UPS Lost Hunting Clothes: What recourse?
Equipment
Hi Folks. After a recent hunt in Wyoming with my daughter, I shipped Elk Antlers and a Gear Bag with our hunting clothes, boots, and gear back home with UPS. Both sets of Antlers arrived, however, my Gear Bag with my name on it didn't. It was supposed to arrive last Thursday. Customer Service and their website have been less than helpful (with the exception of a local person). I have filed a "claim." Today I was told after they finish the "investigation," I may get $100.
Fortunately, I had nothing in there that can't be replaced but to replace it all new would be significantly more than $100. Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks. Mike
I don't suppose by chance you got extra insurance for it? How about trip insurance? Didn't the tracking number narrow down where it was lost?
I did not pay extra insurance. I do have tracking number and know the last place it was scanned... it disappeared after being last scanned in Casper. Thanks.
Hmmm....the UPS bubbas should be able to track it down to who loaded it on what truck by what loader and who drove the truck. Maybe you'll get lucky and the "investigation" will find it. Without insurance (shipping or trip), it might be a loss for you. Luckily the loss was after the hunt and not before. Good luck.
:) Thanks... this thread is really more therapy at this point. I don't have much experience with UPS and understand "s#it" happens. However, I am having a tough time understanding how it could be lost... the tag could have fallen off but it has my name on the bag. It is very frustrating! But.... we did get the antlers! :)
Also, from a customer service standpoint, I will be terribly disappointed if UPS doesn't do better than, "Sorry."
Sucks but at least they didn’t lose or destroy your antlers. That would have been way worse.... a reminder if your hunt that can’t be replaced. I hope they find your gear !!
Without insurance you're out of luck. It's possible that they find it but I'd recommend shopping for new clothes.
I used to ship with UPS and Fedex every day. Occasionally packages got lost. After a few years I ran the numbers and the occasional loss cost less than insuring every package that was over $100.00.
For one important package, it's worth insuring.
I didn't think you could file a claim until something was over due for 10 business days? I could be wrong.
I’m guessing there is a UPS worker in Casper who is a hunter and about your size............. ;-)
What did the bag look like? UPS is notorious for "misplacing" anything that remotely resembles hunting related items. This also includes taxidermy related items. We NEVER use UPS for that reason alone.
when ups lost a bunch of fishing rods i shipped ahead for a caribou hunt they gave me a hard time about the value and about paying me for them. i told them if they did not pay me for the rods i would file a criminal complaint with the sheriff and charge them with theft. they sent me a check in just a few days.
Franklin that's to bad. Different parts of the country certainly are different in many ways.
Ups is great here. We use them for just about everything Personal gear, taxidermy, guns, ammo and of course archery gear with very few complaints
Shipping stuff unfortunately has its risks .
It could be worse you did get your antlers !!!
I'm just hoping that it wasn't a complete set of Kuiu or Sitka gear for you and your daughter that are missing/lost....$100 isn't going to touch that kind of replacement cost.
By chance, do you have a picture of the container you handed to UPS? Also, the main items in the container? Items fall off conveyer belts and burst open. Things go to a "oops" space and sometimes are investigated to reunite with the sender but not always. Name tags, bag colors, serial numbers, brand names, model numbers, etc can be helpful if a caring employee gets involved at the Casper hub. I ship 1000s of packages via UPS each year and about 1% have issues from labels defaced, boxes torn open, delayed en route, etc. UPS will lose stuff though usually turns up as long as the items that tumble out of the burst box are easy to stuff back into the burst box. Insurance is your friend on high value items and I never see those items get misplaced unless is the last two weeks of December when some UPS hubs simply melt down and any glitch will then put your package a risk of being buried under a growing mountain of parcels as priority is given to any packages not yet overdue. Once your UPS package is overdue in last half of December then might as well create a duplicate shipment and hand to FedEx. This is true of UPS Ground and Expedited parcels. I tolerate UPS as I do not have to create separate piles of outgoing Ground and Expedited parcels. UPS backs a truck up and takes everything. FedEx needs parcels separated and different trucks arrive to only take one or the other. That is a pain when we have one bay door at the warehouse.
If I'm correct??? If you paid with a credit card "some" my give insurance??? You can check. Ed
Aubs8 you are being fed the standard company line! Take inventory of what was lost with prices receipts of lost items is even better. I experienced a potentially lost bag with the airlines and spoke with a third party company that handles just that and was assured I would receive due compensation for the lost items. It never got to that as the bag was located and returned. I would imagine there is a third party company that handles lost items at the airport in your area. Dig in don’t settle for $100 if it’s worth significantly more to you!
Even better Aubs8 I see you’re from NY so I reached out to my friend who deals with the NY airports and will PM you with any assistance/contact info he may be able to provide.
Even better Aubs8 I see you’re from NY so I reached out to my friend who deals with the NY airports and will PM you with any assistance/contact info he may be able to provide.
I had ordered some Sitka a few weeks ago. The day is was scheduled to arrive it said “package out for delivery”. Then later in the day it said “package destroyed contact shipper for more info”. I got my replacement gear from Sitka but got a laugh out of the package destroyed. Never found out what happened and even Sitka people had never heard of it.
They can be very rough on packages. Good luck and I hope it works out.
Thank you for all of the responses! Lesson learned.
Fortunately, I put the 4 pieces of Sitka gear in my carry-on with meat. The majority of the stuff was "well-worn" and accumulated over time. However, to replace each new would probably be upwards of $1800.
Thanks Tom. I appreciate it. Mike
An update: I finally received my bag of stuff! :) Thank you to all who reached-out, especially Carl (aka Smarba) who made a very generous offer to help me out. Carl's gesture to help me (someone whom he had never met) is a perfect example of why I love Bowsite!
It appears the tag came off the bag so the bag was sent to a warehouse. I called the number to the warehouse every other day to see if they had inventoried it, and eventually it paid-off.
Despite the ordeal, I will plan on continuing to use UPS (or another shipper) if needed for clothes in the future if I have to fly. A couple of things I learned...
1. I will look more closely at the costs associated with Flying First Class due to the trade-off between a more expensive flight but better baggage rates in an attempt to keep everything together. This trip, I checked-in 3x50 lb dry sacks of frozen meat and brought about 35 lbs more in my pack ("carry on") onto the plane. Shipping baggage and antlers through UPS cost about $180.
2. I will take pictures of everything I ship or check-in as baggage in the future to help with an accurate inventory list should a mishap occur.
3. I will make sure my name and address are permanently on any luggage or package I ship or check-in.
4. Insurance - As mentioned above, I believe $15 was the additional cost for $1000 of insurance through UPS. In retrospect, this is a small price to pay for a piece of mind.
5. Insurance 2 - As suggested above, I did check with my credit card company... nothing was covered. However, I was in the process of filing a claim with my Homeowner's Insurance Co. who would have paid full replacement value of the lost property. That was something I would have never considered before a friend mentioned it to me. That was a tremendous relief.
Hopefully, some of the points above will save some of you needless aggravation and stress in the future.
Take care. Mike
That’s great I’m glad you got your stuff Mike!
Great news UPS found your gear, and good info regarding insurance options for all of us to consider Mike!!!
Good to hesr you hot your stuff! Another word of sdvice is yo always put uour gontact information inside of your packages. They fo make every effort yo get packages to their owners.
