Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: Calimero on August 07, 2018, 04:05:18 PM
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I’ve recently made an order to Warlords Games for a dozen inter-war/early WWII vehicles for a painting commission. The ordering process go smoothly, and the models were put in the mail the following day (or maybe even the same day). So far everything is perfect. The models are reasonably priced, the service offered by Warlords is top notch but, then come the downside… I got an email from UPS telling me that THEY are the delivery company that will send me the package. WHAT! UPS!!! They are absolutely THE WORSE Courier Company I ever had the (dis)pleasure to do business with…
I’ve send an email right away at Warlords. Only then did I discover that parcels sent to USA or Canada and which are over a certain value, are always sent via UPS…
If I knew before hand, I will never have ordered from Warlords directly. I will have try to find a “local” distributor instead.
UPS, has an AWFUL service… the problem is, that I have a very difficult time getting stuff from them… They have a tendency of not delivering orders because they “can't find my address” or that “the address [I’m] using doesn’t exist”, etc. All that despite the fact that I’m always using the same delivery address and that I don’t have any problem with other company (Poste Canada, Purolator, FedEx). They also have a tendency to charge ridiculous amount of “brokerage fees”. They also outright lie to you, telling you that they’ve made “several” delivery attempts on such and such days and that “nobody’s was home to receive the package”. This is despite the fact that I’ve missed hours of work just to be there when they are supposed to deliver the goods…
I'm normally a very patient person, but, UPS ways of doing business make me want to punch someone in the face. One thing is for sure, UPS isn’t the best delivery service in "our neck of the woods"… >:(
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And the problem is ?
Are you blaming Warlord using UPS ???
I dont get it.
If Warlord Games did nothing wrong I think it is not fair to mix that up with UPS delivery.
I once had a problem with ordering from Australia. Shipping to Germany was always via a certain company which led to extra costs or no delivery to our house and return to sender.
I wrote an email to the seller telling the problem and they fully understood me not to take the delivery. I asked for a new order and new delivery with a certain mail and they did as I asked for. Tada !
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Well maybe my post wasn’t clear… my problem isn’t with Warlords per say, they do a fantastic job… my problem is with the fact that they use UPS for delivery. They don’t specified which company will do the delivery when you order and that can be (is) a problem… at least where I live.
I wish I had knew beforehand has I would not have ordered directly from Warlords in the UK but rather try to find a “local” retailer.
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We get regular deliveries by UPS and have had no problems - but I'm in the U.K.
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I think there seems to be a huge difference in the performance of UPS in the UK and in the US.
UPS in the UK is regarded as one of the better courier companies. At work I used to use UPS and they were streets ahead of all the others we used - but were more expensive.
But from comments in forums it does seem that UPS in the US are rather less good.
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I think rather this should have been a rant against UPS rather than Warlord. The title feels a bit misleading.
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I’m located in Canada. Around here they are simply awful, I don’t know for other part of Canada. I’ve seen some disturbing video on youtube showing some “delivery” of parcel from UPS but, I think they were mainly from France…
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I think rather this should have been a rant against UPS rather than Warlord. The title feels a bit misleading.
lol you're right! I've change the title...
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I also live in Canada and have to agree with Calimero. Several parcels from Warlord Games went missing, or were severely damaged by UPS. Warlord Games always re-sent the parcels, which is great of them, but Warlord Games shouldn't be eating the cost, UPS should be picking up the tab for the missing or damaged items. Once I had a cigarette butt burn through the parcel and damage figures inside. Melted the sprue inside the box. Another time my package was so severely damaged that all the items were ruined and some had fallen out of a giant hole in the box. I took pictures of both incidents and sent it to Warlord Games so that they could pursue reimbursement from UPS.
A friend of mine has video surveillance cameras on his front porch and it caught the UPS guy throwing his package over his white picket fence and shrubs onto the porch and then run off. Unfortunately it wasn't plastic or metal miniatures, it was a glass vase that he had purchased as a gift for his wife. Needless to say, it was in many, many pieces after the 25 foot throw.
Anyways, Calimero, good luck to you and keep us up to date on its progress.
Regards,
Hitman
8)
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I always ask for regular post.
UPS I fully agree is literally the worst in Canada.
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I find nothing wrong with the OP. I refuse to accept UPS shipping. If I found out a company intended to send me UPS without telling me, I would cancel the order.
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After many emails back and forth with UPS, I should be able to get my package Friday afternoon. I just need to go to the city’s quartier industriel, by bus (because I don’t own a car) and miss yet more hours at work…
P.S. All emails where in English because UPS Canada takes forever to find someone that can write in French and, sometime, didn’t even bother to reply to French email
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I'm also in Canada. I must admit for Warlord and several other companies I find it better and easier to find and pay for the shipping from european sides of their orgs than the US one.
Issues with UPS shipping plus the much higher likelihood of import charges now from the US mean the EU is often a better deal.
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I've found posting anything via any means to Canada an absolute nightmare, nine weeks for airmail? Do one... :o
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I've found posting anything via any means to Canada an absolute nightmare, nine weeks for airmail? Do one... :o
That's probably another story of a parcel that "slept" for several days in the custom facility warehouse... it happens sometime. Its part of the things that are annoying but can dealt with if you are prepared to and make your orders taking into account that long delays are a possibility. Parcels from Front Rank, for example, used to take less than 7 days to get from UK to Canada, now it takes around 2 to 3 weeks… :?
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Yet another voice to confirm that UPS is the worst possible way anyone can send anything to Canada. There is virtually no mini order which will make that method of shipping worthwhile. Regular old national postal services are by far the BEST way to send anything here from abroad.
IN FACT, some of you might get a laugh to hear that BOTH my wife and I were very recent recipients of a letter notifying us that we were members of a class-action suit against UPS due to their grossly overcharging Canadian recipients for unnecessary brokerage fees for over a decade. Apparently they're going to start sending out settlement cheques in October! I doubt it'll be more than $20-$50, but still! :D
Look it up! You might be due for a cheque too!
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Well UPS to Canada sounds dreadful but I have to say I’m amazed how long Airmail parcels take to reach the customer in Canada. I use Airmail for all overseas orders and Canadian orders regularly take 1+ to reach their destination. Even at the height of Homeland Security mania in the US it was never this bad. Whereas it’s the norm in Canada - why?
Doug
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Well UPS to Canada sounds dreadful but I have to say I’m amazed how long Airmail parcels take to reach the customer in Canada. I use Airmail for all overseas orders and Canadian orders regularly take 1+ to reach their destination. Even at the height of Homeland Security mania in the US it was never this bad. Whereas it’s the norm in Canada - why?
Doug
'Cos we're a bloody great big place! lol
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'Cos we're a bloody great big place! lol
lol
Seriously, I think the time it take for parcels to travel from A to B is about the same as is always was... it’s just that parcels from abroad spend A LOT more time being “cleared” at the custom facilities...
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I've found posting anything via any means to Canada an absolute nightmare, nine weeks for airmail? Do one... :o
That would be rare.
Airmail from the EU - anywhere - is usually 1-3 weeks. From the US typically 2 weeks.
What you’re talking about is a lost parcel. Those happen everywhere. Canada Post is quite efficient.
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Yeah, generally I find sending via regular mail ether to OR from the US rarely spends more than two weeks in transit.
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I only send to Canada by tracked mail. Most regular mail will arrive in good time, but a higher percentage of mail than to any other country - by a massive margin - takes longer than 30 days to arrive. My record, that I know of, is over 70 days. Tracked mail is fine, but not Tracked and Signed which can be delayed as much and isn’t tracked within Canada.
I can’t take the risk on untracked to Canada, it just got too expensive. I don’t like it, I no doubt lose custom, but I have to.
My experience is not unique.
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I order a fair amount from overseas; a very small percentage of parcels get waylaid.
Lucid Eye was one recently - it was 45 days, no joy. He resent, and I got the 2nd round within 2 weeks. A couple of days later, the ORIGINAL parcel arrived! I sent him PayPal for a full order, but he never acknowledged it. I feel like it was the right thing.
I’ve lost one Perry, but I order more from them.
GHQ - 100% success. Always tracked out of the states and always fast. Not the cheapest, but I order in enough volume that it’s ok, or I order when there is a sale to offset postage.
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In my experience, international mail around the world is remarkably reliable. Only a fraction of a percent of orders go missing, either permanently or arriving late. It just happens that Canada has by far the worst record in this regard, of counties where I send to in large volume and have had orders go missing.
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In my experience, international mail around the world is remarkably reliable. Only a fraction of a percent of orders go missing, either permanently or arriving late. It just happens that Canada has by far the worst record in this regard, of counties where I send to in large volume and have had orders go missing.
Nah, Italy.
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Nah, Italy.
Yeah this. o_o
Anyway, I've run into one or two others who've had weirdly bad experiences with Canada post, but in twenty years of buying hundreds of things online, I think I've only had 2-3 go missing.
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If you are buying from Warlord's US website, postage is free for orders over $50, even to Canada If you know what the floor is for them switching to UPS you might be better off making three orders at $75 each instead of one at $225. Regular post they rarely take more than a couple of weeks.
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In fairness Fedex lost my tax return in the UK one year - and it was tracked. It never was found or any reason given and the Tax man was not very understanding. Luckily, it I had copies but it was a lot of added hassle...
Also had stuff actually stolen out of checked bags in an plane hold when traveling back from South Africa! They broke the lock, opened the bags and took stuff out before the bags got on the plane. That one did annoy and surprise me..
So these things can and do happen anywhere.
I have not lost packages in Canada post or UPS (so far touch wood) but have been hit by the UPS import clearing charge scheme, which is a bit of a con, compared to other importers.
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Nah, Italy.
lol whatever, guys. My numbers are a fraction of a percent go missing/are delayed worldwide, while to Canada it’s just below 4% for all the time I’ve been trading, so based on thousands of orders. But most of the missing/delayed Canadian orders happened in a short space of time last year, before I switched to tracked only. It wasn’t always bad. I’ve been told various things (by Canadians!) about why but won’t go into that.
Tracked is fine as I said.
Edit: If it's any consolation, I've been checking some of the recent Tracked items and delivery times are excellent. Some were delivered in 3 days, from the depths of Scotland to the depths of Canada!
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I also order a lot of stuff from UK and the US. Sometime it’s for a painting commission sometime it’s for my own collection. It only happened twice that I didn’t received the stuff that I bought. One was in the early 90s when I ordered some 15mm Old Glory ACW figures (from a store in Florida named [something]mart…) and another time, a few years back, when I bought second hand Front Rank Napoleonic Austrians from the UK. I was refunded by the Front Rank figures seller but, the poor man did lost money in the transaction and I never got the figures which was something I was really looking forward to as I really like these figures. :-[
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That would be rare.
Airmail from the EU - anywhere - is usually 1-3 weeks. From the US typically 2 weeks.
What you’re talking about is a lost parcelt.
I stand by my earlier post - Airmail items take a lot longer to arrive at destination in Canada than, say the US, Australia, New Zealand and its a puzzle why this should be. And I’m not talking about lost parcels. They do arrive but very, very slowly. Strange.
Doug
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Another Canadian who dislikes UPS here. Though for my last few Shapeways orders where I knew it was coming from them I managed (somehow - don't remember now) got them to hold the package for me at their office so I could pick it up, averting the random acts of delivery they were prone to.
I dislike using couriers in general for their habit of charging me $30 for the privilege of paying customs, but I will say if you search through Fed-Ex you can sometimes find some deals to suggest to vendors. I bought some buildings from someone via a private transaction and his initial searches showed shipping from the US to Canada would be about $75 for $80 worth of stuff, but I dug up a Fed-Ex option that was about $30.
A UK vendor found a rarely used Royal Mail "surface" shipping option that was cheap and ended up arriving in a week (we both suspect they ended up just sticking it on a plane anyway).
@Andrew - I usually prefer signed-for shipping nowadays anyway, though that has more to do with my neighbourhood.
Chris
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I stand by my earlier post - Airmail items take a lot longer to arrive at destination in Canada than, say the US, Australia, New Zealand and its a puzzle why this should be. And I’m not talking about lost parcels. They do arrive but very, very slowly. Strange.
Doug
As I said in an earlier post, they’re probably sleeping on the selves of the custom agency… you can see that when following the tracking number. It show package following a normal path for some time, then “disappear” from the system when reaching the border and reappear a week or two (or more) later on for the rest of their journey to delivery.
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Though for my last few Shapeways orders where I knew it was coming from them I managed (somehow - don't remember now) got them to hold the package for me at their office so I could pick it up, averting the random acts of delivery they were prone to.
You can get a package sent to, and held at a Postal Outlet of your choice, the service is called Flexdelivery:
https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/personal/receiving/alternative-delivery/flexdelivery.page?ecid=murl|pdn|lh|297
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I ended up receiving my figures but it was REALLY COMPLICATED. I had to miss work hours and go to the industrial district. It took a little more than two hours in the city bus, going around in circles, because there’s no direct circuit for the place where’s the reception center of UPS Canada is located.
Once there, the person at the counter thought my package was not there. I had to wait several minutes for this person to retrace my package in the system to finally get it. I had to pay the $ 80 brokerage fee. By the way, after many e-mails with the people at UPS, I was clearly told that I could pay the fees with my debit card... which was absolutely not true at the end of the day. Fortunately, I had planned ahead and I had, with me, a check for the exact amount.
In short, I ended up having my figures but it was so complicated, so long and it took me so much time that I'm sure I will not order large quantities of figures directly from Warlords Games ever again… just because they send them via UPS
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Calimero is absolutely correct. UPS suck big time to Canada. Besides the any delivery difficulties there is the mountain of extra fees and taxes you are forcing your customers to pay. Brokerage fees, taxes on fees, etc, etc.
Companies that ship via UPS do not get my business unless they are sole source. And then I have to be desperate.
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Just a thought,
Has anyone complained to UPS about the shirty service.
I'm sure the customer complaints people would like that video footage of the cockwomble throwing the package
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I get the same fees from FedEx - I think the fees are not courier specific
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The fees are for all couriers. They are not party to the international agreement that post offices are exempt from brokerage fees.
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Just a thought,
Has anyone complained to UPS about the shirty service.
I'm sure the customer complaints people would like that video footage of the cockwomble throwing the package
If you see my post previously up the thread, you'll see there's actually been a class-action over the brokerage fees. Someone having tossed scads of lawyers at UPS seems to have been rather more effective than embarrassing youtube videos.