General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMass. woman sues FedEx over marijuana delivery
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Tobin said she thought the package was a birthday present for her daughter, because when she opened it, she found candles, pixie sticks and peppermint. There was also something she thought was potpourri, but it was marijuana.
Tobin said that about an hour later, a man knocked on her door looking for the package, while two men sat in a vehicle in her driveway, waiting. She said she didn't have it, and bolted and slammed the door. Tobin claims FedEx gave out her address, which led the men to her home.
http://news.yahoo.com/mass-woman-sues-fedex-over-marijuana-delivery-135742401.html
Jesus Christ... I'm not a big fan of frivolous lawsuits, but I think this woman may just have a case.
There's no reason FedEx couldn't have just sent the driver back to pick up the package.
Giving her address out to potential criminals just to save FedEx the labor/gas/trip is just plain negligent.
Someone needs to be held accountable.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Someone brought her a box of marijuana, and she complained?
This, folks, is why I could never do customer support. I'd be like, "How can I help you?" and she'd be all, "I got a box of marijuana!" and I'd be like, "Wow, cool, but I thought you were calling to complain about something."
LAGC
(5,330 posts)But so long as it is waging, you have to admit it tends to attract some unsavory characters on both sides.
I'd be more worried about whatever criminal enterprise the intended recipients might be involved in.
It sounds like it was more than just a recreational (individual-use) amount of pot, which could command quite the hefty street value. Whenever that kind of money is on the line, it can be dangerous for anyone involved.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)bluesbassman
(19,310 posts)Some really high end strains could even go higher. So yeah, it's a lot and this situation had the potential to put that family in a pretty tough spot. FedEx blew it.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)The package was addressed to her - she thought it was intended for her.
If you got a package with the wrong address on it, typically you will contact that addressee, if nearby. But someone out 10K of merchandise in a package - and put this woman's address on it.
Obviously the "owners" of the package could track its shipment, using the tracking number, and be there when it was delivered.
She alleges FedEx told them. That may not be correct.
bluesbassman
(19,310 posts)or to someone else, but at that address. FedEx may not have given the info if it was "correctly" addressed and delivered. The shipper surely could track it and attempt to intercept before the homeowner got it. As FedEx won't comment due to the pending litigation, and my guess is they'll offer some sort of settlement rather than drag this out, so we'll probably never know all the true facts.
timdog44
(1,388 posts)By the way, high, I mean hi.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Candles, pixie sticks, and peppermint.
Write that down for future reference.
daddio58
(1 post)Jumping to conclusions ('this woman may have a case') despite your obvious ignorance, is exactly how frivolous lawsuits and their necessary clueless jurors, are able to survive.
Drug/real world lesson 101:1) The dealer gives someone elses address to have the drugs delivered to (you can see why, right?)
2) Dealer than watches the home, hopefully taking the package from the porch prior to being picked up by clueless legal recipient.
Sounds like this was missed, so said dealer attempted to retrieve his package from her in person.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Or are you jumping to conclusions?
Cirque du So-What
(25,812 posts)Speaking of ignorance...at least most here know the difference between 'than' and 'then'
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Notice "Tobin claims" FedEx gave them the address.
The package was addressed to her house. Someone knew where it was going. Why would someone get the wrong address on a package like that.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)[img][/img]
In The Wind
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ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)You're also being an ass about it.
Enjoy your stay.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)If the plan was to nab the package from the porch or - tell this story itself - then they didn't need the address from FedEx, but that's what they told her.
I think the answer to this complaint will be interesting.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)Cha
(295,929 posts)aromatherapy.
Nine
(1,741 posts)And this is what I wrote in that thread:
Here's one possibility of what happened: I think the sender of the package went to a FedEx store with a package addressed to something like 123 Main Street. The package information was entered into a computer system and a mistake was made; the employee who entered the data thought the "1" was a "7," for example. So the package gets delivered to 723 Main Street, the recipient opens it without noticing that the address is correct but the name is wrong (or maybe it just says "resident" or something).
Meanwhile, no package shows up at 123 Main Street and the sender or recipient goes to FedEx and asks where the package was sent. At that point the FedEx employee probably should have said, "Tell me what address you wanted it sent to and I'll tell you if that's where we sent it." Instead, the employee says, "723 Main Street," and the intended recipient goes there to retrieve the package.
Alternatively, the sender may have simply entered a tracking number online and brought up the address that was entered into the system. That seems pretty standard, and if the legal argument is that this practice is dangerous and should change... I don't know, that's a tough one. (And would going online to check a tracking number be part of the MO of smugglers wanting to leave no paper trail? I really don't know.)
This is all speculation of course, but I doubt this would have gotten as far as a lawsuit if the facts were simply that the sender used this woman's address on purpose and therefore had it all along.
boston bean
(36,186 posts)I assume they had the tracking number and could get delivery info from the web.
Nine
(1,741 posts)The lawsuit might be arguing that this very standard practice needs to be re-thought because if the delivery service makes a data entry mistake and puts in an incorrect address, the residents who live at the incorrect address are vulnerable to... well, just what happened to this woman.
Or it may be that FedEx drivers are required to hand-write the address of every house they deliver to, and the driver in this case saw the address 123 Main St. on the package but misread it as "132," delivered it to "132," hand-wrote "132," and when the criminals said, "What happened to our package?", someone at FedEx looked at the driver's handwritten notes and said, "Oh, it looks like that got delivered to 132 instead of 123."
Again, this is all speculation, but I just don't think the story would make sense if it were as simple as people are suggesting.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)If the recipients showed up and said "FedEx told us they delivered our package here" then she may believe that.
Nine
(1,741 posts)She contacted police, so the package is in evidence and the address can be looked at. I assume the lawyer would have done some minimal investigation into the basic chain of events and not taken the case if it was that clear that the criminals had her information all along and that FedEx did not disclose anything to them. It also seems like the criminals would have "cased" any house they planned to use for this type of activity (considering the value of the pot suggested upthread) and found a house where the residents all go to jobs during the day, which makes me think that the package really was delivered to a different address than the criminals intended. Now maybe this woman did typically work outside the house and just happened to be home that one day, I don't know.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)As a practical matter, people are less likely to just give out information or answer questions when a lawyer is asking questions.
Nine
(1,741 posts)Go to the police and find out the exact name and address written on the package. If the sender wrote the woman's proper address on the package, FedEx is off the hook. I would be very, very surprised if this wasn't the very first thing the lawyer did. In fact, I would be surprised if the homeowner herself did not closely examine the address once those strangers showed up at her door, but it's possible she was too rattled too think clearly.
The article says an arrest was made. Her lawyer can't just "go to the police and find out the name and address written on the package". It's in an evidence locker. The only people with access to it are the police, the DA and the defense attorney for the criminal defendant.
Once she opened the package and realized what was in it, she had the package and probably took a good look at the label on it. Most people, when receiving a package - and particularly an unexpected one - look at the address label to see if it was for them in the first place.
The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense. As is typical with these stories, the court is unidentified, so the interested reader can't go read the complaint that was filed. It sure wasn't filed in the federal court, since there is no federal suit filed by Maryangela Tobin.
Okay so, let's say the intended recipient's address was "Joe Blow / 123 Main Street". If you are Joe Blow of 123 Main Street, you can't just call up FedEx and say, "do you have a package for me" without the tracking number. And FedEx's system isn't going to say, "Oh, we delivered a package intended for 123 Main Street to 723 Main Street instead". And you certainly can't call up FedEx and say "I'm Joe Blow, did you deliver a package for me?" FedEx won't give anyone an answer to that kind of question, for obvious reasons. Why would FedEx's system even have that information? Because the delivery guy recorded the fact that he delivered a package to the wrong address? Again, that's just silly. When a FedEx guy delivers a package, he scans the code and flags it as "delivered". There is no provision for entering some other address to which it was delivered because..... what would be the point?
But - more to the precise point - there is nobody who can call up FedEx, ask them "Did you give so-and-so somebody's address?" and get any kind of an answer. Her allegation - that FedEx gave someone else her address - is not something anyone is going to be able to "investigate".
As for the lawsuit, it is very difficult to determine exactly what she was suing for. She suffered no compensable injury or harm from the facts as alleged. While there is a passing reference to the Mass. consumer privacy law, that law doesn't provide a private right of action by the affected party. Now it could be that the complaint alleges a violation as an ancillary fact to support a claim of negligence of some kind, even then it boils down to something of a "so what?" since she wasn't harmed in any way.
yellerpup
(12,249 posts)and FedX told the intended recipients where the delivery could be retrieved immediately, it sounds like an inside job. That is not FedX protocol and an incredibly dangerous thing to do. They should look for a relationship between a local worker and the intended recipient.