I’m fairly new to OF and watch collecting, but not so new to shipping valuable things like art and vintage fishing tackle—and recently had a pretty bad experience that I think is worth sharing, and which has a few important takeways for anyone shipping expensive things. Especially, now, during the merry season of porch and lobby thieves.

In my case, a gallery in Paris that I work with shipped two boxes of an art installation that is based on an archive of very rare fishing flies—and the archive includes correspondence, photographs, tying notes, materials charts, and so on—stuff that doesn’t look valuable—or even recognizable --as art. I spent four years working on this project. The value was many tens of thousands of dollars. While insurance and insurance values are important considerations, insurance doesn’t replace what was lost and is irreplaceable. A new watch can usually be replaced, for example, but not a one-of-a-kind vintage watch. The real issue is ensuring the packages arrive safely in the hands of the people to whom they are destined. Insurance and insurance claims require a different thread. This post is more about deliveries.

When Fed Ex arrived at my 30-unit condo building in Chicago, instead of taking the boxes to the mailroom, which is behind two locked doors, the Fed Ex deliveryman left them in the lobby inside the front door. Without getting a signature. Shortly later, when our USPS mailman exited the building, he did not realize he was being tracked--and someone slipped in the door he had opened--walked into the lobby, pulled his hoodie over his head, picked up the packages with the archive, exited the building, put them in his car parked out front, and drove on his merry way.

If you want to read more about the archive, you can here on fly-tying forum I frequent: https://www.sparsegreymatter.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14219

CCTV captured it all.

The CCTV screenshots (via iPhone) below show the Fed Ex delivery, the perpetrator walking out with the same boxes, and exiting onto the street. To the police in Chicago, this is a petty matter--at least in the context of our astonishing crime and murder rates. But what bothers me, amid all the talk about 'porch thefts' is the fact that USPS and Fed Ex enabled this theft through their own carelessness and neglect: Fed Ex by not taking the packages to the mail room where they would be secure, and failing to get a signature; and USPS by letting a stranger into the building.

Some takeaways:

1) Fed Ex will sometimes say they have your signature “on file” and see no reason to ever ask again for a signature. Make sure this is not the case for you—insist on signatures at all times.
2) Follow the tracking carefully while your packages are moving through the system—don’t let a package sit for hours, let alone days—try to meet the delivery person if at all possible. The guy who stole my stuff had a refined routine—wait for mailman to go in building with packages, then enter when he exited. It was just his luck the Fed Ex guy had been there earlier with my packages and left them in the lobby.
3) Don’t expect the police to help much. In my case we have a lot of CCTV footage showing both the perpetrator, and his getaway car. With pretty basic computer enhancement technology his license plate could be made legible—but despite filing a police report and making clear I have all this evidence, the police are totally unmoved. Over 3500 people were shot in Chicago in 2017—that’s over 20 people per day—the energy goes there, not into package thieves, even when the theft is classifiable as a felony.

The real trick is to do everything you can to ensure you get your packages arrive in the hands intended. You don’t want to go through insurance nightmares, or ask the police for help—what are you going to do if you find your stolen stuff on e-Bay or Craig’s List? It’s dizzying just thinking about possible scenarios getting played out.

If anyone has suggestions for getting the police to act, I'm all ears. But as far as recovering the stuff is concerned--I'm afraid it's probably in a dumpster now.

mm


Fed Ex guy making delivery: the bottom two boxes are the archive. Instead of going through the locked second set of doors in the background, he left the packages on a bench beside them (note to Condo association board: remove bench).



Perpetrator making his move:




Perp's exit onto the street; his car is in the background:

 

Sorry to hear about the theft. However, when you say this:

Fed Ex will sometimes say they have your signature “on file” and see no reason to ever ask again for a signature. Make sure this is not the case for you—insist on signatures at all times.

I am somewhat skeptical. When one ships with FedEx and chooses "signature required", I have never seen or previously heard of an instance in which the excuse mentioned was used. In other words, no signature "on file" could possibly be a reasonable substitute for a signature required in order to confirm a chain of custody. If a signature is required by the shipper, an actual person must sign for the parcel.

 

Very sorry for the ordeal you have had to go through OP. I had a very similar experience with FedEx when I lived in Southwest DC during my younger days. I was able to offcourse get a full 100% refund but the item wasn't pricey to begin with. Hope you hear good news from cops soon and get your things back.

 

I'm only going by the facts as known: Fed Ex does use "signature release on file" as an excuse to deliver a package without getting a signature--regardless if the sender requests it (note edited to remove tracking number)



Even when deliveries require a signature by law (with the delivery of alcohol, when someone over 21 must sign for it), they don't always follow their own rules--yesterday a case of wine was left inside the front door of my building.

But again, this is Chicago.....

 

I'm not. I have had parcels left at the door with "signature release on file" many times. I just looked through some tracking notifications and it didn't take long to find this one...

"Sign for by: Signature Release on file"

These are parcels sent via ParcelPro, and a signature requirement is mandatory. There are particular instances where having a signature requirement on the parcel means nothing...in the one year I checked through I had 8 parcels sent that had the "signature release on file" as the message where it was supposed to be signed for by a person.

The other one I fear is when it says this:

"Sign for by: .FEDEX"

Often meaning they didn't get any signature, and they just left it on the doorstep. One of the problems is when conflicting rules clash, and the FedEx driver just does what he's supposed to do. It's not always the case, but I am very aware that requiring a signature doesn't mean you will get one.

This is why I now emphasize to my customers that if they are not going to be at their residence to accept the shipment, that they pick an alternate location (such as a workplace) where someone will sure to be there to accept the package, or they tell me the closest FedEx depot, and I'll have it held there for pick-up.

Certainly not, but it does prevent the situation from being a "total loss" so I do hope you had this shipment fully insured. Sorry to hear of this happening...

Cheers, Al

 

YES!--this is really excellent advice.

 

I don't understand this at all, unless the recipient is able to override the sender's instructions (and I assume, Al, that you have left no such instruction). I don't doubt that some FedEx drivers are careless, and make decisions that are arguably illegal, but if the sender requires a signature for delivery, there should be no options for the driver other than to actually get a signature from a person, or take the parcel back to the depot.

 

Well, you should be aware that this is not at all the case...

 

Then please explain how that might be legally possible. If the shipper chooses an "adult signature required", and the recipient has no override option (or none in place), then what does "signature on file" mean?

 

Thinking it’s a bit harsh on the USPS dude, building security probably never entered his mind.

 

Tough crowd here, it seems. But let me say this: if you're a mailman working the west side of Chicago, you think security (usually your own) every step of your delivery route--. But by 4:30 after a day of concentrating, I'll concede that simple fatigue could come into play. The general Chicago modus operandi is: you don't let anyone follow you into a building, or enter when you exit. The question is if you want to challenge a guy who's about 6' 4" and 275 pounds--which is a different matter.

 

Tony - please understand I am not going to argue with you on this, so if you want to dig in an insist this isn't possible, then so be it but I won't answer after this. I am just stating my experiences as a shipper who has sent thousands of parcels by FedEx, not as a recipient.

As a recipient I make a point of being very nice to all the people who deliver parcels to me. I recently had a change in FedEx drivers, but the previous driver I had his cell number and if I wasn't there he would call me, and we would make arrangements for him to swing by later or hold until the next day. The person who delivers my mail, and the person in charge of my local post office both understand what I do for a living, and they know not to leave stuff at my door.

If you look on the door tag that FedEx will stick on your door, there is (or used to be) an option to check a box and have the driver leave the parcel at the door when they come back, and this is the signature release. My guess is that if you or anyone at that address in the past has ever checked that box, then they will drop the parcel at your doorstep. In every case this has happened to me I've asked the recipient specifically if they have checked this box in the past, and the answer almost universally comes back as no. That's your cue, so feel free to take it.

But there are other situations where the rules conflict, and the signature request will be ignored. For example here in Canada FedEx has a rule that if a parcel is below a specific value, even if it has a signature requirement they can leave it at the door without a signature. That is what the "Sign for by: .FEDEX" typically indicates in my experience. ParcelPro has a rule that all parcels shipped with them will have a value of "$0" on the label. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that no matter what signature requirement you put on the parcel, if it says the value is zero, the driver isn't going to come back another day if the rules allow him to just leave it. I know for a fact that the drivers are almost always pressed for time and the routes they have mean they have to keep moving.

If you believe me or not I really don't care, but after having shipped as many parcels as I have, I can tell you with certainty that relying on that signature requirement is not a good idea.

Cheers, Al

 

Have you gone to the local news with this , papers TV. Make a good story and would enlighten many to the theft. Might even get enough interest to help you get them returned.

Can see the headline

Thief steals flies

 

Ha, yes, exactly--I have been emailing various news stations and museum colleagues with muscle-power about this for the past day or so--also trying to get friends to post about it on social media--. Trying, trying, trying--. But your point is a good one.

 

Hi Al (and all) –

I just spoke with a FedEx supervisor, and received a clear answer.

When the "Adult signature" option is chosen by the shipper, the driver has ONLY two choices: they either identify that the person receiving the parcel is an adult, get their signature, and hand over the parcel, or, if there is no adult present, bring the parcel back to the depot. Period.

If, however, the "direct signature required" option is chosen by the shipper, the recipient then DOES have the ability to override with a "signature on file" command, releasing drivers from the responsibility for handing the parcel over to a person, and freeing them to leave parcels unattended.

This is apparently a clear distinction, at least from FedEx's standpoint, though I would certainly argue that it could be very confusing to shippers who are not well experienced. In fact, I've had an account for over 20 years and was not aware of the important distinction.

So, what I infer is that the OP chose the "direct signature" option, and would not have experienced the problem had the "adult signature" option been chosen.

Now, it may well be the case that there are occasional problems even when the latter option is chosen (though I've never experienced one), but in those cases the driver would be responsible, and presumably FedEx would feel pressure to compensate for any related losses.

There may, of course, be different rules in countries outside of the U.S.

 

Update: Fed Ex did it again today--signature was required, emphatically. So what did the delivery guy do? Falsified the signature, and threw the packages inside the door on the ground quite close to the door:



All shipping companies have their weak links--here in Chicago, it's the last10 meters that are everything.

I hate Fed Ex right now.

 

My house has a gate and fence without access to the front door without going through and they are always locked. There is a "doorbell" on the front gate but my fedex guy doesn't even bother attempting delivery anymore even if I am home. I just end up re-routing all fedex packages to a fedex store for pickup but I guess it is better than what these jokers are doing.

 

I purchased a $10K printer for a bank I worked at it sent FedEx freight and they delivered it to the wrong address. But wait, it gets better. So, instead of shipping it to 117 North 9th st. they sent it to South 9th st. Which was obviously a vacant house complete with broken windows and boarded up doors in a neighborhood that could be termed the ghetto. Just left it on the front porch, because this was clearly a bank.

Just though sheer serendipity one of our vendor's employees owned some property next door noticed the box on the at the vacant house investigated and recognized my name and reached out to me the next day.

To rub salt on the situation the guy receiving an ass chewing, from mainly my boss, said and I quote "It sounds like your getting lippy with me, would you like me to come there" so my boss yells, "ya, and bring the printer too, now let me talk to your supervisor". While my boss was ripping into the supervisor I got the same vendor on the phone and just asked if we could pay them to go pick it up for us and install it. Done and done. They were more than happy.