Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

Bye bye mirror...


great_bear

Recommended Posts

A while back I bought a telescope that was put together by @johninderby with an excellent 1/12-wave mirror from Orion Optics.

However, recently this mirror was starting to cloud over with a weird blue haze that simply wouldn't clean off - nothing I did made any difference:

image.png.4b56d2c831651cafe589d58f5e498226.png

- so I sent it off to be re-coated - I packed it up in a very robust way that guaranteed that it would be safe, even if someone were to throw the parcel across the room. I was satisfied that pretty much nothing anyone could do would damage it in transit. Just to be sure though, I stuck lots of "Fragile" stickers all over the box on every side, so "Fragile" could always be clearly seen from all angles.

I needn't have bothered. The thing "disappeared" before it even got to the local depot:

image.png.163dd9dabed4938dbda4518d200476e7.png

- and even more frustrating, being a telescope mirror, there's no compensation 😞  

I have been notified by the courier that it is officially "lost".

When I looked into this kind of thing, I was shocked to see how bad the state of parcel delivery is in this country! Undercover investigation reveals everything from widespread theft of interesting-looking parcels to staff throwing, kicking, and otherwise deliberately mishandling goods in transit, and - as revealed by Joe Lycett with hidden cameras on Channel 4 - clearly-labelled and easily-deliverable parcels being sent off in batches to have their contents auctioned off on a regular basis.

There's lots I can say about this situation - none of it particularly nice or productive - so I won't bother saying it, but it is deeply upsetting.

I've ordered a replacement 1/12th mirror from Orion Optics, but it's a special order and doesn't come cheap. Ironically, as I was going to the Bluedot Music Festival when I sent the mirror off, I could have actually dropped it off in person on my way there, but that simply didn't occur to me at the time.

Oh well, you live and learn I guess, but it's very sad - especially since whoever has "accidentally" taken possession of my mirror likely has no idea what it is or what to do with it so it's probably already in a skip.

🤬

  • Sad 28
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never use the renamed company for any thing I send off in the mail. I’d rather pay the extra money and get RM or Parcelforce to deliver anything I send. I do get deliveries from them though, and TBH they always have delivered OK. Maybe I've just been lucky perhaps with them. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes gutted for you. I distrust parcel companies in general and could write a (not too) short book about misadventures.

For future use, if you can minimse the number of hands on the parcel, and use a reputable carrier, that is your best assurance.
That is use a named carrier and only deal with their staff - not agents or representatives. Record of handling gets muddy.

At work we use UPS a lot of the time. I know they are not perfect, but with us they have a good record.
As soon as UPS collect (or you deliver to a depot) the item is tracked.
You can see almost live tracking as it runs between depots, and see it on the delivery van.
I have never had a UPS parcel get lost in the UK or overseas. Delayed or misrouted, yes. Lost - no.

I have had 'fun' with various other carriers.
A parcel returned that had obviously been run over by a truck. A local carrier.
A heavy duty steel cabinet that became parallelogram - presumably dropped off the back of a lorry. TNT.
Another TNT was a lorry that caught fire and burnt out the entire load.

A carrier (maybe Fedex it was a long time ago) got out for a delivery and left keys in the truck.
Some kind person took the truck. I remember it because there was a scope from FLO in there.

I could go on.......

I wish you well with the new mirror.

David.
 

 

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh no, this is terrible. A parcel like that isn’t going to blow away and it’s a bit too specialised to be of interest to a thief. My guess is that someone working for that company dropped it or let something big fall on it and then got rid of the evidence rather than take the blame.

😞 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So far, I haven't sent any expensive astronomy products by mail or courier, but last year, an item that I had ordered from TS was lost as soon as the parcel was handed over by the international courier to PostNord (Swedish postal service, aka PostMord, mail murder). Luckily I got a new item from TS. I think that it may pay off to put an Apple Airtag in any pacakge that contains anything of value. The Airtag could then be sent back, or simply written off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i have to give royal mail, parcel force some credit here, ive had stuff from as far away as australia, canada the usa italy etc and never had any problems.  as far as other companies go , it might be beneficial when you use them , ask for a prayer mat. if given the choice , i wouldnt let them carry my lunchbox to work for me. worst offender i find is, the 1 that had the name change. i wonder if the new name will improve their service. the old name took 10 days to get a shoebox from glasgow to inverness. if they had of told me i couldve strolled down and picked it up myself. my prayer mat now has holes in it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only ever use Royal Mail/ parcel force and I always drop it off at the post office. But luckily for me I have a post office 2 mins walk away. 

When I sent off a 12” mirror for recoating  recently I declared is as a ‘telescope component’ No way I was going to let them know it was a mirror.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clearly, the carriers are useless and the compensation offered is laughable. I will not post any anecdotal stories of my own experiences with carriers, but there have been many. I feel for anyone who is offered €3.50 / kg for high value astro or photography kit; it is beyond an insult. I've paid for a 1000 kg pallet delivery before, only to find out that when they totally destroy everything, including the pallet, the payout is based on the weight of the scrap they scrape up off the floor, excluding packing materials, to which they assign zero value and you don't even get to keep the salvage which may be worth more to you than their payout.

Here is what to do:

Take out separate insurance with an idependent insurer. I am not advertising or recommending the services offered in the link below, it is simply one found by performing a search on Google:

https://www.secursus.com/en-gb/

Have a look at what is available by doing your own search and decide for yourselves if this suits you.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahhh- that lot.

We use them at work occasionally. Their tracking system is worse than a failed HEQ5 with the power off that has been PA'd against Aldebaran.

I sent a customer a replacement helmet as their original order was mislaid. When I actually managed to speak to a human bean at their call center, said bean said the parcel was at a depot local to us and that they would arrange for it to be returned to us.

6 weeks late the customer called us to say a second helmet had arrived and do we want it back?!?!

This is one of many failures.

The problem is, when their systems work they are fine but, like all services, the good companies are identified by how they deal with a problem. 

The company in question should adopt a new log akin to a long legged flightless African bird trying to look for sandworms....

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never had UPS or FedEx lose a package in 30+ years of shipping items.  On the other hand, I've had the US Postal Service lose or misdeliver multiple items.  I once had over $1000 worth of jewelry delivered to my neighbor's mailbox.  They never deliver any of my stuff to me despite me dropping off theirs all the time.  Different attitudes, I guess.

I had to make the postal employee search their mailbox (they're locked) the next day to retrieve it without so much as an apology from them.  Luckily, my neighbor doesn't check snail-mail very often.  Once the USPS says an item is delivered, that's it.  There's no possibility of insurance claims or anything else.  They are infallible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Louis D said:

I've never had UPS or FedEx lose a package in 30+ years of shipping items.  On the other hand, I've had the US Postal Service lose or misdeliver multiple items.  I once had over $1000 worth of jewelry delivered to my neighbor's mailbox.  They never deliver any of my stuff to me despite me dropping off theirs all the time.  Different attitudes, I guess.

I had to make the postal employee search their mailbox (they're locked) the next day to retrieve it without so much as an apology from them.  Luckily, my neighbor doesn't check snail-mail very often.  Once the USPS says an item is delivered, that's it.  There's no possibility of insurance claims or anything else.  They are infallible.

I think there are a few Tour de France results that suggest otherwise?

😉

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's definitely hit and miss here in the states. 

With all the household items I've bought and had delivered, even those almost went to the neighbors house. 

Turn on street at firestation. It's the first drive to the right, directly behind the firestation. 

YOU CAN'T SEE THE HOUSE FROM THE STREET.

Right not left!

Any four year old knows if you hold your hands up with your thumb out, the one making an L is LEFT!

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

It's definitely hit and miss here in the states. 

With all the household items I've bought and had delivered, even those almost went to the neighbors house. 

Turn on street at firestation. It's the first drive to the right, directly behind the firestation. 

YOU CAN'T SEE THE HOUSE FROM THE STREET.

Right not left!

Any four year old knows if you hold your hands up with your thumb out, the one making an L is LEFT!

Er...that depends which way around you hold your hands....🤔😉

  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Carriers can be a bit of a lottery I've found, had the "carrier formerly known as Herpes" do super-fast pick up and delivery with no issues at all and our great post office route a package to spain via LAX where it never reached and vanished into thin air. But having seen the former's back-end operation and the way some packages are handled I'd generally go with the post office or the big-name, good reputation carriers esp for something of value. That said, the formerly known as was far better than the one that used to be known as sh(c)ity link who literally just dumped packages in a huge heap on the depot floor and climbed around on it to find stuff. Sometimes what you got handed over to you was unrecognisable as the object you'd been waiting for.

Edited by DaveL59
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd raise a complain with Trading Standards about that. I can see it's not unreasonable for them to have exclusions for damage to glass/optical equipment, but they have a contractual obligation to take reasonable care to look after it. 

Having a term denying any responsibility absolutely can't be justified.

Also try Martin Lewis and your favourite newspaper's consumer advice correspondent. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This one is relevant to us buying/selling astro gear.
Lets suppose you want to sell and ship an expensive mount, say £1000 new and £600 used.
The reason I say mount is that it comprises mainly metal and electronics. No glassware.
Certain carriers will not insure 2nd hand goods for more than scrap value. Read the small print.🤨
If they lose or damage the item, they want to pay you the few £ per ton scrap value.

Some years back one of our customers had a faulty electronics item - that we had built for him a few years before.
From his fault description we knew exactly what we had to do and quoted him £500 for repair.
Given that a new box was about £5K, it was a definte repair option.
The TNT lorry containing the box caught fire on the A1, losing the entire load.
We sold him a new £5000 box. The customer was paid pennies from (appropriately named) TNT.
The moral of the story is that you need to read the entire small print.

At a later time I was discussing (well arguing) with a TNT representative about their shipping and how they think they know more than we do about the value of goods.
Surely if we declare a value on a consignment, and potentially pay extra for this risk, the carrier should either honour it, or refuse the consignment.
In simple terms if they accept a parcel with correctly declared contents and value, they have undertaken to pay out on loss or damage.
The representative didn't seem to think it applied. He was happy to take the money and not tell us it as not covered.

I put a hypothetical situation to him......
You buy a car for £10K. Shortly after purchase, the exhaust falls off. While at the roadside awaiting the RAC, a vehicle runs into your car. It is a write off.
How much do you expect to receive from the insurer?
A. £10K because the car was recently purchased for this amount?
B. £9K7 because that is a deduction for the (already failed) cost of the exhaust?
C. £200 because that is the scrap value of the car.
The TNT representative said he expected the full £10K but would accept £9K7.🤔
I then pointed out to him that if TNT were insuring, he would receive £200.
He wasn't happy😡


 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Puts me in mind of one from work years back. Said carrier collecting a new computer build from us, 6ft rack and around £500k value. They rolled it onto the tail lift, raised the lift and the expensive rack rolled right off and face-planted the pavement, they'd not secured it before lifting. Had to be written off. Wonder what they paid out to us and HP for that one?

Still recall the sickening crash it made as I was just walking by the truck having parked in the car park next to it.

Edited by DaveL59
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Louis D said:

I've never had UPS or FedEx lose a package in 30+ years of shipping items.  On the other hand, I've had the US Postal Service lose or misdeliver multiple items.  I once had over $1000 worth of jewelry delivered to my neighbor's mailbox.  They never deliver any of my stuff to me despite me dropping off theirs all the time.  Different attitudes, I guess.

I had to make the postal employee search their mailbox (they're locked) the next day to retrieve it without so much as an apology from them.  Luckily, my neighbor doesn't check snail-mail very often.  Once the USPS says an item is delivered, that's it.  There's no possibility of insurance claims or anything else.  They are infallible.

I've shipped many thousands of orders via UPS and USPS.  USPS has not lost one package, though occasionally it takes an extra week or two to arrive, and I have had one misdelivery (which the homeowner delivered himself).

UPS has lost about a half dozen boxes and damaged a few others.  Still not a large number, but it is annoying.  FedEx has not lost a package, but they are very expensive.

I don't know about the UK, but shipping services in the US allow you to purchase insurance for the value of the package when you ship, and if you can show the value of the item shipped (which requires a paper trail),

you do get reimbursed (at least I always have been).  None of the orders lost had been delivered, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

USPS has not lost one package, though occasionally it takes an extra week or two to arrive, and I have had one misdelivery (which the homeowner delivered himself).

Lucky you to have a good neighbor.  Mine just silently keeps my misdelivered mail and packages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.