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I'm sick of these ham-fisted carriers!!!!

asw20c

Well Known Member
Today I received yet another damaged part from VAN's. For every package I've received larger than an envelope it has been damaged in one form another. My wing kit? It had holes through the side where forks from a forklift were run through the box, and two of the the three skids underneath were missing. Today I received a replacement inboard wingskin that looked like it had been packaged fairly well by VAN's, yet the two inboard corners had been smashed. Both were curled, and one was crushed badly enough that it was cracked. I wish there was something we could do to make these carriers (UPS and FedEx) take greater care. Complaining to customer service does NOTHING.
 
Aircraft Parts

Normally, when a person in the freight carrying business sees a crate with a big warning on the side stating ?aircraft parts?, one would think that they would handle it with care. However, me thinks these labels draw attention from those who may be a bit evenous or carries a chip on their shoulder of those rich aircraft people. If I were Van?s, I would avoid labels that draw attention to their shipments.
 
Ack. UPS and Fedex are the worst with crates. I got all my big crate stuff by proper road freight. No issues. Maybe cost a few more pennies but the lack of aggravation is worth the price. Esp when youre chomping at the bit for some part.
 
You are not alone, some one should start a poll on this subject....be interesting the percentage of damaged parts.
 
You are not alone, some one should start a poll on this subject....be interesting the percentage of damaged parts.

When I was building (over five years ago) Barb and Ann had a pretty good handle on these issues. I know I had several conversations with them about the best method and company to ship my kits.

I have no idea if either of them are still at Van's or are in the same roles.
 
Strange. During my entire build, I did not receive a single damaged part. Neither in the big Wing, Fuse and Finish kit crates shipped via ABF, or the smaller stuff shipped however it was shipped (USPS, Fedex, UPS).
 
Sorry to hear you've had problems. I've only had the Empennage so far but it all came via FedEx to the UK undamaged and in under a week. The lorry driver even helped me carry it up the garden to the workshop, couldn't fault them.
 
I've had damaged parts from Van's. They (the shippers) poked a set of forks through the crate on my RV-6 fuselage and damaged the bottom forward skin.

I've had paint dropped off with acrylic enamel running out of the box onto the brick front porch.

I've had $1,000 of spruce spar blanks ruined.

And those are just the ones that come to mind easily.

:-(
 
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I received my RV-14A empennage kit about three weeks ago thru FedEx. It looks like they ran into it with a forklift on one end. Total damage was three parts: both elevator spars and a trim tab lower skin.

Vans had new parts to me within a few days. They said that damage claims have spiked recently.
 
OK, I don't want to belittle anybody's experiences with shipping. We all know how it feels to have that part we were waiting for arrive in unusable condition. It's a miserable condition.

Just for a moment, imagine this situation... You're a supplier to Boeing. It's Friday afternoon and the Boeing buyer is on the phone, mad as all heck because he believes you've shipped him damaged goods. Because this is a multi-year, multi-million $$ contract, you get on an airliner and beat it more than half way across the continent. Saturday morning you're standing on the fuselage inspecting what clearly is a damaged component, however the damage looks... familiar. You head down to the floor level, find the shipping crate and find some familiar marks on the wooden shipping crate. You locate the shop foreman and ask to see where the forklifts are kept. He walks you to the forklifts and there it is, a forklift with residue of the wooden packing crate and its contents still on the forks.

Sure enough, the forklift driver had skewered the packing crate with both forks, destroying a $100K component. Then, being not very observant, he delivered the damaged component to the shop floor and drove the forklift back to the receiving dock without even knowing he had done any damage, thus he didn't even try to clean up the evidence trail.

Needless to say, the Boeing buyer was more than a little embarrassed by this situation and apologized profusely. I managed to catch a flight and was home not long after midnight so my entire weekend wasn't ruined.

The moral of the story? Yeah, everybody makes mistakes... :)
 
Would think that a carrier other than FedEx, UPS or DHL would be better like one that does freight not packages.
As for DHL that is the worst outfit of them all, bought something on line, went from there main hub to Seattle then Portland made that round trip twice, third trip they included a side trip to Salt Lake and then back forth trip finally made it here just north of Klamath Falls OR. Only took a little over a week.
Cannot even think how bad it hurts you builders to have that happen. Parts I did order for my 3 came ok years back. Boyd in Chiloquin.
 
People who work in warehouses moving boxes around don't tend to hold masters degrees, be well paid, or be motivated. I worked at Purolator for a year. Warehouse jobs are pretty much the bottom of the totem pole. So one must manage their expectations. I can certainly understand your frustrations.

it was a great experience for me - it taught me that you if you don't go to school, this is what you will become. I went back to school.
 
yep

...
it was a great experience for me - it taught me that you if you don't go to school, this is what you will become. I went back to school.
Indeed - working in the oil patch did that for me. Heck of a motivator!

Any time a package arrives intact, I'm delighted, as I expect them to be damaged in some way. I buy a lot of stuff from China directly, and I'm amazed at the fact that they get here (eventually) and are rarely damaged.
 
People who work in warehouses moving boxes around don't tend to hold masters degrees, be well paid, or be motivated. I worked at Purolator for a year. Warehouse jobs are pretty much the bottom of the totem pole. So one must manage their expectations. I can certainly understand your frustrations.

it was a great experience for me - it taught me that you if you don't go to school, this is what you will become. I went back to school.

A wise man once said, ?If you find a kid stealing railroad spikes, send him to school and he?ll come back and steal the whole railroad.? School education is not the solution to problems like this, IMHO. Education at home as children and teenagers to value others and their stuff and to work hard and be trustworthy is the solution to this. The problem is that most people don?t do this any more. The executives at Enron, etc., were well educated.

As for the handling of packages, I do fully agree that the people just flat don?t care, partially because of labor unions that make it difficult to be fired. I just traveled to South America. One of my bags was lost for the whole length of my trip because the handle with the baggage tag was torn off. When you check your bags back in after clearing customs, he guys loading them on the belts appear to try to be as rough as they can. No amount of pleading will make them be gentle.
 
what happens

I loaded trucks for 5 years and on my rv-4 and rv-7 have had 50 percent of the crates damaged. when i looked at the crates and know how i would load them in the truck. this is what happens the long spar crate is turned out on the shop floor and pushed into the trailer so it sits along the side of the trailer and you can load more material beside it when the front of the crate hits the front of the trailer it stops but the hi-lo keeps moving driving the fork into the crate ( both of my crates) my finish kits were loaded the same way but there they pushed on the bottom 2x4s tearing them off.
 
The hole in my empennage crate was so big I was surprised there were still parts inside. Old Dominion shipping is awful.

I've also noted that I've never seen a builders log that shows the truck arriving with the up arrow pointing up, and I've seen dozens of those photos.
 
Reading all of these horror stories makes me glad I used Partain for shipping from Van's! No crates, dedicated trucks, careful hand handling. Perfect.
 
Partain - yes

I've had the best service from Partain also. My experience goes back a few years so I can't vouch for the present.

Truck loads your kit at Van's back door and delivers it to your garage/airport - whatever. The driver knows how to handle the kit and how to tie it down - ie, 'up' stays up on the boxes. No forklift on/offs are involved. Very happy to recommend Partain. Only problem is if you want it yesterday or this week, Partain might not be able to accommodate your wishes. In that case, you are rolling the dice in my opinion with any of the shipping companies. Hope that this helps.
 
Update

As the original poster, I thought folks might be interested in the outcome.
After receiving the damaged part, Van's sent out another replacement, but this time they sandwiched the skin between two sheets of plywood, and secured it so it could not slide around. It arrived in perfect condition. Kudos to Van's for making it so easy on us builders when there is a problem with shipping, and also for taking extraordinary steps to ensure the part arrives undamaged; no easy feat given how poorly our parts are handled by the freight companies. This has put me 2-3 weeks behind where I would have been, but at least I'm making progress again.
 
I just got my 14A fuselage kit from FedEx earlier this week. Zero damage on the exterior (though a few footprints on top...), and no obvious damage on the interior. (I've unpacked all of the subkits out of the crate, but not opened them.)

Empennage kit came the same way to the same address, though that was through Old Dominion. No issues.

Then again, it only had to go ~250 miles to get to me from the factory...
 
Add me to the list

I still have a few things to prepare in the shop but was disappointed when my RV-14 tail came damaged. I refused the shipment and will restart in another two weeks. I am hoping parts aren't bent back and resent. I will consider paying for a private carrier instead of FedEx freight in the future.

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-Jason
 
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PLUS 1 for Tony Partain

Tony Partain is really good. I was pleased.
RV9A Bill

Use Tony Partain....plus you get to see what else he's shipping on his curiously HUGE trailer! :D Your stuff WILL arrive undamaged! and in my experience, rates are competitive.

Note: You may have to ask for a few of your friends to help unload unless you have a fork lift. He doesn't travel with one...but then most of this aircraft stuff is light.
 
Hi Jason,
The one thing I have learned regarding damaged shipments is that Van's has the claim/replacement process down cold. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if damaged freight claims are a serious secondary revenue source for them.
In the future I recommend not rejecting the shipment. Simply do your normal, thorough inventory and document the damage with photos. Van's makes it extremely easy to deal with damage because all you have to do is tell them which parts were damaged (email them photos of the damaged parts) and they take care of the rest. They make a claim against the shipper and IMMEDIATELY have a new shipment of replacement parts sent out. You don't have to do anything except keep the damaged parts available for the shipper to examine if they want to see them. Of all the damaged parts I have received, so far the shipper has never asked to see them.
I hate the fact that the shippers used for my kits and parts have been so ham-fisted, but I love that Van's makes replacing them as pain free as possible.
 
refused

Thanks for the advice! Van's was great on the phone and I expect the issue will be resolved. In this case as I wasn't planning on anything but inventory for the next 2 weeks anyways so its NBD. I don't quite have enough experience to know what to look for in damaged packaging and will let Van's handle the legwork.

-Jason
 
Just what I needed to read today as my emp kit was shipped this morning! :)
One excited soon to be brand new builder
 
If you are within a reasonable distance from Vans, it may be worth driving and picking up the kit yourself. This is what I did with my QB, rented a U-Haul and they graciously load it for you and it may save you a penny or two. No need for crating anymore.
 
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