(Rant) Sorrow, thy name is UPS!

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Generally speaking, once you take possession of it and open the box, you're screwed. You should have raised hell before you even left the shipping store if you heard them drop it.

However, if the guy was a gamer and used a third-party heatsink/fan combo (which wouldn't be unusual), it might not take much to have it break free and bang around inside the case. A lot of the third-party cooling solutions for the hardcore overclocking gamer are seriously outside the specs in terms of weight, and aren't meant to be left installed when the computer is moved, much less shipped.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Every package I've ever had shipping via UPS, whether by my decision (once) or others' (a few times), has been damaged in some way. I absolutely refuse to use UPS, I always use FedEx. FedEx, IME, tends to be faster as well... though they do cost more. The quality of service is worth it though.

 

[Mycanid]

I agree with Aurora. Fight it. UPS broke your computer, they need to fix it or replace it.

Absolutely ... it takes a while to get through the red tape, but they WILL eventually reimburse you. We had a situation where someone sent us perishables from Reno and it sat in the shipping barn to come to us for DAYS. After we got it we discovered a RAT (literally) had chewed its way through the box and partially devoured on of the home made tiramisu she had OVERNIGHTED to us!

Usually we have good luck with UPS but that was a disaster....

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Never had a problem with UPS...

But DHL (The Yellow Company) is another story.

The company I worked at had a Corporate Contract through them, so we HAD to use them.

The worst was when I tried to send something Next day to Atlanta. AS in THIS MUST BE THERE BY 10 AM OR HEADS WILL ROLLLLLL!!!!!!!

Took those SoB's THREE DAYS to remeber to pick it up. Then FIVE more to deliver it to the CORRECT Address.

I got very good at tracking Packages, & calling them up.

They were so incompetent that we started using Fedex (Store down the street), if we actually wanted to be sure it would get there on time.

I guess DHL screwed up enough that the lsot the Contract, as we go through UPS now.

Haven't had a problem, but then I don't use it much anymore.

I have Adobe Acrobat & a Scanner so I just started E-mailing PDF's whenever possible.

Faster & cheaper.

 

[frankthedm]

Whit a name that looks like it would be pronounced ( Oops ) can you honestly be surprised?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

The lessoned learned here, I think, is to insure the hell out the delicate things that need to be shipped.

 

[delericho]

Anyway, I take it to the counter, pay about $70 in materials and shipping, and hand it over. We turn to leave, and before we're even out the damn door, an enormous thud echoes throughout the store, causing us and other patrons of the store to turn. Ah, good - it's just a dumbass employee who, judging from the sound, must have just dropped the box in a corner from literally more than a foot from the ground rather than set it down with any sort of care.

Your mistake was leaving the store at that point. You should have kicked up a storm immediately, demanding to see the idiot's supervisor, demanding a refund, and leaving with your PC. Chances are, your PC was already destroyed by then, but you might have been lucky.

 

[Zander]

If they don't play nice, send a registered letter to their director of customer service. Tell them that you plan on buying a share in their company and that you'll be asking the chairman and other board members about their poor levels of service at the next Annual General Meeting, i.e. in front of the assembled shareholders and media. I think you'll find they'll co-operate 'right quick'.

I've done this several times to large companies (though not to UPS) and it's never failed to get me what I wanted. Nothing is scarier to a big corporate exec than the thought of being the cause of the company's share price falling.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Never had a problem with UPS...

But DHL (The Yellow Company) is another story.

The company I worked at had a Corporate Contract through them, so we HAD to use them.

The worst was when I tried to send something Next day to Atlanta. AS in THIS MUST BE THERE BY 10 AM OR HEADS WILL ROLLLLLL!!!!!!!

Took those SoB's THREE DAYS to remeber to pick it up. Then FIVE more to deliver it to the CORRECT Address.

I got very good at tracking Packages, & calling them up.

They were so incompetent that we started using Fedex (Store down the street), if we actually wanted to be sure it would get there on time.

I guess DHL screwed up enough that the lsot the Contract, as we go through UPS now.

Haven't had a problem, but then I don't use it much anymore.

I have Adobe Acrobat & a Scanner so I just started E-mailing PDF's whenever possible.

Faster & cheaper.

Our company uses DHL. And yes it does take days for someone to "remember" to pick up a package.

I had a mouse shipped to me from Dell to go with the laptop I'd gotten. The laptop was shipped UPS and arrived fine. The mouse was sent via DHL and sent to Mom's place next door where she USED to live. If it hadn't been for my Sister's boyfriend, I wouldn't have know it was there!!

 

[Mr. Beef]

I used to work for UPS (only one week though because the hours were terrible) and found that they generally ignore all labels unless it mentions something is heavy and then you might get two employees to lift the box, but that was never the case when I was there. Lucky for me I was weight training at the time and a 70-100 lb box was no trouble.

They also push Hazardious Material traning on us even though some employees who had been there longer than I had (like 5 years) had never had Haz Mat come through their hands.

There was a story going around that some employee had lost their job because ethey lost 2 packages. Granted one of the packages was Insulin for a Type 1 Diabetic, but I don't think that firing is justified for something that is out of your hands. He was the last one to scan it, so he obviously did something with it, was their reasoning.

The reason I left was because I could not take the mental pressure of loading 2 50+ foot trailers over a 4 hour span and it had to be perfect. I'm not a perfectionist by any means, but the pressure they put on you is worse than modern boot camp.

I really try not to us UPS when I can, but some on-line places have worked out deals with UPS to offer free shipping anywhere in the continental US. Since I live in Texas I usually take that deal because I'm on a really fixed income and saving $5-$10 shipping means either I get medication or not. I have used Fed Ex before to get something a few days before Christmas and nobody was home to sign for the dilevery so I had to schlep down to the Delivery Hub and get it. After sitting around for 30 minutes waiting for them to find my package, I got what I came for and left. About the only shipping service I'll use to send packages out is the USPS. The USPS delivery is kind of spotty in my area because we have substitute delivery people and they do not know the route that well. I live in one of the top 10 markets in the US and we cannot get regular delivery of our mail for crying out loud. There's days where he's either coming at 7 or 8 Pm one day and will not come at all the next and these are weekdays.

I've rambled on enough.

Just my 1/4 pound.

Mr. Beef