doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Fedex Follies (Sit down with a cup o' Joe)

My story begins in the town of St. Etienne, probably sometime in the 1930's...

A set of 300 series 16 ga barrels is produced, and brought to the point in finishing where they would be fitted to the gun. They never are, never sent out for proof, nor graded. The only marks left by the factory are the finished bore sizes.

The company that made them goes out of business 50 years later, and the barrels languish, unused, heaven knows where, for another 30 or 40 years.

They show up on a French auction site almost three years ago, where they go unsold for six months. Not wanting to alter the original barrel set on my 314, I
make the seller an offer, and promise to walk him through the export/customs labyrinth.

About two months later, they rest in my safe near the gun they will be mated to. A ruff grouse hunt last Fall ramps up the need for an open set of barrels, and Kirk Merrington fits them to my 314, opens the chokes, and does some fine tuning on the extractor. They perform wonderfully on the North Shore of Superior and pheasants in SoDak. They are left in Nebraska with an up and coming engraver, with the final step in their journey a trip to Utah and PA24's blacking magic. Some of you have seen the pics of the finished barrels.

Their long and labor intensive travels almost over, Doug repacks them and, per my instructions, sends them on their way back to me FedEx ground. We watch their progress on the tracking site all the way to DFW Airport, where, inexplicably, they appear to turn around and head back to the hub South of Dallas. Several calls and layers of FedEx employees later, a Customer Advocacy Team (CAT) member assures me she has them stopped, and they will be delivered the next day.

The next morning, I check tracking, and it's on a truck out for delivery. Checking later in the afternoon, lo and behold, it is headed to the hub. Next CAT member painfully informs me that it did not get stopped, it is loaded in a trailer, and headed back to Utah. More conversations. I am assured that a "trap"
is set for it at the hub in North Salt Lake. Doug and I watch the tracking all the way back, where it is indeed stopped in North Salt Lake, and sent on its way for the second time back to DFW. The morning of scheduled delivery, it is in Irving (DFW) and on a truck "out for delivery." It is supposed to be held at the local FedEx Office for pick up, as I do not want it left on the porch. I go into the local FedEx Office at around 10:00, give a brief history, and they take my phone number promising a call when it arrives. By about 4:30 there has been no call. I call there, but it just rings and rings. It's only a mile and a half away, so I jump in the truck and observe it is the afternoon/evening crew manning the fort. I ask to see the status as I briefly explain my second visit of the day. While standing at the counter with tracking on the screen, the young man helping me notes that the delivery date just changed to tomorrow, and that it doesn't appear that it ever left Irving. Just then I get a text from Doug saying the delivery date has just changed to 5 days hence, and he thinks it's going back to Utah again!

The employee at the counter confirms the second change in delivery, but can help me no further. Back home, another CAT member gets hold of Irving, and they confirm it is loaded on a trailer, sealed, and headed back to Utah for the second time.

By now I have the FedEx on hold jingle memorized.

I am on a first name basis with Marjorie at CAT in Atlanta.

She has been with the company 35 years.

She has never seen anything like it.

Doug and I agree there is a scan, label, employee- something- that is going wrong in Irving and it needs to be removed as a variable. I ask that my box, UNOPENED, be placed into another new box, and a new label/tracking # be generated, and the package put on a plane and overnighted to my address. Marjorie agrees, Cliff in Utah is clear on the instructions, and Doug and I watch as it goes to Memphis, then Dallas, Irving (ugh!), and on a truck out for delivery. Marjorie calls this morningand says she has talked to dispatch and the driver, and it will be around 3:00 that his route takes him to my area. A little after 3:00 I get a call from Marjorie that the package is on my porch. I ask her if she wants to hold while I open it and check for damage. She does, and Doug calls while I have her on hold and am opening the package- so Doug's call goes to voicemail.

I open the larger package, and inside is- not my original package! Nervous they did in fact take it out and re-pack, I note that the contents are loose, and probably damaged. I open it up and say to Marjorie, "You're not going to believe this."

Here is a pic of what I received this afternoon:



Marjorie is crushed, and asks if I'll hold while she calls Cliff at the North Salt Lake Hub. He admits to somehow packing the wrong item, generates now the third tracking number, and they are bumped up to priority air, supposed to be here before 10:30 tomorrow.

E mail from Doug says, "Barrels are on your porch."

I reply, "No, they aren't. I got a baseball bat, and I'm not kidding."


That's my FedEx story, and I'm stickin' to it.

I'll keep ya posted.

Mike

I mean, I guess I'd have thought French barrels would be better finished than that. Would you think me critical if I said they did baseball bat quality work?

*pause for golf clap*

Ok, chuckles aside...take a deep breath and try to be amused (if nervously). I would be irrate, as I imagine you have been. But this is indeed HIGHLY anomalous, and while it shows there are some holes in FedEx's vaunted system, wherein, when a real human attempts to take back the reigns, the scanners don't allow it...the worst event HASN'T actually yet occurred.

Either way I'm still holding to the opinion that FedEx is better than the "Going Postal Service." I'm betting your adventure, while strange and nerve-racking, will end happily.

I have seen some people advise that the USPS is the preferred way to ship firearms (or "parts," as is the case here) because they pay full dollar, if you've insured it that way. But I would rather roll dice that FedEx is a WAY lower probability of the worst outcome...than "assure" myself with USPS's insurance payout...as the illustrious, industrious, hard working elves otherwise known as "civilian Federal workers" clearly are never a good bet.

It's like playing a very low probability worst outcome vs. a significantly higher probability outcome, but with a check attached. I'd rather the low probability...because NEITHER bad outcome returns your goods.

I trust the USPS to deliver packages safely...about as much I trust Hillary Clinton to deliver a truthful sentence.

Hold your breath...but I think you're going to be ok. If, also owed, a HUGE apology + explanation.

- Nudge

Helluva story. I utilize USPS Registered only these days, insured to the hilt. I once shipped a MEC progressive loader via Fed Ex in the original package with extra packaging around it. The package arrived with a big hole in the side and no contents and they wanted the consignee to sign for the package. I did get my insurance money back, but I had only insured it for $100 (like an idiot). Course I do recall sending a $400 english blank via USPS non insured priority mail to the West Coast from Va. Package arrived with nothing in it with also a big hole in the side. Someone got a helluva nice blank. Registered after that works for me.

You must be a very patient man. When I read the story and saw the bat, all I could think of was the bat scene in The Untouchables with Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) using the bat for an alternative purpose other than the manufacturer's original intent. Or maybe you considered that, too. Gil

Oh man, I feel your pain! I had the same thing happen shipping to Doug, only it was USPS ground. My barrels finally showed up about a month later, but only after I went to the local post office on a DAILY basis. I recommend you make inquiry, in person on a daily basis. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Someone out there is waiting for there bat.

probably has been since April......

One wonders if they have been stolen. Barrel sets on Ebay can sometimes bring some decent money. Certainly more than baseball bats. Let's hope it's not the case, and it's only a shipping SNAFU.

Bat is going back, addressee was someone in North Salt Lake. Some youngster is probably pretty anxious.

Incredulity probably sums up my overall attitude, but I have maintained a sense of humor that Marjorie has repeatedly thanked me for. I told her I hoped someone wasn't using my barrels as a bat somewhere. They've never been lost, but wear on Doug's impeccable finish was a concern with the many thousands of miles they have now logged.

For your amusement, I include a photo of three pages of tracking:

Me thinks this whole ordeal is going to drive you batty...so Fed Ed just decided to help you along?