By Brian White
As I start to write this it is Christmas Eve and I hope ya’ll have had a Merry Christmas. I just received a gift that will hang in my shop in the near future. The prices must be from back in the days our Stutz cars were new. My experience tells me if you add another zero to the listed prices you may still come up short.
The Pierce-Arrow I am restoring was ready for the Hilton Head Concours show and it won Best in Class. Trish won a fashion award for her dress matching the 1915 car. Jim, Becky, Carl and Carrol helped prepare the car for the judges to see. I understand there is a national magazine that has a picture of Carrol cleaning the Pierce Arrow, you know you rank when the president of the CCCA helps you shine your car.
Well, with the Pierce-Arrow almost completed (not sure they are ever complete) it was time to start on my next project. Back in October, I purchased a 1931 Stutz SV16 Phaeton with a bad transmission. It just made sense to pull the transmission out so I could evaluate, find parts to repair and install it back in the car. I had the transmission out in short order. When I started disassembling it I found the output shaft broken in serval pieces along with everything inside badly worn out. I heard a rumor that George Holman had some transmission parts so I called him to see what we could come up with. After a short conversation it was decided I would send my transmission parts to him.
I spent the afternoon building a one by one by two foot long box out of 3/4” plywood. The transmission and all the parts were packed tightly with the whole box screwed together. The box and transmission weighed 141 pounds. Trish and I took it straight to the UPS store. The friendly face at UPS said it was scheduled to be delivered on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Great!
After talking to George I figured I needed to keep looking just in case someone knew where there were more parts. I called John Grunder and he had some parts and a long output shaft. Bingo! The next weekend was Thanksgivings and Trish and I were planning to visit her family in CT about 60 miles from John’s place in Torrington, CT. Friday I planned a road trip to see John (anyone that gets a chance needs to visit John’s shop).
John showed me two rebuilt transmissions, one with a short shaft or a car without no-back and one long shaft for his car. Yes, I drooled over the ready to use transmissions but was happy to return home with the long out-put shaft that I knew was trash in my transmission.
Monday I called George to confirm he had received my box and let him know I had purchased a long out-put shaft I would be sending to go with the transmission I had sent the week before. George’s daughter, Jackie, told me they had not received my box. Let the panic begin! Between November 26th and December 7th Jackie, Trish and I learned everything we ever want to know about UPS shipping, over goods, logical tracking, insurance claims and the four locations where lost packages get sent.
Trish’s input:
LOST, what do you mean lost! How can you lose a box weighing 141 pounds, made of wood that was stained reddish AND in case the label fell off we had put, using black marker, Brian’s name and telephone number.
I immediately contacted the UPS store manager and his response was “would you like to file a claim?” After explaining that no amount of money could replace this part the manager said he would make some calls. Not good enough. Brian, myself and Jackie in Springfield Mass starting calling every UPS Hub where the tracking number said it should be. Here’s where it gets interesting.
When your package first leaves the UPS store, an actual barcode scan and your package goes on a truck. After that everything you see when you pull up the tracking number is considered a “logical scan” which means that’s where the computer THINKS it should be, really???
It was only through many phone calls that someone at UPS said that it “probably” had gotten sent to the Greensboro, NC hub without a label and it was immediately sent to one of four warehouses that UPS refers to as the “Overgoods Warehouse”. They are located in Atlanta, Missouri, Arkansas and Utah.
If you call the UPS hubs at different hours of the day and night you are very fortunately get different people. During one of the evening calls I told the Raleigh, NC hub manager my dilemma and that I had received a very blurry picture of what could be our package, but had no way to trace the email address as it was in “UPS Code” for don’t respond to this email.
This very kind and patient gentleman, went into his system and found a name of someone in Atlanta, GA Overgoods that might be able to help. Now from earlier emails that I had been copied on from my local UPS store (I believe I was copied in error) I had the manager’s name and number for the Georgia Overgoods Warehouse. I called Georgia the next morning and asked the manager (yes he actually answered the phone) if I could speak with the woman whose name I have gotten the evening before and sure enough bingo I was transferred.
Now thinking I had located the box in Atlanta, I figured mission accomplished, not so fast……After explaining my dilemma to now the 40th person, she indicated that she had access to the manifests for all four locations and together we started an advanced search and sure enough, there sat our box, in Arkansas! It should be noted that any package that loses a label and ends up in an Over Goods Warehouse, must be opened and inventoried.
I’ll let Brian finish this story……
.During the time we were trying to find the red box with my name and phone number written on it in black marker, John calls me. He did not know what we were going through but had a idea. I could buy his rebuilt transmission with the short shaft and switch the short output shaft with the long shaft. Then I could use my no-back and have a complete unite. Only problem is my no-back is in the lost box.
Thank goodness for Trish and Jackie. The box is found. One lesson learned is to over insure the package, UPS offered more than once for us to file a claim and they would pay us $361.00, we told them no. They had to find our red box with my name and number in black marker. I’m sure if they could have settled they would have been better off, they have since offered Trish a job locating packages, lol!
In the end UPS overnight air freighted our box to Springfield, Mass but duck taped the lid back rather than reattaching with the screws as I had, because Jackie said it was opened when it arrived.
Moral to the story, take pictures, over insure and don’t put too much faith in that tracking number.
All the best to everyone for a Happy, Healthy 2019!