Yet another shipping rant. No horror story per se, jut the run of the mill frustrations of a law abiding gun owner attempting to ship something and running into ignorance and anti gun attitudes.
I shipped the frame and slide of my Caspian Ti 1911 to Caspian to have the rails carbonized. Gun was completely stripped down to the frame and slide, so that’s no working firearm, that’d for dang sure. So I go into the local UPS corporate store to ship it. I always loath this part. Women asks “what are the contents?”
I say “fire arm parts.”
She gets that dreaded “oh my god the box may explode and kill me I hate guns, etc etc” look on her face as asks “It’s not a gun is it? Because if it’s a gun, I can’t ship it.”
I say “no, it’s parts of a gun but not a functional firearm, and BTW, you can ship firearms from a UPS store.”
She says “I don’t think we are able to ship guns and I am fairly sure you are wrong about that.”
Well, I am sure you can see where the conversation went from there. It makes me nuts when they don’t know the policy of the company they work for. I insured the parts and left.
I am always conflicted as to what to tell then. I could have just said metal parts and been correct. I, being a honest law abiding type, I try to do the “right thing” by telling them what the contents are accurately, but they sure don’t make you want to tell them, that’s for sure. Fire arm parts seemed the most accurate description and she would have looked at me as if I had three heads (she was already looking at me as if I had two heads for shipping evil gun related parts as is was) if I had said a slide and frame for a 1911….
I am sure people ship firearms and don’t disclose that fact all the time, but I am sure that opens the shipper up to all manner of liability and such, so I always tell them what’s in the box and wait for the inevitable conversation that follows.
That’s my rant for the week, which I know you all have experienced.
I shipped the frame and slide of my Caspian Ti 1911 to Caspian to have the rails carbonized. Gun was completely stripped down to the frame and slide, so that’s no working firearm, that’d for dang sure. So I go into the local UPS corporate store to ship it. I always loath this part. Women asks “what are the contents?”
I say “fire arm parts.”
She gets that dreaded “oh my god the box may explode and kill me I hate guns, etc etc” look on her face as asks “It’s not a gun is it? Because if it’s a gun, I can’t ship it.”
I say “no, it’s parts of a gun but not a functional firearm, and BTW, you can ship firearms from a UPS store.”
She says “I don’t think we are able to ship guns and I am fairly sure you are wrong about that.”
Well, I am sure you can see where the conversation went from there. It makes me nuts when they don’t know the policy of the company they work for. I insured the parts and left.
I am always conflicted as to what to tell then. I could have just said metal parts and been correct. I, being a honest law abiding type, I try to do the “right thing” by telling them what the contents are accurately, but they sure don’t make you want to tell them, that’s for sure. Fire arm parts seemed the most accurate description and she would have looked at me as if I had three heads (she was already looking at me as if I had two heads for shipping evil gun related parts as is was) if I had said a slide and frame for a 1911….
I am sure people ship firearms and don’t disclose that fact all the time, but I am sure that opens the shipper up to all manner of liability and such, so I always tell them what’s in the box and wait for the inevitable conversation that follows.
That’s my rant for the week, which I know you all have experienced.
:banghead:
