Shipping Question- Who is accountable to troubleshoot?

[Markus_S]

… Made the trip unscathed a week later. Beats the old days when things could get confiscated just transiting MD to WV.

When did they stop doing that? Heard some bad stories about that before.

[Markus_S]

… We ship about 2,500 packages in a slow year and have issues on between 5 and 10 shipments annually. Employee theft, accident or break down only accounts for 2 or 3 a year maximum. We lost a case of wine in a train derailment and several “improperly packaged” packages they ran over with a forklift. We are in our 17th year of business and ship about half as much at Christmas time as we did in 2004 through 2007 with same percentage of problems then as now.

Interesting. As a percentage, that’s really quite low, but I think we’ve all had our ‘stories’. Probably my worst shipping misadventure was a box that didn’t look like a wine box, with wines wrapped in brown kraft paper and one missing with the other ones splashed with red wine.

[Stephen_Faulkner]

I think everyone (except Mike M.) is in the same boat; my Bedrock order has taken two full days to go 500 miles to NV, but I’m not concerned. Most of my delivery folks work hard and do a good job. I would not want to do that job, so God bless’em.

[JYoung]

I’m in Seattle and have some wine that’s been stuck in Troutdale since Sunday as well. From what I’ve found online, FedEx is extremely backed up right now and our packages are likely just sitting in a trailer that they haven’t gotten to yet – other ones are prioritized above ours. The trailers with our packages in them get scanned once in the morning and once at night, remaining “in transit” but not going anywhere. Super frustrating.

Honestly that makes me feel a bit better knowing other peoples wine is stuck in troutdale. . Not schadenfreude but maybe misery loves company? Or that it isn’t my shipment only

Ha. I also had a package stuck in Troutdale last week, en route to Seattle. It made it after just two days of limbo. Now it looks like I have 3 of 4 of my Bedrock boxes down there… the fourth one somehow escaped and was delivered to me yesterday.

[Neal.Mollen]

A couple of things:

1. Most retailer agreements (which we never read) provide that title to the wine transfers at the time of sale, and I suspect that means that once the fedex ppl pick the wine up you are “responsible” for dealing with them about the wine.

2. Having said that, the retailer is the repeat customer, has the account with fedex and fedex presumably would have greater interest in making things work than the (residential) recipient of the package. I would expect the retailer to deal, at least in the first instance, with the company it chose to engage to deliver the package, regardless of the terms of sale.

3. As Doug points out, however, it may often be to the customer’s advantage to take over the interactions since only the customer will know when someone is going to be home or whether an alternative drop off point would work.

4. You remind me; I’ve got a shipment out there someplace I need to check on!

[Scott_G_r_u_n_e_r]

3. As Doug points out, however, it may often be to the customer’s advantage to take over the interactions since only the customer will know when someone is going to be home or whether an alternative drop off point would work.

I hear this, but I ship to my work, so the only issue is weekend vs weekday for me. I always try to time shipping to be on a weekday, but now here it is Friday and the wine has been in troutdale simce Sunday- it may actually better if it stays there over another weekend.

[Scott_Jameson]

I think Randy has it right … In my experience, the shipper is the only one who can deal with the carriers, unless it’s through tools provided by the carriers, such FedEx Delivery Manager or UPS MyChoice. Any claims for lost, damaged, or delayed shipments must be initiated by the shipper, as they are the one with the agreement with the carrier. Both FedEx and UPS have been totally unresponsive when I’ve tried to raise issues as the recipient of a shipment, and simply referred me back to the shipper.

[Hank_Victor]

I have had zero issue with FedEx especially when using the FedEx Delivery Manager but UPS is a disaster.

I’ve had them put “nobody is home for delivery” slips on my door when somebody was home etc.

They wouldn’t let me reschedule a shipment from one address to the other and told me to contact the winery. It was the day before Thanksigivng and the winery was already closed so my wine traveled back another 3,000 miles and arrived a week later.

The icing on the cake is that their package warehouse is about 45 mins away from my house while FedEx is a solid 3 minutes away and open from 7:00am - 11:00pm.

Biggest first world problems but FedEx > UPS at least in my neck of the woods.

[mattccheung]

Had same issue, dealt with Fedex myself, don’t have time to waste calling winebid and asking for answers.

[Scott_G_r_u_n_e_r]

You probably don’t want to hear this, but Bedrock shipped my wine Tues. via Fed-x ground and it arrived today Thur.

No, I didn’t want to hear that Mike.

[JDavisRoby]

My Bedrock shipped Tuesday and is apparently still sitting in Sacramento. FedEx delivery manager indicates a Tuesday delivery.

[David_Glasser]

… Made the trip unscathed a week later. Beats the old days when things could get confiscated just transiting MD to WV.

When did they stop doing that? Heard some bad stories about that before.

Not sure. Our group switched to a UPS box in VA the first time that happened. Then MD changed the law to allow wineries to ship, making the entire exercise unnecessary.

[joeduncan]

Uh oh, I just had a Garagiste shipment arrive in Troutdale. I wonder how long it’ll sit !

[Rob_Michaels]

I realize the cost difference, but the wine is not also cheap and the potential damage to the wine, possibly not realized for years to come: sounds smart to not use ground shipping this time of the year.

[Mike_Evans]

I realize the cost difference, but the wine is not also cheap and the potential damage to the wine, possibly not realized for years to come: sounds smart to not use ground shipping this time of the year.

What latent harm are you worried about? Any damage from cold will be readily apparent, as the only risk is that a frozen wine either impairs the seal by pushing out the cork or breaks the bottle.

[RMann]

Hi all, hope everyone now has their shipments from WineBid (and everywhere else as well), and that everything arrived safely. It is my understanding that FedEx is reasonably caught up and the temps are ok (not great but not bad) around the country (still very location dependent!), so a great time to schedule shipments to yourself. We are open on Monday for shipping and again on Thursday/Friday of next week. As a reminder, the shipping rates that we are able to provide to help you ship to yourself will unfortunately be going up and adjusted in the middle of January. To take advantage of this, please make sure to email or call our customer service to get things ready to be shipped in the next two weeks, at your direction.

[John_Glas]

Scenario:

1. Wine retailer ships your wine via fedex ground.
2. Wine estimated to be delivered Tuesday, tracking number provided all that good stuff
3. Looking at the detailed tracking on Thursday you see that the wine is still in transit- is in Troutdale Oregon and has been since Sunday- scanned at least once per day.
4. You contact the retailer and they tell you to contact Fed-Ex.

This may not be a big deal to some- I can certainly contact Fed-Ex directly, but my point is that I should not have to. They hired Fed-Ex, Fed-Ex is their delivery contractor/customer. I am their customer - I expect THEM to contact Fedex and get this resolved. I paid them- I shouldn’t have to troubleshoot my delivery with their sub-contractor.

Am I crazy? Petty? Both?

I have never had one problem with FedEx. However mistakes happen at any major corporation. As long as it arrives and no damage everything is good.