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!

Your next letter needs to be sent to your state Commissioner of Insurance and your state Attorney General.

Interboat,

Sorry to hear of your misfortune! But thanks for the heads up! Hope you get this made right.

Depending on the price of the gun, small claims court will also be a viable option for you. A judge will decide whether or not fedex policy will have precedence over federal law.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
Your next letter needs to be sent to your state Commissioner of Insurance and your state Attorney General.

The insuance commissioner can dish out some whoop ass on Fedex.

Interboat... Don't let it rest. Get madder yet, and get even. Who do they think they are? Right??

It will only get worse if we let them get away with behavior like that. You are in the drivers seat, so punch it!

While not a gun related issue, about 16-18 months ago I had a run in with Fedex. I shipped a monitor to a customer which never got to my customer. Fedex lost it plain and simple, it never got out of the warehouse, tracking took it about 1 mile from my destination.

This was both insured on a priority shipment.

Fedex has tariff rules section about 10 pages long (its buried on their site ) which if you read it there are literally dozens of items they will not insure, even if you pay insurance. I ended up being 18K out on this transaction, and after a long legal hassle still ended up with nothing out of it.

We have since switched to DHL, and closed our Fedex account. I am still convinced it was a internal theft issue that Fedex would not resolve. Bottom line was they lost 18K worth of merchandise and still wanted to charge us almost $150 for them doing it.

No I am not happy with Fedex, and at this point wouldn't ship a dog turd through them. 18 months later I am still PO'd by their handling of this. For anyone who plans on using them, I suggest reading the restricted and non insured tariff list, I don't remember all the items, but dollhouses, LCD's, jewelry were all on it.

Its going to take a long time for me to forget and forgive that $18,000 loss.

Sorry, to hear of all the troubles people have had with FEDEX.

I am going to be shipping a couple rifles in the next few months.... who do you recommend I use as a carrier to avoid these types of problems?

schromf, FEDEX has an insurance policy in which they can pick and choose and do not have to honor AFTER you have paid for it huh? Talk a bout a bloody license to steal!!!

Regards,
Dave

I prefer to ship through the Post Office. If it's an expensive gun I ship Registered. It's a PITA to package to their specs, but I can ship and insure for the cost of the insurance through UPS of Fedex.

The only thing I have had lost in all the shipping I have done was luckily through the P.O. They lost a M70 bolt that I had checkered the bolt handle on. I had insured the bolt for the cost of the rifle, and they coughed it up no problem.

I spent 16 years in mgmt at FedEx, leaving in 1995. I was there during the halcyon days and it was a great ride. Here's some inside scoop from those days. It may or may not be current P&P.

T. Mike Glenn is the Sr VP of Legal (I didn't realize he was still there). You're unlikely to get a response from him.

FedEx doesn't offer "insurance", they have a "declared value" policy. That's the legal workaround.

Nobody in a position of authority has any idea about GCA 68 or other Fed gun laws.

You might try talking to Executive Services. ES are a small group of mid level professionals who handle serious problems. All the old timers are gone, and you'll probably have little success, but it's the only real option open to you.

They'd prefer not to ship weapons at all.

They have a serous internal theft problem, but so do all the other carriers. You just drew the short lot. Each carrier ships, literally, several million packages a day. Finding qualified hourly staff to offload, sort, and onload packages at 0230, in the sleet, for about $10/hour for 20 hours a week is almost impossible.

The advantage to USPS for long arms (IIRC they won't take handguns) is that the Postal Inspectors take their job very seriously. My dad is a retired Post Master, and at one time the USPS Inspectors had the highest conviction rate of any LE agency in the world.

FedEx is loathe to prosecute anyone b/c of the bad publicity. They generally just terminate the employee.

The post office will ship handguns...dealer to dealer.

BTW, thanks for the insight into FedEx.

I assume everyone read about the UPS driver a few months ago that was caught stealing over a million dollars worth of stuff from his deliveries and selling the stuff on E-Bay.

USPS rules for shipping handguns

11.1.2 Handguns
Pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on the person (referred to as handguns) are nonmailable unless mailed between the parties listed in 11.1.3 and 11.1.5 after the filing of an affidavit or statement required by 11.1.4 and 11.1.6.

11.1.3 Authorized Persons
Subject to 11.1.4, handguns may be mailed by a licensed manufacturer of firearms, a licensed dealer of firearms, or an authorized agent of the federal government or the government of a state, territory, or district, only when addressed to a person in one of the following categories for use in the person's official duties:

a. Officers of the Army, Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, or Organized Reserve Corps.

b. Officers of the National Guard or militia of a state, territory, or district.

c. Officers of the United States or of a state, territory, or district, whose official duty is to serve warrants of arrest or commitment.

d. USPS employees authorized by the Chief Postal Inspector.

e. Officers and employees of enforcement agencies of the United States.

f. Watchmen engaged in guarding the property of the United States, a state, territory, or district.

g. Purchasing agent or other designated member of agencies employing officers and employees included in 11.1.3c. through 11.1.3e.

I only ship via the USPS. I have given up on the total incompetance of the desk help at UPS and FedEx. I suggest to all my customers that they ship via USPS too. For those shipping handguns they do have to go through an FFL to to get it to me and get it back; but its worth it in the long run.

I have a good buddy who was also completely screwed by FEDEX. The broke a $7500 custom rifle in half and never paid a cent. My local UPS does OK, I let them inspect the gun and package it themselves -costs about $15 extra. I bring the gun in a plastic Dosokil case wrapped in bubble foam and they put another box around it. So far this has worked OK for me and the extra $15 is just good insurance money spent for me.
I would NEVER ship a gun FEDEX...................DJ

It is hard to imagine that a government run outfit (USPS) is better and more efficiant than private enterprise (UPS/FedEx). But in this case I have to agree with most here that it is.