"Dark Realm Miniatures Stock: Missing" Topic

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Thats horrible- is UPS even owning up to it or are they sluffing it off as 'your problem'? I know I have had friends who have been shafted by UPS in similar ways and they seem to be keen on passing the buck.

Wow, that's a lot of lead! Was it being sent overseas?

"If you do see DRM miniatures being sold by anyone other than Wargames Warehouse at U.K. shows, Heritage Studios in the U.S., or ourselves, then you are buying stolen goods which we cannot even guarantee you will receive as it's not from someone we have given permission to sell our product range."

Well, that's not necessarily true. Anyone can legitimately buy these models, then sell them. I recently ordered some direct from Dark Realm because I think they look great, but if I get them and have a change of heart, up onto eBay they will go. That doesn't mean I'm Colonel Mustard in the Drawing Room with the canglestick.

Also, no one in their right mind would ever expect anyone other than the seller to guarantee receipt of the products sold by the seller.

By the way, a canglestick is a Kraytonian torture device.

UPS employee here. First off, an apology on the part of my company.

If PART of the parcel is missing it is more than likely in a pile under a grating or in a tote in the overgoods department.

I highly doubt it was stolen. In my center we have to go through a guard shack where we are gone over with a metal detector and searched thoroughly. Getting that much metal out of the building would be impossible.

Unfortunately, the UPS system allows for packages to be damaged from time to time. When that happens sometimes freight gets scattered around on conveyor belts/floors/under gratings and it takes time to gather/sweep it up and send it to the overgoods dept. In this case, with the uniquity of the product, I wouldn't think it would be too hard to track it down.

I have gathered from previous threads that UPS has a bad rep. with some people but I can assure you that UPS takes this kind of thing VERY serioulsy and the matter of theft even more so. Apologies again and I hope that everything works out for the best…

Will

Seems to be a LOT of this going around, or at least getting reported; first Palladium, now this…someone better get a hammer and nail down their stock before it marches out the door…

Canglestick! Thats got a very 'pulp' feel to it. I wonder what sinister plan can be carried out with one. Maybe the head of the UPS has a canglestick?

If the head of UPS gives you his canglestick, in twelve US states that means you're legally married.

Firstly, thanks to Bill for running that story so fast – its good to get it out just before Salute!

I should point out that I copied & pasted the majority of the news item from Dark Realms site to save time.

It was an inland stock movement within the UK – from temporary holding at my place (Mercenary Brush HQ) to DRM's actual distribution point.

UPS have had 10 days to do thier searches since the stuff first went missing.

They've confirmed that its not standing in either sorting office, or in the OverGoods department. They've now put their own security on the case. Without saying it in so many words, the Lady dealing with this case has said she can't see how this package would have come apart without being noticed & reported prior to delivery, and implied she thinks its been pinched somehow.

Its only after receiving this information that we decided it was well worth posting the news – I dont believe this happens regularly with UPS at all, and do not mean it to scare others away from their service. I'm still hopeful it will turn up.

@ LarryDunn: Indeed you are correct, small auctions are quite possible at this time. However, with the small quantities currently in circulation, it should be quite obvious if anyone starts listing the 700 odd blisters which are currently missing.

Oh, and how do youknow about the Canglestick??? (We might have to use that… ;) )

Cheers,
Paul "Tuffskull" T.
mercenarybrush.com

It's for reasons like this and a multitude of others that I don't use UPS unreliable services anymore.

Red3- no worries- I always remind myself that people are not the company and the company is not the people. I have no doubt that UPS has some good fellows in its ranks- the one guy who used to bring me stock at the store I managed was always helpful and there was never a problem. It's when things do go wrong that I've noticed the problem in service but thats life in a lot of companies.

No offense to Red3 above, I have not had good experience with UPS. They have destroyed my packages and not paid out on the insurance. They have also mis-delivered packages to me and neglected to pick them up.

Terrible.
-Steve

What can brown do for you?

I worked for UPS for a few years and I don't have a lot of nice things to say about the company… I think the majority of the workforce there are good and honest people… but employee morale was always pretty low… and that bled over into the service levels.

Out of curiousity, if you sent 700 blisters of miniatures, you insured it didnt you? That represents a lot of money and I can't imagine not insureing it.

I had an order of metal minis come from 193 miles away…from MONGOOSE warehouse in Kettering Ohio…and the package was OPENED…and two of the three items WERE REMOVED. The 'missing items' were in plastic 'baggies'..while the final item was in a regular mongoose plastic container IN box…The packing slip and the packing (other than what was 'trapped' on the back side of the box by the third item was also missing and box 'reclosed'…NOT 'resealed'…

I filed complaint with UPS and got an 'apology'…etc, etc, yada, yada, yada…'we'll investigate'…etc…

I described the missing parts so their folks could 'search' for them???? They said they'd get 'back to me'…both times I called them to inquire on the 'search'…

NOTHING…

Mongoose replaced the parts/items…(this is NOT the first time they've HAD to replace an order via UPS to me in Ohio)…but I'm STILL torqued at UPS. 193 flipping miles????

AND…by the way…I have the package the 'replacement parts' were sent in. Mongoose rep SEALED THAT SUCKER GOOD!

So, the lable looks like somebody took a belt sander to it…TRYING to 'make it illegible'…(ooops, don't know who it goes to…guess we'll have to keep it???) but it still made it…UNOPENED this time.

Mongoose has been super about replacing 'lost items' or resolving 'damaged/duplicated/left out parts' etc…always has been…

But UPS is on my 'ick' list…(along with USPS)…

I am SO tired of paying for a 'service' that was never rendered, and then told it was my 'problem' because I didn't insure/(pay extortion)…to guarentee they did the jobs I originally paid the postage/shipping FOR!

IF I pay for a service…(delivery of mail to someone or a product to me)…I consider it UNFINISHED until I get what was sent or reimbursed for it AND the 'postage/shipping'.

But the USPS/UPS both 'disagree'…they will not reimburse shipping costs because they 'rendered the service'…even if I never got the mail/package????

That's like paying a cook for a cheeseburger that THEY eat or gets 'dropped' on the way to my table…and thrown away/fed to the dogs? I still have to 'pay' for the cheeseburger I DIDN'T get???

Resturants don't do that…and paying for something you DON'T get…is sorta one of those things we don't 'accept' in modern society…EXCEPT for 'shipping' like USPS/UPS.

I'm so FLIPPING 'tired' of apologies and 'we take this seriously'…and 'we successfully deliver hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail/packages successfully every day' and 'statistically' our losses are low/'acceptible'…etc.

No, they are NOT 'acceptible'…Not when it keeps happening over and over and over to me, personally.

I KNOW I'm not the only one it does happen to, and it 'hurts' folks like Dark Realms as much in their own way as the loss of a single item does for me…

In my mind…it's nothing less than 'theft/piracy'…because the stuff HAS to go somewhere! Wherever 'dead letters' or 'stuff that falls out' of packages at UPS centers' goes…it's NOT coming back to me. I'm sure they don't just 'throw it away' and I sure as heck haven't heard of any 'auctions/chances for 'regular folks' to bid on 'lost and found' items…so SOMEBODY has got a nice 'deal' going on somewhere.

I'm sure that there are a lot of nice/honest USPS and UPS employees out there and the corporations as a whole are not 'rotten scoundrels', etc…

BUT…I've talked to the regional UPS folks AND National USPS and they simply refer me back to the local folks who take reports that I NEVER hear back on…other than 'nothing was found'…'we're still investigating'…

and then….silence…as per usual….

Why should I always HAVE to pay 'insurance' to MAKE someone do their job? I thought that's what the postage/shipping costs 'covered'. And even if I insure…they STILL don't reimburse the shipping costs and try to MAKE you 'prove' the item was 'worth' the amount???

Gee…when I try to make them 'prove' they 'tried'…I'm REQUIRED to 'believe them'?? but not the other way around?????

Ok…should have leaped over to Rantingm board…(forgive me Bill)…

But I don't like it…and I am going to keep telling USPS and UPS and whomever anytime it happens…when it does happen…(as it has, does and continue to do)…that I don't think it's fair or right or 'legal'…but other than wishing for someone to find an carniverous alien shapeshifter to 'pretend' to be a package…and keep shipping it around until it EATS ALIVE any/all 'tampering pilfering clerks/workers'…I don't have much choice other than not to ship stuff or buy stuff that has to be shipped!

That just plain SUCKS!

I think I'll go lay down and 'fantasize' about pilfering postal workers/brown-shirted clerks screaming in agony as the box they tried to open opens THEM instead and EATS THEM ALIVE…leaving just a wet spot on the floor…and a packatge that gets to it's destination…making odd 'burping noises'….

Carpe' Tentacle'um,
Sgt DWW

Someone should start a map of postal complaints. Then we can see if they cluster around certain distribution centers. And then we can send them a message telling them they should investigate this mess.

The other week it was on the news about a UPS guy in Wisconsin who got a few years in prison…he was found guilty of stealing an estimated million dollars worth of stuff he was suppossed to deliver and got busted selling it on ebay. The stuff was to be delivered in Gurnee, IL where there is a huge mall.

===If you do see DRM miniatures being sold by anyone other than Wargames Warehouse at U.K. shows, Heritage Studios in the U.S., or ourselves, then you are buying stolen goods which we cannot even guarantee you will receive as it's not from someone we have given permission to sell our product range.===

This is wrong on another level too. "If you SEE DRM miniatures being sold…then you ARE BUYING stolen goods."

So is SEEING the same as BUYING? I think not.

Cheers,

Pro…

"This is wrong on another level too. "If you SEE DRM miniatures being sold…then you ARE BUYING stolen goods."

So is SEEING the same as BUYING? I think not."

You know what he meant. The rest of us did.

It's angering when shipments have problems and even worse when it appears someone is stealing. I think most people have probably experienced some sort of problem with parcel shipments.

I'll let some of you in on a little secret… the "big three" private companies that do consumer shipping don't handle it all themselves. Both FedEx and DHL have co-op contracts with USPS. What happens when UPS can't fit all their shipments on their tiny fleet of planes? They call the USPS.

The USPS in one month time handles the combined total parcel shipments of UPS and FedEx from one year.

Anybody that thinks they're escaping a certain shipping company, like a previous poster seems to think, is wrong.

I doubt seriously anything was stolen!

Rabbit

Virtualscratchbuilder

===You know what he meant. The rest of us did.===

Of course I knew what he meant. He's just not using the correct wording.

Pro…

Just an update.

After being told two days ago we would have to fill out a claims form, we were contacted yesterday to imform us that the package has been found. I am not sure how it could be missed with the amount of people searching for it in two depos but it was delivered today and thats all that matters for the moment.
Hopefully I am not speaking too soon but we are just making sure everything is there.

I doubt seriously anything was stolen!

Rabbit

In this case I am glad you are right no matter how strange this situation has been.