URGENT WARNING RE: FEDEX

If you ship a gun via FedEx and have an insurance claim, you will be totally screwed. Period. FedEx has a “Catch 22†in its insurance claims adjustment policy that makes it impossible to collect on a firearms claim.

Unlike UPS or USPS, FedEx will not do an on-site inspection of damage no matter how obvious it may be, but insists on taking the entire gun back to their offices for inspection even if you just have a cracked stock or bent scope. A couple of FedEx employees will show up at the recipient’s place, presumably an FFL, and ask for the gun to be turned over to them. This is the first of a series of federal felonies that are the direct result of FedEx company policy.

According to three separate BATFE sources I discussed the matter with, FedEx is only licensed to transport guns to another legitimate party – they have no legal right to send some clerk who is not the legal buyer out to pick up a gun to bring back to the office for somebody to look at. It is a felony for a FedEx employee to even ask an FFL to do that. It would be a felony if the FFL were dumb enough to hand the gun over – he would lose his license and his business as surely as if he gave a gun to some guy who walked in off the street without submitting to a background check, etc. It is a felonious conspiracy for FedEx employees to pressure the FFL (which they often do) to give them the gun despite the law. The entire FedEx process is the result of some corporate lawyer’s complete ignorance of federal firearms laws and it has the potential to seriously criminalize everybody involved.

As FedEx employee Donna Buchleitner of the Pittsburgh office explained rather tersely, my insurance claim was denied because the gun was not made available to them “as required by the FedEx Service Guide.†Never mind the fact that the gun was indeed not made available to them as required by federal law. Or, as a Miami FedEx employee snapped even more directly over the phone, “We are not concerned with the law, we follow company policy.â€

The end result is that you will receive a form letter from FedEx stating that since they were unable to pick up the gun to inspect the damage your insurance claim is denied.

I wrote a well-documented letter concerning my own experience with this FedEx insurance scam to the FedEx employee supposedly in charge of such matters, a Mr. T. Michael Glenn, FedEx Corporation, 942 South Shady Grove Road, Memphis, TN 38120. As they might say in the newspaper business, “the accused was not available for comment, did not acknowledge our correspondence, and refused to return phone calls.â€

BE WARNED. Do not use FedEx for shipping guns (or anything else for that matter, given their disreputable and dishonest treatment of gunowners). Any insurance claim you may have will be denied automatically and you will suffer the entire loss of your property. I guarantee it!

Great! I have a gun on its way to me right now, via FedEx

Get a lawyer involved and file for damages. Much as lawyers have caused a problem, they also have to be involved in solving them.

The laws are pretty clear, you entered into a contract with them for shipping and insurance. Contract law is also pretty clear. They'd probably settle as court costs will be far more for them than paying you off. Nate

The UPS "service center" will not even take a gun for delivery here in Aurora, CO. I called UPS headquarters and they told me that the main hubs service centers are privately owned and can dictate any policy they deem fit.

I'm not talking about a UPS store guys I'm talking about the main shipping hub here in Denver.

F*** FedEx.

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
The UPS "service center" will not even take a gun for delivery here in Aurora, CO. I called UPS headquarters and they told me that the main hubs service centers are privately owned and can dictate any policy they deem fit.

I'm not talking about a UPS store guys I'm talking about the main shipping hub here in Denver.

The ups store are privately owned and will not take firearms they normally send you over to ups main shipping. They may of misunderstood you. Here in Colorado Springs the main ups center takes firearms for shipping.

Listen ALL OF YOU GUYS!!!
Neither FEDEX nor UPS will honor damage claims from "occasional" (non-big-customer) shippers. I refer to ANYTHING .....not merely firearms. They have a policy (explained to me in soto voce by an employee of theirs....to "discourage" damage claims. They will tell you that you used inadequate packaging (only packaging by **THEIR** stores may be "adequate" for purposes of a claim response). Send your ggod stuff via USPS, ONLY. They may be slow to resolve a damage claim. But they will handle it lawfully and legitimately, in contrast to UPS or FEDEX.
Having been screwed by both the latter, I will NEVER ship by either again.

Conifer is dead on.

I once got the same story from a local UPS official during a lunch he took me out to (in order to apologize) following a denied claim disaster.

He explained the insurance end of things was contracted out to an outside company. They had a "just say no" approach to virtually all the damaged-in-shipment insurance claims as it helped the profit margin. Only those who would take them to task would have a chance of collecting.

This was quite a few years ago but it sounds like nothing has changed.

quote:

Originally posted by tom holland:

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:

I'm not talking about a UPS store guys I'm talking about the main shipping hub here in Denver.

The ups store are privately owned and will not take firearms they normally send you over to ups main shipping. They may of misunderstood you. Here in Colorado Springs the main ups center takes firearms for shipping.

Tom,

You may want reread my post as stated I was at the main shipping center here in Denver. The shipping centers are privatley owned at UPS. And the same goes for Fed-Ex.

I understood your post was just relaying information I got from one of the ups stores in our area. They seemed very helpful in explaing the shipping of firearms. Again, I have no idea why the ups hub you mentioned wouldn't ship firearms. Has anyone else had that problem with UPS?

About four years ago, i wanted to send a Glock for a J.A. Ceiner .22 Conversion to their shop in Florida. UPS was a real pain about it once I listed it as a firearm. They insisted that a FFL ship it even though the firearm was field stripped. I haven't had to deal with damage issues but I bet it would be a real run-around.

I sent my father a pair of Swarovski El's via UPS and declared the value @ $1,800.00.On the day that they delivered them they left them on my fathers front porch in plail view.When my father got home from the dentist the package was not there.

I called him to see how he liked his new binoculars as I had tracked the delivery.When he told me they where not to be found.

It took 2 months for UPS to settle the claim.If they would have just checked the value of the package I doubt they would have just left it.Seems pretty stupid to leave things of value on front porches.

The US Post Office will ship long guns.

If I were the original poster, I'd hire a lawyer to write a letter to Fedex's corporate offices threatening explaining the situation and threatening a law suit.

I think you'd be surprised how fast corporations move when you send a lawyer after them.

I recently had occasion to ship a firearm; it was the first time in many years that I did so. Helped by some advice that I received on AR's Gunsmithing forum, I sent it (a shotgun) out through the US Post Office. Nothing could have been smoother; I was surprised to find very good service and friendly faces all around. Given what I've read about UPS and FedEx, it would seem that for long guns, the Post Office is the only way to go.

I had a moron at UPS tell me I could not legaly ship a rifle to a gunsmith for mods. He said they would only ship FFL to FFL. I tried to reason with him but he would not budge. My son in-law knows one of the other drivers and he has a FFL. It seems the drivers rotate working in the office. So every other day one can ship a rifle out of there. I even called the ATF office in S.F. California and that Jerk refused to talk to them. I now believe he was just anothr Ca. anti.

regards; Allan

I had exactly the experience that Conifer described. I shipped electrical auto parts to CO in the origial shipping box. UPS cracked it then said it was inadequately packed. I got even but I can't say how on the forum!
Rich Elliott

surestrike is right in that each UPS HUB is individually owned and if you don't happen to live in a gun friendly area, you are pretty much screwed. Luckily I have had no problems here. I have even seen a well known handgun repair company ship FedEx Ground back to me with no signature required. He just doesn't give any indication what is in the package. But I live in a very honest area.