UNITED PARCEL SERVICE UPS poor customer service misshandling of complaint Landover, Maryland

Part of dealing with consumers you must set the expectations.  No expectations were set.  When I dropped off the package at the hub the clerk should have set certain expectations. This is the problem with American Customer Service.  If expectations were set the package would not have been shipped knowing the specific outcome.  The package in question was shipped within the guidelines of UPS.  It need to be protected by an impact proof cardboard surrounded by 1/4" foam.  The pictures you see are of the case the item was stored (stronger then cardboard) Imagine what happened to the contents inside.  The problem was not so much in what happened to the case but it was how it was handled!  I got bounced around having to retell my story many times with people telling me they would call me back with in 24 hours with absolutely no follow up.  You can defend UPS all you want but the customer service handling is unacceptable and will turn away every customer in a similar situation.

If you had shipped those items via any other carrier, in the same containers with the same internal packing, your results would have been the same. Those shipping guidelines are not unique to just UPS. The guidelines include the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) which regulates proper packaging for all carriers. It appears you did not refer to any shipping guidelines for any carrier but, rather, made assumptions. Relax, many "run of the mill" people do that. Each of those people, however, must account for their own choices and actions. Just as is with the American legal system, 'ignorance is no excuse' for packaging in the shipping industry.

Unless you're too busy making lots of phone calls and writing letters in blog sites, perhaps you might want to take a look at those guidelines. It seems odd that you hadn't already done this, considering the emphasis on apparent item value. To be fair and to avoid further waste of time, check out the Fedex site. According to their guidelines and the drop testing, you far exceeded a violation of safe packaging.

Now this should be common sense for most: Look at those pictures provided for this complaint. It appears the frame is merely thin extruded soft aluminum. The case is, at best, mere 1/4 inch plywood. Where is the structural integrity for shipping?? Is it the textured black vinyl used to make the case pretty? That case with 95 pounds may work with two guys on each side (or one brutus whom is destroying his spine) simply lifting, carrying, and setting back down the "day to day touring of a professional musician". That case is no where close to the protection needed for bulk shipping, or safely transporting on any commercial airlines. In the same amount of time that a similar case or two is lifted from a vehicle and carried into a gig, hundreds of shipments would be processed at a hub facility. If you can't understand the difference, visit ANY shipping hub facility for ANY carrier.

With your package being over 70 lbs, it is considered an irregular shipment. This means it needs to be transported differently that the bulk cardboard encased shipments under 70 lbs. This also means the date of arrival is not gauranteed. The thin aluminum and weak walled box did not protect from damage, and thus the delay that frenzied you. The shipment was interupted and taken out of normil transit, not lost. At my authorized shipping outlet, we have shipped dozens of similar amplifiers. Of the many we have packaged, none were ever damaged. Of the ones customers have packaged, the majority have had a degree of damage, often severe. The damage ratio was slightly higher for Fedex than UPS (the difference possibly due to the handling of the independent self employeed drivers that are contracted by Fedex). Curious...why mention the shrink wrap and cardboard? Was that to protect from dust? Incidentally, we package amplifiers in a minimum of 350ECT cardboard with a minimum of 2" high density styrofoam sheet (depending on weight). Heavier and/or higher valued amps may be crated in 1/2" plywood with 2X3" framing. Internal bracing may be used to reinforce customer mounted woofers (to prevent them from tearing away from the mounting board when undersized screws were used for larger drivers.)

Without industry packaging guidelines, claims for damage would turn into a free-for-all with people demanding reimbursement for damage that simply cannot consistently be avoided in typical transit handling by ANY carrier regardless of type of packaging. Some people would even try (and do) using shippers to generate fraudulent claims, which would be simple without specific shipping industry guidelines. Imagine you yourself owning a shipping company...and you yourself were liable for safe transit of the contents of every customer packed shipment. Would you really have no problems with that? or is it possible that you may have some concern of packaging and feel a need for some specific guidelines to protect yourself from those liabilities which are completely out of your business control? To ignore those guidelines and pay out for any and all claims would cause the shipping cost to skyrocket beyond the affordability of most run of the mill people. Now, if those packaging guidelines are actually met, damage to that shipments would be extremely rare. Aside from your specific incident and bias, ponder that issue for a moment. Any run of the mill person of any nationality should be able to understand that.

And not to taint the above point, perhaps some research should be also done regarding the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Details of the BBB include zero legal bearing, applying any complaint without validation, no compensation or accommodation for positive customer feedback, etc. Perhaps the most interesting detail is the fact that the BBB will actually lower 'their grade' for any company if a company does not comply with the BBB's franchise and pay the hefty BBB franchise fee. As long as a portion of the run of the mill Americans feel that the invented 'BBB grade' has some kind of integrity, the BBB will continue to cold call businesses similar to any other advertising company, but with intimidation tactics to offer 'protection' for a fee...or suffer the "BBB" consequences. There is a reason major corporations such as UPS (United Parcel Service) have, and will always have, an A+ for their 'BBB' grade.