SHIPPING PROBLEM ALERT-UTC TEAMS
 

I'm not sure if anyone else can confirm this, but I've been tracking our crate on FEDEX from UTC and it hasn't left the drayage company yet. When I spoke to the FEDEX rep, he said that FEDEX went to pick up 60 crates in Worcester the Monday after the competition, and none were ready. Subsequent phone calls to John Laplante at Phoenix Exposition resulted in a message that they would be sent out by today. Not so, I just checked. I did notify FIRST of the situation. I don't believe there are any more regionals between now and the nationals, but many of us need our bots for demos, invitationals, etc. If you are going to the nats, I'd be starting to make some phone calls.

We were also at the UTC regional. I was given a Roadway tracking number rather than a FEDEX number. After seeing your post, I checked Roadway site and they say our crate is enroute to Orlando and should be there tonight.

I don't know why its Roadway rather than Fedex, but you might verify which carrier is moving your crates.

We're using Roadway instead of Fed-ex because we got shipping donated to us by them with no charges for extra weight added on. :) Thank you Roadway (recieved from the efforts of Jordan)

Confirmed. Our team was concerned when our crate failed to show up on FedEx tracking. We placed a call to Phoenix Exposition Services, but it was not returned.

We're not very pleased at all. Upon arrival at UTC, we were told our crate was several pounds overweight (probably an extra battery we packed on at NYC). However, the drayage company had a miniumum 200 lbs. overdrayage cost (or something similar). So, we had to pay 200 lbs. of overdrayage instead of 12 pounds.

They also would not allow us to drive to Worcester to pick it up. We live in central Massachusetts, so we could have made the trip without any problems. Yet, they refused to work with us on that issue. So we had to get the FedEx shipping for a 30 minute ride.

Who at FIRST did you report this to?
 

Ours has not shown up on FedEx tracking system either. I just jumped in here to see if anyone else was seeing the same problem. A little scary.

Re: Who at FIRST did you report this to?
 

I don't remember her name, it was one of the FRC customer reps. Just spoke to John at Phoenix Expositions who said a truck went out yesterday and another was going out today. My box still isn't in the Fedex system. The other interesting piece of information is that when I spoke to the Fedex rep, he wondered why FIRST didn't just have Fedex take care of the whole thing. He said that they could have handled all of the storage, delivery to the coliseum, etc. and there wouldn't have been any confusion at all.

Has anyone's robot shown up on fedex tracking?

I talked with John at Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday. He told me both days that they were 'shipping today'.

Still haven't seen ours and Fedex said they enter same day.

Mine is still showing as "not found" and I am starting to get worried.

I talked with John LaPlante from on Monday. He said they were shipping all robots on Monday and Tuesday.

I also talked with Deb at FIRST yesterday and today. FIRST is aware of it and not very happy with the situation. BUT - she talked with John LaPlante this morning and he claims ALL the robots bound for Orlando were shipped on Monday. And she said that if the robots arrived after Monday (the 'deadline') there shouldn't be a problem.

I've tried tracking our airbill number on FedEx.com and by calling FedEx Freight shipping and I still get NOT FOUND. The FedEx rep says that it should be in the system if it is in transit. I'm hoping they have a special truck that isn't following procedures.

I recommend that anyone that attended UTC NE Reg. that can't track their robot, CALL DEB AT FIRST and let them know that you can't find your robot. Also, I plan on calling Freeman Decorating tomorrow to see if they showed up - that would be 3 days shipping.

Good luck to everyone.

Robots arrived
 

For those that have had FedEx tracking problems, 27 robots are currently being unloaded at Freeman Decorating in Orlando (including team 145). Whew!

what about 811
 

How can I find out if my team's robot is there? That sounds like roughly the number of robots from UTC that were heading for Orlando but .......

Call Freeman Decorating directly. Don't have the number with me.

You're all set
 

Please check new announcement on
FIRST Robotics page

There is no shipping problem, just a communication issue between Phoenix and FedEx.

Re: You're all set
 

Excuse me, but there was a shipping problem. I was told by Fedex that they showed up at Phoenix on the Monday after the competition expecting to pick up 60 crates, none of which were ready. Phoenix then proceeded to give me dates on which I would be able to track my crate, none of which happened. We needed to have our robot in our hands today for an open house. The robot hadn't been shipped by Thursday morning. To Phoenix's credit, they used their own truck and delivered the robot to us yesterday. However, that wouldn't have happened unless I had been monitoring and calling them. My advice to FIRST: don't use them again. FedEx told me that they could have handled the whole thing seamlessly, including storage, delivery to the colliseum, pickup from the colliseum, etc.

HEADS UP!

Follow Rick's advice and call Freeman. I called this morning and they returned my call this afternoon.

...... Result is that my robot has NOT arrived........

I talked with DEB at First and she is following up. Phoenix told her that crates left on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for Florida.

This means that it may arrive on Monday.

Good luck.

Andy 716

how about shipping FROM Orlando
 

There is a Spring pep rally at school on Friday so I took to the internet to see if our robot will be back in time. It does not show up in FedEx's system. Are other people's robots showing up in the FedEx tracking or is this another mess like UTC where we just have to hope and pray that our robot is somewhere and getting closer to home?

looking better
 

It showed up as requested to be picked up. That is reassuring. But I'm guessing we will not have the robot for the pep rally. Oh, well.