NW WA Meet / BS Thread

No make or model is safe if UPS is involved

 

At least plate bumpers & sliders can protect against a green Ford Taurus - this will only make sense if you watch his videos

 

They've only got one model for the DCSB You may be thinking of awnings. This is the canopy/topper/shell/whatever the heck they're called these days.

https://adventure-ready.com/store/alu-cab-explorer-canopy/

 

@Usethe2nd When ever @JDAM and I get done with our shocks. Not sure if he's down.

 

Head up to the shop around 11:00 and I'll be able to help out/watch the kid until the woman gets back.

 

I'm rather confused at how a shipping company ends up with "lost and found". Do packing labels fall off frequently or what? Then they just give up and auction it off?

 

OK.

@JDAM , breakfast at the raging beforehand?

 

As of today I've had USPS return my winch solinoids and fog light pig tails back to the sender since I don't have a physical mail box just a PO box. I used my street address for those packages. Can't even put them on my doorstep or even leave a notice for me to pick them up at the post office. I hate USPS.

 

A month or two back I bought some fender flares from a guy in California on T4R and had them shipped to @GSPRunner's house so my wife wouldn't see them until I was ready for her to.

Two weeks after I bought them I texted the seller like, "Hey... Have you heard anything? They shipped two weeks ago and USPS hasn't updated the tracking since." He had heard nothing, so he went to the post office and they said .

Fast forward a week and @GSPRunner receives a note on his door that a package is waiting for him at the post office. Sweet! My flares! Nope, a box full of children's Christmas books. We think nothing of it other than "wtf why did this guy send Joe these books? How did he have his address and name?"

Fast forward two more weeks, still no word.

Then Joe reads the label of who sent it... The guy that sold the flares to me. However, the label lists a box nowhere near the dimensions of the box the flares shipped in.

Long story short, somehow the label fell off the package, onto another package, and shipped to Joe.

Some kid somewhere got some MINT Sport fender flares for Christmas, and Joe got some Christmas books.

Dude refunded my money and filed a claim. Was paid by USPS within a week.

 

Anyone want to buy a box of Children's Christian Christmas books?

 

Long story short, my 4Runner will be back in my possession on Friday.

Holla if you want to buy it- it's going on craigslist.

Even if you're not interested please just click the link. The more people that click it, the more people it takes to flag it for removal.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/cto/5985986461.html

 

I've had better luck just getting in contact whoever I bought it from and explaining what happened.(if a company) Most of the time they will just ship another one out. Then they deal with the claim rather tha you and seem to have better luck

 

Wish I good news to share, but when this happened to me, I got no where with it. Once they entered "Delivered" their responsibility was over, as I was told. I hope you have a better outcome.

 

I think so, kinda like lost luggage. I usually put the label on and then tape the box shut using clear packing tape so that it goes over the label but I can see that not being economical if you're shipping lots of stuff. If it's a high dollar item, I usually put a sheet with To and From inside with phone numbers.

I worked at a bicycle shop out of high school and I remember getting a random bike in a box one day. It was a box for a bike brand that we carried, but inside was someone's personal bike, and it hadn't been prepped for shipping like a shop would. I dug through the packing material and fortunately the guy who had shipped it had used some papers from his work, so we were able to track him down. We had given him an empty box weeks before so that he could ship a bike he'd sold on eBay. His shipping label fell off but he hadn't removed the original label with the bike shop address on it, so it came back to us, which was lucky. Otherwise it may have ended up at auction.

 

Yeah, the companies usually have better luck because they can take their business elsewhere. I worked at a relatively small bike company for a summer between semesters. We'd fill up, floor to ceiling, a Fed Ex trailer every day. So that's what, 23 trailers a month? At some point it's cheaper to just pay the claim than to risk losing the account.

 

And, fwiw with all this talk about shipping stuff. I've had really great luck over the years using PMBs, like Mail Boxes Etc, UPS store, and smaller private ones (I've had better experiences with the mom & pop ones). They can accept UPS, FedEx, USPS, and some of them, freight. I wind up being gone from home alot, so I mostly used them to hold and forward my mail. The USPS will only hold for 30 days, which doesn't work when you're on a ship for 90. Most mail boxes will hold it indefinitely so long as your account is paid up. Some can be set up to forward to other locations. When I was in my road trip phase of life I'd have whatever was in my box forwarded to a friend's house that I was headed towards.

I really like the fact that I can have packages shipped to them and that there is always somebody working at the counter to receive it. It's not sitting on my doorstep waiting for everyone to see.

The only hassles I've run into is if you often have to go during business hours to pick packages and, if you move, you can't use the USPS change of address form. You have to go and change your address with everyone, which usually isn't that big of a deal and works great at cutting down junk mail. And it would probably be a real pain in the ass if I ever had to get a security clearance.

 

At the race shop, the owner bought a GP nozzle and a GP wheel for the gas turbine on an auction site. The auction house taped the two separate packed parts together and only put a shipping label on one. When the part showed up, we could see where the poor tape job had torn and one package was lost. The only reason, after almost a year, that UPS payed the $30k insurance on the item was because a lawyer got involved and due to the high cost of the item, there where pictures of it taped together before it was picked up. Even though they payed up, we lost the lawyer fees. Oddly enough, these engine parts are still closely regulated and the serial number never showed up as being auctioned at the UPS lost auction that year? Eventually someone is going to get busted hard if it's found. Shit happens I guess, but in this case, if the driver stole his parts, that's F'd up!

 

USPS causes me more headaches than anything. I had to request they stop delivering and notify for pickup do to all the "lost" items they have screwed up. Otherwise, besides BAMF, I've had good luck and my UPS and FedEx drivers are cool as hell.

 

To completely sidetrack this, is anyone interested in an awesome nasty race engine? It's a stretch probably and I will be advertising soon, just thought id throw it out here first.
Aluminum Donovan 509, Brodix Big Chief heads, custom machined Jesel shaft roller rockers, all cool shit! 1,000 hp $10K

 

That's sucky. My usps lady is actually pretty cool. Other than driving a bit on my grass to turn around (just the edge of it). The ups lady is awesome too. 5'2" blonde who can't weight over 100 pounds but constantly just carries my heavy ass packages instead of using a dolly.

Fedex on the other hand...screw them I avoid them whenever possible. They've "lost" stuff that shows up a week late, constantly deliver things a day late, and suck ass for signature delivered items. Lots of stuff I ordered is hazmat and they won't leave it anywhere but dupont.