How does one FEDX lose a guitar

[Proclaimer888]

Reading another post about FEDX losing a guitar. Well they, just last week lost one I was shipping to an x-new owner. We have insurance on it but come on....How does one just lose a guitar packed in a sizable box that can park a small Mazda? I am guessing some insiders know what they are looking for and make sure the packages get "lost". Where do these "lost" guitars go? Hey, I got a song idea!

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by Proclaimer888

Reading another post about FEDX losing a guitar. Well they, just last week lost one I was shipping to an x-new owner. We have insurance on it but come on....How does one just lose a guitar packed in a sizable box that can park a small Mazda? I am guessing some insiders know what they are looking for and make sure the packages get "lost". Where do these "lost" guitars go? Hey, I got a song idea!

Makes one wonder where all the lost packages end up. There's probably a large warehouse along the Mississippi/Kansas border full of clothing, guitars, bracelets, small appliances, and rotting food.

[Dru Edwards]

Hopefully it's an honest mistake but sometimes you have to wonder if it was theft (which I think you were alluding to).

I hope they find your guitar.

[beatcomber]

Fed Ex's Baltimore hub "lost" a 1966 Rickenbacker that I had sold. Almost certainly someone working inside the facility stole it.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by beatcomber

Fed Ex's Baltimore hub "lost" a 1966 Rickenbacker that I had sold. Almost certainly someone working inside the facility stole it.

Similar tale here - in 2001 I bought a new Rickenbacker from Musician’s Friend. It was marked ‘out for delivery’ by UPS, in the neighbouring town, 7 miles away. It never arrived. Nothing will ever convince me that it wasn’t stolen.

MF looked after me well, but the whole experience still leaves me scratching my head.

[Gee Man]

I think there is a market for throw away GPS beacons.

[blindboyjimi]

I had a FedEx shipped guitar disappear for about three weeks. Someone had put another small box on top of the label. The guitar box had about 10 fragile stickers on it so a manager moved it into his office. They must’ve assumed that there was not a call tag on it since the other box was blocking it. It was found and delivered within a months time in perfect condition. Usually these guitars have either the label ripped off or some other weird issue. I always put a label inside the guitar case between the strings, on the outside of the guitar case, and on the outside of the box. That way if the label gets ripped off and they open the box to see what’s inside they will find another call tag.

[gr81dorn]

Almost every time it’s a reasonable reason. It’s usually sitting at a transfer depot having been checked in or out at some point but didn’t actually get on the right vehicle. Many times the label may have fallen off, been damaged or the like making it untraceable and unknown. Sometimes they get flung off a conveyor and are sitting somewhere to be re-entered and get back on its track. Sometimes, due to their size, they are sitting off to the side af a pickup location and they just get forgotten but were on the manifest and scanned and received, etc. appearing as though it’s on the way and accounted for. Rarely, but it happens - when running a delivery into a building, a thief hops on and robs the package. In that case, they don’t know that until they get to that stop and then realize it’s gone. In that case, though, they usually remember having loaded it if they loaded their truck…so they’d be able to consider it stolen. If not, it could end up being considered any of those other potential options and they have a lot harder time working on the claim.

I know a number of FedEx owners and a few folks who actually work for FedEx at a big depot and it’s almost always honest. They simply can’t help in some cases - especially those with label damage or loss, but often they get around to sorting out the “fall offs” and stuff and when you least expect it, they deliver it.

They, like a lot of american businesses, are also short-handed and backed up still, so that process is certainly moving slower than they’d like. Also, if you have a big transfer depot near you, go visit it and ask if you can watch the automation - it’s Willy wonkas conveyor factory. It’s unbelievable automated sorting and it’s gigantic in many cases. How they deliver anything to anybody is a miracle with how much stuff is coming in and out of those places.

I’d be really suprised if it was stolen. That would be probably the rarest and hardest way for it to be missing.

[beatcomber]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

Similar tale here - in 2001 I bought a new Rickenbacker from Musician’s Friend. It was marked ‘out for delivery’ by UPS, in the neighbouring town, 7 miles away. It never arrived. Nothing will ever convince me that it wasn’t stolen.

MF looked after me well, but the whole experience still leaves me scratching my head.

At least yours made it onto the delivery truck!

[kurth]

Originally Posted by gr81dorn

Almost every time it’s a reasonable reason. It’s usually sitting at a transfer depot having been checked in or out at some point but didn’t actually get on the right vehicle. Many times the label may have fallen off, been damaged or the like making it untraceable and unknown. Sometimes they get flung off a conveyor and are sitting somewhere to be re-entered and get back on its track. Sometimes, due to their size, they are sitting off to the side af a pickup location and they just get forgotten but were on the manifest and scanned and received, etc. appearing as though it’s on the way and accounted for. Rarely, but it happens - when running a delivery into a building, a thief hops on and robs the package. In that case, they don’t know that until they get to that stop and then realize it’s gone. In that case, though, they usually remember having loaded it if they loaded their truck…so they’d be able to consider it stolen. If not, it could end up being considered any of those other potential options and they have a lot harder time working on the claim.

I know a number of FedEx owners and a few folks who actually work for FedEx at a big depot and it’s almost always honest. They simply can’t help in some cases - especially those with label damage or loss, but often they get around to sorting out the “fall offs” and stuff and when you least expect it, they deliver it.

They, like a lot of american businesses, are also short-handed and backed up still, so that process is certainly moving slower than they’d like. Also, if you have a big transfer depot near you, go visit it and ask if you can watch the automation - it’s Willy wonkas conveyor factory. It’s unbelievable automated sorting and it’s gigantic in many cases. How they deliver anything to anybody is a miracle with how much stuff is coming in and out of those places.

I’d be really suprised if it was stolen. That would be probably the rarest and hardest way for it to be missing.

sorry mate...but you're living in a dreamworld. Seems about 75% of employees are thieves of sort. When I was an miniemployer ( had about 28 workers over a few years) I developed the thirds rule. A third of employees are honest. A third of the employees are not honest ever. And the remaining third will tip if the opportunity arises for them to get something for free w/o risk. So I think you can apply that to fedx as well. Three fourths of the things that go missing are ripped off by insiders.

https://www.embroker.com/blog/employ...ft-statistics/

[Benjo]

Originally Posted by kurth

sorry mate...but you're living in a dreamworld. Seems about 75% of employees are thieves of sort. When I was an miniemployer ( had about 28 workers over a few years) I developed the thirds rule. A third of employees are honest. A third of the employees are not honest ever. And the remaining third will tip if the opportunity arises for them to get something for free w/o risk. So I think you can apply that to fedx as well. Three fourths of the things that go missing are ripped off by insiders.

https://www.embroker.com/blog/employ...ft-statistics/

I had to chuckle at this though. If they are counting social media usage at work then no wonder theirs numbers are so high.

"Everything from scrolling social media during a meeting to sharing confidential documents with an outside source can be considered workplace theft"

[Thunder22]

Originally Posted by kurth

sorry mate...but you're living in a dreamworld. Seems about 75% of employees are thieves of sort. When I was an miniemployer ( had about 28 workers over a few years) I developed the thirds rule. A third of employees are honest. A third of the employees are not honest ever. And the remaining third will tip if the opportunity arises for them to get something for free w/o risk. So I think you can apply that to fedx as well. Three fourths of the things that go missing are ripped off by insiders.

https://www.embroker.com/blog/employ...ft-statistics/

wow, such a huge baseless generalization ... thanks for the laugh.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by Gee Man

I think there is a market for throw away GPS beacons.

Yup. AirTags as discussed in this thread. $29. AirTags are for iPhone users, but I think there are equivalents for Android.

I don't think they need to be throw away. Next time I'm having a guitar shipped, I'll send an AirTag to the seller to put in the case.

[kurth]

Originally Posted by Benjo

I had to chuckle at this though. If they are counting social media usage at work then no wonder theirs numbers are so high.

"Everything from scrolling social media during a meeting to sharing confidential documents with an outside source can be considered workplace theft"

....well most highend workers sign nda's of some sort even if they didn't know it, to get the job. Sharing documents can put people into prison for life in the real world, or even executed, why wouldn't that be considered theft, esp if there was monetary reward of sort. If you were curious enough to follow the google crumbtrail, you won't find any info contradicting. If you do, please post it. I'd bet, no matter how you draw the line, workers have always stolen, and it might even be higher if that line is drawn at reusable employer goods. If a person worked at a moving company , they're would be discussion of security holes within the system. A good friend is a US registered postal mover in Mexico. I'd bet she'd say the employee percentage is even higher. Of course the border is a sludgepit...on both sides.

[TBman]

What would probably be useful is some sort of "lost guitar in shipping" registry tracking the date of shipping, shipping point, destination, carrier and guitar details that are available ie serial number, etc. Once enough data is collected it could be submitted to the carriers with the most lost guitars for explanation. Nothing hurts more than published mess ups so I'm sure it would be interesting to see what happens once carriers, and their employees, know they are being watched in this matter.