FedEx missing deadlines on "overnight" shipments is not uncommon, I advise
everyone to ship dewars to arrive at least one extra day in advance.
Also, their online tracking page could be better. They show the original
expected delivery time even if the shipment has already missed an intermediate
transfer point. The delivery time does not get updated until the original
delivery time has been passed.
The multiple lost days and the international complication are unusual details
and I don't have any specific advice on that.
=======================================================================
All Things Serve the Beam
=======================================================================
David J. Schuller
modern man in a post-modern world
MacCHESS, Cornell University
[email protected]
________________________________
From: CCP4 bulletin board <[email protected]> on behalf of Savvas Savvides
<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2023 3:56 AM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Dry shipper in limbo
Dear Kevin,
A similar incident from just two weeks ago, in Europe in our case, was resolved
by travelling to the regional FedEx package collection/distribution center to
recover the dry-shipper in person. This involved gaining access to the FedEx
center and talking to the right people.
I would absolutely not wait this out because your shipment is probably
somewhere in the corner of a distribution center used as a seat by employees
taking a break. I can attest to the fact that they do have such corners where
“problematic" shipments are piled up!
Despite what you were told on the phone or could deduce from any online
tracking systems (in our case the dry-shipper was not even trackable), there is
still a (very good) chance that your shipment might still be at a regional
collection/distribution center.
The key is to get to any information about where this place might be, talk to
the local people, and find out what the actual route of the shipment might have
been after getting picked up from your lab. The routes often involve
intermediate collection/distribution sites.
To their credit, and in contrast to the general FedEx customer service, the
people at the regional FedEx distribution center (including the shift manager)
were very empathic and helpful, and used means that go above and beyond SOPs to
help. This included sharing photos of the shipment via WhatsApp with
drivers/employees of the three previous shifts etc… Despite the volumes of work
they handle, drivers and other courier employees actually do remember unusually
looking shipments, such as a shipping-case containing a dry-shipper!
Best of luck and wishes,
Savvas
On 28 Jul 2023, at 08:15, Savvas Savvides <[email protected]> wrote:
Best wishes,
Savvas
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Dr. Kevin M Jude" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Date: 28 July 2023 at 05:16:39 CEST
To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: [ccp4bb] Dry shipper in limbo
Reply-To: "Dr. Kevin M Jude" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
My first adventure in international crystallography is off to an inauspicious
start. On Monday, I sent a dry shipper “overnight” from California to
Saskatchewan, but it has been stuck in the Memphis FedEx facility for a few
days. I’ve gotten several conflicting explanations of the status from FedEx on
the phone, but the most likely seems that it has “pre-cleared” customs and yet
has not yet made it to Calgary. It’s not clear whether anyone actually knows
where the shipping case is, since I was asked to give a physical description of
it. Is there anything else I can do from a few thousand miles away, or do I
just have to wait this out?
--
Kevin Jude, PhD
Structural Biology Research Specialist, Garcia Lab
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Stanford University School of Medicine
Beckman B177, 279 Campus Drive, Stanford CA 94305
Phone: (650) 723-6431<tel:%28650%29%20723-6431>
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