Who can you trust to ship your photo and camera gear? Not FEDEX! What follows is the story of how FEDEX utterly screwed up my delivery and cost me over $1000.00 to get new gear and re-printing of all my workshop materials. Here’s the true to life story of how FEDEX screwed up my shipment and Why I’ll Never Use FEDEX Again to Ship My Camera Gear. The story begins in Irvine, California at the FEDEX delivery hub. I was teaching a Luxury Real Estate Workshop in NYC in early June 2017 and needed to ship out a ThinkTank Production Manager 40″….which weighed 60lbs. Following all the rules, I showed up at the FEDEX facility 1 hr. before the shipping drop-off deadline of 5:00 PM on a Tuesday. What follows is the story of how FEDEX screwed up my delivery and cost me over $1000.00 to by new gear and re-printing of all my workshop materials. A few things to know about FEDEX shipping/delivery options. a) Business delivery is delivered to the destination Monday thru Friday only. b) Home delivery is delivered Monday thru Saturday. Since my drop-off was on a Tuesday by their deadline….and 4 days was required for transit…I chose home delivery….which should have reached my destination by Saturday end of the day. I say should have because according to FEDEX this was their guarantee. Really FEDEX? … YOU SUCK! Everything was going according to plan….I followed all the shipping and deadline rules. But, on Friday morning at 8:00 AM, two of hours before my flight from LGB to JFK. I logged onto the FEDEX website to track my package … Much to my surprise, I saw that my shipment was scheduled to arrive by the end of the day Tuesday, June 6th instead of Saturday, June 2nd as promised. I thought….this must be some kind of weird mistake. But NO it wasn’t. If my gear showed up on Tuesday, June 6th, that meant all my gear would show up after my workshop was finished. Basically, I was screwed. I immediately called up FEDEX. They told me it was my mistake. That I had shipped it incorrectly. First, they told me that I didn’t meet the deadline. Then they told me that I did meet the deadline but that I was in the wrong line…in a FEDEX Express line. Then they said I was in the right line but that I shipped it business delivery…which I did not. And that the package wouldn’t be there until the Tuesday, June 6th by the end of the day. I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told that I couldn’t speak with a supervisor and that there was nothing that they could do for me. WTF? I wasn’t having any of that. So I call up the facility for where it was shipped from and was able to get a manager on the line, and this is what I learned…. The on-site manager at the Irvine depot said that her hands were tied but that she’d get back to me and see what she could do for me. About 30-45 mins. later she got back to me. This is what she told me: The driver who was picking up all the packages from the Irvine depot got an emergency call that his niece had been in a car accident and left the depot with all the packages except mine. My package spent an extra day sitting at the Irvine depot. The driver had screwed up. Hey, I feel for the guy. But we are talking about a multi-billion dollar, multinational Fortune 500 company, ranked #58 on the Fortune 500 list in 2017. You’d think that they have policies in place to prevent this? But they don’t. The on-site manager at the Irvine facility told me…..”It wasn’t until Wednesday at some time during that day that my package shipped…..and that the package was on a truck somewhere between Joplin, Missouri, and NYC.” She had spoken with the managers in both the Missouri and New Jersey depots and that there was nothing at all that could be done. Basically, I was F#cked! All my lighting gear, all my light stands, tripods, batteries, and all my printed materials for my two-day workshop would be delayed {and possibly lost} until after my workshop was over. I had just opened an account with FEDEX a couple weeks earlier. This was my first shipment ever with FEDEX. How could this happen? I was panicking. I needed to replace all my gear! I needed this essential gear to teach my workshop and also needed my books which I give each student. The first thing on my mind was that I needed to take care of my students. Luckily my workshop was in NYC. Imagine if it had been in Kansas or Montana? How would I have been able to replace my gear on such short notice? We landed in NYC on a Friday evening at 10:30 PM. Both Adorama and B&H camera are closed from the Sabbath from Friday sundown until Sunday morning. So, on Sunday morning, I walked into Adorama and plunked down $1000.00 for new gear. Renting the gear would have been $800. In my mind, spending $800 on a two-day rental was a complete waste of money. So I purchased all new gear. I BET YOU THINK YOUR COVERED BY YOU’RE INSURANCE … YOU’RE NOT! So here’s what I found out. FEDEX won’t do anything for you at all for a delayed shipment. They won’t pay for you to rent or buy new gear. Your insurance company doesn’t pay for delayed shipments either. My insurance policy is with a triple-A rated insurance company with a comprehensive business policy. My American Express Platinum which I pay $450 a year for doesn’t cover me for delayed shipments either. Only for lost airline luggage. Again I was F#cked. The key here is that the shipment wasn’t lost….it was delayed. It gets worse though. If FEDEX is to pay out anything….they will only pay the insured amount, that you’ve stated on your FEDEX shipping bill. And they get to keep the case and its contents that you shipped. But wait…it gets better…You have to prove that value of everything that was in your shipment. That’s right….you need to show proof of purchase and the receipt for EVERYTHING that’s in your case that you’ve shipped. They make it very difficult to get your money. And it’s a lengthy process that can take several months. How to Protect Yourself When Shipping Your Camera Gear Needless to say, I’ll never use FEDEX again. And before you go thinking that this is an isolated situation. I shipped another package from NYC to NJ and FEDEX proceeded to lose that package completely. In the end, my case finally arrived by the end of the day Tuesday, June 6th at my friend’s apartment in NYC, 4 days late!….When my workshop was completed and done. By that point, my case of gear was of no use to me. FEDEX ended up reimbursing my shipping costs both ways from CA -> NYC and from NYC->CA. But that was nothing compared to the stress, 2 hours on the phone with FEDEX, the time and $$$$ it cost me to replace all my gear. In the future, I intend to use UPS for my shipments. And have an extra case of gear ready to ship just in case.
About the Author
Marc Weisberg is an architectural and luxury real estate photographer. He owns and operates a successful Southern California based photography studio, founded in 2001, and is the founder of Luxury Real Estate Images. You can see more of his work on his website and his Instagram profile. Marc also teaches luxury real estate photography workshops, and you can attend the next one in Irvine, CA, from September 11th to September 13th, 2017. This article was also published here and shared with permission.
