Fedex delivered an empty box to me today

[tktk]

I live in a small European country no one cares about.

For $28 you can stick a shipping label on an unboxed guitar case, and the guitar will arrive in perfect condition.... via regular post.

I have received two guitars this way from lazy sellers. I always box when I ship....

The price is about the same here in Japan. You can actually ship much cheaper if packing is minimum but I wouldn't take that kind of risk. Though I've received a guitar in just a thin gig bag with no packing at all a couple of times. It made me want to the seller but I think I was just lucky nothing happened to it.
Usually it takes 1 or 2 days to arrive.
Reading these horror stories in America makes me thank and respect to delivery guys here.

 

[RayBarbeeMusic]

UPS is bad. FedEx is unthinkable. I have never not had a problem with FedEx here in Nashville, they are horrible beyond description.

 

[Noise Under The Floor]

I've gone to picking up any "Fed Ex" packages at Walgreens. I've had some bad experiences lately with Fed Ex Ground. Seems they can't read numbers that are on my home . UPS, USPS even Amazon can deliver but Fed Ex cannot for some reason. Took over a month to deliver a package that was "out for delivery" for a whole 4 weeks.. They will drop your package at most Walgreens. I set it up via my shipping account and a lot of time on the phone. I guess I'd better open my packages there too now...

That’s what I do as well. Although they managed to mess that up as well on me this week. As soon as the item shipped I went to my FedEx account and changed it to be held at the local Walgreens because I knew I wouldn’t be home to sign and they also recently left something on my front step without getting a signature, which was required. Convenient, but if it had gone missing it would’ve been costly,

So I changed a package this week to be held there. It got to my local hub and sat for two days past the supposed delivery date. I finally called and was told, “Oh...yeah, we got the change to hold request late.” No they didn’t. I did it as soon as it shipped and it confirmed.

Then they told me someone would call me back. Which they did. A lady that just started talking over top of me as soon as I answered. She basically told me it was my fault because I didn’t set up and appointment time window for the delivery and that’s what they’d been waiting for. Wait...what? I explained to her that it was to be held at Walgreens FedEx counter. Ohhhhh....we misunderstood. Yeah, that could’ve been delivered for you to pick up several days ago. Was told it would be there the next day. It didn’t show up until 2 days later.

 

[MrTAteMyBalls]

That is crazy! Somewhere along the line down the Fed Ex chain, someone stole your new guitar en route. Ridiculous. It would not be the first time I have seen that happen, however in this case, the empty box being delivered is something I have not seen happen with something like this.

I had both a guitar 12 inch speaker and an effects pedal stolen by USPS employees. Yoo

 

[freedom's door]

This is why I will probably either only sell locally, or just keep the guitars I have until I'm gone.
If I were desperate, I think I'd rather trade one in at GC and take a huge loss than deal with one of these shipping companies.

 

[Tritone]

Maybe the real delivery was the friends we made along the way.

 

[LP Freak]

Seller here - I filed a claim, guess we'll see. I'm hoping that since Brandon videoed himself opening the box, he clearly demonstrated that the box wasn't open already so somebody had to take the guitar out or at least tape it back up. I submitted that video along with lots of pics with the claim. Who knows what'll happen. I've always had a good relationship with Fedex.

Meanwhile you’re out your guitar

 

[DrumBob]

I’d never had a problem with FedEx, and it was my preferred shipping, until recently.

For the past month or so they’ve managed to either damage, mishandle or temporarily lose packages. My last two packages have arrived with the boxes torn open, punctured actually, like they were on the losing end of a jousting match with forklifts. That’s on top of things just ceasing to move on tracking, to paying extra to have a certain delivery date and time, which they miss by nearly a week.

FedEx has gone to hell as far as I'm concerned. They damaged three guitars in the last eighteen months or so that I shipped out of the same pack & ship store.

 

[mojah]

FedEx Ground is a different operation than FedEx Home.
FedEx Ground used to be called RPS back in the day and is awful.
Avoid at all costs.

The only difference is Home delivers on Sat + Sun. Ground only M-F. FedEx Home is the same shipping / distribution network as FedEx Ground. "Use FedEx Home Delivery for residential delivery via FedEx Ground in 1−7 business days, " From FedEx... https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/home-delivery.html
Scroll halfway down..
Now FedEx Express is supposedly a different entity.

 

[Silvertree]

How? Have they ever paid off more than $1,000 on a guitar they've lost?

I've never seen anything that indicates that it's possible, and FedEx has explained to me that it's not.

I’ve went into the FedEx store and never had an issue.

 

[bluejazzoid]

This past week (Thursday) I saw an unmarked white van back into my neighbors driveway as I was waiting in my own driveway to head back to work from lunch. So as I'm sitting there, I watch this guy hop out of the van, open the side door, grab a FedEx box and walk up to my neighbor's house to deliver it. I really didn't think anything of it (except for strangeness of an unmarked van backing into my neighbor's driveway) until I saw this thread.

Now I don't know what exactly that guy's relationship to FedEx was/is (he was not wearing any FedEx uniform or marks on his clothing that I could tell), but if FedEx is indeed using contract delivery people like that guy, then sadly I guess it's not surprising that a box containing a guitar might accidentally get "delivered", emptied, and then moved down the road like that.

 

[Porieux]

The only difference is Home delivers on Sat + Sun. Ground only M-F. FedEx Home is the same shipping / distribution network as FedEx Ground. "Use FedEx Home Delivery for residential delivery via FedEx Ground in 1−7 business days, " From FedEx... https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/home-delivery.html
Scroll halfway down..
Now FedEx Express is supposedly a different entity.

If that’s true then I guess I am talking about FedEx Express when I said FedEx Home. Even more confusion from them!

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

no more selling and shipping for me I guess.

Some things are essential and we'll continue to ship and receive on those. But amps and guitars, that's "discretionary" and so I'm taking a break from all of that right now. The amount of stressors on people, businesses and institutions is right at the utter breakdown point. You can get exemplary results or disastrous results and to some extent IMO it is the luck of the draw.

I'm typing this from a close suburb of Memphis and I can almost throw a stone and hit 3 buildings doing some form of FedEx thing here. Every Fed Ex thing goes fine, here. But other places are Fed Ex Weak. Meanwhile other places are UPS Weak and my Cabin is strictly no USPS whatsoever, no how no way. It is like there's strong and weak links in a matrix of chains and you have to identify where the issues are and see who is bad WHERE. Blanket condemnation of any of these guys is just not going to get us anywhere, I've decided.

 

[kookaburra]

I haven't had any issues yet, although I'm not shipping/receiving on FedEx on a regular basis. Very occasional.

 

[kafka]

I’ve went into the FedEx store and never had an issue.

You're mistaken. They don't change the conditions of carriage just because you go to the store. They did not insure your guitar. You were just lucky it wasn't lost.

https://www.fedex.com/en-in/conditions-of-carriage.html#domestic

 

[MikeMcK]

I have shipped many guitars using FedEx and have insured them for more than $1k.

No, you haven't... next time read the fine print of the agreement. They will happily let you pay for insurance and claim the value at whatever you want. But they won't pay more than $1,000. I found that out when I shipped something for my employer and it disappeared... a piece of electronic test equipment worth about $50k. When they lost it they offered to pay the $1,000 as specified in the terms.

Luckily, the woman who ran our Shipping & Receiving had been around the block. She somehow got a phone number that rang in the back of the office where she thought it was in Las Vegas. Since this thing was very large and pretty unique looking, she asked the person who answered if he saw anything like that back there. He said, "yeah, I'm looking at it right now" and we eventually got it back.

 

[aynirar27]

Maybe the real delivery was the friends we made along the way.

 

[zHollywood]

I love your optimism in a really bummy situation.

 

[weshunter]

Maybe the real delivery was the friends we made along the way.

I lol’d

 

[Aloha Mark]

I dont work for FEDEX, but I do work for UPS. I'm thinking the guitar case came out of the package somewhere along the way and the empty box was taped up and sent on its way.

First, let me thank UPS (as well as Fedex and USPS) for successfully delivering packages to me during the pandemic. I am on a good route with competent deliverers.

Boxes do tend to open during transit. The big box merchants have to get packages out to me in two days, which leaves very little time for careful taping. But that is not the only problem with packaging. Over the past six months, a number of packages (some of which were double boxed) did not include enough padding. One even had peanuts settle by 4". When that happens the contents can rattle around inside, and that is enough to split the outer tape.

I know of no solution to this problem other than using fabric reinforced tape, or tons of ebay tape which is wrapped mummy-style around the box. Tamper proof tape is also an option, but it is super expensive.