UPS Stolen Parcel From Their Depot

VHSVideoGuy

Hi, new here and gotta say I'm absolutely steamin'.
UPS Scanned my parcel into a UK depot on 11th Dec after a couple of it will be delivered today... No it won't, they informed me it was whereabouts unknown.
After the worst customer service I could ever imagine 'answers to questions I didn't ask'  'questions I asked unanswered' I've decided I need to find a different way to look at this...
I am thinking of legal advice or private investigators? 
This is no ordinary parcel it contains 100 VHS recordings of Italian music TV shows from 30 years ago plus two unique irreplaceable camera tapes and weighs a hefty 13kg not something you lose easily!
Given that it seems to be common knowledge they were short staffed over Xmas and they have several thousand undelivered parcels in warehouses that it stands to reason my parcel may still be 'somewhere'
So... How do I get these people arrested or at least made to answer for their crime? 

MattMattMattUK

VHSVideoGuy said:

Hi, new here and gotta say I'm absolutely steamin'.
UPS Scanned my parcel into a UK depot on 11th Dec after a couple of it will be delivered today... No it won't, they informed me it was whereabouts unknown.
After the worst customer service I could ever imagine 'answers to questions I didn't ask'  'questions I asked unanswered' I've decided I need to find a different way to look at this...
I am thinking of legal advice or private investigators? 

What you are entitled to is set out under their terms of carriage, you do not need to take legal advice, just read those. No point in paying a PI, they will not be allowed inside a UPS depot, nor given access to anything more than you have yourself.

VHSVideoGuy said:

This is no ordinary parcel it contains 100 VHS recordings of Italian music TV shows from 30 years ago plus two unique irreplaceable camera tapes and weighs a hefty 13kg not something you lose easily!

Was it insured?

VHSVideoGuy said:

Given that it seems to be common knowledge they were short staffed over Xmas and they have several thousand undelivered parcels in warehouses that it stands to reason my parcel may still be 'somewhere'

It has to be somewhere, where that somewhere is is the question. It may turn up, but it is unlikely that it will now, although I have had courier packages turn up in some cases more than a year later (my business sends several thousand a year, so the sample size is large).

VHSVideoGuy said:

So... How do I get these people arrested or at least made to answer for their crime? 

You cannot. Something being lost does not mean it was stolen, someone can only be arrested for a criminal offense on the basis of reasonable suspicion and evidence, not just because something was lost. If there is no theft then it is a loss or incompetence which is not a crime.

The key thing will be to claim any value for this shipment against the insurance you put on the consignment. Apart from that there is little that you can do, other than to hope that the consignment turns up eventually. 

VHSVideoGuy

So basically I have no rights? 
The parcel is valued for insurance at £50, I think, I mean how do I put a value on items that are unique but not exactly popular?
I currently have three parcels sitting here waiting to be sent to Europe but I dare not send them until this is resolved. 
I've been doing this hobby in one form or another since 1985 and I've never lost a parcel I've always paid for tracked for that reason. 

user1977

No, you don't have "no rights", you have the right to the value of the goods lost - which unfortunately for you, will be whatever 100 second hand VHS tapes are worth. And will be capped at £50 if that's all you had insured for.

sheramber

Your thread title states 'stolen'.

 What proof do you have that is has been stolen?   It might well be sitting in a warehouse somewhere with a pile of other undelivered parcels.

Aylesbury_Duck

VHSVideoGuy said:

So basically I have no rights? 
The parcel is valued for insurance at £50, I think, I mean how do I put a value on items that are unique but not exactly popular?
I currently have three parcels sitting here waiting to be sent to Europe but I dare not send them until this is resolved. 
I've been doing this hobby in one form or another since 1985 and I've never lost a parcel I've always paid for tracked for that reason. 

No, that's incorrect.  You have a right to the return of the items or equivalent compensation as set out in your contract.  If you valued the consignment at £50 then you can't belatedly claim they were worth more, so that's the maximum compensation for the items.

Undervalued

VHSVideoGuy said:

So basically I have no rights? 
The parcel is valued for insurance at £50, I think, I mean how do I put a value on items that are unique but not exactly popular?
I currently have three parcels sitting here waiting to be sent to Europe but I dare not send them until this is resolved. 
I've been doing this hobby in one form or another since 1985 and I've never lost a parcel I've always paid for tracked for that reason. 

Sorry but if these things have a demonstrable value as collectables, then you should have had them sent by a service that offers insurance to their true value.

Obviously there has to be a limit on the payout for a lost parcel. Suppose you had sent £10K of jewellery as a £10 parcel, would your really expect it to be fully covered? 

Theft, requires the intent to permanently deprive somebody of their property. You have no proof that has happened.

screech_78

Struggling to take this one seriously. 

Accusing UPS of theft, although there’s no evidence of that. 

Considering a private investigator. 

Wanting someone to be arrested. 

It’s all a bit dramatic. 

tightauldgit

VHSVideoGuy said:

So basically I have no rights? 
The parcel is valued for insurance at £50, I think, I mean how do I put a value on items that are unique but not exactly popular?
I currently have three parcels sitting here waiting to be sent to Europe but I dare not send them until this is resolved. 
I've been doing this hobby in one form or another since 1985 and I've never lost a parcel I've always paid for tracked for that reason. 

You have rights. But the rights are determined by your agreement with the courier and consumer law. You sent something, it got lost, they should compensate you for the agreed value of the items up to the maximum value specified. 

No crime has been committed as far as we are aware. 

If you've never had a parcel lost in nearly 40 years then you've been very lucky. It's a reasonably common occurrence which is why it's important to make sure things are insured for their value. 

I'm afraid to say that if the courier has told you it's lost then that's the matter resolved. As annoying as that might be

VHSVideoGuy

My hobby involves digitising rare tapes from around the world at my expense, I get to use the footage on my YouTube and sometimes get my alias on cd/dvd covers, I make nothing from it, if I put a price on each tape say £1000 how much import cost do I have to pay? Too much... I have three parcels sitting here waiting to go to Europe 70 unique tapes between them do I insure them for £70,000? It's not practical, I just do not understand how this is allowed to happen?
And a bit dramatic... Yeah you're right but when ya backs against the wall how are you supposed to react? 

Gavin83

You can’t just make up a value. They’ll ask for evidence of their worth should they go missing, especially if you were to ask for £70k. I think you’d struggle with the suggestion a VHS tape is worth £1k. As you pointed out you’d need to declare the value anyway and therefore pay the correct duty on it. Into the U.K. that would be 20% (so £14k on £70k worth of goods) and for goods into Europe it would be dependant on that country.

It’s all irrelevant anyway. You insured it for £50 so that’s the maximum claim. I expect there’s a maximum insurance value too which may well be way below £70k. You’d probably need a specialist delivery company for that but of course that would come at a premium.

It’s lost, no one is getting arrested for a missing parcel. You never know it may well turn up at some point. Like you I suspect they’ve got a stack of undelivered parcels somewhere and there’s still the potential for delivery.