Rear Diff Clearly Mishandled by UPS. What would you do?

Hi all,

I sent out my rear diff to ECGS for a re-gear and have been super-impressed with their customer service. This is NOT an issue with ECGS!!

It is, however, an issue with UPS. Rear diff was sent out to ECGS a couple weeks ago. ECGS did their magic and sent it back to me. It was supposed to show up 10/31 but got bogged down at the warehouse in Portland and was delivered the next day (yesterday, 11/1). On inspection, there was a giant hole in the box and the diff was hanging halfway out of it, having torn through 3 layers of packaging and the plastic bag it was packaged in. The bearings were exposed to moisture (it was raining but under an eve of my shop), debris are present in the bearings/internals and new wear/damage along the braces and housing. Diff was clearly dropped and mishandled in transit by UPS. The new front diff seal and needle bearing replacement bushing I ordered were missing from the box, too.

I reached out to the best customer service guy I've ever dealt with (Brandon at ECGS), but it was Friday afternoon Oregon time and the shop in North Carolina was closed for the weekend. I was looking forward to a rainy weekend off of shop time to get the diffs installed but now don't know what to do. ECGS won't be open til Monday morning and I've got the weekend off to install at least the rear diff. I know ECGS will make it right, but I'd love to get something done to the truck this weekend.

Question for the collective is:

Should I install the mishandled diff and hope for the best? Or is the condition of the diff such that I should wait til Monday to see what ECGS suggests to do?

Thanks!

 

you already took a picture. send it to ecgs. get a can of brake clean, clean it then install it and go on with life and enjoy you diff. its going to be getting more abuse from you hopefully.

 

Worth waiting.

 

Agreed they may not want you to do anything with it until they get a claimed filed with UPS.

 

You can do an insurance claim through UPS. Remember we unload by hand at UPS and something like that should have been packed better, Styrofoam or packing insulation would've helped absorb that impact. I would put 50/50 ecgs and ups. May have had some diff fluid that soaked and weakened the box. As a UPS employee I ship all my expensive, or auto parts through FedEx!!

 

I would've thought something like that to be on a wooden pallet.
I didn't see any Handle With Care stickers either.

 

Clean it, install it, file the claim.
Shipping claims are more than frustrating and I'll bet ECGS will make it right for you.
It really should have been packaged better.

 

Should have been better packaged. Diffs ship nicely in a 5 gallon pail.

 

That’s horrible packaging for something so heavy and sharp. Should have an ABS diff box like strange and mark williams use.

 

Thanks everyone for posting so far.

Yeah, I'm bummed. Diff is out of my cream puff 70k mile 2nd gen and is definitely not in the condition it was originally sent. I wouldn't worry about it so much if it was any of our other vehicles but this one was built in my dad's memory and I put 6k miles a year on it (road trips with the wifey/weekend backcountry adventures/times and places I don't want issues). Because of that, any potential future issues might take a while to show up. It might sound silly and anal to some, but here I am.

I had instructions to send it in a 7gallon bucket and the only one I could find locally was a burly 7-gallon food vault bucket for $35. I carefully packed it with a plywood bottom for support and custom cut reusable foam. Not sure why they didn't just send it back in that.

 

Presonal experiance with USPS on dealing with broken VW air cooling cylinder fins WAS;
Even packaged properly AND with pre paid insurance they STILL denighed refund. WHY? Because it wasnt marked "fragile"! I appealed and fought too. From now on every package I send is marked FRAGILE fragile fRaGiLe FrAgIl.


Third member sections are always bolted to a plastic cup/stand/protector that I've ever seen. Nasa states there is never one fault to any failure but always two or more.

 

Since part of the blame would go to ECGS ask them what they recommend.

 

That's idiotic shipper packaging. I worked on a freight dock for years. Nightly trailerloads of Nissan parts. As others have said, should be crated or in a stout plastic case.

 

LOL. We used to say Hey, this one's going to Italy!

 

What shop in NC? I am looking for one.

I don’t really see damage in the pic maybe it’s just me.

FWIw I dropped my front diff and dented it. Made the dent flat again. Ran it. No problem.

 

I know of some performance shops (Texas Speed) that ship t56 transmissions crated in sealed totes. ECGS or whomever is packaging these diffs needs to crate them and ship it in a 5 gallon bucket or sealed tote of some type.

 

ECGS= East Coast Gear Supply. Pretty much the industry standard and awesome to deal with up til this point. I tried to go local, reached out to a shop and they quoted me twice the price, hassled me about the True Trac I had purchased previously and wanted to include in the deal and said if I brought them the diff instead of doing the removal/install in the shop, they wouldn't honor their warranty.

ECGS was a simple, pleasant phone call, clear instructions and a very fair price. I'm sure they'll make it right. But no doubt it should have been packaged better.

 

I appreciate the desire to get new parts installed but doing nothing until it's settled would be most prudent.

I received a diff from ECGS last year packaged in the exact same manner and I thought it was packaged fine.

 

That’s pathetic packaging. Amazon does better than this. I would 100% fault ECGS for this. Have them send you a new one just because.

 

They used shredded paper and cardboard to pad out the box.
I would have serious doubts about what else they aren't giving a fuck about.