FFL Dealers; Please divulge why UPS tracking is often withheld from me the customer.

V

VaniB

New member
Ok....I'm noticing a pattern here that when a small dealer or gunsmith is shipping a firearm to me from having been repaired, or a new firearm I purchased is being shipped to my FFL transfer agent, they look to be purposely omitting the tracking information. They will not let me see the tracking, or want me to know exactly when my rifle will arrive.

There must be a security concern for them to be doing this to me, the rightful owner. But being I am not a thief, and I don't think like a thief, I can't imagine what the reason for hiding this information from me might be.

Could somebody in the business please enlighten me what that security concern is, and what they are affraid of?
 
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There is no mystery I know of. I always send the tracking information to my customers. You can set up your UPS account to automatically send the information to the recipient if you want to.
 
As a customer, I've never been denied the Tracking Number when I've had to asked for it. Otherwise, it was always provided upfront.
 
If YOU are shipping the gun the tracking number (begining with 1Z) will appear on your receipt.
If your FFL is shipping the gun to you there is a place on the form that to fill in that ask "what is your e-mail address" if they put there (FFL) email address in the block the receive the tracking number by e-mail.
What they need to do is place YOURe-mail in there. You will then receive the automated e-mail with tracking.
If your FFL takes or sends it without filling out the form you will receive no tracking info.
Our you can request the FFL to send you the tracking number from there receipt.
 
No...I'm not talking about a shipper who doesn't know how to do it, or is too lazy or doesn't care to do it.

I had an FFL dealer in NH flat out refuse to provide the tracking info for a RRA NM Ar15 that I had already paid for. When it arrived to my FFL dealer who was making the transfer, my dealer just quickly dismissed it as a standard procedure for security. He seemed to understand why the seller would not provide it, but I never asked him to explain.

I had another FFL dealer when my rifle was sent in for repair last week, would not be specific when I asked about tracking.

There must be a good reason for this.

For an example of just how creative bad people can be: I would never have thought of going to a major printer to obtain the same paper blanks that financial institutions use to print their MO's......Somebody on the net explained that to me when I asked the question "Why do some folks refuse to take MO's except USPS MO's." If that wasn't enough, someone else also explained to me; "Or, a scammer knows somebody working at a check cashing place who (for profit) will make up an MO for him with no cash behind it."

Like I said: I'm not a thief, and so I don't think like a thief, and so can't imagine how this tracking info could be used for dishonest purposes. But it likely can.
 
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So if you have the tracking number and see that it left terminal #3 in Timbucktoo, Illatucky headed for Wamsatt, Calaveda and due to arrive on the third Tue of next week-can you somehow steal it out of the terminal??

You crooks in your neighborhood are waaaayyy advanced from around here.
 
Usually when you ask for a tracking number and don't get it, it is because the shipper didn't capture it, doesn't have it. Then, when you ask for one, the shipper thinks that if he doesn't have a tracking number, and forgot to ask for delivery confirmation, if you know that, you could claim you never got it. So he stalls until you get it. So what you are getting from him is a stall, sometimes with details.
 
Ahhh...now that makes some sense.

But........ I still don't quite see how even that could pose a serious threat to a shipper. I have never had a commercial account with UPS, but you would think that there would still be enough safeguards for a disorganized seller. You would think that in such event that I claimed I never got the package, UPS would still have a record of it's being processed, and when it arrived to it's destination.
 
Perhaps you are right. I almost always ship USPS. I am speaking from personal experience. I had sold a dozen or so different items on Ebay. They were in the $20-50 range. When everything was right, I took them all down to the Post Office and sent them. No insurance, no tracking. A couple of days later I got an email from one of the buyers asking for tracking ($20 item). I waited a day to answer him, and then told him I had to look it up. I got an email back saying he had received it before things went any farther. It is a giant PIA to deal with a lost package. Sometimes just sending their money back isn't enough. With one of a kind items you can't replace them. After 10 years of selling on ebay I've had every rotten trick pulled on me there is. Anything out of the ordinary and you smell a rat. (like somebody asking for tracking on a $20 item.). It doesn't happen often, but there are some people out there who try to see how much they can get away with.

Once I sold a rifle on Gunbroker. $35 single shot .22. Buyer wanted it shipped cheap as possible. I got the FFL and put the rifle into a $15 hardcase (free) and sent it from the local PO cheapest rate. Guy says he never got it. Now, at this time I had sent thousands of packages USPS and never lost one. So either he's scamming me, or his FFL is scamming him. I know this for a fact. You couldn't tell me otherwise. Well, the buyer is just as stubborn. So that's where it stayed for about six months. Then the ATF called me wanting to kown if I could double check the buyer FFL on this deal. It seems they had broken up a theft ring within the USPS and wanted to verify the FFL before sending this rifle on.They said they didn't have an FFL on record for that address. (Bull, I had rerported this loss to the ATF with all the FFL info when it happened so that they could check to see if the FFL was the one stealing it). I read them the FFL info over the phone and that was the last of it. Buyer eventually got his rifle. Finally two stubbiorn people were both right at last.
 
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