UPS Serious Warning and Advice Needed

vigman

My daughter is starting out as a fashion designer. On Wednesday 25th March early in the morning she received a call from an American A List Star's stylist to send two small items to New York. This was a chance in a lifetime!

Only problem they HAD to be in NY by lunchtime the next day (Thursday 26th).

The only people who could promise this were UPS using their Express Plus service.

The items were prepared in a shoe box size container and all paperwork (eg CN22 forms as these were a gift and not a sale) prepared.

At 3pm the UPS driver appeared to collect the parcel. He did not have the paperwork with him to stick on the parcel. We told him how urgent this was and he said he would be back at 5pm.

He collected the parcel at 5pm. It should have been despatched for NY flight at 7pm.

On Thursday morning we checked the tracking AND THE PACKAGE WAS STILL IN THE DEPOT.

After I had calmed down enough to talk, we were advised that the paperwork was not handed in on time!!!!!!:mad::mad:

This once in a lifetime chance was lost so their offer of sending it the next day was meaningless.

Apart from getting the money back, what actions can we take for possible losing thousands of pounds of sales through lost publicity?

Also can anyone recommend another next day to the US from the UK courier, please?

This is a top 5 female A list person who would have been seen wearing my daughter's designs and UPS ruined this for her!

I want everyone to know how useless UPS are

TIA Vigman

Zinger549

I don't really think there is a lot you can do. Even if it had got on the plane there could have been other delays. I think you'll just have to take the refund and look at other options for next time.

hollydays

I don't know much about couriers but it was possibly worth spending a lot more and using a specialist courier. You can't claim for " possible " losses.
As this was so time critical, personally I wouldn't have accepted his offer to return with the paperwork.

Marktheshark

Unless the A Lister" signs a model release form, the only opportunity is one of giving away free stuff to a free loader.
You can not use the "stars" image to link to your products, even in the UK the Rhinna T shirt row killed that idea off.

hollydays

It's about publicity

Marktheshark

It's about how you harvest that publicity, the A lister's image will be a trademarked image right.
You can not say hay look they endorse our products because they wore them.
The second you link that product to that star the lawyers in the USA are straight on your back wanting big money, real big money.

hollydays

Im sure she knows that, you are putting words in her mouth.
It's usually done in the press.

Marktheshark

Just pointing out the pitfalls here, having "done a bit" on such things, unless she has registered the design with the USPTO which can take two years they might have done her a favour.
Celeb walks down the cat walk in a nifty outfit which is not USPTO registered and the sewing machines will be at work within the hour in the Asian textile factorys and the USPTO registration filed in the hour on a "similar" design.

Unless you have your design registered as a unique product USPTO , which may well be so.

vigman

Others celebs (including a new one being filmed today!) kindly allow personal connection to my daughter's products. They also provide quotes and endorsements for the website and other promotional material.

If the items had been seen worn by this star the designer always gets credited in magazines and websites and the publicity would have been priceless.

Only UPS offered the possibility of getting the items to NY by the next lunchtime from the UK and we paid £112.20 for the shoebox sized package using their Express Plus service.

I do realise that there could have been a hold up in the States, but at least UPS would have done their bit by getting it there in the first place.

I would love MSE folk to recommend anyone else with super fast, efficient UK-US courier service.

TIA

Vigman

vigman

hollydays wrote: »

I don't know much about couriers but it was possibly worth spending a lot more and using a specialist courier. You can't claim for " possible " losses.
As this was so time critical, personally I wouldn't have accepted his offer to return with the paperwork.
I'd also add that other people's PR should be handled very carefully..forums aren't really the place for it.
Well done to your talented daughter.its not the first time she's had good press though ..

Thanks, all good points. He wasn't even going to come back that day until we told him how important this was (and was an Express Plus next day guaranteed service) and UPS assured us that with a 5pm collection it would still get the 7pm delivery to the airport. With only 2 hours to go we could not restart the courier selection service.

UPS found it hard to grasp the 'next day' implication of their specialist service when saying "Sorry, we'll send it tomorrow"!

I really wanted to use the Vents and Warnings forum to highlight this error on UPS's part. This is their specialist area and they failed to deliver with devastating consequences for us and I would like MSE folk to know about this.

I also want to know of better firms who offer the same service, please?

Thanks

Vigman

PS (PM sent)

dacouch

That would take some going to get a parcel collected from Abingdon at 5pm onto a flight at 7pm even if the airport was fairly local and the UPS courier was near the end of his round