University and Student Shipping Services USS Lost Belongings and Refuse to Reimburse Oklahoma City Oklahoma

University and Shipping Services is contracted with several colleges and universities to provide delivery of products directly to student dormitories, promising that upon move-in the items will be in the rooms. We shipped three boxes, priority and insured via UPS to their storage warehouse in Illinois as per their instructions. Upon move in two of the boxes for one of our children had arrived, and the third box for our other child had not. We made several phone calls throughout the day to their representative who repeatedly told us the box would be delivered by the end of the day. At 5pm, still without the box (containing all my son's bedding and essentials for his dorm) we were told to wait for a call to meet the driver somewhere on campus to retrieve the box. Finally we asked for the driver's number at 6pm. He informed us that he did not have the box and that he had no idea where it was. So our son had no bedding, pillows, etc for his first night in his freshman dorm!

It was confirmed that the box had been received by USS so it was not a UPS error. Ultimately USS told us they had no idea where the box was and that they would "take care" of the cost of replacing it's contents. We had to spend over an hour shopping for replacements for  all the items again at a cost of approx $300. Having spent $200 to ship the box to USS so it would arrive by their required deadline, we were now in over $700 for one box!

USS refunded the $44 we had paid them to NOT deliver the box. Yet when I inquired about being reimbursed for the cost of the items in the box, I was told they would reimburse us $100. Apparently there is an option to purchase insurance that was not at all obvious on their site. Clearly the promise of "ship to us by the deadline and your box will be in the room" is one that is not honored if they simply decide to lose your box. The correct thing for USS to do is reimburse us the shipping cost and the cost of replacing the items. The items were delivered to their warehouse, and they lost them. However since they clearly have no concept of customer service, they are putting the blame on me for not buying their insurance which was not a clear option when I placed this order! This company promises a number of services, but they do not stand by their promises and reserve the option to simply say "too bad, you gambled on us and lost."  I will never use them again and hope no one else does either!