Question about: UPS, Cigars & Outside Temperatures

honorknight7

So I have made 3 different cigar orders (couldn't help going back on 3 separate occasions to "order more sticks") Dam n Sales get me every time :P
I have received 2 of the 3, but the 3rd says on the UPS site that it will arrive Friday instead of today-Tuesday due to ......
" A late UPS trailer arrival has caused a delay. We're adjusting plans to deliver your package as quickly as possible Friday, 07/18/2014, By End of Day "

The question is;
When UPS delivers them, they will just throw the box on the front walkway and leave, No one is going to be home here until Monday sometime, and the temp's here are staying in the high upper 90's to the low 100's and the front walkway is in the direct sun from 6am to around 4/4:30pm before it gets shady there but the heat is still bad until around midnight
So with the sun/heat (& assuming no one would walk up and just take the box)
Have any of you ever called/contacted UPS to "Hold an order" ? and if so would the sticks being held at there shop (if they do that) be in any better position ?

CharlieHeis

Our UPS depot is open for an an hour or two a day in the late afternoon. I'm not even sure they have a public number where one could talk to an actual person. I'd have a neighbor or friend get it after UPS delivers. I hate having my orders sitting in the sun for an afternoon, so sitting for days would not be an option. Good luck

SleevePlz

Yeah, you should have a local UPS location that will hold a package to be picked up. I have a long driveway that they pretty much refuse to go down during the winter with their trucks, so I end up having to have them hold packages for me to pick up.

0patience

The UPS driver here just sets the packages on the porch in the carport and walks away.

e6specialk

Give them a call (1-800-PICK-UPS) and they will hold it or you can reschedule a new delivery date. Hopefully, CCOM put a HUMI-CARE pillow in there to help keep the sticks fresh.

honorknight7

The other two orders did have a pillow in them, strange though, 1st came UPS, 2nd came USPS, and the 3rd is going through UPS again
Neighborhood is very nice & quiet but no one really knows anybody around here,so not comfortable asking anyone around here
Am giving a good family friend a house key, he said he will check a few times a day and when they show up will bring them in and put them in the wineadoor for me, gotta get that guy a dinner certificate was stressing over this a bit
Thanks for the advice on this. Will defiantly look into calling them if I run into this again, It's extremely rare that nobody is home

ArmyS1Guy

CCOM orders take 7-8 days to get here. They go from CCOM through Philadelphia, to Germany, and finally here. There may be stops in between that I'm unaware of. It gets loaded and unloaded at each stop and may wait a day or two at each. Mail facilities are often unheated/unACed warehouses.

It then is unloaded from the plane and driven a half mile or so to the APO where it gets sorted and dropped in our bin for pickup. Depending on when the mail plane gets there and when we go to pickup it spends up to 24 hours in the uninsulated, unair conditioned mail warehouse here at the airfield. Afghanistan is equal parts hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

So far I haven't seen any lasting negative effects from the shipping process.

Cigary

Cigars are pretty durable and as long as they are shipped with a pillow or boveda pak they should be fine. While I don't like the idea of them being in the back of a truck in the hot sun or in some warehouse that isn't acclimatized I've never had anything spoiled even if it took a few weeks. The important thing is when you do get them put them in your humidor and leave them for a few weeks so they can acclimate to YOUR humidor.

Rhamlin

Better yet get a buddy to come by and pick them up and hold them for you. Maybe even pop them in the freezer till you get back.( just make sure he takes out the humi pillow first)

kos22us

i am a ups employee and they will deff. hold an item no problem, you need to contact them asap and give them the tracking number and a automatic hold will be placed on them, if your local ups is just a part time facility as in only opened for a couple hours in the late afternoon it often can be hard to obtain the phone number so just drive there if you have to, also we have a contract w/ usps on some small packages so sometimes they end up going to the post office, this is just if you dont want them sitting on the porch all day

jlmarta

kos22us:

i am a ups employee and they will deff. hold an item no problem, you need to contact them asap and give them the tracking number and a automatic hold will be placed on them, if your local ups is just a part time facility as in only opened for a couple hours in the late afternoon it often can be hard to obtain the phone number so just drive there if you have to, also we have a contract w/ usps on some small packages so sometimes they end up going to the post office, this is just if you dont want them sitting on the porch all day

No offense, Jack, but I need to remind the rest of the BOTLs on this forum:

Guys, if you're smart you'll INSIST on having your purchases sent to you via USPS!! The worst experiences (and the most) I've ever had with delivery problems have been at the hands of UPS. Bar none. I've said this before but I'll repeat it for the guys who may not have read it, UPS evidently has a delivery schedule set up where they only deliver to certain neighborhoods on a given day. Where I live it appears to be Thursday. So if a package for me hits their warehouse on a Friday it's gonna sit there until the following Thursday before it gets delivered. That's a whole week of sitting there without proper temp/humidity attention.

Obviously I can't prove my theory but on the rare occasion when someone ships something to me via Ooops, it's always delivered on a Thursday. So wake up, guys. You CAN insist to your shipper that you want your package to come via the USPS.

avengethis

jlmarta:

kos22us:

i am a ups employee and they will deff. hold an item no problem, you need to contact them asap and give them the tracking number and a automatic hold will be placed on them, if your local ups is just a part time facility as in only opened for a couple hours in the late afternoon it often can be hard to obtain the phone number so just drive there if you have to, also we have a contract w/ usps on some small packages so sometimes they end up going to the post office, this is just if you dont want them sitting on the porch all day

No offense, Jack, but I need to remind the rest of the BOTLs on this forum:

Guys, if you're smart you'll INSIST on having your purchases sent to you via USPS!! The worst experiences (and the most) I've ever had with delivery problems have been at the hands of UPS. Bar none. I've said this before but I'll repeat it for the guys who may not have read it, UPS evidently has a delivery schedule set up where they only deliver to certain neighborhoods on a given day. Where I live it appears to be Thursday. So if a package for me hits their warehouse on a Friday it's gonna sit there until the following Thursday before it gets delivered. That's a whole week of sitting there without proper temp/humidity attention.

Obviously I can't prove my theory but on the rare occasion when someone ships something to me via Ooops, it's always delivered on a Thursday. So wake up, guys. You CAN insist to your shipper that you want your package to come via the USPS.

I am partial to the USPS but more so just to help keep them in business. I have received deliveries everyday of the week from UPS so to that theory i would say is BS unless you live in a very rural area where its a 5 hour drive from the closest hub.

jsnake

I have always thought that cigars spend an awful lot of time in various modes of transportation and you have to wonder how they survive. From Honduras, Nicaragua, DR, to the US. Then to various distributors and warehouses. Then off to various retailers and eventually out to you. Could be a broker or other people even between all that. With all that transportation in various weather it is amazing they make it to us intact and smokeable.

I always try to be prepared for arriving packages so they do not sit out in the heat or adverse weather.

jlmarta

jsnake:

..... I always try to be prepared for arriving packages so they do not sit out in the heat or adverse weather.

Sitting out isn't a problem where I live... it's getting the @$3"@ package delivered in a timely manner in the first place. And don't even mention damaged goods delivered to my by OOops. I had a framed, signed, and numbered collector's print delivered to me after it had been demolished. The glass and the frame were destroyed. Even the box it came in looked like it had been run over by a bulldozer. And there were "Fragile" stickers all over the package. I have other horror stories about those clowns but I won't bore you with 'em.....

Rain

I have a question, UPS.I sent back some merchandise for a refund. You picked up the box and gave me a receipt with a tracking number on 6 August. You just dropped off the same package I gave you (it's 8 August.) I look up the tracking number, which was last updated yesterday...and it's in San Antonio. WHAT...THE...EFF? Don't you know this package has to be back on a specific date for me to get the refund?

honorknight7

UPS is nutz around here also, half the time I get a package delivered from them I'm lucky if it makes it to the door even, have found quite a few deliveries a the end of the driveway just laying on the concrete 2 feet away from the asphalt, and I maybe 1 of every 12 deliveries do I even get a doorbell ring.

jlmarta

Yep. Nobody ever claimed UPS was very bright..........??