[Yaesu] Re: UPS abuse, FT990 Problems...

[Al Bailey]

I was told by UPS that IF you get the item packaged by them, at a 
cost of course, that it is thoroughly insured. If you use the old 
Mail Boxes Etc store to ship via UPS their insurance is NOT the same 
as UPS. They insure using your packaging. What UPS does not tell you 
is their insurance is useless if you package it yourself. They take 
your money though.

I try to stay away from UPS and use Fedex the majority of the time or 
the USPS if not a item I have to worry about.


  At 03:26 PM 12/9/2007, Ed Senior wrote:
>A couple of footnotes to your thorough discussion:
>
>The last time that I shipped something by UPS (quite recent),
>they pointedly refused to say they were selling "insurance;"
>they insisted on calling it a "valuation fee."  This seemed
>rather baffling to me, until I thought it through.  Then the
>connotation occurred to me.  If they were selling "insurance,"
>then they could legally be expected to honor legitimate claims,
>like an honest insurance company.  (Please forgive that last
>oxymoron.)  But by calling it a "valuation fee," all they are
>selling you is the privilege of putting a value on a claim
>that they will deny.  I expect they lost a few court cases
>based on the "insurance" semantics; and so they decided to
>change the semantics--but not their practices, of course.
>
>BTW, a fellow antique radio buff I used to know had my favorite
>UPS story:  He received a large, 1930's cathedral radio, very
>thoroughly double-boxed.  One problem:  UPS had somehow managed
>to pierce it through with a 5 or 6 foot length of cast iron
>water pipe.  They dutifully delivered it with the pipe in place,
>protruding from both sides like a spear!
>
>My personal worst UPS was a pristine and rare "teledial" cathedral,
>also very well packed and double-boxed.  There was no packaging
>damage.  But they had dropped it on its back with such violence
>that the metal chassis twisted itself into a parallelogram shape,
>and was protruding out the back of the cabinet.  In order to do
>that, it had to rip all the control shafts through the front
>panel, thus shattering the rare teledial mechanism beyond repair.
>
>This was a non-replaceable item.  So those who "only" lose readily
>replaceable, modern merchandise to the ravages of UPS are actually
>the lucky ones.  I was so traumatized by the fate of this item
>that I don't really remember the outcome of the insurance claim.
>But I think they denied it on the basis that there was no damage
>to the packaging.
>
>Moral: Do NOT ship antiques via UPS, if you expect a reasonable
>chance of survival.
>
>73,
>
>Ed, W6LOL
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pegasus at mho.net [mailto:pegasus at mho.net]
>Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 9:21 AM
>To: foxtango at yahoogroups.com; yaesu at mailman.qth.net; yaesu at contesting.com;
>ham-radio-deluxe at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Yaesu] Re: UPS abuse, FT990 Problems...
>
>Hello Brian,
>     I toot this horn whenever I get the chance...
>The truth is that you, or anyone you care about, should never ship
>*anything* by UPS these days.  Some time ago UPS changed their business
>practices in two major ways.
>1; Promote the use of insurance then refuse to honor just about every claim.
>      They have a whole department that does nothing but convince the
>customer that the claim is not worthy.  An extensive list of reasons
>is available for their use.
>2;   There was a day, many years ago now, when UPS employes could be fired
>for throwing and mis-handling packages.  Back in the 70s & 80s a UPS
>package would travel across the country and arrive on your porch looking
>as though it had just been packed... pristine.   Believe me, those days
>are  L O N G  gone.
>     I'm speaking from first-hand knowldege.  I'm a pilot, been flying
>private jets in charter service for some time.  Back when I flew the
>Learjets and Citations UPS would call when they'd have a plane down or
>needed extra capacity.  I'd go to their sort centers and wait for a
>load.  What I saw there was almost beyond description.  Total chaos...
>organized chaos.  Packages would come down these conveyor belts..
>going up and down, around corners, often falling off them dropping 10
>feet to the floor.  I once saw about a 2' x 2' box fly off the thing
>and hit the cement floor and bust open.  Peanuts and parts went
>everywhere.  Some big bruiser of a guy ran up to it, shoveled it all
>back in to the split-open box, wrap about 20 feet of tape around it
>and put it right back on the belt.  Thats only the beginning.  These
>conveyors go to a waiting row of containers that either go in
>wide-body jets, semi-truck containers, or rail cars.  At each portal
>there is one guy standing at the conveyor end, and another inside the
>container.  The guy at the end of the belt is about 10 feet from the
>container, or about 20 feet from the back of the container.  Bubba #1
>takes the boxes off the belt and *throws* each and every one of them
>to Bubba #2 inside the container.  #2's job is simply to stack them in
>such a way to use every cubic inch of space.  They are not sorted by
>weight or size.   Your Christmas ornament ordered from Hallmark.com
>could be holding up a 40 inch big screen TV.  The rate of throw is
>such that they never pause to read anything on the box.   Stickers
>such as "THIS SIDE UP", "DELICATE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT", or "FRAGILE"
>are ignored simply because they never stop to look.  Packages that are
>too big to throw are rolled and shoved, they don't join up and both
>carry a heavy box.
>    Calling their "claims" office is almost futile.  I was involved in two
>cases, one my own, and another for a friend.  In the first battle after
>a few near-shouting matches (but civil) I guess I had sufficient
>command of the language that the guy finally ran out of reasons and
>felt sorry for me.  He admitted, "I'm paid to deny claims."  I don't
>think he was even empowered by the company to approve the claim.  In
>both instances it took a letter from an attorney, promising legal
>action, to approve the claims.  In my friend's case, the box must have
>fallen 20 feet to do the damage that was evident.  It was a vintage
>stereo receiver with a strong heavy chassis that was bent so bad it was
>tweaked out of square.  I have seen horrific damage in several
>instances.
>     It's too late for you, but I would inform vendors to ship another
>method than UPS.  All are better.  Even pay extra for it if you have
>to.  Fedex ground service is far better.  I've shipped about 1,500
>items with them and never had a damaged item.  Postal Service's
>Priority Mail is even pretty good.
>    Sorry you've had this issue with a nice radio.  I would threaten them
>and be very convinced of your position as though you're fighting for
>the principle of the issue and not just the value of the item.  It
>might work.  If you have an attorney friend, have him fire off a
>letter.
>Tough lesson,
>73,
>Dennis
>N0SP
>
> > LATEST UPDATE:
> >
> > The USPS is DENYING the claim for damage based on their
> > insurance.
> >
> > They claim that they did not damage the FT990 and therefore
> > place the onus on the shipper.
> >
> > Meanwhile I am out several hundred $$ and QRT.
> > Now we begin the appeal process.  Sigh....
> >
> > I will let everyone know if USPS and my seller make good on
> > what I paid for here.
> >
>
>
>
>
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