The UPS Store 1453

All right, you click this video is not sponsored by anybody, but I am going to make a plea to you Even if you t So safety nets are incredibly important. Now if you are new here, I'm going to take a minute and just catch you up to what my prior viewers would already know. When the M11P Safari came out, I sold my M11 and another camera kit entirely to get the M11P Safari, mostly for two reasons. One, it's brass and therefore it's going to age as I use it. And two, and the most important reason, it is that olive green, my all-time favorite color. I mean, if you are a viewer of t So it's I believe the M11 is a timeless digital camera. And of course, you're not going to use that camera for 30 or 40 years, but I do t I've made that case above. So I had no issue buying a really nice And after having that camera for about a month and a half, the frame selector arm fell off the camera. Now I made a video about that. I'm going to link it right above so you can see it if you want. But regardless, I don't want to rehash the broken camera part. The important part of that story is that Leica was going to repair it and get it back to me. Thankfully, Leica USA sent me a loaner camera to use in the meantime. So I received that loaner camera, and then I went to s What should be just And honestly, guys, it has sucked the energy out of me for the last two weeks. So here's the timeline. I received a black M11P loaner from Leica the week of July 7th. And at the end of that week, on July 11th, I took my Leica M11P Safari and I packaged it up according to Leica's guidelines with the repair form. No battery included in the box. So it's just the camera, no accessories, not even a battery in the camera, w I got the whole t Now this is an important detail because I actually have a PO box at that UPS store that I use as my business for shipping, receiving I just use the UPS store because they sign for everyt They know me in there. They know what I do. They know the amount of stuff that comes through that UPS store box, w So I took my camera into the UPS store in the box. They didn't pack it. I packed it. It was packed according to the guidance from Leica. I bought a second day air s They slapped the label on it. I paid for it, took the receipt, w The employee that did the checkout process is somebody I see at least once a week. Now I don't know everyone that works there, but I know a couple of the regular people that I see. So that was the end of the week on July 11th. And then as a family, we drove down to Southern California. It was my son's birthday that week. So we took the kids to Legoland and then went to the San Diego Zoo. Leica was supposed to get that second day air s And Tuesday happened to be my son's birthday and I wasn't UPS has my package and it'supposed to be on the way to Leica. When I got home at the end of the week, I reached out to Leica and I said, hey, did And they let me know they never received the camera. I grabbed my receipt and I pulled up the tracking n At that point, I was starting to get a little panicky just knowing the value of t And I'm not aware of t It was definitely concerning. The next morning I was at the UPS store when they unlocked the door. It was honestly just one employee and that happened to be the owner. And yeah, t Maybe you are like me and when you see a UPS store logo on a building, you ass But the reality is t And yeah, they send a truck to the UPS store. But if you have a UPS store in your town, it is not UPS. It is owned by somebody privately or a local corporation or something I was not aware of t And she explained to me that she owns it. She actually owns several and that it's not affiliated with UPS. Viewer, be warned. Your UPS store is not UPS. W Is it UPS or the UPS store? We're going to get to that. Now she is insisting to me that seven days prior when I was in there that it was impossible that my package did not leave the UPS store, her UPS store on the truck at 5pm when it came. Swore up and down. It was impossible to still be in the store. I pushed on that and I said, well, look, UPS is saying a label was created, but never received the box. So can you So she looked around. It's not a big store. She said, nope, not here. I said, will you then check your cameras, w There are a C1 at your back door where the deliveries are picked up. Check your cameras. Here's a photo that I took the day I dropped the box off. You can see it right here on your counter. I always take a photo before I send a package. So you can see the timestamp and I gave her the time, the date. I told her who was at the register. I said, can you look at your cameras and verify that this doesn't seem She goes into the back and she's back there for about 20 minutes and then comes back out front with her phone, refuses to show me most of the t She just showed me that employee walking down between the counter and the back. So I saw the back of t And then she asked me to leave the store because there was a line forming. She's the only one in there and she said she had other customers to get to, w Now she had asked me if I had gotten the insurance when I did my process and check out to w And let me tell you about the checkout process because whenever I put the box on the counter and it was measured, they say, Hey, what's in here? I said, it's a camera. They said, what's the value? I said, not relevant. And then they said, well, I need to know a n And I said, you don't need to declare any value on it because I don't need the insurance, w All these t So when the owner asked me if I had the insurance, I said, I did not get the insurance because it's on my own policy in w She was actually pretty rude about the whole thing, which honestly, And at that point, I texted my wife and I was just And it's bothering me. The UPS store owner then told me she would have her district manager. She led me to believe she would have the person that's above her, w And then she got me out of the store. She was trying to get me out of the store so she could deal with her line of customers as the only person in the store. I get it. So about an hour later, I get a call from somebody who says they're at the district office and they're going to file a claim on my behalf. Sounded He asked me a few questions and then got the phone and later texted me a few really weird But they're It's a weird photo. And I'm a photographer so maybe I compose t But after I got the text from He has sent me text before where I have had packages come to that UPS store and he's Come pick it up. I'm I texted I said, Hey, do you work for UPS or do you work for the owner of t And he said, No, I help her out. And I was And again, guys, just like full disclosure, I could have just ass This isn't So I'm just going to keep talking. Now at this point, I was sharing some of this information on And they began to explain some of the systems to me and some of the t And the person who has the family that owns a store recommended I get the name of the owner and or their company's name to just have it So I called my local UPS store, the one that has lost the camera, and I asked the owner what her last name was or the name of her company and she So when I file with my insurance and they ask where t And when I said I was going to record the call, she gave me her name and her company name. So later that day somebody reached out to my Instagram who has been an employee of UPS for 41 years, gave me their n So according to t But he did explain that not So if he had picked up t He also said that the store would have produced a manifest for the day of the pickups that are coming at five o'clock and it would be broken into two categories, ground so that truck driver would know, I have this many air shipments, I have this many ground shipments, they'd make sure that n According to this guy, most of these people aren't even looking at Now the box did say Laika on it, the label is going to Laika in New Jersey, but it's a small tiny print on the label and unless the driver'studying each label, the driver wouldn't necessarily even be aware or concerned with where t So after that phone call, my gut began to just tell me that somet So I had no choice at t I felt So I filed a police report against the store, against the owner of the store, against her company. I met with an officer, he took the report and as he walked in the store, I went home. The next day I got a call from that officer asking me to describe the camera in a little more detail for At that moment, I was a little hopeful that maybe he uncovered somet At the same time, one of my business mentors connected me to a local attorney for a civil lane against the store. So I got this criminal lane with the police, a civil lane with an attorney against the store and that's like, And in the meantime, And you may have heard me talk about this before like as a lifestyle, I tried to practice like the philosophy of stoicism, which is kind of like a, And so And the third lane we'll talk about in just a second, but it's been very difficult if I'm just being transparent with you, it's been hard to just focus on anything other than just And at t And I don't know if I'm going to know, I'm having to be okay with that, which is honestly a little hard for me as a very detailed, And that's just me being honest and transparent with you. So I mentioned the criminal lane, the civil lane, and then there's the t And what I want to make a case for you today about for many years, I have been a member of PPA, and t Well, maybe they do now. But for many years, I've been a member of PPA, I have their And then I have an itemized rider of gear with them that ensures everyt But the things that I do have are itemized by serial now, it's through PPA and locked infinity, w But regardless, I communicate through PPA and everyt So let's roll the clock back to the day t And I'm feeling incredibly anxious. The store is being aggressive and dismissive towards me. UPS has no awareness that t I'm not getting any information from them via the tracking n So I call PPA, and I say, look, here's what's going on. And the person that I spoke with, I honest to God, wish I'd gotten their name, they were so full of empathy and frustration for me that it was the first time in that entire day that I actually felt heard and valued in that moment. And that honestly helped me get through the day. And it was during that call that I got a link to submit a claim on my policy for the value of the Leica M11P Safari that I've only had for a month and a half. I filled that out that same day and got it to them. But I did ask, can I cancel t And I get my camera back and they told me up until the day that I cashed the check, I cancel t And in all my years of being a photographer and having a photography business, I've never had a claim, not once ever. I didn't even want to make a claim. I don't want that on my record. But regardless, I put that claim in. Same day, all the next business day, I got a contact from PPA asking me just a few clarifying questions to w So on day two of communication with PPA, business day three, never heard anything, business day four, asked for a copy of the police report to which I wrote back and said they didn't give me the report yet, but I do have the case report n So I emailed back and I gave them that info. The police report would not be available until 10 business days. So I had a little time to wait still. But I gave them that information, the case n So that's business day four. Business day five, I got an email from PPA with a PDF letter attached that said what they were going to do and PPA in five business days funded the replacement for my camera. Well, maybe funded is the wrong word. But regardless in five business days, t And they're mailing me a check to replace my M11P Safari. So I'm very grateful that PPA in five business days resolved t Consider PPA if you need insurance or even if you have So that's it guys. That's the story. That's the current I will gladly update t But the best place to get real time updates is on Thank you guys for listening to me go on and on about this without any y Thank you if you watched t It felt good to talk about it in therapeutic. And as always, thank