This isn’t exactly frame building related, but hopefully it helps someone.
BUT FIRST, a story.
I recently purchased a new in box Cobra Creator frame fixture for a screaming deal on facebook marketplace. Serial number lucky 13 if that gives you a clue to where this is going.
You guessed it, UPS lost it. UPS lost a 115 pound 67"x15"x15" box…
My heart sank.
Try as you might, UPS makes it extremely difficult to contact an actual human during the claims process. They force you to use an automated system that inspires zero confidence. After many days of no movement I started to get desperate.
I managed to find a thread on reddit (dangit I love reddit) where someone suggested to email the CEO of UPS and provided their corporate email address. I was skeptical but willing to try anything. I sent a kindly worded email explaining that I realize this is probably not the proper channel for this request but that I didn’t know what else to do. I explained who I was and the nature of my lost item.
Two hours later I received a phone call from A HUMAN at UPS corporate Atlanta. They said Mrs. Tome(CEO) had received my email and forwarded it to them for investigation. This gave me an email and direct phone number to follow up up with as the claim progressed. Amazing!
Anyway the package is now back on track and slated for delivery tomorrow.
TL;DR
UPS Lose your package? Here’s a direct line of communication to UPS customer relations. To my knowledge, UPS does not advertise this info for some reason.
Lindsey Turpin
UPS Corporate Customer Relations
+1-404-828-8900 CustomerRelations@ups.com
DHL Contact Chief Executive
Greg Hewitt
CEO, DHL Express U.S.
1210 South Pine Island Road
Fourth Floor
Plantation, Florida 33324 Greg.Hewitt@dhl.com
Unfortunately, this is common with all the shipping companies. We used to have the inside line to a human at our local UPS hub, but they closed it and moved it 25 miles away. Problems were dealt with promptly when we could talk to someone locally. That’s not the case anymore. We eventually stopped using UPS because the driver assigned to our route was so bad. We don’t miss him, but it’s dumb that the entire reputation of that company is on the shoulders of one employee.
We had an issue with a payroll company. My Wife does our books and could not get anyone to talk to her. She emailed the CEO and copied all the biggest investors in said company.
Someone called her very quickly after the email was sent.
UPS lost a package that I was sending back to my client, it was a miniaturized prototype heart monitor (wearable) … Luckily my customer was not too mad about it but yeah, went thru all the hops but then stopped when we realized that the insurance would only have paid us $100 for the lost item… I’ll remember this for next time!
My wife is very often on the other side of the issue, being sent emails with cc’d their CEO, the important thing is that you first try to contact them via the appropriate channels and if you have to include higher-ups, write a very polite email.
I have seen bad things happen (given it was not a shipping company but an employee emailing the CEO for no good reason)
When I ordered my Sputnik fixtures several years ago UPS freight lost it for several days, then found it apparently just sitting on a loading dock. Before they found it I was told the only money I’d get back was the shipping charge, not the value of the item they lost. Showed up with fork lift holes punched through the side of the wooden crate that somehow managed to miss the tool itself. Spooky stuff to ship things.