CONSUMER CORNER

This page is a listing of music and other related experiences that I encounter on a day to day basis. I will be listing the good bad and the ugly when it comes with dealing with vendors and services. Please add to the guestbook blog if you have had experience with any of these companies! I will share your stories here.

REMEMBER, these 'rants' are based soley on my personal experience with these companies...your mileage may vary!

FED EX- I recently started a small business where I make cabinets for people who have a lot of vinyl records and have no place to store them. You can see them on my 'Stuff for Sale" page.

So..I sent 3 cabs to a customer in Va. ..When you send something via Fedex, you fill out a ‘Ground Shipment’ form. On that form you put a ‘Declared Value’ in the box. This is the extent of the insurance they offer. In other words, (actually these words) Fedex does not provide insurance for your items. This is per custormer service at Fedex. I will note however, that if you ask a question of 3 Fedex employees..you will get 3 different answers, as they do not appear to have a clue as to what’s goin on.

So, the customer received the cabinets ..all 3 were TOTALLY smashed. Note that the buyer cannot put in a claim. If you order something that Fedex brings, and they smash it, the SELLER can put in a claim…NOT YOU. SO..if the seller says..”I don’t really give a *^&%^…YOU ARE OUT THE CASH..this is per the FEDEX CSR that worked my claim. But..I felt really bad for the customer, who was out $300 plus shipping.

The Fedex review process is supposed to take 7 to 10 days. One MONTH later I finally get a response. The CSR called and said they received my paper work…Oh…I didn’t mention….When you ship something fedex, you fill out a form and there are many copies of the form. The info is also entered into the FedEx computer system. BUT where there is a claim…you guessed it…they have NO RECORD of you. You are required to send copies of all of your shipping documents to Fedex by US mail.

So, I did all of that too. The CSR says they received all that and that they will ‘review’. Fedex was to pickup the cabinets from the customer and ‘Inspect’ the damage. The CSR also told me that it may help if I supplied some pictures of the damaged items that I received from the customer when he recived them.

Another 3 weeks go by for their 7 to 10 day review. I call her back and she says….the inspection determined there was ‘NO VISIBLE DAMAGE’ to the shipments. Ok, here are the pictures (they got these too) ……take a look for yourself.

Hmm...no damage here ..DUH...hmmm??(*%

 

 

Then there was:

hmmm...looks ok huh?? you see anything that may be otta wack here...duh..not me...

 

 

 

The 3rd cabinet looked like this...looks fine to me... duh??

hmmm...looks perfectly usable as a cabinet to me.....I'd store my kids in there..no problem....

Yea right...Looks to me like the Axe of God has struck these things!

 

 

There are more pics...I think I made my point. They looked at these as well as the actual cabs...and concluded that there 'WAS NO VISIBLE SIGN OF DAMAGE''.

But wait!! there's more!! The CSR said that I could also submit these pics and have a 're review'..where they would take a second look. So..of course, I said,,,yes, and please get someone other than Stevie Wonder to look at the pictures and cabinets.

Another month goes by only this time Im calling every few days for a response. At the end, same conclusion.

Ok...i get it now..there is no Fedex review of claims. There is no insurance for your shipments. If they smash your stuff..you are out the money. I ended up refunding the bulk of the cost to the customer..it wasnt his fault, nor mine. But what was I gonna do other than act like FedEx and say...'Duh..i dont see a problem'

What is your FEDEX story...post it on my guestbook blog!