HFC Detectives needed - missing PS Guitar!

[cmatthes]

FedEX seems to have switched labels on an outbound guitar from our very own Stike - a Paul Stanley model that he had refinished showed up as a Sterling by Music Man.  Somewhere out there is a guy looking for his bass and wondering what to do with a metalflake Ibanez PS Model…

Any assistance is appreciated!!

[kizanski]

The guy expecting the Music Man just lucked out.

[DaveH]

Hope there is a better turn out on this than my truck parts that Fedex delivered to someone else's house a couple weeks ago. Fedex SUCKS!

[Menehune]

They all suck. UPS claims it's made two delivery attempts for a signature-required package, yet no delivery notices were left. You need a code off a notice in order to re-route delivery to a local UPS Store for pickup. And since UPS customer service is designed to thwart all attempts to resolve corner cases like this (including a voice response system that played 20 Questions with me, none of which were relevant, and mightily resisted connecting with an agent,) it's earned its acronym expansion of Unbelievably Poor Service.

[scottcald]

I just keep shouting agent (or whatever term they use) and/or hitting 0.  Usually that will yield a person at some point.   I'm close to a post office, so I'll just go there to ask about things with them.  UPS and Fedex have seldom been helpful on the phone. 

[DaveL]

Just a thought.  Have you been able to google the Ernie Ball Sterling item?  Are there any markings on the box?     If it’s new it’s possible it came from a retailer.   Eb might be able to share where it was shipped to.  Maybe a reverb or retailer ad will pop up.  Unfortunately there are probably a ton of them out there, 

   Re fedex…I don’t love that the label goes into this plastic sleeve rather than the address label permanently stuck on the box.    Wierd how it got switched     Not even sure how that happened  torn or??   

 

 

[Stike]

On 11/17/2023 at 2:25 AM, DaveL said:

Just a thought.  Have you been able to google the Ernie Ball Sterling item?  Are there any markings on the box?     If it’s new it’s possible it came from a retailer.   Eb might be able to share where it was shipped to.  Maybe a reverb or retailer ad will pop up.  Unfortunately there are probably a ton of them out there, 

   Re fedex…I don’t love that the label goes into this plastic sleeve rather than the address label permanently stuck on the box.    Wierd how it got switched     Not even sure how that happened  torn or??   

 

 

I hate those pouches. This one I had taped the label to the top of the box and I used a lot of tape because I know how FedEx is. The recepiant sent me a picture of the box top and it looks like the label I printed. Only guess I have is someone opened the box and switched cases? It's very unlikely that the recipient is lying to me that they received the wrong guitar.

[Cboss]

I've bought three guitars through here from another hfc member and he has a method for this that I think is brilliant, he puts an Apple Air tag inside the case when he sends the guitar to me, and I return the air tag with his check, he is across the country and can tell me at any point exactly where the guitar is, down to the room it is in within a sorting station

Might be something to consider, I would anticipate this type of thing is going to increase

[kizanski]

5 minutes ago, Cboss said:

I've bought three guitars through here from another hfc member and he has a method for this that I think is brilliant, he puts an Apple Air tag inside the case when he sends the guitar to me, and I return the air tag with his check, he is across the country and can tell me at any point exactly where the guitar is, down to the room it is in within a sorting station

That's brilliant. I don't know if I would do it with someone outside of the HFC, but it's a great idea.

[geoff_hartwell]

On 11/20/2023 at 9:55 AM, Cboss said:

I've bought three guitars through here from another hfc member and he has a method for this that I think is brilliant, he puts an Apple Air tag inside the case when he sends the guitar to me, and I return the air tag with his check, he is across the country and can tell me at any point exactly where the guitar is, down to the room it is in within a sorting station

Might be something to consider, I would anticipate this type of thing is going to increase

That is freakin awesome! And I think we should adopt it as HFC standard procedure lol.

I read on Jennifer Batten’s FB that she had a guitar and/or pedalboard lost by an airline somewhere internationally, who were unsurprisingly useless, and the AirTag was the only saving grace that actually got it back.

[Cboss]

The only thing to know about the air tag is that it triangulates off other Apple devices, it is not linking to satellites, so if someone takes the guitar out in the boonies it isn't going to work.. having said that there are many many Apple devices on the planet and this ought to work great

There are $18 versions on Amazon that use the same network, this is pretty much a disposable price

[geoff_hartwell]

On 11/26/2023 at 1:00 PM, Cboss said:

There are $18 versions on Amazon that use the same network, this is pretty much a disposable price

Intriguing! Linx?

[Cboss]

Real thing is $27 on Amazon 

[kizanski]

$79.98 for a pack of 4 in the AmaZone.

[Hbom]

On 11/13/2023 at 2:29 AM, cmatthes said:

FedEX seems to have switched labels on an outbound guitar from our very own Stike - a Paul Stanley model that he had refinished showed up as a Sterling by Music Man.  Somewhere out there is a guy looking for his bass and wondering what to do with a metalflake Ibanez PS Model…

Any assistance is appreciated!!

Did this ever get sorted out?

[cmatthes]

Not as of the other day when I chatted with Stike last…

[Stike]

8 hours ago, cmatthes said:

Not as of the other day when I chatted with Stike last…

Yeah Fed Ex is doing jack shit, my last conversation with a person in the claims department was pointless.

I actually got a cold call from a local FedEx sales rep that wanted to come by and talk about "things he could do to help my business". 🙄 When I gave him the run down on this situation listening to him try and be helpful/sympathetic all while never saying anything negative about Fed Ex was almost amusing-almost.

[Cboss]

Have you tried tracking The substituted guitar backwards? This seems deliberate to me and I have an intuition that a FedEx employee did it, or one of their subcontractors the less than truckload people.. so where and when did the substitute guitar come from? Just a thought

And if this Theory holds any water it will be someone local to you, because they are the ones that know what's coming out of your shop

[django49]

Based upon two claims experiences with FedEx, they talk a good game about how much they appreciate your business, but they will drag you through weeks of claims processing, documentation production and "hand holding" before saying it is not covered. Never mind that they REQUIRE insurance......."Gee, there are no tire tracks on the box that match our trucks, so it is clearly not OUR fault!"

Sorry that it is that way.....And this is NOT to  imply UPS is any better.

Do you have separate insurance that might cover it? That was the saving grace in my case, though it had to wait 3 months until the paper chase with FedEx ended. Good luck!

[DaveH]

My issue with missing truck parts was finally resolved a week ago, after over a month... But this was doing business with a large company that has some leverage. I supplied the pic that Fedex took of the delivery (to a house other than mine), and pics I took of my house proving there was no way it was delivered to me.

I really hope this is found and everything ends up ok.

[Stike]

13 hours ago, Cboss said:

Have you tried tracking The substituted guitar backwards? This seems deliberate to me and I have an intuition that a FedEx employee did it, or one of their subcontractors the less than truckload people.. so where and when did the substitute guitar come from? Just a thought

And if this Theory holds any water it will be someone local to you, because they are the ones that know what's coming out of your shop

No way to do that, there was zero information on or in the box showing where it was supposed to go. 

 

[Menehune]

On 11/13/2023 at 10:59 AM, Menehune said:

They all suck. UPS claims it's made two delivery attempts for a signature-required package, yet no delivery notices were left. You need a code off a notice in order to re-route delivery to a local UPS Store for pickup. And since UPS customer service is designed to thwart all attempts to resolve corner cases like this (including a voice response system that played 20 Questions with me, none of which were relevant, and mightily resisted connecting with an agent,) it's earned its acronym expansion of Unbelievably Poor Service.

Forgotten follow-up: After a third reported delivery attempt, and notification that my parcel was headed back to the sender, I got a notice that the package was out for delivery. The UPS truck arrive that evening, and a UPS guy handed me the parcel. I asked him about the lack of delivery notices. "You mean these things?," he asked, slapping a pad in his side pocket. "Some drivers just burn them."

Turns out, too, that the sender's UPS store put his name as the recipient. Shouldn't have made a difference as the delivery address was correct.

Sorry to hear your guitar is still MIA, Stike.

[Drew816]

AirTags announce themselves. 

PRO TIP: Remove the speaker so it's not BEEPING endlessly announcing itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vAQNedIa0o

Yes it will still show up on any iPhone it sees to kind of announce itself, Are You My Mother? Highly annoying and counter to what you're trying to accomplish here. BUT keep in mind the Fed Ex/UPS/USPS people will have a whole TRUCK filled with packages so they're not likely to be sure to know which one has an AirTag in it. Plus think of this as another WARNING to those dumbasses, they've been warned at least one of their packages is being actively tracked so if they are trying to steal TODAY, they're taking a risk. 

I hope this thing was finally found, my suspicion is it ended up at some FedEX guys house; if so, sorry!

[Cboss]

4 hours ago, Drew816 said:

AirTags announce themselves. 

PRO TIP: Remove the speaker so it's not BEEPING endlessly announcing itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vAQNedIa0o

Yes it will still show up on any iPhone it sees to kind of announce itself, Are You My Mother? Highly annoying and counter to what you're trying to accomplish here. BUT keep in mind the Fed Ex/UPS/USPS people will have a whole TRUCK filled with packages so they're not likely to be sure to know which one has an AirTag in it. Plus think of this as another WARNING to those dumbasses, they've been warned at least one of their packages is being actively tracked so if they are trying to steal TODAY, they're taking a risk. 

I hope this thing was finally found, my suspicion is it ended up at some FedEX guys house; if so, sorry!

None of the airtags in the three instances I referenced above ever beeped

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                               Lets face it ALL shipping sucks these days, if it's not the cost it is the carelessness of the service or both........................my daughter just bought a 4K+ computer and it arrived with the monitor completely shattered. Glass everywhere when she opened it......................thanks UPS. Now she gets to wait another 5-6 business days for a replacement. UPS isn't the one covering the cost or bearing the responsibility for the damaged unit Best Buy is. Hopefully this new one will make it here in one piece.