So a month or so back I worked out a trade with a fellow Berserker, I agreed to ship last week, did so and sent tracking number.
I hadn’t heard anything back until today when to my surprise the recipient PM’d me back somewhat frustrated saying please send the other three bottles that we agreed to…
I shot back a PM of surprise (anger, shock, ire, to say the least) because I didn’t have a 12 bottle shipper so divided the 10 bottles between 2 boxes and told him that I had shipped all and had no idea where 3 out of 10 bottles had gone. I had asked if maybe it was compromised somewhere in his office and he assured me of the security so no reason to question. Now I believe this person so please, this isn’t about him and we are going to work it out.
Get a PM back that he went online and checked the original shipping weight at 44 pounds, he weighed the packages at 28 pounds after I asked him to inspect the packages…WHAT???
Unbelievably somehow, in transit 3 bottles went missing out of 2 sealed packages, meaning someone along the FEDEX chain jacked the wine!!!
Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Has anyone ever had this happen? We both are incredibly frustrated and I’m in shock as someone stole three bottles, resealed the package and sent it along it’s way.
It just sucks that this hobby/passion is so heavily regulated that we have to sneak around to make things happen. I’m lucky that this is the least of what has happened in my life but as tax paying citizen that follows almost every law and pays a ton in taxes I’m reduced to saying ‘that this is the least that has happened in my life’.
Christ, this country was founded by drinkers, hell the world was conquered for wine itself…
You mentioned the boxes being pretty well used. I ship a lot for my business and even virgin boxes get beat up pretty bad by all the carriers. A 2nd or 3rd use box no longers has the ability to withstand shipping environments. The box could have broken open in transit and the bottles may have broke or gone missing. I had a shipment last fall arrive missing a single bottle and you could see where the bottom of the box and styrofoam had broken free.
But that’s not what happened and I tapped that sucker up not just at the key
Points, which is all that is ‘needed’ but tape went around the box. There is no way it just broke open. Also if I remember one was cardboard, not styro.
I’ve shipped a ton in my life and never have had a package break open in transit.
And it just so happens that bottles are missing out of each box? I could see that plausibility if it were a 12 bottle packer.
The theft probably occurred where you dropped the boxes off before they ever got into the shipping stream. Check your bill to see what weights you were charged for. The boxes are weighed at check-in at the local facility. If the weight is low on the FedEx bill then you know it happened early on in the process.
Years ago, I taped two boxes together and the nice person at Fed-Ex explained that this was not a good idea because of exactly what happened to you. Too easy for someone down the line just removing one of the boxes.
Of course, the point upthread that you’re not going to be able to do anything about it makes much of this irrelevant . . . “It was tampered with . . . what was stolen? Oh, wine - you do realize that’s prohibited from shipment and we’ll have to report your shipment to BATF”.
I notice that your signature says you are “back itb”. If so, would you mind if I ask why your shipment wasn’t an authorized shipment?
Also, and I am sorry for your loss situation, but blaming FedEx the company for what is clearly the work of an individual thief along the route seems an outsized reaction. I would report it and see what happens. I have had a very, very positive recent experience with FedEx on an unauthorized wine shipment. You might be surprised how they handle your situation.
That is crap. FedEx should absolutely be called out for what its employees have done to his property. This company’s only business is shipping property, so they should be held to a pretty high standard to accomplish that job, and, in particular, to insure that customers’ property is not stolen along the way. The fact that it is wine really should be irrelevant to the question of the propriety of the theft. Unfortunately, it likely limits available remedies, which is exactly how they want it. An interesting question is, if you were to report the theft, who is to say what was stolen? One potential option would be to consider reporting a theft and telling them that the contents of the theft are irrelevant, relying instead upon weight as your evidence. I’d probably read their terms first to see how this idea fits into the conditions that they will surely rely upon.
This absolutely sucks, but as others have said, what can you do? Even if you use tamper proof tape, etc., there is no guarantee that the person receiving it will realize this and be able to tell. AND of course, if it WAS tampered with, how will you prove it?
I guess your options are to a) use another carrier or b) bring to a store where they can ship it ‘legally’.
![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}