UPS is Stealing Ammo Shipments?
Like all things you read on the internet and you think "how true is that?" I thought the same thing when I was reading about United Parcel Service, UPS, stealing ammunition shipments from people. But now its actually happening to me. How on Earth could a company as big and well-known as UPS get away with something like stealing hundreds of dollars worth of legitimate firearm ammunition without consequence? It seems like something too far-fectched to believe, but apparently it is actually happening in America today. Let's walk through the steal, step by step.
Last week my favorite ammunition vendor, SG Ammo, released a special purchase on some popular cartridges. Get 1000 rounds for a really good price and of course I just can't pass it up so I bought 2 cases. Order goes through, processes with the normal speed that SG Ammo is known for, and I get a shipping confirmation with all that info. The info is correct, note that for later.
A couple days go buy and I get my usual UPS email, because I have that account set up too and they email me directly about shipments, telling me that I have a delivery scheduled for Saturday. I'm thinking, "awesome, I'll have a couple thousand freedom seeds by Saturday afternoon." Saturday comes and I get the next email, "your shipment is out for delivery." It's almost here, I can taste it..... Then the UPS truck shows up while I'm out in the barn griding away on a steel project for the tractor and I thought "Boom. It's here."
Well huh hell, I get up to the house and see the the package sitting by the door and I'm so ansy I just can't stand it. I think "Man! I bet that's a heavy box!" I reach down to grab it, expecting about 50 lbs worth, and its light as a feather. What T. F. mate? Well it turns out my wife had ordered someting too and her box had arrived. Talk about a deflated baloon. I couldn't figure out why the UPS guy would only drop off 1 package. Maybe he just didn't see both shipments to the same address pop up in his little handheld? Maybe he's coming back? Surely there is just some slight oopsy here, right?
I don't think so. Later that evening I get on the ole telephone-o and pull up the tracking info after UPS guy never shows back up, and there's a little irritating message box telling me they need an address correction because the "address is incorrect." Uh, no its not. You've got the correct address right there on the screen; you're showing it to me. So I click on the link to verify the address, it asks "does any part of this address need to be corrected?" I click no. It says "no further action is needed, updated yada yada yada." Then I got back to the original tracking screen and its still telling me "needs address corrected." And it does this for several attempts more. Now I'm getting irritated.
Well you can't actually talk to a real person at UPS, all you have is this obviously broken tracking internet link. It never updates for the rest of the weekend and into the first part of this week. It keeps telling me to update the address, but they have the correct address and they won't accept my inputs. So I reach out to the vendor, I emailed them and asked if they have problems with UPS stealing their shipments or if what I was reading was just internet lore. They looked into it and said, yes, this was indeed strange and they too had to do the address verification. 2 days later I finally get another email that says "Shipper has corrected the shipping address. You will receive updated tracking information." Well first off, they didn't "correct" the address because it wasn't wrong to begin with, and secondly they never sent me updated tracking info.
Here we are (I am) on Friday afternoon, a week now after the original scheduled delivery, and I get the notice that the "lost package" claim process has begun, thanks to SG Ammo. Thankfully I insured the package or I'd be out half a grand right now.
So, I don't know the ins and outs of the package delivery gig and all the clicks and updates that happen and at what points, but I know there's a lot of them and I have a pretty good idea because I'm a smart guy who likes to figure things like that out. I know these drivers play a significant role in it because almost as soon as you get the package dropped off the door that little scan they do communicates to the web and you get a delivery notice, same with USPS. I'm sure we've all had packages stolen or misdelievered at some point and know at what point it happened because you see the mail person at your mailbox and then the shenanigans happen with the tracking. I think that's what happened here.
I think old boy in the UPS truck either through nefarious actions or ineptitude either mis-delivered the package (unlikely because he would have entered a "delivered" scan and I would be saying "no you didn't") or quite possibly he decided he wanted the freedom seeds for himself or to sell to his buddies. If that be the case I'm sure there's a little clicky option on his scanner to enter "address incorrect" and then ghost the package into his personal hatchback girlie car. In that case we'd be right here where we are (I am) right now trying to figure out where the H the package is.
Obviously its not in the UPS truck or sitting on a shelf at a UPS center because it would have had to again go through a bar code reader and scan in. It hasn't done that. It was put on the truck and then never again saw a UPS scanner. Every package that comes off that truck sees a UPS scanner either at delivery or at the UPS center when it comes back off. There's nowhere on a UPS truck to "lose" a 50 lb box. Its not behind the seat, didn't fall into the tray behind the shelf, didn't end up in the glove box or blow out the window.....but it might have conveniently fallen out the door with a little nudging right in front of his home boy's vehicle or house.
Patriots, be careful out there and insure your ammo shipments because the b.s. level is extremely elevated right now. I seriously doubt I'll ever see that ammo shiment but at least at some point I'll get my money back. And who knows, some office jockey with pink hair might have written a rider into that insurance policy that exempts ammo shipment payouts.
Happy Hunting, patriots, and Semper Fi