Patrick Collins, CEO of The Gun Food, has lost thousands of dollars worth of ammunition. Why? Because customers’ orders don’t always seem to make it to their doors — especially when delivering with UPS. Collins joins Glenn to detail the issue, the lengths his company has gone to work with the delivery service, and the lack of detailed response or explanation from UPS. Where IS the ammo?!
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So yesterday, I read a story about The Gun Food. TheGunFood.com is a quick process ammunition supply company. And it is very active in supporting gun rights, to local state and national levels. They supply ammunition to regular people. And people who protect our society. Individual consumers, to ranges, to police departments and instructors. And this article was about how UPS seems to be losing a lot of their packages. They claim, that UPS is behind their missing packages, leading only one-third of their orders being delivered. The rest, gone. They can't seem to get a real answer, from UPS. Patrick Collins is the CEO of the Gun Food. Welcome, Patrick, how are you?
PATRICK: I'm great today. How are you?
GLENN: I'm good. So can you tell us a little bit about your business. You're fully licensed. No crackpot business. Fly by the seat of your pants. This is a legitimate gun and amnesty business. And you've done business with UPS for how long?
PATRICK: We've been doing business with UPS for approximately three years now. And unfortunately, we do not sell firearms. But we sell plenty of ammunition, we supply to plenty of different ranges. Et cetera. And so on.
GLENN: And, Patrick, how many packages have been lost?
PATRICK: Oh. I would say, approximately 14,000 dollars' worth over the course of the business. But however, recently, we just received a hit of about 8,000-dollar loss.
GLENN: So there is -- you know, I've done business with UPS. I don't lose packages like that. What are they saying to you, when you're like, wait a minute. It didn't arrive to where I was shipping it? What do they say?
PATRICK: Well, they try to blame it on sometimes the packaging itself. Et cetera. And so on. However, for the most part, we ship all of our ammunition insured. So it requires either a signatures, or depending on the value, it's always going to be insured for that value. However, the problem that we run into, is when it doesn't make it to our customer, and the customer calls us back, we have to provide that ammo. A lot of times, lives are on the line. Lives and livelihood, I would say. Whether it's an structure or police department. When they don't receive their ammo. There are issues happening.
GLENN: So we reached out to UPS. And I want to read what we wrote to them. UPS, I'm reaching out on behalf of the Glenn Beck Radio Program. Glenn will be interviewing an Atlanta had much based ammunition distributor, who alleges UPS is behind the reason these packages are not getting delivered to these customers. He states out of 18,000 rounds of ammunition, he shipped only 6,000 -- I'm sorry. He shipped 18,000. But 6,000 were actually delivered.
Additionally, it's being reported that Brownells, a large firearms and ammunition seller has had their UPS account canceled, and UPS is no longer listed as an option for shipping carrier.
Can you please provide some background information on why ammunition and gun sellers are having issues with their package delivery? They said, dear Glenn Beck Program, these are two separate issues. Regarding your question about shipping ammunition, quote, as a common carrier, UPS transports ammunition that constitutes cartridges, small arms, as defined in federal regulations. UPS has safety protocols, to help ensure the safe transport of ammunition in our network. We work with our customers to address their concerns. Including those with packaging. You can find out more about how to ship your ammunition section, UPS.com. It includes packaging requirements. So they didn't answer the question. They're just saying, again, they're alluding that your packaging is not compliant with them. That doesn't answer the question, where is the ammunition? And I would assume, you have tried to follow every single protocol that they have.
PATRICK: Yes. Every protocol was met. And exceeded, even. Because I actually have -- I have pictures of how the packages are packed, within the packages that are -- that they're sent in. So they asked me, how -- you know, what type of materials did I use? How was it marked or labeled? And I have all of that information. In fact, we change our protocol here, at TheGunFood.com to have our drivers, when they drop off the packages at the centers, they have to actually take a picture of it, on their conveyor belt when UPS takes possession of our packages.
GLENN: Do you have to do this with anybody else?
PATRICK: Well, unfortunately, the other major carrier for ammunition, they have their own issues. Which have been brought to light, probably about two years ago. So we unfortunately have stopped and not considered using them for our business. So we stuck with UPS.
GLENN: So now, when you have -- when you have UPS, you call them. And you say, look, I have the pictures. We packaged it right. We put it on your conveyor belt. Here's the receipt. What do they say to you?
PATRICK: Well, they say, provide the same amount of information, as if I were to lose a family heirloom. Or, you know, some other package, that could have been shipped. That's not involving ammunition. And at that rate, we're sitting here fighting it. I know quite a few other folks, that are -- have well over $300,000 of ammunition gone missing. And it's really changed the way we have to do our business now.
GLENN: 300,000 dollars' worth of ammunition? Those are a lot of bullets, that are just, what? Spilling out of their truck, because they're not packed right? And do they say, here's spoiled boxes, and here's the ammunition that we could save? I mean, they just don't explain where that ammunition and that defective box went to?
PATRICK: Exactly. To them, it's just a write-off. However, it's becoming a very expensive write-off. I would like to thank you for bringing a lot of attention to this. Because it really is a big deal. And it impacts people on multiple levels. More so than your average citizen would think. Imagine if the police department doesn't receive their ammunition, that they need to serve their civic duties -- civil duties.
GLENN: So -- well, imagine -- imagine if you got sloppy with ammunition, and you were just kind of losing some from time to time. What they would accuse you of. The -- UPS is part of this great reset. They're very, very deeply involved in that. I would like to think that this is just incompetence. Because it can't be excuse -- if you you do indeed have the pictures, and you're shipping them the right way. Which I believe you are. But please sends my office the pictures. Because we would like to follow this up.
There is -- there's no excuse. It's either theft. From their own employees. Or it is part of a -- of a hidden policy, that is disrupting the flow of ammunition. And that's -- that's -- I would -- I hope it's the theft from their employees. But I bet it's not.
PATRICK: Yes. And I 100 percent agree. Unfortunately, ammunition boxes are easy to identify. With the markings we need to put on them. And we try to hide them in ways, that is not as obvious. However, a lot of times, people know what they're grabbing, once they grab the box. Or perhaps even shake it.
GLENN: Oh, yeah. Way too heavy. Ammunition in a big box at least is very heavy.
All right. Well, we'll follow up. I would like you to reach out to my producers. If you do indeed have names of people that have lost 300,000 dollars' worth of ammunition, the same way you have. There's something going on here. Because all of a sudden, all of you guys are starting to just pack it wrong. It's either a -- their stonewalling here bothers me. Because there should be an answer. What happened to it? What happened to it? Okay. You didn't pack it right. Well, where did that box go? It's not like if I shipped diamonds through UPS. They're going to say, you know what, your box fell apart. Okay. Well, where are the diamonds? Well, you just write it off. That means, they're either keeping it, doing something with it. Or they have a theft problem.
UPS, which one is it? And then why is this happening, and you don't seem to care? Thank you, Patrick, I appreciate it. God bless you.
PATRICK: You have a good one.
GLENN: You bet.