[lemans411]

so the ups freight truck pulls up at work today with my long awaited short block for my lemans, ( for those that don't know i ordered an ia2 505 shortblock for my car. ) and we start to unload it when i notice the dipstick tube is all bent . then i notice the metal straps holding the engine to the pallet are broken oh sweet it was rolling around ! THEN I NOTICE THE PLASTIC IS ALL RIPPED OFF OF THE ENGINE ON THE TOP OF THE BLOCK AND THERE IS A BIG LONG DEEP GOUGE IN THE DECK SURFACE ! FROM WHAT I CAN ONLY IMAGINE IS THEY DROPPED IT AND THE STRAPS BROKE AND THEY PICKED IT BACK UP WITH A FORKLIFT ! SO HERES MY BILLION DOLLAR SHORTBLOCK GETTING TOSSED AROUND AND ROLLED OVER AND JABBED WITH A F^%^ing FORKLIFT! SO NEEDLESS TO SAY I REFUSED IT AND BACK IT GOES AND A CLAIM HAS BEEN FILED. so once again i wait. good thing i wasn't trying to get it going for car craft or something. sorry just needed to vent a little . so how was your day?

[mysticmissle]

holy **** that sucks! who shipped it? maybe they are atleast partly to blame for mediocre crating?

[GTOLou]

Wow, that is a nightmare -

[JLHarper]

Man, sorry to hear that. That is a kick in the gut when it goes back to square one.

I think crating a block is worth the extra $ personally. Seal it inside with thin plywood on all sides.

Who knows what nuckle heads in the distribution hub may be looking at your block trying to figure out what it is on break?
I would hope someone isnt that stupid to damage it on purpose but who knows these days.

[Cliff R]

Those morons recently broke a TH400 we shipped to Texas in half. We strapped it to a pallet with rachet straps, then went around it about 50 times with commercial shrink wrap. It came back in 3 peices, no pallet, in a box, and the pan was nearly torn clear thru where they dragged it across the pavement.

So like an idiot, I ship another one using their services, and low and behold, they missed the pallet with a forklift and broke out a HUGE chunk of the bellhousing. I even wrapped cardboard and bubble wrap around the second one before strapping it down to the pallet and shrink wrapping it.

The only good news is that they paid both claims, and I kept the internals on both jobs to put into different cases, to help offset my time/costs some.

I made a nice wooden box out of HD siding and 2 X 4's, and bolted them to the front of the box, then screwed the lid down with drywall screws. Cost me an extra $40 to get my box shipped back, but worth the time and effort.

BTW, on both trannies the denied the claims, claiming insufficient packaging/cushioning material. That's complete and utter nonesense, no amount of material is going to protect anything from some moron who doesn't know how to operate a forklift. I pointed this out to them, with good photo's, and they changed their tune and paid the claims.....Cliff

[dirty joe]

get this, not car related, but at my work we shipped out a $20,000 jet engine inlet via dhl yesterday to switzerland from oklahoma. i got a call this morning saying it was already lost. wth? luckily we had another inlet in the paint shop, so we got it done and i shipped it out again, but the customer made their own arrangements this time (although they were the ones that picked dhl in the first place)

[David Holmberg]

Pontiac Dude shipped a motor up north a while back and had a problem. The engine was refused by the owner because there was a hole in the valvecover...

Upon inspection the trucking co said, and I quote "A valve spring came off the motor, broke thru the cover and thru the side of their truck".... ROTFLMAO!

They really believed it too... :D

[goathead455]

It is extremely important to have photos of how the item was packaged when it was shipped.
If you don't,your claim will most likely be denied because of poor packaging.
It ends up being your word against their's.
Cliff's case is a perfect example.

[lemans411]

a valve spring through the side of the truck huh? that'll happen lol. hopefully they dont fight it too much . i plan on having my car running next summer

[sleepy]

Originally Posted by David Holmberg

Pontiac Dude shipped a motor up north a while back and had a problem. The engine was refused by the owner because there was a hole in the valvecover...

Upon inspection the trucking co said, and I quote "A valve spring came off the motor, broke thru the cover and thru the side of their truck".... ROTFLMAO!

They really believed it too... :D

Now that's seat pressure.:D

[71 Ventura II]

Sorry for the "Headache"! Can't trust anyone these days. Maybe the USPS shipping is better?

Last week I received my new cam via UPS, the cam was securely packed in a shipping tube. PROBLEM: UPS had managed to rip the entire end, at least 4-5", off the shipping tube and had tried to tape it back on! I knew it was mangled when the UPS driver was carrying the cam like a baby in both hands. By "Pure Luck" the cam was undamaged but not for a lack of trying! JD

[440GP69]

must be all that high spring pressure those heavy hyd roller lifters need! ROTFLMAO!!!

[sdbob]

Amazing,wow. Could be:
Chebie guys who hate Pontiacs
Terriorists from Iran trying to shoot a missile
Bunch of chimps testing the quality of packaging.
About 30 yrs ago I sent a bunch of parts to HO racing I made wooden containers for the heads and the SD manifolds and bolted them to the containers.Lot of work but no complaints .times are different now as some just don't give even a sh.Good luck.

[Ron H]

It probably comes down to employees who don't give a crap.
Another reason why buying insurance for the total value is important.

[dmac]

Don't blame the guys at UPS or fedex. MGMT doesn't give them any equipment to move these things, forklifts are non-existent at some small terminals, leaving pallet jacks and pure muscle power to load and unload heavy items, sometimes with no equipment to get the item from truck level to ground level. And any box will get torn up when travelling down conveyors at whatever speed gravity produces. If your camshaft box was torn up, think what happened to whatever it ran into. Those companies only accept heavy items because of the big profit. They aren't really equipped for it. Cylinder heads are about the real limit, and all the cardboard and shrink wrap won't keep them protected after rolling along miles of conveyors and smacking into the metal sides of the conveyors and whatever else is around- from envelopes to lawnmowers to televisions of all sizes. Plus SOP is to deny all claims at least twice, no matter what. Most people won't continue past a couple tries. Extra ins. or special handling requests mean nothing. Everything goes in the same truck and gets the same handling, except for extra-long items, that get thrown in on top of everything else. Buy the extra insurance but be sure to be able to document how the item was wrapped. Shrink wrap will not ever be considered to be sufficient. If you can tear the box by dropping the item on it, the box isn't strong enough. Use 1/4 inch plywood with at least 1X1 framing for heads, to be able to collect on insurance. Most times, the items will be fine, thanks to the workers loading and delivering, but for the other 2-3%, insurance may just be a waste of your money without perfect packing that you can prove.

[GoatRider]

I have been in the glass business for 29yrs. Some of the products we make out of glass are worth over $80k, weigh more than 30 lbs, and can be up to 100" long.

Needless to say, we don't use UPS; EVER!

I can recall about 10yrs ago a customer was demanding we ship to them via UPS freight for a rather small but delicate tank type part. After about 4 trys and 4 receipts of boxes full of foam packing, glass shards and pretty tinkling sounds; they eventually gave up and allowed us to use our preferred shippers. During that time we finally got ahold of the right person from UPS who showed us some videos of their high speed (we are talking about 30mph) conveyor systems and packages slamming up against metal stops. We still have those videos and his letter saved someplace for the next customer who wants to try and "save some bucks on shipping."

(Not trying to say you went cheap on shipping your engine, just agreeing that UPS has no business accepting anything that weighs that much and is in any way valuable.)

Better luck next time,

JS

[fasteddy]

I almost had the big one when I saw the condition of the crate my 474 came in. The motor was crated and banded and bolted to a base pallet. The bands were broken, the 1/4 inch plywood was crookedly leaning to one side and most of the deck screws were ripped from their places. Luckily, the shortblock was okay. The carrier was Fedex Freight. I guess they all have about the same regard for personal property. UPS, Fedex, DSL etc. I have gotten alot of heavy things via Roadway and never had a probem-period. I think the trucking lines are a safer bet than Big Brown and the like.

[lemans411]

well i didnt pick the shipper just paid the bill. maybe i should just drive down there and get it myself. long way from minnesota though

[lemans411]

[QUOTE=dmac;3347295]Don't blame the guys at UPS or fedex. MGMT doesn't give them any equipment to move these things, forklifts are non-existent at some small terminals, leaving pallet jacks and pure muscle power to load and unload heavy items, sometimes with no equipment to get the item from truck level to ground level. QUOTE]

i blame ups and their workers for letting this happen . i dont give a crap if they are not given the proper equiptment to do the job that is the companies fault i agree . but it is also the worker that decided it was ok to pick up a shortblock off the floor with the forks jabbing the deck surface. it looked to be secured just fine when it was shipped they just dont give a crap . i drove forklift for 10 years its not that hard. not yelling at you just not gonna say " yeah it's ok guys drop my 8000 dollars on the floor and roll it around a bit it's not your fault god didnt give you common sense and your employer obviously didnt get it either. " if they dont have the proper equiptment then they shouldnt be shipping freight. as far as heads being the real limit for ups freight? heads can go normal ups anyway that has nothing to do with this situation as far as i'm concearned.

sorry for the rant just still very pissed

[440GP69]

i know when i pick up a motor i take a lot of care in not damaging it making sure its tied down really good, i drive way slower than normal, when i think of shipping company handling the responsibility of an expensive engine it makes me wonder if they would take the same care i would "NO" i don't think they would and thats why i try to pick my own stuff up!