A Question for you to Ponder

I won a poker table a few months ago.

The distributor builder shipped the product which arrived in a wet banged up carton. The table which folds in the center had a large gap in the center when stood up. The gap was large enough that a poker chip could fall between the gap. The table slanted from the center to the edges.

theoretically this was a $300 table and to be candid I could not determine if this was damaged in transit or just a crappy build.

The maker advised me to hold on to the table for inspection. There were many phone calls and emails. Finally we agreed that if Fedex did nothing in a week I would just pitch the salvage.

When I spoke with Fedex they explained that the maker had not made a proper claim. Finally FEdex showed up unannounced for the salvage and I made them wait while I dragged up the table. Of course Fedex did not want to help with that. Could not come into the house.

I drug up the table and the damaged box and told the guy to have at it. Then he wanted my help. What a joke. I got a slip and watched him have the same fun that I enjoyed.

The maker reshipped a new table that Fedex lost. Again more phone calls and emails. The maker was Chinese and maybe not that good at dealing with Fedex who knows. Finally Fedex finds the table and I get them to deliver it by air. Again the box is banged up bad but thank goodness the table was alright.

48 emails and 17 phone calls later the table arrives,

Should the maker toss in some goodies to make up for all the effort?

They claim that they work on tight margins on this item.

Should the forum who actually paid for this product be advised of all the efforts involved in getting this item?

What do you think?

well u should tell the forum about the situation that happened, maybe not in public forum but PM to the heads of the forum
i dont think u should receive any goodies for ur experience because u won it free and these kinda things happen all the time
atleast u have the table in one piece now

My thoughts exactly. What this dude said ^^^

I do a lot of shipping in my work, and it sounds to me that the problem is more with FedEx than the manufacturer. If anything you should be more upset with them for damaging the original package and then losing the 2nd.

But you should probably contact the forum administrator and let him know of the hassles.

I would say same, as the think should not share publicly it should only be intimated to th head , through PM ...........

You wouldnt have had this problem with CC

my daughter worked for the brown shipper in college and she said the guys would have a blast throwing the packages around, especially the ones marked fragile

After reading the posts I suppose that I should be happy that I got this table since it was free.

Free is free if an item costs no money and no time.

The Fedex delivery personnel did voice their lack of regard for protecting their cargoe as they are way too busy moving way too much product.

Who chose this mode of transportation the shipper or the consignee?

Fedex did empoy sales and marketing personnel to secure this account.

Shipping claims for damage can employ a clause for the time involved with the claim and resolution of the issue.

Please appreciate the fact that the $300 table is in reality a $100 table and most of the cost or value added is in freight

1 hour on the phone long distance with the shipper
1.5 hours on the phone with FedEx
2 hours related to over 40 emails
2x 4 hours waiting for Fedex

Good marketing is knowing how to deal with difficult situations and making unhappy people happy

The same thing happened with some products we bought from the US and had shipped to Canada. They were much smaller than your container, roughly 16'X16'X16'-again marked "FRAGILE". And it took roughly the same amount of hoop jumping to get a replacement. But what made it worthwhile, was that the boxes were filled with 1 GALLON jugs of PIGMENTED INK (read- BRILLO pad to get it off your skin-not water soluble); and we know the jug EXPLODED !! when it hit the ground because the boxes that did arrive were COVERED with huge splatter marks from the one that didn't.
Cost: Hours to solve the problem
Priceless : The look on the shippers face after the container hit the ground and covered everything including him with black ink.

Moral of the story: If it says FRAGILE- you better treat it as such!

thanks for the chuckle

as if you don't know this kind of scenario does get frustrating

I've run into plenty of workers like that over the years. It's not about providing a service to these people, it's just about getting their paycheck. I've noticed customer service get worse and worse over the years at many places.

To the OP, I'm glad you finally got the table and it was ok.

Small Hijack: I think a lot of this has to do with the size of most of today's companies. Back in the day, people cared when there was 20> of them running a company. Now days, like y'all have said, people are just there to get a check.

Interesting that FedEx support was actually very good although their ground crews did a crappy job of handling the goods.

I stopped at a Dick's Ssporting Goods to look at their tables. I saw a dozen units in their warehouse of which over half were totally destroyed ( giant holes in the tables)

I wonder who was in charge of receiving merchandise at this store?

The builder / distributor provided a lot of lip service but in reality was totally inept

Failure to leave the customer feeling good about your product opens the door to negative publicity that is more powerful than any promo money can buy

Pride on the job generates more good business while mere conversation leads to adverse publicity