[Boatanchors] Parts - was RS rant

[Glen Zook]

I still get shipments delivered by UPS.  They haven't changed one bit, the boxes are still coming in damaged!  Also, it hasn't been a "decade" since I stopped shipping by UPS!  It has only been in the last 2 or 3 months that I have had Mouser use FedEx Ground instead of UPS although I have absolutely refused to ship anything by UPS for several years unless the client makes arrangements for the package to be picked up and the client accepts all responsibility for damage.  The final straw, besides the condition of the boxes, was the fact that UPS showed packages delivered to me which never "showed up".  They even sent out a representative to find out if I ever got the packages.  After I told the representative that I never got them, he admitted to me that UPS had absolutely no idea on which truck, with which driver, etc., that the package was supposedly given to.  All that they had was a computer entry that said the packages were delivered but that
 entry was not traceable.

In addition, during the bad weather about a year ago, UPS took well over a week delivering packages from Mouser.  Every day the website would show that the packages were on the truck for delivery.  However, this part of Richardson is at the very end of the routes and, since the weather conditions were slowing down deliveries and since UPS didn't want to pay overtime to the drivers, every day the packages were returned to the Mesquite hub for delivery the next day instead of taking the time that was necessary to go ahead and deliver the parcels.  On the other hand, FedEx made deliveries on those days, one coming almost at 11:00 PM!

I do know how to pack items for shipment.  For almost 10-years I owned the Motorola reconditioned equipment center for the south-central United States and we shipped between 20 and 50 radios a day.  Only 1 box was ever damaged and that was when UPS ran forklift tongs through the box.  Even then, they tried the "improper packing" ruse.  UPS fought paying the claim until a Motorola vice-president called the CEO of UPS and casually mentioned that if UPS did not immediately pay the claim, Motorola and all of the reconditioned equipment centers in the United States would immediately cease using UPS.  Since Motorola was shipping well over 200 units a day from their Schamburg, Illinois, plant, as well as shipments from 6 reconditioned equipment centers around the country, that was a "no brainer"!  Payment of the claim was authorized in less than 10-minutes!

One would expect UPS to be VERY careful with shipments when a TV crew was filming!

I used UPS virtually exclusively for going on 40-years before things started going bad.  After shipments, both incoming and outgoing, started becoming damaged on a regular basis, I quit using UPS and have not missed them.

Also, being in Alvarado, Texas, your shipments do NOT go through Mesquite!  They go through Fort Worth.  Anything shipped to me goes first through Fort Worth and then Mesquite.  Big difference!
 
Glen, K9STH


Website:  http://k9sth.com


________________________________
 From: Ken <ken at wa0sbu.com>
To: Geoff <geoffrey at jeremy.mv.com> 
Cc: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Parts - was RS rant
 
    I thought it was was kinda funny over Christmas.  Channel 4 had news 
crews in the UPS and Fedex hubs showing how busy they were.   The UPS 
workers were placing the boxes on the conveyors while Fedex was throwing 
them.   Maybe he needs to quit whining, and just quit using UPS.  After 
all, if he hasn't used them in a decade, he has no idea what there 
package handling is like today.