MTFCA Forum

I hope I am the only one, but I have had now in the past 2 months delivered but not received items to people requesting parts. Three total now, either porch thieves and post office workers with attitude delivering an empty box. I don’t have that problem here so much in the south, it’s a southern thing. So for now on, the receiver must pay all shipping and insurance on items, some will require signature depending on price and item. I have lost over a $1,000.00 plus. Very uncool.

I am a little torqued off by lazy people!

Hank in Tin-A-See

Hank, that is truely a bummer!

I only ship with tracking and insurance. You can see where the box is at all times and it is scanned at delivery. The customer always pays for shipping and insurance. So far, never lost a shipment. I've had 3 cases of the promise of a check, and one "the check is in the mail", and yet nothing arrives. Nothing goes out until I get the check, if I do not know the buyer. In each of those cases, the "buyer" was someone with little time on the forum, and no known history of successful purchases. The T community is better than most, but not without it's clinkers.

As an aside, I DID have trouble once where a shipper sent my package to the address on the check and not the address I specified. My check had my recent old address on it (ouch). Shipment was 3 boxes. New owners refused to admit they had the boxes and after 3 month wrestling match, managed to "find" 2 of the 3 boxes. I had to pick up when I went back to FL on business. They would NOT ship or take a check to do so. You'd think I'd ripped them off on the house sale...it only went up 18% in value over their purchase price in the year they've owned it. Sheesh.

I wish you better luck in the future!

USPS ??
I have a package that they put the wrong zip code on the label. I had the right one and the wife didn't catch the mistake, I did when sending the tracking number.
Big fiasco !!
Don't get me started on my postal delivery person !!

Dave, that's odd. At our PO, they input the address into the computer which validates or refuses the zip/address on it's merits, and I have to "accept" the address on the computer screen on the counter with each shipment. I review every address on every box...

Shipping has always posed problems of varying degrees.....and probably always will.
Here in the Antipodes we pay BIG shipping costs and still things can go wrong. Eg; I have a new Brassworks radiator that flew across the Pacific no less than 3 times, thanks to FedEx messing up.

Scott_conger wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:25 pm

Dave, that's odd. At our PO, they input the address into the computer which validates or refuses the zip/address on it's merits, and I have to "accept" the address on the computer screen on the counter with each shipment. I review every address on every box...

Our local PO was very busy, she went to the next town where the granddaughter lives. She said the guy didn't ask her to verify.
I had to pay to stop it and return and if I in fact did have the zip right, they will reimburse me...They made an 8 a 6 basically.
I should have it tomorrow or so.

Bummer!

I have 100% of the stuff I order shipped to my work address. Even Amazon junk, which they sometimes try to deliver after hours. Nothing gets stolen. Nothing shows up missing.

The only time I don't receive a package is when the shipper can't provide a tracking number.

Wow Hank. That sucks.

I’m glad I received my driveshaft without any issues.

modernbeat wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:41 pm

I have 100% of the stuff I order shipped to my work address. Even Amazon junk, which they sometimes try to deliver after hours. Nothing gets stolen. Nothing shows up missing.

The only time I don't receive a package is when the shipper can't provide a tracking number.

If you are selling parts - have the Buyer choose the method of shipping in writing
before you ship.

Recommend delivery to a business address - recommend insurance - recommend a signature confirming
delivery - recommend a tracking number you both can monitor.

Agree in writing that theft - loss - damage claims will be covered by insurance claim only.

Not by refunding out of the Seller’s pocket.

The method of shipping should be determined by the Buyer.


FJ

I'll give praise where its due......
Over about 3 decades I've been importing stuff for old cars, model railways, dolls houses etc etc, from the USofA. (The UK and Japan are another story)
In that time I've found that the USPS has been far more reliable than UPS and FedEx. DHL has been good too, but I haven't used them much to really compare. Having said that, I reckon that its probably less than 1% of UPS & FedEx shipments to my home address (here in Australia), that have had problems.
Consequently I use USPS where/when ever I can.
Cheers,
Rob

With most items I ship that are too big for a flatrate box I always ship Fedex with Direct Signature where someone needs to sign for it,the driver is not supposed to leave it on the porch or around the neighborhood where it can walk away. This costs an extra amount usually around $5. UPS did everything they could to discourage my business and it finally worked,Fedex has been great for me,nothing lost or damaged. 42 years Hemmings advertiser and seller.

We do a LOT of shipping. We love our postal people, and always have. I expect we always will. In my 50 plus years of selling car parts, the only thing that ever gets lost is peoples checks sent to us. I’ll let you figure that out. We had two checks supposedly sent from someone that never arrived. Then , they gave us an attitude over it. They are on our “ NO SALE “ list. It’s a very small list, but problem solved. There are plenty of buyers with no drama involved, and hopefully friends for life. The only thing that ever has gotten damaged, is when I have chinched out on the packing job. Trying to cut down on the package size will bite you in the ass. It recently did on a magneto I sent out. Too small of package cost me the best parts of another mag, so what did I really save? IF YOU CAN HEAR SOMETHING SHIFTING OR MOVING AROUND IN A BOX, ITS TOO SMALL AND NOT ENOUGH PADDING ! It’s easy to fall in that trap with increased shipping costs, but not worth it in the long run.
As Steve said insurance is really a waste. For fedex it’s worthwhile, but you better be able to document how it was packed and what it’s worth. For postal , I’ll take what they give me for free, but a super packing job is the BEST insurance. I can say they never lose anything.
We formerly sent things out before payment, but found some of those deals never got paid for , so very seldom do that now. Nothing personal, just easier to manage.
We very seldom ever even step foot in a post office, so how do you beat that ? If you haven’t checked into postal rate A , B, or C boxes, you are missing a great value. Just recd something the other day that cost the GUY ( me and him ) double what rate A would have been.
Let the buyer decide? Not gonna happen here. Sounds like advice from someone that rarely ships anything and has plenty of time for phone or computer tag. K.I.S.S. !!

I have had 2 lost international shipments with USPS. One was eventually found and the postage was refunded. The second refunded the insurance & postage. 2 Continental claims paid as well. I always deal online as well, not with the local post master.
These are rules I now follow: always to include an see-thru invoice packet on the outside of the package with from & to names and addresses. The second is to tape completely around that outside of the box (sides) and any easy opening perforated edge. I also secure and heavy items to a flat piece of cardboard to prevent them from breaking through a side of the box. I have received an entirely empty boxs, small flat rate, that was marked by some distribution point as "empty" with the easy opening side ripped open, another box where the contents ripped the ends open. Both were bolts - apparently they box was traveling at a high rate of speed ad stopped suddenly launching the contents into the oblivion
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Had issues with FedEx deliveries as well. Package left by my mail box next to the curb, another to a customer dropped into the weeds (rainy day too) 200 feet along side the lane to their house. I received front wheel hubs , visibly showing through the torn package - they made no attempt to secure it

Still my preference is USPS

Here in Australia we have official AUSTRALIA POST offices and Licensed Post Offices, run by individuals as their own business. You can guess where you get the better service.
I have yet to have a posted parcel go astray, but Australia post did their best with one of our wool customers. Her parcel did not arrive, so I sent her the tracking number. The PO advised that it had been delivered to Sydney and would get to her soon. A week later it turned up back with us, so I phoned the PO help line and they proudly sent me the photo taken at the address site. They didn't quite know what to say when I told them that was our place. The parcel had been to Sydney. There the hand printed felt pen address on the sack was ignored. Some bright spark had then missed the TO address in the clear invoice attached envelope and noted the From address. So back it came to us! To top it all off, we had to pay another set of postage costs before they would accept it for sending, and then wait for reimbursement.

Allan from down under.

Henry:
i have had 2 linebore units go missing in the past 3 years ... and yes i did learn pay EXTRA insurance on the package ... not sure why i should pay extra to have the job done right ! we are being conditioned to accept the work of 60% ers ...always an optimist ...Gene French