Transport missing please read, any help.

I was a first time Uship user and had the misfortune of hiring Joshua M.(Velocity Services) to bring an engine down on April 26th from Beaverton Oregon to San Diego, CA. He said he could have it down to San Diego within 48 hours as he had some bikes that needed to be in California by Monday. The next day when I opened up tracking on the Uship website, I promptly discovered he had instead driven 6 hours north somewhere close to the Canadian border. When I called his cell phone I was greeted with an automated Verizon message telling me the number had been disconnected and was no longer in service. I mildly panicked as I called Uship, they had an alternative number for him. I left a nasty message and he called me back telling me he'd drop my engine on the side of the road and that his truck had broken down and his cell phone had been lost.

It was at this point that I conducted all e mail correspondence via the Uship helpdesk, I have about 10 or so pages of nutty e mails which started out with his repeated claim of a broken down truck and lost cell phone. As the week went by he steadfastly refused to tell Uship his location and would randomly claim that he was out of gas on the side of the road or, "would be in CA within 4-5 hours", or that "I needed to pay him now because he doesn't work for free". The few times he picked up the phone when Uship would call, they told me he would scream at them and hang up.

So, on May 1st Uship and I sent and e mail asking his location so that we could find a secure location for the engine to be dropped off and just hire a proper shipping company to retrieve the engine. The very next email from him informed us that he had placed the thing in storage under his own lock and key and listed a bunch of fees that I was to pay him if I wanted it back or picked up. Uship AGAIN asked his location, the engines location and informed him that I had indeed paid shipping, my money was in Uship escrow and he would receive payment upon either successful completion of the job or mileage from Beaverton, Oregon to wherever he was at the time, which we believe was Colorado based on the last ping of his tracking. It was made clear to him by Uship that he would not receive full payment for anything other than a delivery to my address in San Diego. He would continue to rant at Uship for payments not received and it was not difficult to understand that this was probably because of deliveries not made.

Finally I started the process of filing police reports in various states and the insurance claim. Insurance I had almost not bought but for a whim at the last second as I was completing payment on the Uship site. The insurance company had a form that is to be sent to the shipper stating the claim being be filed and the loss amount. This got an e mail response from Joshua stating he was 4-5 hours from the engine and could pick it up and have it delivered, "next week sometime". It was now May 4th or so. Before I could respond a Uship employee asked again for him to give his location and the location of the engine. It was like he had an instant meltdown. No he wasn't telling them anything and if I didn't pay money I wouldn't be seeing my engine. Uship decided to suspend him from the site. There were a few more back and forth e mails between Joshua and Uship but it went no where. They didn't know where he was, where my engine was and he wasn't answering the questions or telling anyone when we could expect delivery.

Then, on May 10th he started sending me texts stating that he was on the side of the road because of my "####", "losing money" and that my "bill was going up every day" and I could "call and complain because I don't care". I copy and pasted these texts to the Uship thread and then he sent me a text of that letter you see on Facebook.

So, a couple things to note. Once I started calling police departments to file claims, they all instantly said, "this sounds like the Uber of shipping". The fact that he is crossing state lines and possibly with now stolen merchandise got their attention. A lawyer made it clear that if I did end up having to sue we would most certainly be naming Uship alongside Joshua despite their insistence that they are only an independent third party.

I will never use Uship again.

 

P.S. To OP, the guy who sold me the engine took pictures of them loading it and the bike in the bed of his red truck was a Harley Davidson. He did not have the trailer or sport bike at that location.

Correction. The guy who sold me the engine said the bike was an 80's Honda or something. Not a Harley.

 

Wow.......

 

I'll just bet that if Jennifer or Marc, or even Jarrod had taken on the assignment, that stuff would have be delivered in record time. (and that is saying a lot for Jarrod)

 

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