What is LM customer service thinking?

[captain spaulding]

I sen't my Charge in to there Customer Service and when they send me the e-mail that it is being shipped back there is a tracking number. (Mind you i'm in California) It went from Oregon to Washington to California.  That's North to another state, backtrack back down through Oregon and into California. 

I figured that maybe the location in Washington was just across the border, but turns out its closer to Canada than Oregon? I'm just plain confused. Why would they do this?

[AimlessWanderer]

LM Customer Service is probably thinking (most of the time) how can we make more money other than just playing the popularity contest. Aside from that this sounds more like a postal issue - I can't imagine they sent it the scenic route on purpose. After 20 years in engineering I'm pretty sure there's more effective ways of stress relieving steels than sending it on a weekend away 

pssst - I'm in a strange mood tonight - been a long week 

[scrappy]

Definetly sounds like the shipping company. They usually route stuff to a regional distribution point (maybe in this case it is washington). Then packages are shipped by the truck load to geographic locations. I can't say for this shipper, but that is how it worked when I worked for old dominion and as a mail partner for the USPS

[Ashley]

Leatherman uses that god awful slow fedex smartpost crap! I hate that! Its picked up by fedex and they bounce it around a few places then its handed off to USPS. Now tell me why in the hell do all that instead of just using USPS in the first place?!?! It usually takes 10 days for me to get anything I order from Leatherman due to all the pointless bouncing!

Ash's mobile on the move.

[jerseydevil]

pssst - I'm in a strange mood tonight - been a long week 

And that's different from every other day how?      Ah, the scenic route for packages..... Ashley and I have both tracked some packages to each other that went through states that not only didn't border our respective states, they were PAST where they were supposed to go!  I remember a package where the tracking stated that it was coming from PA, heading to NYC and then to me.  I live almost exactly halfway between the City and the PA border.  That package PASSED me on RT 80 on its way to NYC to be sent back west to me.    Gotta love shipping companies.......

[enki_ck]

I win this game. One package to me from Netherlands to Croatia (so both in Europe) went sightseeing to China, Korea, Kazakhstan and THEN to me. FEDEX never again.

[trouthunter]

My recently package from Leatherman went to Chicago via DHL and then they handed it off to USPS.  Carriers like DHL handle large amounts of Mail from shippers.  Some how there is a cost saving in there.   It might be the USPS does not want to invest in the resources to large number package pickups.

[Mud Shrimp Moe]

Leatherman uses that god awful slow fedex smartpost crap! I hate that! Its picked up by fedex and they bounce it around a few places then its handed off to USPS. Now tell me why in the hell do all that instead of just using USPS in the first place?!?! It usually takes 10 days for me to get anything I order from Leatherman due to all the pointless bouncing!

FedEx is good at the long haul and USPS is better at the last several miles stuff. It's slow because they're using the cheapest service type and there's no rush on it rather than the Smartpost design, per se.

No shipping company makes money by moving things more than necessary. But sometimes they do move packages more miles going to hubs rather than as-the-bird-flies deliveries. This is because hub processing saves a lot of labor and other expenses.

[Flying Dutchman]

I am in CA also and my Wave took 7 days to get from OR to CA.....but I didn't really care because I got a new tool for $0. They are doing their customer a great service at no cost, so whatever costs they can save in the process I am OK with. I would hate to see other price increases due to next day air shipping on warranty returns

[turnsouth]

SmartPost works like this:

• FedEx has an operating agreement with the USPS wherein they allow USPS only items to piggyback on their flights in exchange for the USPS delivering FedEx packages to addresses from the closest distribution center.
• When you sign up for SmartPost, one of the cost saving things you agree to is having no say in what route the package takes.
• FedEx runs there air fleet just like a passenger airline runs their's, in that they try to stick to straight schedules as much as possible, while trying to keep every plane full.

So the likely reason that the Captain's package took such a strange route, was that after pickup the package size and weight were entered into a computer, and it generated an itinerary using existing flights that would be the most cost efficient.

[captain spaulding]

A Little  update. The package was delivered..........o wait it wasnt and the usps says it is.  I went to the store and all they said was come back on monday.  im so pissed right now i cant think straight. Probably why im posting this at 3:30am. Im going to go Bananas if they really think it got delivered and leathermans customer service believes them. 

[captain spaulding]

  

[captain spaulding]

Another sleepless night worrying about this bullsmurf!

[Grathr]

You usually have to sign for tracked packages, atleast here we have to. If they claim it is delivered, they should be able to show you a copy of the signature of the recipient.

Hopefully the LM will show up soon.

[Blitzwing]

that smart post is a big crock.. everytime I am forced to use it, it adds days to the delivery time over what either shipping company takes

[captain spaulding]

You usually have to sign for tracked packages, atleast here we have to. If they claim it is delivered, they should be able to show you a copy of the signature of the recipient.

Hopefully the LM will show up soon.

No need to sign for traceable packages in the U.S. It is a extra charge for signed delivery.

[captain spaulding]

Update:

   So I wen't to the post office today (Monday) and was told they called the carrier (my mailman) and he remembers delivering it on Saturday.  I told them that I checked my mail on Saturday before he even finished delivering the mail in my court and it was not there so obviously he did not deliver it to MY HOUSE. They told me there supervisor would look into it and call me later today.  I pulled up to my house and look who it is.......... my mailman.  I waited for him at my mailbox and told him about the situation. He responds with, yea I just talked to my supervisor about that. I delivered it Saturday and scanned it as delivered. I gave him a few choice words and explained to him that I would now have to eat the cost since Leathermans Customer Service will not believe the package was delivered to me and therefore i'm screwed. He just says, well...yea....uhhh.... I don't know.  Honestly I do believe it was delivered, but it sure wasn't to my house and if it was on my block and no one want's to return my package to me than that's just a shame and shows how smurfed up people are.
   Now for the good part of the story.  I called LM CS and explained the whole thing to a very kind lady named Beth. She looked at a few things on her computer and says it is actually quite common for this to happen with USPS since there Delivery requirements are much lower than UPS or like companies. She said she would send out a order to be approved for a new tool to be sent to me. She than asked me if UPS with signed delivery would be a better option to send it to me with. Its very nice knowing the level of CS coming out of that company. Top Notch so far in my book. Hopefully everything goes through and I get a replacement. I also hope if one of my neighbors got my tool and did not return it that they cut there damn finger off with it. Karma's a bitch and she hits hard.   

[Grathr]

Glad to hear that LM will send a replacement.   

[captain spaulding]

I don't feel like going over the rest of the story right now, but the package was found......somewhere and its home sweet home.

[Mud Shrimp Moe]

I don't feel like going over the rest of the story right now, but the package was found......somewhere and its home sweet home.

Did the USPS deliver it properly?

[gregozedobe]

I don't feel like going over the rest of the story right now, but the package was found......somewhere and its home sweet home.

That's good news, but please don't keep us in suspenders for too long .......

[captain spaulding]

Alright so the rest of the story goes like this. I was waiting on a call from the USPS supervisor which never came so I decided to call him myself. I explained everything and we brainstormed over the phone on the possibilities of what could have happened. He told me he would be looking into it and having a conversation with my mail carrier once he returned to the post office. I said thank you and good day. A hour or two go by and I had just begun forgetting about all the crap that had happened today when I received a call from the Supervisor. He nonchalantly says "we found your package, it's in your mail receptacle." I asked him what happened and he very vaguely says that it was delivered to a different (but similar) address and they recovered it and he would be having a conversation with the carrier. I'm not really sure if I believe the story though. I honestly think something else could of been going on. It just seems a little fishy to me that only after I speak with the supervisor and he speaks to my carrier (who I spoke to personally) that the package miraculously gets found. The package was delivered on a Saturday and found on Monday. My mail carrier looked me in the eyes and said he remembers delivering it to my mailbox which hes either lied about or just made up since they ''found'' it somewhere else.  Don't get me wrong its definitely possible and quite frankly would be more probably than what I am suggesting, but everything just doesn't add up for me. Anyways I got the package and called leatherman's customer service back since they were sending a replacement. I talked to Kim who actually helped Beth with my call earlier and let her know they found the package. She said it had already been sent out!!! Damn that's fast. She would try and stop the package before it leaves the sorting facility. I am happy the post office sorted it out and Leathermans CS handled it like a seasoned veteran. I have lost most hope and confidence in the Post Office, but that's a story for another time.

[gregozedobe]

It just seems a little fishy to me that only after I speak with the supervisor and he speaks to my carrier (who I spoke to personally) that the package miraculously gets found. The package was delivered on a Saturday and found on Monday. My mail carrier looked me in the eyes and said he remembers delivering it to my mailbox which hes either lied about or just made up since they ''found'' it somewhere else. 

Generally I find incompetence a more common cause than malfeasance, but in this case I think you might be right to be skeptical     

Stories like this are why I prefer to have insurance and a signature required for anything important or valuable - this seems to encourage carriers to take a bit more care (possibly because their bosses are more inclined to ask awkward questions when registered/insured items "go missing").

Full kudos to Leatherman though, gotta be happy with their efforts to make thing right for you.