I have probably had more than 5000 bottles shipped to me in my 10 years of collecting and more importantly drinking fine wine. I could count the number of mishaps on one hand, a bottle here and there, a lost shipment once, but never a case where every bottle was destroyed.
That is until a couple weeks ago. I was expecting a shipment of Burgundy and some Northern Rhone from Robert Panzer (Down to Earth Wines), a great vendor by the way. He had shipped me numerous cases prior without mishap. He shipped using my FedEx number (that will become important later). My company’s annual shipping volume merits an extremely favorable rate schedule. Overnight delivery from California to Georgia for a case of wine is as low as $15, and each package has a default insurance of up to $2000.
At any rate, the wine was shipped January 16th and should have been at my company on the 18th. I was out of town and did not get back until the 23rd. I didn’t find the package as expected and contacted Robert for a tracking number. He was somewhere in the vast open spaces of Wyoming, but did quickly respond back that it looked like the package was damaged and was being held at a local FedEx center near my office. We contacted FedEx and to see if we could come pick up what was left or do a damage assessment. We were told no, because during their damage inspection they had found the contents to contain alcohol and the shipper was not licensed to ship into Georgia.
This was not true from the perspective that Robert is licensed to ship to Georgia (as subsequent conversations confirmed), but because my FedEx number was used to pay for the shipment it didn’t register that way and even though Robert spent hours on the phone with them, again while in Wyoming, presumably with much better things to do, there was no way to fix this or at alternatively they were not willing.
This is also when he was notified that every bottle had been destroyed. This is especially surprising given that the package made it onto the smaller FedEx truck for delivery to my office. Its hard to imagine the mishap that would have resulted in complete destruction of all 12 bottles, but that was what FedEx claimed and refused to offer any documentation, like a picture or access to the damaged goods to verify. I just find this very suspicious and am curious if it has happened to anyone else. As a business, you usually see the same driver every day. I plan to ask him if he remembers this mishap, seems like it should have been significant enough that he would.
So for those who ship on your own FedEx/UPS number be careful.
Couldn’t end this without giving props to Robert who spent so much time on the phone and agreed to help make this right at his own expense even though he had no obligation to do so.
Knock on Wood… I have never had a single bottle damaged by fedex or ups over a period of 15 years and 6000+ bottles. My biggest fears have been heat damage because of how they sometimes route the wine. The situation that you describe sounds very bizarre,
Hope you enjoyed the 04 Gaja! I will also vouch for Rob Panzer from Down to Earth Wines as I buy wines from Rob and he’s always willing to answer questions, loves what he does, is a stand up guy and offers fantastic wines at very fair pricing. My 2 cents Tks Cary
FWIW, they treat us licensed wine shippers equally badly when a bottle breaks. Occasionally I get into this situation where the package doesn’t show up, and by the time I check on it, FedEx has “turned it around” under a default “return to shipper” program because they believe it is damaged. First, I yell at the, for a couple hours, escalating eventually to the President’s secretary, and remind them that the station is supposed to CALL ME if there’s damage so I can decide what to do. That’s a setting in my account, but it never seems to work when needed.
When you plan shipping windows as carefully as I do, the idea of a two-week showboat return trip usually ensures that one damaged bottle (probably broken from being thrown) becomes a fully cooked or frozen shipment. Occasionally you just have a weak spot in the glass or a corner bottle breaks if a case dropped at just the right angle…
I find the FedEx customer service and customer advocate teams are VERY hostile to customers (and shippers), but if you can get through to a station, they know where their paychecks come from and will do everything possible to help out. Never go to a retail store as they are a completely different business and just have to call into the same 800 number you do.
The mobile app is key to shipping with FedEx. You can easily check the progress of every shipment, every day and make sure it’s moving as it should be. Also helps you to learn the general routing for weather planning purposes.
Take them to small claims court. If they cannot show that there was wine, with a picture, they have just stolen property. I an a strong believer that there are certain Fed Ex employees that are using this ruse to steal high end wine. If they cannot show pictures of the damage and cannot show pictures of the wine, their claim has no bases or support.
I am not disputing their position on the legality of wine shipments, just that they have to document their claims or it is just theft or insurance fraud.
George, they still need documentation. If they just pitch it, they are guilty of theft. If the take pictures to prove it was an illegal shipment, then they need to have documented the destruction. Just saying it was wine, so illegal, does not cut it.
Take them to court and let them squirm. It doesn’t matter what the contents were, if they cannot prove it. All that matters is the value if they have no pictures and cannot present expert witnesses claiming it contraband.
You really don’t think that they actually destroy wine, do you?
I did a quick look on the contract of carriage - not sure I have the applicable one, but a couple looked pretty similar.
Key point is that “shipper” is not determined by who is billed - it’s the person who ships the package. Billing can be to sender or recipient, but that’s a different question.
So, if this is accurate, unless the actual shipper listed you as the “shipper” the fact the package was billed to you shouldn’t be relevant.
Yes this was along my original lines of thinking as well and something I intend to address with FedEx when I escalate next week. I strongly suspect somebody just helped himself to the wine maybe broke a bottle or two but then took the rest.
Regardless if whether this was shipped properly or not I just can’t see a way where they can claim everything was destroyed and offer no proof whatsoever.
This is especially true with anything alcohol-related. I know from one personal experience that shouldn’t have been a big deal and was at least partially Fedex’s fault.
All of that said, it seems they should definitely reimburse you for the cost of the wine plus shipping in this case. Good luck.
I had an Imperial break and I said I wanted proof that somebody hadn’t just run away with bottle. They actually found it for me, and then made some stupid joke about finding a straw. Not something I would have said that close to broken glass.
I assume that they have some condition of carriage that gives them the right to destroy wine shipped by unlicensed shippers.
If so, what is going to be your position in court? “They don’t have photos and therefore can’t prove that I was shipping wine.” Judge, “what were you shipping?” “Uh, wine.” Or - Judge, “you win, what is the basis for your damages?” “Uh, here is the invoice for the wine I was shipping.”
UPS has done this to me recently - a box from an authorized shipper was shipped from my storage to New York overnight. It arrived and was scanned at the Manhattan warehouse as ready to go out for early delivery… Then it got “lost”! UPS sucks - still no resolution as to what happened - no word on what happened after the last person scanned it - no video which has to be present in the warehouses, right? I think someone stole it but there is no responsibility taken by UPS which in my mind equals outright theft without any consequences! GRRRRRR
But didn’t the OP say that the shipper was authorized to ship wine, and the law says it’s the shipper and not whose account is paying that is relevant? If that’s the case,msmall claims might work. Then the issue is whether it’s more costly to take time off from work to go to court or to just absorb the loss.
Well, if they’re willing to pay you the proven or insured value then it really doesn’t matter if they prove everything was destroyed/damaged/stolen - they’ve made you whole.
Anyway, the ToC say you have to make a claim within 9 months. I’d escalate and then file a formal claim for the full value of the shipment, which is going to be your first step before going to court anyway.
Two points, the OP claims this was shipped by an authorized shipper and they should need to prove that it was wine that was shipped. They can’t just arbitrarily say a package contains wine, they should be require to maintain a file that shows this to be the case. Photos of the carton and contents at a minimum. This needs to be a requirement, period.
Rob
Terrible about your wine. But I have two questions and I’m sincerely not trying to ‘poke the bear’. But. If Georgia doesn’t allow out of state retail establishments to ship wine in, how is Robert ‘licensed’?
And, my read of the TOS of FedEx shows me on page 142 that packages subject to state prohibitions can be intercepted and destroyed with no compensation.
Again. As a consumer I’m on your side and think this sucks and hate these laws too; but not sure how you win. But I will be rooting for you.
For starters, regardless of what the true legality of Robert shipping wine to Georgia is, FedEx (now) acknowledges that he has the proper certification to do so.
Second, FedEx is not claiming that they destroyed the shipment because it was shipped illegally. They are saying that it was accidentally damaged in totality.
Both of the above are per FedEx. I don’t dispute that if the wine was shipped illegally and if FedEx had the right to destroy wine that was shipped as such, I would have no recourse. But if both of those are true, why wouldn’t FedEx say as much? Why would they bother with the accidental damage story?
I don’t have high hopes that I will prevail here, but my gut tells me that there was some bad behavior involved at FedEx.
