I will NEVER ship anything UPS again....

I sent one of my Abetta saddles to my brother in NC so he had something to ride in the surf with without worrying about ruining a leather saddle. The tracking shows it was delivered last Friday and left on the front porch. When my sister in law got home from work, it was not there. Keep in mind, they live on a dead end private road and with only two other homes there. The possiblity it was stolen off the porch is remote. She checked with the neighbors and they did not have it.

I called UPS and basically, they refused to start a trace because there was a shipper release marked on the label. That allows the driver to leave the box without a signature. Heck, they do that with all ground shipments anyways. And I can't file an insurance claim because they need to do a trace first and won't. Basically I am SOL. My sister in law is going to the local hub and track down the driver herself and raise hell with the local UPS employees. Hopefully, she gets somewhere with them. Corporate was no help.

I will never, ship a single thing with UPS ever again. And I will try my darndest never to receive anything shipped through them either. They lost a $350.00 saddle of mine and they will never see a penny from me ever again.

Why not file a claim that the item was broken in shipping, and collect on the insurance? At least get the $100 that's covered by default, if you didn't pay the extra for the $350 value.

UPS always leaves shipments on my porch without a signature and I have never signed a release form. I believe the shipper has to specifically request (and pay for) a signature required upon delivery. So unless you requested that option, the signature release is irrelevant to the incident.

Id definitely ask for a copy of said signature release, if they cant produce one, then you should be entitled to the money for the item. How freakin lame.

I worked at UPS for about a week and I know exactly how packages are handled. The only special treatment that a "fragile" package gets is that it's thrown to the side as rough as anything else and then thrown on top. True, if you package something the right way it should be able to withstand the mistreatment, but anytime something is shipped to me via UPS I'm always amazed that it got there on time and in one piece.

I've never heard of them pulling something like this, though. When they deliver they usually drop the package and run away before I can even open the door.