Lost In Transit

Voice mail:

Hey Richard. It’s Studio Economik calling. We got our package back but it’s the wrong box. It has a guitar pedal in it. And the word DECO on the box.

I had rented some recording equipment from Studio Economik. Loomis had picked the package up on Monday to return it to Studio Economik.

And I had sent my Strymon DECO pedal back for warranty work. Fedex picked that unit up on Wednesday.

How on earth did the Fedex shipment, bound for California, wind up in Montreal? And where did Loomis send Studio Economik’s equipment?

When we called Loomis to pick up the package to send back to Studio Economik, they quoted a shipping cost that was double the rate that I was charged for shipping by Studio Economik. How can that be? Well, we don’t have a special deal with Loomis. But Studio Economik does. So we called Studio Economik and asked them if they would call back the unit so that we would be charged the cheaper rate.

Sure thing.

That was on Monday. And on Monday evening, Loomis collected the package as we had already arranged the pickup when the package was first delivered by Loomis.

Great. Rental unit on its way back to Studio Economik in Montreal as planned.

Also on Monday evening, I received a note from Strymon telling me that I would soon receive an email from Fedex to return my DECO pedal for warranty work. The good folk at Strymon may have rushed this pedal to market and there is no mechanism on that pedal to do a firmware update.

Fine. They will update the unit and they are paying the shipping both ways. No worries.

I received the email from Fedex at around 8:30pm on the Monday evening with instructions to print the label.

Fedex called our home on Tuesday to pick up the package. Lorraine told them that it would have to wait until Wednesday as I wasn’t home and there wasn’t a package ready for pickup.

When I got home later that evening, Lorraine told me that Fedex had called for the package.

Wow. They are really efficient. I had only just received the email from them the night before.

I prepared the DECO for return including the shipping label and the packing slip. I packed it in a larger box and filled the gaps with packing material.

All ready to go.

We called Fedex and they picked up the DECO pedal on Wednesday.

And, on Thursday, Studio Economik received the DECO pedal.

What wound up happening is that Studio Economik did not call Loomis. They called Fedex. Loomis came to pick up the package on Monday because we had pre-arranged the pickup and they were also expecting to get the call back from Studio Economik. And that did not happen. Loomis was the original courier that Studio Economik had used to ship the equipment to our home. So Loomis, quite rightly, held the package waiting for Studio Economik to call back.

Fedex called us because Studio Economik had called them that we had a package for pickup. Which we did. The only problem is that Fedex didn’t tell us who had called them to pick up the package. We assumed it was for the Strymon DECO. So when Fedex called, we handed over the DECO package.

Fedex ignored the existing Fedex label because, after all, Studio Economik had called them to pick up a package for delivery to Studio Economik. Ignore the shipping label on the box. It does not need to go all the way to California.

As we speak, Loomis has finally received the call back from Studio Economik. And my DECO pedal? Well, the original shipping label is still on the package so Studio Economik is going to ship it to Strymon from their location.

I hope the DECO pedal makes it.