"Two ships that pass in the night" -- a new jones

[Mael Coluim]

I hope hoping Tartantweb finds your kilt at the bottom of some pile and you have it for Burn's Night.

[OC Richard]

I ordered a set of Dunbar bagpipes and the UPS driver left it out in the middle of our driveway (A shared dirt driveway that is about 500 yards long) in the snow.

Hey I play Dunbars too!

My potential tragedy was similar to yours: I ordered a half-set of uilleann pipes from a maker in Northern Ireland, of boxwood. As people might know, uilleann pipes are more slender and delicate and easy to break than Highland pipes.

So one day I come home and there's a ripped-up paper bag on my front porch. One rip was big enough to allow me to see the uilleann pipes inside.

Rather than disassembling the pipes, wrapping each section in bubble wrap, and putting everything in a sturdy box as is usually done, the maker had simply wrapped wrapping paper around the completed instrument, tied it with a bit of string, and shipped it!

Amazingly nothing was broken.

That halfset in C, in boxwood, today would cost around $3000.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Who was the shipper?

Of course your service is going to vary depending on your location, as so much is in the hands of the local delivery driver. But we ship largely via FedEx Ground and Home Delivery, and I know they attempt delivery multiple times before returning a parcel (I think at least three successive days in a row).

Also, I would have hoped tartanweb would have shipped the kilt insured. Once, exactly once, have I lost a kilt in transit. Like yours, it was a custom woven cloth. FedEx said they delivered it. Customer claims to have never received it. Because FedEx records indicated it was delivered all they had was my word that my customer never received the package. But they went ahead and paid for the full retail value of the lost kilt, anyway. And, of course, we supplied our customer with another kilt.

[NewEnglander]

I was in a panic last week because a package containing Christmas gifts for my two young nieces had not arrived yet. The online tracking showed that it had been delivered on Wednesday afternoon, but when there was still no sign of it Friday I called and had a replacement shipped my way. Two days later a colleague who just happens to be a neighbor half a mile down the road emailed to say he had a package for me! The shipper (not sure if it was UPS as the vendor indicated or FedEx as the random sticker on the side of the box showed) delivered it to entirely the wrong house. If the guy down the road hadn't known me who knows what would have happened.
Here's hoping for safe travels for the rest of our holiday purchases...and hoping that your kilt gets here ASAP!

[ForresterModern]

Matt

I did not ask specifically and tartanweb did not mention specifically who the shipper was, although they are working together to try to reconstruct what happened with the shipment as right now neither claims to have it, but neither can produce the paperwork to prove their side of that dispute. Yes I was upset that there was no second attempt at delivery or a second note. It is possible the first blew off the door and was gone and therefore never seen by us. My wife stays at home to take care of our son so she is there literally 90% of the time and checks the front door regularly as we have packages delivered almost daily. After thinking about it, it is also possible that the driver saw our dog, who is restrained by invisible fence with a sign out by the driveway clearly stating so (she is so friendly nobody could really be scared of her) and just said keep on driving. Our mailbox is out on the street, though, and the dog cannot get anywhere close to that , so they could have left a note there, too.

I will leave the search and responsibility for finding or replacing the kilt up to tartanweb and their dealings with the courier. They did say that they would not send the next kilt via the same carrier when it was finished, at least.

The most frustrating part of the whole thing is that it was probably physicially on my doorstep at one point, then in thier depot a couple miles away for almost 4 weeks before being shipped back to Scotland, and allegedly returned to tartanweb, yet nobody seems to have any firm idea what happened to it after that. Why didn't the shipper try to deliver it more than once, and then again before returning it to Scotland? If tartanweb got it back why did they not contact me about the shipping problem? And worst of all where the h#$% is the kilt now?

Good news is that I should (barring any further catastrophic shipping issues) have it again sometime in March, only 10 months or so after ordering it. However, I could have had it in mid August, less than 3 months after ordering it (pretty good turnaround for a custom weave) had it worked out right the first time.

Anyway, prompted me to come to work kilted today to try to brighten my day a bit after all that. Only helping a little so far, but it is early.

Thanks for all the sympathy, and empathy.

jeff

[starbkjrus]

Ouch!

Call me cynical but keep an eye open for a very well dressed, kilted delivery person around town.

[ForresterModern]

Latest news was a bit of a Christmas present today. Got an email from the cutomer service guy who has really been putting in some overtime on this one. No, they did not locate the missing kilt----courier still says they returned it but have not provided any record of it so Tartanweb is going after them for the insurance value loss. But they have reordered my custom weave Ancient Red Douglas tartan in 16oz, due in mid February, and have promised an upgrade to a full handsewn, by their best kiltmaker, from the machine sewn I had ordered. Should be here no later than mid March. Still not quite as good as having it in August like I should have, but a pretty good customer service response once they got things figured out.

Pictures will be forthcoming. Someday.

jeff

[NorCalPiper]

Sorry for the hi-jack, but I have the ultimate story on this subject. A friend of mine ordered the new Powermac G3 500MHZ when it came out (That was almost 3k back in the day). Long story short-NEver came. Apple didn't make waves, they sent him another one, and all was fine. 5 years later, when my friend was moving, they moved his couch that was on his porch by the door. They heard something rattling around on the inside of the back of the couch. Yep...The UPS guy had put the package behind the couch and somehow it had fallen through where the material had been ripped at some point (Big enough for the box to somehow find its wway through-HE probably scooted it out put the box down and shoved it back and the box went through at that point. He sold the Powermac last year for almost 6k to a collector.......

[Riverkilt]

Jeff,

Don't forget to send them updated measurements (if necessary) before they sew up the new kilt...

For sure understand the shipping problems. Live 135 miles from the nearest big city and all the carriers rush up here, zip through town tossing packages on porches, and rush back. The post office makes no deliverys - even special delivery - but they do give residents free post office boxes and we have to come and pick up our mail at the post office. Good news is it keeps packages safe. Bad news is some companies refuse to ship to POBs as mentioned. Often have to explain the local situation, but some just won't budge. I think the USPS/UPS wars have become as silly as the Coke/Pepsi wars. Why do vendors have to pick just one shipper? Back in the dark ages of the 60s I was a shipping department manager for a large factory. We used whatever shipper was best for the customer. Limiting shipping to one company is as insane as selling shoes in one width.