We recently had a "situation" with FedEx that is suitable for the Twilight Zone. We were shipping four handguns to a police department in the South East. They were all in individual plastic boxes taped shut. Those were packed two to a box with lots of styrofoam p-nuts. Both boxes were shipped via FedEx Express. Neither was marked with anything that would identify the contents, not even in the addresses. The department armorer calls me and says the box delivered was destroyed. It looked like it got ran over by a truck...literally! Tire marks, dirt, very squashed, etc. One plastic box with enclosed pistol is fine. One plastic box is MIA. The enclosed pistol from that box is there but it's got grind marks all over one side...like it got stuck under the truck wheel and ground along the road. The loose pistol actually fell out on the desk thru the hole in the side of the box. He tried to stop the FedEx driver but he had hit the door running and was already gone. The other package with two handguns is totally MIA.
I call FedEx, tell them about the destroyed handgun and ask about the other package. It's "lost in Memphis". The last known location was the Memphis hub. They call me a few days later to tell me that they had found the handguns in an undisclosed location in Memphis. Nobody knew what "undisclosed" meant. The package was gone but the two handguns were found. They tell me that they are both damaged and will return them to me. But wait! It gets better!
They have to first ship them to the "The Armory" in Texas to examine them. Beats me why FedEx has an armory. So, they examine them and put them both with "the other pistols" in a box and ship them on their merry way. Yeah, you read that right. The other pistols aren't mine. I know nothing about them. But wait! It gets even better!
They ship them all to the Tucson Police Department! Yeah, we're in Tucson but have nothing to do with the local police department. I ask FedEx why? They have no reason and don't understand why the armory did that but I can't go and pick mine up. They'll have to pick them up and re-ship them to me.
I finally get both of them back here to the shop. One is slightly damaged but one is squashed. I mean squashed as in ran over by a big truck. A total loss.
FedEx didn't argue with anything. They paid off several thousand dollars pretty quickly. No complaints about that or about our local drivers but numerous complaints about the rest of the ordeal.
1...Apparently, both boxes were destroyed at or close to Memphis. Why didn't some manager there get involved?
2...Why would they have shipped a totally destroyed package on to the recipient with out any type of manager getting involved? Especially since a handgun was falling out of the box?
3...The local delivery driver should have said "Hmmm! Hey Boss!".
4...Why was the second destroyed package kept in Memphis?
5...Why did they have to be shipped to some place called the armory in Texas?
6...Why were they shipped to our local Police Dept? (I called a freind in the local TPD armory and she said "beats me")
7...How many people were involved in this screw up? Nine? ten? More?
Nobody at FedEx can answer those questions. The investigator that I was dealing with was a nice and competant sounding Lady. She said that there is a gun theft ring operating out of Memphis. They cover their thefts by destroying the packages. Yes, we still use FedEx for quite a bit of shipping. I won't use UPS unless the Customer insists on it. They screwed up a few years back and cost us a contract. It wasn't as bad a screw up as this one with FedEx but the UPS one cost me a lot more money. So far, we haven't had any problems with USPS. (I'm knocking on wood here!)
Now, I have to ask: Since there is nothing on the packages to indicate GUNS, how does a line worker know what's in the box? By the addresses? Is somebody in the office telling them what packages to grab? Keep yer powder dry, Mac.
Tuff-Gun Finishes. The Name Says It All.
Mac's Shootin' Irons
http://www.shootiniron.com