What do you do when someone steals your UPS shipment?

[Jed Dilligan]

This is an irrelevant personal matter, but I thought it was less useless than some of the threads going around...

Situation: I recently moved to a different apartment in the same complex. A vendor who regularly sends me wine sent a shipment via UPS to the old unit. Someone there signed for it and presumably drank it.

Who is responsible, and how should I handle this? Should I go to the old apartment and tell them I want my wine or my forty bucks? Should I have the apartment manager contact the new tenants? Should I call UPS? The cops? What do you think?

[Kookaburra]

1. Call the vendor and tell them you never got the shipment

[Jed Dilligan]

2. Already did that, via e-mail

They sent me the Tracking Number and the name of the person who signed for it. So what next?

[Rosco T.]

7. email them back...

a) not my address
b) not my signature
c) where's my wine?

[pacalo]

8. That happened to me once.

The package was delivered to another street with the same house number. I contacted that person & drove to the house to get the package. The man was friendly, but I couldn't help wondering why he didn't contact me because he had a week to do so.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. First, call the place that sends the wine and let them know --

they should send you a new one (unless it was your failure for not changing address in time).

And maybe ask them what the next step is to do - if it had come through the postal service, I know you would have real legal recourse, because the people who would have accepted the box would have committed a felony.

But with UPS, I'm not sure. It certainly is still stealing, but I don't think it's a felony.

If it were me, my first call would be to UPS to see if I could get the shipment sent again, explain the situation, and to ask them what my next steps should be.

[elehhhhna]

6. Oh hell yes it's a felony. Call UPS IMMEDIATELY.

THEY released it w/o checking ID for the signer. They're liable.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. I seriously doubt it's a felony, since it's not US Mail.

But it is clearly theft.

[elehhhhna]

16. Forgery of a signature is a felony no matter what the document in question.

And you;re right--a theft has also been committed.

[sbj405]

18. UPS just requires a signature, not the addressee

Therefore, I doubt it qualifies as forgery.

[pitohui]

20. don't assume anyone "signed" for it except the driver

long story short, i had a package that was signed for, it did come out the person who signed for the package was not a customer, it was a driver in a hurry

UPS never waits for me to sign, they just dump it on the door...somebody's door, anybody's door

once i got a call from four blocks away asking me i was such and such address, UPS had dumped my package at their office while they were at lunch!

[OzarkDem]

4. Call the police

file a report. Stealing is stealing, no matter how its done.

[Jed Dilligan]

11. I would like to determine first

if it was an honest mistake. Maybe someone thought they were signing for something their partner or roommate ordered. Unlikely, since the UPS guy generally asks for you by name, but still. I've signed off for a lot of stuff for my girlfriend.

[cigsandcoffee]

5. That sounds like a police matter, IMO.

I remember a while back some fellow was arrested for eating his neighbor's Chinese food that was delivered to the wrong address. This would seem a similar predicament.

[etherealtruth]

9. Was it insured (by the shipper)?

If so ... and after much wrangling... the shipper will be reimbursed and presumably reship your order.

[truebrit71]

10. Call the vendor and have them ship you a new one. If they give you...

...any shit, ask them for the signature verification from UPS.

Verify that they have your new address on file.

You might want to go to the old unit and ask if they signed for something they didn't order, if they give you any shit tell them that UPS is investigating the delivery of a package to the wrong address and if there was any malfeasance involved the matter will be turned over to the local fuzz...

Bottom line, if the vendor has your new address on file, SOMEONE owes you a bottle of wine, it's up to the vendor and UPS to figure out whom...

[Jed Dilligan]

12. The problem is, I don't think the vendor had

my new address. We'd changed it with the P.O. and I'd forgotten they used UPS. So they shipped it to my name at my old address, and someone there pretended I still lived there and took it. I don't think it's on the vendor, but on the person who signed for me.

[truebrit71]

14. Then I would check with UPS and verify that they had the right person...

...sign for the package, and that they had verified that the person was of legal age to sign for alcohol

That last part should probably get their attention because of they DIDN'T they could be in a world of shit..

Also, try talking to the person that took your wine...

Your best bet is UPS, other than that you might be out of luck....Sorry...

[Sammy Pepys]

13. Well, I wouldn't go barging down to your old apt....

...accusing the new tenants of stealing your wine because you don't know what they did with it. They may have taken it back to UPS.

Just call the vendor, say the wine got shipped to the wrong address and give them the new one. If you're a regular customer, I imagine they'd send you a new bottle free of charge.

[Parche]

17. whats ups?

Then you use DHL............

[pitohui]

19. when it happened to me, i called UPS

they confronted the person and there were no more thefts -- in fact, when UPS continued to mis-deliver packages to them, they just held them for me or even called me to pick them up

the sender replaced the "borrowed" package

so you have to tell both the sender (in my case amazon) and UPS

i had similar happen with FEDEX -- FEDEX acknowledged the package was given to someone unknown to me and they reimbursed the merchant who reimbursed me

i did not call the cops but in my case it was a crime of opportunity -- they would not have stolen it if circumstances didn't make it too easy -- as in, both UPS and FEDEX had a pattern of misdelivering my stuff to that address (it was a different address for ea. company) -- so they got tempted, they got caught, it won't happen again

if you think the person who signed for your package will steal again, i would also file a complaint with the police

there is apparently a bug that crops up sometime with scanned codes that cause them to be delivered to a wrong address, but it's always the same address if this is what is happening, so you figure it out pretty quick if the person calls you to pick up when it's something they don't want and they don't call you when it's a nice case of French cognac! :-)

in my case, UPS has had the bug on/off for years, while FEDEX only developed the "bug" post Katrina and only with "ground" packages, i don't know the cause but too often if a package is put in the wrong hands, the person who gets it thinks they can keep it

UPS will set them right

[QMPMom]

21. Call the seller

They will be able to file a Parcel Lost Claim with UPS. It's a matter of a few computer keystrokes for them to do it. I work for a major retailer in their online division and deal with this issue all the time.