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RichardT · 03-04-2005, 06:03 PM

I found some Driver and passenger side window glass from a wrecked Airstream motorhome and waited 5 months for the guy to wrap and ship the 4 pieces of glass.
Do you know how rare these items are!!?
He put 2 pieces in each box wrapped carefully.
Ups dropped off 1 box with the 2 stationary pieces, and I called to ask when the other with the sliders that are so valuable and impossable to find would show up and they said
" The box was damaged so we threw it away, please contact your shipper for a replacement"

That is really what they said!!!!!
AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

In with the glass were the latches too.
The insurance will pay, but it is irrellevent ( and not enough!) I should have insured it for $1000's, I want my box! It is up to me I said to deciede what is trash and what is not.
No they said, while it is with UPS it is their property and since I am not the shipper I have no claim anyway.
I am gonna a puke.
I have a call into the department that threw it away to see if they can find it
(Ya right I am sure.)
They told me nobody should ever ship anything that cannot be replaced thru UPS.
I never saw that in the commercials.

maxandgeorgia · 03-04-2005, 06:25 PM

Wish we could give you a big community Forum hug --if it would do any good to make you feel better. Consider it done! SO sorry to hear of this painful disappointment. Hope you can recover the latches, and maybe someday, not too far away, find another set of the rare windows. Best wishes.

74Argosy24MH · 03-04-2005, 06:32 PM

When I bought windshields they were shipped freight, the originals were wrong so I had to return them and get the right ones. 3 shipments of 2 pieces and none broke. They used expanding foam in bags on all the corners and a couple of places through the center on opposite sides of the glass. With the weakness of the curve it is a pretty ingenous system, the glass couldn't really be stressed the way it was encased. And the fork driver on the dock sure didn't seem to care a lot about the 'Fragile' and 'Glass' stickers everywhere. I know it won't help now, but when you find another set.....

John

RichardT · 03-04-2005, 06:47 PM

You are missing the point.
They threw the box away Before they delivered it!
They assumed since it was damaged that there was nothing left of value.
They threw away my stuff because they thought.
I did not ask them to think.
I asked them to deliver my stuff to me.
They should have delivered it , Damaged or not, and let me decide if it is damaged beyond repair, or whether there was anything salvagable in the box along with the glass.

69 Silverback · 03-04-2005, 09:09 PM

Richardt,

Wow! I can see your point. This may not help, but here goes anyway. I saw an auction on e- bay today. It is for an old AS dealer closing out existing stock. The item #is 4533114659. He is trying to unload the whole lot , opening bid is $3000.00. May be worth an e-mail to see ,if the lot dosen't go , if they would separate sell some. That is if they had what you need.

Just thought it might be worth a try . Worse response is, no.

Good luck

uwe · 03-04-2005, 09:22 PM

You can NOT ship anything of value, or for that matter, anything at all, really, with UPS. I have had nothing but problems with their shipping system, and evenmore so with their billing department. If there is a claim, they take several month to respond, hoping you would just go away. Then, they expect you to have every crum and spec of dust that had to do with the shipment, 8 weeks after the damage happened, sometimes longer. If you don't keep all the packing material and box remnants, the claim is denied automatically.
I ship big $ every month, and UPS so far has been the absolute worst, followed closely by DHL, which is closely followed by USPS ( complete Morons!!!)
My best shipping methods are small trucking outfits and fedex, right now, anyways.
Sorry, but this shipping thread gets my blood boiling! As a matter of fact, I just was delivered a brand new range for my 63 Overlander, and it's pretty much destroyed, thanks to UPS. The shipper ships UPS, and I did not catch this when I bought the item out of state.
So, now I'll be waiting forever to get resolution on this shipment. In teh meantime, the range, the box, and every crum of packing material are sitting on my shipping bench, awaiting the day that UPS decides to inspect the shipment.
I feel your pain, Richardt!

RichardT · 03-04-2005, 09:27 PM

Thankfully I did not need these windows and was buying them as spares.
I spoke to a supervisor tonight and he said that they did throw out my stuff and normally keep serious records, but in this case there are none, he is putting me in touch with the right person and says that he is confused by this situation and expects that I do have a real claim beyond just the insurance value. We shall see.

66Overlander · 03-04-2005, 10:01 PM

I have to agree it was not UPS's decision to throw the item away. They needed to deliver it "as is" and "take their lumps like a man".

However, I have to disagree with Uwe. I have had nothing but problems with FedEx, but really never a problem with the USPS. I have little experience with UPS. I'm sure most shippers do OK work most of the time. We each have just had our own personal bad experiences with different shippers.

My philosophy generally is when in doubt pick it up in person if at all possible. I know this is not always possible, so in those cases "you make's your choices and takes your chances . . ."

Sorry to hear of your loss.

wahoonc · 03-05-2005, 06:16 AM

They need to merge FedEx and UPS and call the new company FedUP!

I/we have had problems with all of them at one time or another...FedEx was the most recent...they mis directed my company laptop that was being shipped overnight from NY to NC...it took 4 days to get here and then the idiots delivered it to the office after 6pm on a Friday....and just left it outside the door! One of the guys found it about 6:30 on Monday morning when he came in....I told him he should have thrown it away....I needed a new laptop.

Richardt, the only safe way is to pick it up yourself...but that is not necessarily cost effective.

Aaron

eljay · 03-05-2005, 06:37 AM

At our house we pronounce UPS "oops"...Richard you are certainly justified in your anger.

PeterH-350LE · 03-05-2005, 08:05 AM

You were very lucky. If you would have accepted the shipment without inspection of the contents, you would have latches, but no claim whatsoever....
Been there, done that!

davidz71 · 03-05-2005, 09:40 AM

I've never had a problem with UPS (knock on wood). I've also insured everything for more than it was worth taking into consideration my time involved to be on the safe side.

uwe · 03-05-2005, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidz71

I've never had a problem with UPS (knock on wood). I've also insured everything for more than it was worth taking into consideration my time involved to be on the safe side.

Makes little difference. If a claim happens, you will have to have proof of purchase, or replacement value documentation.
They do not pay the amount that the item was insured for. Your time and subsequent losses are not of concern to them. When you give a specific insurance amount, then that only declares the maximum they will pay.
On occasion, however, my documentation was for more than the insurance value, and they still paid it. After about 4 month of hassling them.

I ship delicate items,( in approved packaging ) perhaps that's why I am having more problems than the average shipper.

pinkflamingoes · 03-05-2005, 11:37 AM

I agree totally!! "They own it while they have it" is B.S. You own it once you bought it.

Bad business.

Quote:

Originally Posted by richardt

You are missing the point.
They threw the box away Before they delivered it!
They assumed since it was damaged that there was nothing left of value.
They threw away my stuff because they thought.
I did not ask them to think.
I asked them to deliver my stuff to me.
They should have delivered it , Damaged or not, and let me decide if it is damaged beyond repair, or whether there was anything salvagable in the box along with the glass.

Foiled Again · 03-05-2005, 12:21 PM

My partner and I own Mail Depot in Va Beach as well as Answer Center. We've been shipping packages since 1980 and the blunt fact is your packages go in the back of tractor-trailers, down multiple conveyor belts, etc. while being shipped. "Fragile" or "Glass" means nothing when a driver has to hit the brakes to avoid an accident.

I know how frustrating it is to lose something nearly irreplaceable, but your best protection is to insist that the shipper have your item professionally packed. In the case of windows or windshields, I'd want a wooden crate and at least 4 inches of expandable foam cushioning on all sides of the glass.

In fact, UPS considers the sender to be the only party to be able to collect damages and we handle all of the claims for customers who ship through Mail Depot because WE are the sender of record. Normally UPS only throws away the package when there is no question that the damage was caused by them rather than by insufficient packaging. Check with the sender. He may have gotten the package back.

Tin Lizzie

Coastalview · 03-05-2005, 12:30 PM

Over the last several months, we have been receiving items from UPS, that were to be delivered to our neighbors. Our neighbors are currently remodeling their house. I guess by chance, UPS must think that since our garage door is open most of the time, why not just toss the deliveries into it, and sometimes these delivered items are small, and quite frankly, I don't see them. Theres no agreement with my neighbor or with UPS, that their deliveries become my liability !

Inland RV Center, In · 03-05-2005, 01:16 PM

richardt.

We will have the classic motorhome, copilot slider windows, in stock in about 5 to 6 working days.

They are being shipped to us March 7th or 8th.

The drivers side has yet to be recreated.

Unfortunately, all the original glass molds were destroyed by Airstream.

We helped recreate one of them and we are working on the other.

Andy

ALANSD · 03-05-2005, 06:11 PM

While we are trashing the shippers...I used the USPS to ship a valuable guitar synth. It went priority handling and all that. Wrapped very well, lots of padding and styrofoam. The USPS guy here complimented me on the packaging said it was well done. When it arrived on the West Coast it was broken into little tiny pieces!! They denied the insurance claim, said it was not packed well. I appealed, they never responded. Three hundred dollars down the tubes.
Oh well, I'm sure we all have these stories.

TomW · 03-06-2005, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALANSD

While we are trashing the shippers...

On the flip side, I had a UPS man knock on my door one day. Looking a bit grim, he advised me to check the package he was delivering for damage as he had noticed the sounds of broken glass while walking up the sidewalk with it.

Sure enough, the contents had been destroyed due to poor packaging by the shipper. I was impressed because the UPS man could have just left the box at the door since no signature was required. Instead, he took it back with him.

Although it is obvious that not everyone is fortunate enough to deal with such concientious workers, they do exist.

Tom

overlander63 · 03-06-2005, 06:53 AM

While we are shipper-bashing, I also have an Oops horror story to share.
Most of you know I collect toy trains as a second hobby (the trailer is the first one). I ordered some long out-of-production trains, and they were shipped UPS. After about 3 weeks, I called the place I bought them from, and was told the tracking number showed them as having been delivered two weeks previously.
I called UPS, they checked their records, and said the package had been dropped off on the back porch. ???? I informed them I didn't HAVE a back porch.
A supervisor came out and verified this, and they cut a check to the shipper. Of course, the trains were as rare as the window parts, and I still haven't gotten them all...