doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lost in Shipping...

We all can recount horror stories about shipping. I have been successful most times in using Fed-X with outgoing but what do you think of these two in-coming tales.
A bank check for several thousands of dollars was sent from California. It never arrived, or so I thought. In the following spring, we found it in a cabinet in my garage.
A Lindner Daly was shipped to me. It also failed to arrive and after four days, I contacted Fed-X. They stated that their records showed it being delivered to my front door. Considering that the front yard was about four feet deep in snow and about seven feet at the front door(falloff from the roof), I somehow doubted this.
A phone call from a neighbor let me know that they had found a Fed-X box addressed to me leaning against my neighbor's race car garage. It was the Lindner. Fortunately the bubble wrap had kept the moisture from it.
I understand that the Fed-X drivers are independent contractors and not direct employees of the company. The drivers, here, are losers, big time.
Best,
John

USPS Registered requires every person who touches package to sign for it.Only way to go to be sure a gun does not go missing.UPS has lots of problems and will not pay insurance.
Chose your own poison but I will take USPS registered over the other two common carriers any day.

AS JM said, "We all can recount horror stories about shipping." I've used USPS, UPS and Fed-X for Cashier's Checks and firearms. USPS has frequently been "LATE" without explanation and I've had the same BS about the 30 day waiting period to file a search request, much less a claim. Although USPS has eventually delivered everything, the tracking system is just marketing hype...it does nothing as others have stated.
UPS tracking, on the other hand, shows where your package is EVERY step of the way. Fed-X is almost as good about tracking information and definitely reliable on delivery times listed on-line.
Just the other day the news reported a Christmas post card sent from Ohio to Kansas was finally delivered...93 years after it was mailed with a 1 cent stamp. The Postal Service found it in Chicago where it had a layover for almost a century...no Postal Service employee would say why it took 93 years to make the trip. Just one more reason why I won't use USPS for anything of importance.

That postcard was not mailed Registered thats the trick.If you use registered they will not lose your package.Also a lot cheaper than UPS and Fedex which are both in bad shape,FedEx in legal trouble with the drivers who are at war with their independant contactor status and UPS can't pass along the fuel surcharges fast enough and the union drivers are not on the customers side when it comes to packages.They all have issues but only one will always get it there intact USPS Registered.

Has anyone here seen a sorting facility for any of the carriers? To pack a gun and send it through one of these places is plain nonsense. They ride on conveyor belts that are often times 8 to 10 feet off the ground. Packages regularly fall off these belts to the floor, only to be picked up and reloaded again, SOMETIME. There are MILES of these belts in these huge sorting facilities. Worst part is, at the end of the line, there is large catch baskets. The conveyor belt does not angle down to slide the packages in, oh no...they stay at the same elevation and the packages free fall 8 to 10 feet into the bin.

So imagine if your gun is one of the first in the bin that day, then EVERY other package will fall right on top of yours and the weight just keeps climbing until the bin is full and they empty it. No thank you, UPS, Fed Ex, USPS Priority, etc...ALL do this route.

Only one that doesn't do this is USPS Registered Mail. This process is completly different. Once you drop off your item of Registered Mail, it MUST be taken to the secure room in that post office. Only ONE person at that facility has the key to the room and or vault. It will be placed in there for safe keeping until it's time to be loaded on a truck. The truck will pull up, all the other mail is THROWN in the truck to get it full, once that is done, the qualified person with the secure room key then retrieves your package from that room and hand carries it to the truck where it is placed in the rear and once in, a LOCK is placed on the truck and the truck driver then has to sign a form stating he has taken custody of that piece of mail.

Once that truck arrives at the next facility, which may well be a large sorting facility, the qualified person on duty at the time will come out with the key to open the truck and once open, will sign for your package and then HAND CARRY the item to the secure room, where it's locked up again until the next truck goes out for it. This process is repeated over and over again, with every change of possesion, a signature is required to relinquish the item and also take control of the item. This package will never see a conveyor belt, it's always hand carried by someone who has signed their name to it while it's in their care.

No matter what any one says, this method is the safest yet slowest method of mailing any package that you need to be kept safe.

I have a family member who is a PostMaster and he told me the above story. He also pointed out that it is all too common for trucks to be loaded in a fashion where the normal mail bags and boxes are loaded and to get "more in" the loaders will stand on the previously loaded mail to continue the stack higher.

The part about falling from the conveyor belt is why carriers state the package must be packed in such a mannor to be undamaged when exposed to a fall of 8 feet. They have that in their writing (I may not have the wording exact) for a reason, and that is because it happens EVERY DAY.

The tracking is a joke, but if you have a good PostMaster, he can access the database and find your package as it is signed and accounted for AT EVERY stop. They do not update their site to show this so you cannot track it, but they can if they want to.

Lastly, as many have said before, it's the cheapest method to ship to with insurance. Try and insure a gun with Fed Ex or UPS for 25K...would love to see that bill. That same insurance on a piece of Registered mail will cost you $38.75 plus postage. Only way cheaper is to have a writer on your collector insurance like the big gun dealers have. They do not worry too much about the guns and they usually use UPS since they have their own insurance and UPS is quicker.

Hang in there, Registered Mail is the way to go...if there is a problem, it will be found or someone will go to jail and you will get your money back in the amount you declared it for.

I have my firearms insured with Collectible Insurance Agency(CIA). All I have to do is ship priority USPS with $201 in insurance so a signature can be obtained and I'm automatically insured for the full value of the firearm. I've had one clain for $1500 over the years and this was paid.
Additionally; I double pack any firearm I'm shipping. If it's a double for example I'll use a hard fitted case inside a sturdy cardboard box.
Jim

Here's the happy ending........got the gun today in perfect condition. In transit for 22-23 days. What a relief! The lady at the post office said it must have been all that rain, snow and dark of night but was proud that the mail finally went through......I am too. Thanks to everyone for their kind support over the past three weeks.

I also picked up the other A. Blair 12b that I just bought from Mike Harrell today at my FFL. Shipped the exact same way and arrived in 4-5 days. Neat gun Mike and you won't recognize it next time you see it! Thanks for the great service as usual.

Bob, glad for happy ending, but when using USPS be ready for long road. LCS sent me some stuff by USPS ExMail - 1 month to wait, moreover tracking did work till airport only.

Glad you like it Bob. How about some photos of the wayward Blair. I haven't seen it since you gave it a facelift either.

Good for you, Bob. Glad to hear you got your gun safe and sound. Keep in mind- don't ever send anything FEDEX. I have reasons to believe that that was MY soccer ball my grandmother sent me in the movie "Castaway". Tom Hanks got careless and ended up losing Wilson in the ocean at the end. My Mad Cow will do me in before that damn thing gets here............ Denny Crane