Having dealt with customers and their complaints year after year, a company working towards recompense does not automatically mean the company is in the wrong. As stated by a UPS employee themselves, it is the company policy to ship out an item as is. It is not the company's responsibility to package the item for you unless you asked them to (as I've seen happen at a UPS store). In which case, in most if not all store locations, you'd get charged for the box and packaging material. If the OP had asked them to do that, then I'd be on his side 100%. No ifs ands or buts about it. However, nothing was ever mentioned about that. You cannot reasonably expect every shipping company employee to know which is more important to a collector, the toy, the box it's in, or both. Just like you cannot expect every single employee at a Walmart or Target or TRU to know that the figure that's being returned is a swapped out toy. It is not in their job description. Sorry if this is sounding harsh, but that's the reality of the situation that you seem to be ignoring.
I just don't understand why they would ship it without an exterior box to begin with. Lets take "collectable" out of it. If little timmy's grandma bought him a Lego set and took it to the UPS store to ship it to him for Christmas, they should pack it in a seperate box because A) the Lego box will give away what it is and B) the lego box is not made for shipping and may not hold up to their machines and handlers. UPS's own shipping guidelines for **ANY** product is to take the original item and put it in its original packaging, then pack that packaging inside a larger box with 2" of bubble wrap or packing peanuts surrounding the item's packaging on all sides. UPS is in the wrong here, regardless. And by UPS I'm assuming we're talking about "the UPS store" and not a direct UPS counter.
These statements are not correct. UPS guidlines say to use a rigid exterior box, not the item's packaging for retail (for the reasons I cited above in my previous post). Here are their guidelines: Packaging Guidelines: UPS
Now, is that guidelines for UPS employees? Or people wanting to ship with UPS? I ask because it does say this on the top of the Guidelines: Keyword there being "You" as in the customer, not "We" as in UPS employees. There's a difference between what UPS is suggesting to you their customer to use, as opposed to operating procedures for their employees.
Curious, if you ask UPS to box it for you as a collectible, besides boxing it, do they also provide bubble wrap/peanuts to ensure the item stays mint? Out in my neck of the woods, UPS wouldn't do that free and would definitely ding me on the bill as an extra charge. if so, the US UPS's are a lot nicer than the Canadian ones. I'm already envious of the Walmart Supercenters - thats toy hunting 24 hours a day!
The guidelines (and specifically the 2" of packaging material) should be standard no matter who's shipping it. I can only post their "consumer" rules because that's what's on the website. Their internal rules will be posted internally. Also: UPS packages come with a basic insurance amount that is voided if the item isn't packed correctly, so I doubt they'd take on the liability for a lazy employee.
Yes, but what you're not getting at is what the employees should be doing if a customer hands them a "box." Like you said, how the employees should do their job is all internal and company proprietary info. If an employee of said company states how they're told to do their job as told to them by their bosses (which one did earlier in this thread), how are we to argue with them (much less tell them they're wrong) when we're not the ones doing the job/employed by UPS? That seems silly to me. It almost seems like this thread is turning into "what I think UPS ought be doing" as opposed to "what UPS employees are actually supposed to be doing in accordance with their employee handbook/guidelines." And yet we're conflating their suggestions to what consumers should do with what the employee's job descriptions are. I think we have to be able to delineate between the two, especially if someone who says they're an employee is telling us how they're told to do their jobs by their bosses.
That's why I said its important to know if OP took the item to the UPS store (which charges to pack things up) or UPS proper, which will just ship a box.
That's basically what I said in one of my posts Like I mentioned, my experience in UPS Stores (granted I did mention it was only my experience with them) is that if you bring the box in like how the OP showed, they'd ask me if I wanted to box it up or if I wanted to ship as is. Again, the ladies (and even the owner of the place) know me so they know I ship out things and like them to be protected against damage during shipment. I still maintain it sucks that it happened to the OP the way it did...and I hope UPS and him can work something out amicably.
For all those sitting on pins and needles wondering what has become of this. I just picked up my check from UPS. The case is settled and closed.
Holy fucking shit ! And here I sit waiting on UPS to deliver a Prime Master to me , I know they say they have until 8 , but I`ve never had to wait this long before...It`s 6ish now....Not to mention the tracking info says that it`s been put out for delivery twice today ? lol, ok . And yes , I have seen weirder things show up , as well as have nothing show up ...Things have said they were still in China then show up on my front porch....The mail period is getting strange...Just imo any way ...
Oh, I've had UPS push that 8 PM limit. Us older collectors remember a store called Digital Toys. They offered COD (cash on delivery) as a payment and shipping method and UPS was the only carrier they used that offered it at the time. I can't tell you how many times (and I lived near the depot, 4 miles away) they'd come that late. Finally a driver told me what the deal was, people in my then location were on the way back, so we were the final deliveries for the day. They'd go out to the far flung places first, then get to us. Now, they're doing it again, where I currently live. I'm about 8-10 miles from 2 depots and I'm among the last deliveries of the day. They're just cutting it close with yours, but you'll see it today.
