Shipping a pistol - weirdness x 2

F

frumious

New member
I recently had to send in my Dad's old Dan Wesson .357 mag revolver for service. So I shoved it in a box I had lying around (Ruger .357 Blackhawk) and took it to the UPS store to ship. It shipped ground. I was stunned. I indicated to the girl behind the counter that I expected to be forced to send it overnight but she indicated ground was fine. So ground it went.

Today I talked to the folks at DW (CZ). They had emailed me the estimate, including shipping, and I called them to make payment and ask where the gun would end up. I expected to have to name an FFL or something but nope. According to the nice lady I spoke with, "It came from you so we'll ship it back to you.". I neglected to ask if it would ship back to me overnight or with any stipulations like "shippee MUST be present; signature on file not accepted" etc. Come to think of it, I should probably do that :eek:

Anyway, does any of this seem odd to any of you? I mean I'm glad this process is so convenient and all, but I sure wasn't expecting it.

-cls
 
You lucked out with UPS. Some of their people are totally ignorant of both the law and their own company policy, and just delight in giving anyone shipping a gun (or sometimes anything else) a hard time.

The lady at DW is right. If you ship a gun to a manufacturer or gunsmith for work, it can be returned directly to you unless some state law gets in the way.

Jim
 
I shipped my HK to them after purchase to get a new trigger installed. It had to go by one day air to them, and one day air back to me at home. I also had to be physically at home on the day of arrival or they would not leave the pistol. This was through FEDEX. I once tried to ship by UPS but it was such a PITA that I'll never ship a pistol by UPS again.
 
frumious I recently had to send in my Dad's old Dan Wesson .357 mag revolver for service. So I shoved it in a box I had lying around (Ruger .357 Blackhawk) and took it to the UPS store to ship. It shipped ground. I was stunned. I indicated to the girl behind the counter that I expected to be forced to send it overnight but she indicated ground was fine. So ground it went.
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You got lucky.
If your gun had been lost, damaged or stolen you would not get a dime on a claim........you violated UPS's tariffs (shipping policy). Those policies prohibit shipping firearms from a UPS Store or third party retailer.

The counter clerk is not an employee of UPS and not authorized to alter their tariff.

UPS Firearms policy: http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/guidelines/firearms.html?srch_pos=3&srch_phr=handgun
 
Holeeeee crap :eek::eek::eek:

I wondered if the clerk wasn't quite up on policy but I didn't realize that I was at entirely the wrong type of UPS establishment. Funny you should mention filing a claim...I took out $1000 insurance on the shipment! You are right, I am lucky I didn't have to use that insurance.

Thanks for setting me straight. I'll know better next time.

-cls
 
Well, it's not like you broke any law... you (completely unknowingly) broke a UPS rule because their counter person didn't know the rule, either. It got there -- you are good to go. UPS is none the wiser, so who cares.

UPS requires Next Day Air for handguns, and the reason why is open to speculation. Those who have had trouble with UPS in the past will state with much authority (though they actually have none) that it's because UPS is afraid they'll get STOLEN if they are in the system too long. UPS... I don't even know if they'll tell you why they must be shipped at the uber-expensive priority level. And the cynics among us will simply state that they require the top-expense level because they can and because it's the most profitable.

My cheapest local option for shipping a handgun is to contact my local FFL because being an FFL, he can use the U.S. Postal Service to ship handguns. (non-FFL's may not) He will take my handgun, inspect it and box it up for me and ship for $35 total.

Of course, the gun manufacturer must then ship back to him and not me... so that's worth considering. Not sure he would charge me any fee to return my gun to me... also not sure if we'd have to fill out a 4473 or do a NICS check for that.

As for whether or not UPS would have paid an insurance claim...

Hmmm... if you told them that you were shipping machined metal parts and that you needed SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS of insurance... and you paid for that insurance... and they lost the package... it seems to me that UPS would owe you SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS to replace your insured machined metal parts... and if they lost the item, how are they going to accuse you of not being up-front with what was in the box?

Either way, you paid for the contents and they lost the contents and they can't produce the contents to tell you that you broke their rules.

So I can't buy the argument that they wouldn't pay out.

Now then... if it's damaged, maybe then you've got a problem getting reimbursed. I still don't see it as breaking any laws. And the item in the box, damaged or not, belongs to YOU and they have to either pay out a claim or return the item to you in whatever condition. If they do neither, they've stolen it from you and that's a problem for them.

If you try to ship a handgun out of state to a non-FFL with any service, now you've got a Federal bug up your butt. :eek:

So maybe you ship it differently next time... but this time? Man, that's a done deal. I wouldn't lose half a wink over it and in my opinion, you did NOTHING wrong. If UPS were that bent over it, they'd do a better job of making sure the folks at the counter of the name brand store that they own (even if they don't own the actual franchises) know their own policies.

The store has their name on it... seems to me that the onus is on the company and not the walk-in customer to get it right.
 
Wow. That is grounds for immediate dismissal. Up to you whether it's necessary to inform management.
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No way. No more grounds for immediate dismissal than is making a bad pot of coffee... if the owner of the store is angry, they can do whatever is in their power. UPS has no authority over the counter chick at a business they don't own.

Inform management? Why on earth would you, him, or anyone else stick their nose in there and try to ruin someone's job? That's obnoxious.

The package got there, the OP got it shipped for a low rate, the world goes on. No laws broken.
 
Some guys I knew back in school worked at UPS. I think a few of them still do. I was even going to get a job there until I heard what those guys would do.

If something said fragile or breakable on it, what do you think they did? They would throw it or kick it or do whatever they could to break what was inside. They would also steal things out of the packages. Some of the things you heard about them stealing were unbelievable and I have no clue how they got away with it. Anyways I didn't want to be involved in that so I just stopped trying to work there.

I would still never ship anything that could be broken or a valuable through UPS, but that's just me
 
What you did was completely legal, except if the UPS Store is a third party store front. Firearms shipments have to originate directly with UPS. Store fronts like Mailboxes Etc are neither FFLs nor common carriers, so they can't handle your gun. Shipping a handgun ground violates UPS policy, but it's not like you tricked them into it.

It is legal to ship a gun to a gunsmith for repair and for him to return it directly to you.
 
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