW engine in foam in a sturdy box ... it doesn't get any better than that.


How a trucking company could then damage it that bad is beyond comprehension .... I would be livid !!!!! ..... I think they owe you a lot more than the value of the engine and they should be charged in court for destroying your components .... this is not just some accidental freight damage.

Out of curiosity I looked up who the new Canadian owners of UPS are .... there may be some hope in the future ..... here is part of the article ......



https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busines ... 0-million/

Dang that sucks.....Last time I had to ship something large..I.E. engine, Rotorblades, I used "Forward Air" Freight.
The VW engine was crated up very nicely, and I paid for the extra insurance, $10,000 value, Then the shift manager came out and moved it himself with a forklift.... That was a while ago, but yes UPS has always had problems with damage, I knew someone who worked at a music store, and He said that they always used FedEx to ship guitars, because when the shipped ups the guitars always arrived broken...

The bad thing is that you paid for a service and did not get what you paid for. And the service provider does not care.

Here in Australia, because it is a big place... most big courier companies like DHL use their own fleet to service large, metropolitan cities and maybe larger 'towns' (smaller cities) where there is enough work for their infrastructure. However, anywhere that is NOT in a major (Capital) city, they 'hand off' the item to smaller companies. These companies in turn, deliver to 'suburbs' of major cities and smaller towns...

These smaller companies only service certain areas around the smaller cities and town... if anyone is not in a decent size town, they also sub let the job to even smaller companies (or one man bands) who service areas further out... so, if you live out in the boonies somewhere, your item may pass thru the main company and then change hands 2 or 3 times before you get it (if at all)

Tracking is generally useless, because they all have no idea where it is or when it will be delivered...

I live in a rural area not far from a small township, which is not far from a decent size small city, in a 'tourist' area (very close to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo)... yet, I am supposedly in a 'Remote' area... so I have massive issues with deliveries. Alot of the satellite companies that end up doing the delivery, only do a delivery run that encompasses my area once a week, so, if my delivery arrives as the weekly run is loaded up and leaving, my delivery sits at the depot for a week until the next run.

The dumb thing is, most courier companies (the 'local delivery' ones), have a depot about 20 minutes from here (my remote location) ... so, I have learned to watch the tracking and find out when my delivery will be at the depot and I go and get it.

What is really annoying, is, often the smaller companies, who are working for peanuts, hold the item at the depot, then contact (supposedly) the seller to ask for more money to make the delivery from the depot to the 'remote location' (20 minutes away)... however, they don't let the receiver (me) know it is at the depot... and they only hold the delivery for 5 days, then send it back to the seller

I learned this because things were late and I was hassling the seller, they said it had been at the depot for 5 days and it was on it's way back (to China)

So, one company did this and I managed to get to the depot to pick it up... they had been at the seller to pay $AU18 for the delivery from the depot to me. If they had let me know, I could have paid the $18... just someone has to pay them $18.

Now, I watch like a hawk and get the courier company to message me when it arrives and I go and get it.

Our small companies (not the tiny last ones, but the intermediate ones) are called ... Allied Express; Fastway; Couriers please, Sendle and they all have TERRIBLE reviews! I don't know how they stay in business?

https://www.productreview.com.au/listin ... ed-express

https://www.productreview.com.au/listin ... ers-please

https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/fastway

https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/sendle

https://www.productreview.com.au/listin ... ks-mailman

There is no winning here either





Our Australia Post is(like your US mail) is pretty good... but everything I get posted, I have held for me at my post office and I go get it (otherwise they will leave it at my letterbox and it will get stolen)

When they destroyed the engine, I decided right then I would never give in to a shipper getting away with it, they are paid for a job, If we Don't do our work we don't get paid. If we purposely break or destroy products at work, depending on the state - you can get fired, pay for the damage, criminal charges for negligence to name a few....but not them. When they violate the public trust it just ends up as a video on YouTube.

The major problem with fighting them, like I had to do with the destroyed engine is that it took just a bit over 6 months of fighting and 3 postponed hearings by UPS to get my money. Most people give up and let it go. I am very tenacious and never give up. In the end I got full value (I showed the judge the receipts for all the brand new parts that were used in the engine) plus the time I used building the engine at $25 an hr, plus all the time I spent fighting with them and research time for my case at $14 an hr. Well it came up to a lot more than UPS thought it would so they petition the judge to let them order the Insurance company to pay now that they had lost.


The judge actually laughed at them, he read the insurance agreement provided by UPS and it would have paid only 1/3 of what the judge was awarding me. He literally told them to "pound sand" that I was fairly awarded my settlement and that they would pay it.


I further asked the judge to order them to pay within 15 calendar days due to the amount and time it took to get my award, the judge so ordered it.


UPS went off the hook and used a legal challenge and lost the appeal 15 minutes after it was filed. In the appeal they are only allowed 1 and nothing new, the different judge reads the statements, court minutes, looks at the evidence presented and the judgement that was already rendered.


I won the appeal too. UPS has gotten way too big. We all see hundreds of videos on YouTube every day of UPS drivers throwing boxes with TVs and sensitive electronics over fences, at porches, kicking boxes they drop..........but they do not even try to change their image or polices. The drives and handlers get away with what ever they want........it is time for them to see some really heavy fines for condoning these actions.


Fair would be for UPS to pay at least $20,000.00 per incident of damaged or last freight no matter what its true value is. They abuse public trust every time they let it happen, they never fire anyone stating union policies and contracts......well time for that and those protections to go away.


They need to pay now, not US any more.

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BRAVO skyguynca .. !!!!!!

..... glad you pursued it and recovered your losses.

Thanks Arnie, we all need to pursue it. I know it is a pain in butt. It takes dedication and way too much time. But if we all don't give up, WE ALL WIN

It is the same as baggage handlers at the airport. One time I was sitting on a plane and had a window seat, I was watching the people loading the suit cases onto the conveyer belt. The guy taking the bags off the trailer and putting them onto the conveyor belt actually picked up each suitcase, lifted it to chest level, then slammed it onto the converer belt?

He could have simply slid the case from the trailer onto the moving conveyor belt without having to lift it at all, but NO... each case, each set of golf clubs... everything was physically lifted up and slammed onto the belt.. I was watching closely, it was quite obvious it was 'on purpose' and malicious.

I remain hopeful that he has developed a 'bad back' from all of the unnecessary lifting and slamming of everything

Yep, seen that too.

It amazes me how people DO CHOOSE jobs they really hate. Then complain and treat others involved or part of their job rudely.

Like state employees at DMV, or customer service reps.....they complain non-stop about the people they deal with and treat them rudely.....it really isn't the job either.
When you talk with a valet or concierge who handle alot of complaints and whiny guests, they are on a hole very decent and nice and very very helpful most of the time.

When I served, i was a soldier and I loved my job. However at times I had to deal with the press, annoying as hell. Also with protesters at times, very very annoying. Yet I was always respectful and polite while dealing with them, and yet I have to admit in my head SO MANY TIMES I just wanted to shoot them in the foot and move on.

Its a good thing I have self control, and respect for others......I guess that is something too many people are missing.