Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 11:01:53 -0500
Reply-To: The Bus Depot <busdepot@EMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: The Bus Depot <busdepot@EMAIL.COM>
Subject: Bus Depot response to damaged item,
and Advice on Shipping Items in General
In-Reply-To: <20010105172430.26991.qmail@web207.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> gotta a question for you. I ordered a side view
> mirror from The Bus Depot and it came in little
> peices. They (in my opinion) did a minimal job of
> packing. A layer or two of bunched up newspaper
> instead of bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts.
> Enviromentally more friendly but not really adequate
> to protect glass in the US Mail. I wasn't too
> concerned, any reputable firm would immediately
> replace a broken item and try to make the customer
> happy, right? WRONG! I was told that it was now my
> problem and I had to go get my money back from the
> USPS and then I could order another mirror from them.
Since I was out of the country when this issue came up, I can only now
respond having just learned about the situation. First of all, Juli, I
aplogize and concur that a bit of newspaper is not sufficient packing for a
glass item like a mirror. The person who packed the order should have double
boxed it or used a layer of bubble wrap or peanuts (which we do keep a small
quantity of for such fragile items). I will speak directly to the person who
packed your order about this and corrective steps will be taken.
But regarding the exchange, it would seem that you misunderstood what the
folks at the shop were trying to tell you. My procedure for such a
situation is very clear and everyone at the shop knows it very well, so
somehow there must have been a miscommunication. Let me explain how the
procedure works, because this is a very simple and easily resolved
situation.
All you need to do is return the mirror to the post office, in the box it
came in. You will simply fill out a damage claim form, and give the postal
clerk the form and the mirror; they'll return it to us at no cost to you.
We will not wait for the broken part to arrive back to us. Instead we will
send you a replacement immediately.
You will get a copy of the claim form. Make sure it is signed or postmarked
by the postal employee, and keep it, as it is your proof that you returned
the defective part. When you fill it out, you can check off either of two
options - either they can refund the value of the part directly to you, or
they can refund it to us. If you choose the former, then of course we
charge you for the second mirror, since you have asked the post office to
pay _you_ back for the first one. However, if you choose the latter, then
all you need to do is mail or fax us a photocopy of your copy of that form,
showing that this is the option that you chose, and the second mirror is
sent to you at no charge. I recommend that you do the latter, as it takes
all of the follow up out of your hands, and makes it our problem.
We do _not_ wait until receiving that fax to send your replacement. Rather,
your replacement goes out immediately, and then you have a full 30 days to
fax or mail us the copy of the form. If after 30 days you have not faxed us
this proof that you did in fact return the part to the post office and file
the claim, then we do charge you for the replacement part. (This is only
fair, as it means you have kept both items.) Therefore, we must have your
credit card or checking account number on file to use in the event that you
do not follow through and file the damage claim within one month. In the
event that you are unable or unwilling to provide us with a credit card
number or checking account number to bill if you don't return the first
part, then just fax or mail us a copy of that form and we send the
replacement then. (Since very few people have neither a checking account
nor a credit card, this scenario is very rare.)
I should note that we log our mail items in a log book provided by the U.S.
Postal Service, so insured items from the Bus Depot do not have the
"standard" insurance sticker on them but instead a reference number written
on the box (copied from the appropriate line in the book). This is typical
of businesses that ship a large volume of mail items, but I have run across
a few post offices that did not know this (and erroneously deduced from the
lack of an "insured" sticker that the package was not insured). If your
package has numbers (or "insured") written under the address, then it is
insured (typically we insure anything worth over $20 or so). In the event
that your post office gives you any hassle, you can: ask to speak to the
postmaster; ask them to them read their own procedure book under the
counter; ask them to call the issuing post office (Green Lane, Pa.) who can
explain it to them, since they use the book every day; have them call us; or
just give us your post office's phone number and the name of the postmaster
and we'll call him.
Incidentally, the reason that you must fill out the claim form, rather than
us doing it for you on this end, is that this is how the postal service
wants it done; the recipient initiates the damage claim since he/she is the
one who is stating that it was damaged. (Incidentally, UPS works the
opposite way; they want us to issue the claim, rather than the customer.)
Note: In either case, UPS or US Mail, it is imperative that you contact us
immediately in the event of shipping damage, and keep the original box and
packing (for 30 days in the case of UPS). If you wait much longer than a
week before notifying us of damage, or throw away the box/packing, UPS/USPS
may deny the claim. Similarly, if you simply return the damaged item rather
than reporting the damage, it voids the claim (and costs you return postage
which would otherwise have been paid by the post office or UPS).
Since this email touched off a discussion about different options for
shipping companies, I'll put in my two cents here. We ship almost
exclusively via UPS and US Mail. I have found US Mail, as a whole, to be
much more gentle with fragile items. I personally think that much of the
reason is that they don't handle nearly as many large/heavy boxes; therefore
the chances of a 100 pound box being dropped on top of your fragile item is
much lower. Whatever the reason, our claim rate for Mail packages is very,
very low. On the down side, US Mail packages cannot be tracked in transit;
if the package is lost, we cannot even put in a claim until it is missing
for 30 days, and they cannot track where it is. (By comparison, UPS
tracking can be done every step along the way, in theory, as long as the
drivers scanned the package.) And in the event of a damage claim, as noted
above, they make the recipient do the claim filing rather than allowing us
to do it. However, since the rate of loss or damage claims is so low,
neither of these is usually a problem.
Regarding cost, US Mail charges the same price for any Priority Mail ("2-3
day") or Express Mail ("1-2 day") package, whether it is going next door or
from New York to Hawaii. By comparison, UPS's rates are tiered; the further
the package goes, the higher the charge. The result is that Mail tends to be
cheaper than UPS on more distant deliveries, and more expensive on closer
destinations. Also worth noting is that Mail, unlike UPS, does not charge
based on "dimensional weight." This means that a 5 lb. package is charged
for 5 lbs, regardless of its size (up to the USPS maximum size). By
comparison, UPS rates take size into account, so that a huge box that only
weighs, 5 lbs. may be charged a 20 lb rate based on their size/weight
pricing scale. Finally, I should note that heavier packages tend to be much
cheaper via UPS; you will get a nasty surprise if you try to ship 100 lbs
via Priority Mail.
Regarding time in transit, Priority Mail tends to take about 2-4 calender
days anywhere in the country, whereas UPS ground service takes from 1 to 6
working (not calender) days depending on shipping distance. Again, this
gives Mail an advantage on longer distances, UPS an advantage on shorter
ones. Regarding express service, U.S. Express Mail is 1-2 calender days
anywhere in the country, and they run 7 days a week. By comparison, UPS Red
or Blue service is one or two _working_ days respectively. (Saturday
delivery is available via UPS in some markets, but I have found it to be
somewhat unreliable.) The difference between calender days and working days
may be signifant in some cases. For example, an Express Mail package sent
the Friday before New Years would have arrived either that Saturday or that
Sunday, depending on the destination zip code. By comparison, a 2nd Day UPS
package sent the same day would not have arrived until the following Wed.,
since neither the weekend nor New Years Day (Monday) would have been
considered working days. While I do not deal with Fedex as a shipper, I
will mention that one of our suppliers who switched from UPS to Fedex for
air shipments, switched back a month later because a high proportion were
not arriving on schedule. (On air shipments they sent us via Fedex during
that month, about 1 in 4 were at least one day late.) My gut feeling is
that Fedex is strong in metropolitan areas but lacks the infrastructure
that UPS and USPS have in rural areas such as ours.
On international shipments, as someone already noted, US Mail can be much
cheaper, both in quoted rate and also because they do not charge the
sometimes-excessive brokerage fees that UPS does in some cases (i.e. surface
shipments to Canada). Therefore we tend to use US Mail almost exclusively
for international shipments, except in cases were size/time/weight preclude
it. Typical time in transit seems to be about 2-5 days for international
Express Mail (depending on destination), and 2-3 weeks for international Air
Parcel Post. Guaranteed overnight delivery service is usually available via
UPS ($$$). Since delivery via the Mail relies on the mail system in your
country once it crosses your border, delivery time can depend on the
speed/reliability of your own mail service.
- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot, Inc.
www.busdepot.com
(215) 234-VWVW
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