PLease forgive the outburst..I needed to share this misery with SOMEONE who would understand.
I recently finished off one of my boxwood whistles for Chas, actually..I made this whistle as a replacement for his first boxwood whistle, as I had changed my fipple design and wanted Chas to choose which one he preferred, ANYWAYS!.. .it is a DAMN fine little whistle, boxwood with brass ferrules, FLAMED and FIGURED boxwood..just as sweet sounding as can be…
The UPS man (may he rot in his uniform) has LOST the whistle! When last seen in was in a truck SOMEWHERE in maryland…JUST before Isabel struck the east coast! SO! If you see some UPS guy with a whistle in his pocket, let me know on the sly so I can re-acquire my goods!
UPS seems to specialize in losing or destroying one-of-a-kind, handmade wooden objects. My father is an amateur carpenter who loves to make beautiful things of wood for Christmas presents. After having several gifts lost or smashed to bits by UPS, he’s finally given up on them. In fact, I just got my Christmas present (Christmas 2002, that is)…a beautiful lighted wine rack…because he waited to give it to me until he could bring it down himself! (it was worth the wait, though, I must say!).
I have had trouble with United Pot Smokers myself. But I actually got what I was supposed to. In unworking condition. Brand new top of the Line “Epox” (VIA) motherboard (Back in 2001) they actually delivered it to my house in the bashed up box. Ever seen a Motherboard smashed into about 300 pieces… Good thing I paid the insurence… When I start selling whistles… There should be a shipping service devoted to instrumentsand other small object of high value. “MIE” Musical Instrument Express…
This of course is nothing new. UPS has been demolishing packages for years upon years. It’s almost a given. What I can’t fathom is WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP USING THEM??? They’re certainly not the cheapest, nor the fastest, nor for that matter the easiest to use. I’ve found that the good ol’ USPS can generally get things to their destination faster, for less money and in MUCH better shape than UPS will ever dream of doing. Not to mention about six other overnight or true second day air carriers.
Am I the only one who thinks there might be a connection between UPS and Green Linnet???
Well the UPS, pronounced oops, driver here in Germantown knows that I receive whistles from time to time. So if he delivers me a beautiful boxwood whistle I will know where it came from. Then I will have to figure out what to do with it. Keep whistling.
Ugh! That’s terrible!! One time I was expecting a flute by overnight UPS and 10 AM came and went. When I called UPS, they told me that according to their system, it had been delivered! I panicked all day long until about 8PM when I called for the 20th time (or so) and they told me it had been delivered to 2017 instead of 2107. Geez! It had a happy ending, but it was a day of torture.
Where possible, I use the USPS for shipping. They have (so far) never destroyed a package I’ve sent, and have even gotten things to Australia in under a week- a minor miracle. They require some things be signed for, which annoys a few people, but most of my customers like the fact that their goods are delivered promptly and intact.
It also makes a difference to me in that the nearest UPS office is 50 miles from my door. And after reading this thread, I don’t think I’ll be making the drive.
Davey, I dont know what this has to do with it except to commiserate, but I have been going through my own private nightmare this summer. I lost a shipment of two Gurt Mint bodhrans from England. They were sent to me 7-July via the ground delivery option and that is the last they have been heard of. Supposedly they were handed off by the freight forwarding agent into the US postal system but they have vanished. Not traceable, just missing. $800USD worth of custom instruments, special one-of-a-kinds, unique. They said “possibly in Customs” but the time line that has expired makes this more and more doubtful by the hour. Very sad! Completely uninsured.
UPS does provide insurance, but unfortunately, the things of mine they destroyed were irreplaceable. I’m so glad Dad finally stopped using them…I begged him to for years, as it was so heartbreaking to have to tell him, year after year, “the present was beautiful, but it’s broken.”
UPS also has a history of leaving packages in really strange places. We live in a house at the top of a steep driveway (and after you’re at the top of the driveway, you have to climb 10 stairs to get to our front door) and I guess the UPS drivers here have a problem with that, because I’ve found UPS packages at the foot of my driveway (where anyone walking or driving by could just scoop them up), in the middle of my driveway (where I can’t see them until I run over them) and in my garage (where I don’t find them until I have to go downstairs to look for something…which is rarely). I have yet to find a UPS package on my doorstep! What’s particularly aggravating about this is one of the things that regularly comes via UPS is my checks! Good thing my neighbors are honest, because I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve come home to find a box of checks just sitting at the point where my driveway joins the road. I’ve finally started paying extra to have my checks delivered via Airborne Express, which always places them carefully by my front door.
This of course is nothing new. UPS has been demolishing packages for years upon years. It’s almost a given. What I can’t fathom is WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP USING THEM???
You want the truth? It’s because the delivery man is really, really, hot.
It’s not the first problem we’ve had with them. It seems that, once a mistake has been made, no matter how small, there’s no recovery. Literally FUBAR.
I’ve had a couple of incidents with the USPS. One, something my folks sent me that was delivered several days before the signature slip was. The other was a couple of whistles that I sent to Walden that, for some reason, took over a month to get there. In neither case was anything lost.
I know that David put his heart into this whistle. It was insured, but since it’s handmade and unique, it can’t really be replaced. I hope it winds up with someone who can appreciate it rather than in a compactor or incinerator somewhere.
Dude, that’s not true. UPS has an Investigations unit that really tracks stuff down, I KNOW you boys were bright enough to call them… if not, do it now! I don’t have the energy to tell you a story of a 2000 dollar snare drum I had missing for a month. The short of it is that the label had come off. It was “returned” to an ancient address that was on the previously used box. Investigatins tracked the return down, confronted the lucky finder with the mistaken return and he called me the next day! They also have a dead and undeliverable shipments dept. You will find your whistle, if you’re not motivated, give me the tracking # and tthe rights to the product and I’ll send you a finders fee when I get that boxwood.
UPS is not what this post has made them out to be. I have sent stuff all over the USA with them for years. Whatever…
I used to make stained glass heraldry for a living (92-99), and shipped overseas once in a while to Europe or Hawaii or even Korea. At first I used UPS, but had to remake so many pieces that I switched to USPS. I think that they air-drop the packages when landing fees get too high or something because some of my stuff looked like it had fallen thousands of feet. USPS on the other hand actually cost less and was friendlier.
What can brown do to you?
A friend of mine bought a Bass Guitar from Musicians Friend and it was shipped via UPS. The package was set up for it to be signed for and yet the driver delivered it and laid it against the mailbox along the street in a plain cardboard box - if it had rained that night it would have been a disaster. Bad enough, it was extremely humid outside when this happened. Fortunately, the Bass survived.
When I first started making whistles, I used UPS and too many items were getting damage in the strangest ways. Once, the whistle got substitued in the package for a video tape! I don’t use them anymore.
i have bad luck with usps. it took 10 days to receive a chanter mailed second day air and insured from mass. it was lying in the local po for a week and they didn’t even notify me. i have other simalar dealings with the bas—ds that are eqully lame. government jobs!
truely sorry for your loss davey, must be especially tough since you put so much work into a special whistle of a speial wood
maybe it’ll turn up, tansy
I don’t think I’ll be making the drive.
