Plus, I learned something valuable for any future firearm shipments via UPS that may have to wait until I can pick them up if no one can be at home to receive them.<rant on>
Kel-Tec had the pistol for almost exactly one month, and sent it back to me UPS Ground at the end of March (and although it would have been nice to get an email notice from Kel-Tec with a tracking number so I knew to expect it, I guess I can't complain too much). The first delivery attempt occurred on April 2.
I called UPS and had the package put on hold, and it was to be available for me to pick up as of April 4. The hold location is in Stafford, about 30 miles from my house...not an instantaneous drive in Houston traffic. On the morning of Friday the 6th I telephoned the UPS 800 number to confirm the package was there so I wouldn't waste a trip; they confirmed it was and all sounded well. I headed there at noon. After 45 minutes of driving and 30 minutes of waiting while the UPS folks searched, the verdict was that the package was no longer there, that for some reason it had been put back on a truck for delivery.
They gave me a direct telephone number to the delivery supervisor for my route. I called from my cell and he was very cooperative. I told him I could finagle the rest of the day off if I had to, and could drive back home by 2:00. He put me on hold to contact the driver; he came back on the line and told me he confirmed delivery today sometime after 2:00 p.m. All looked at least doable, so I drove home. And waited. And waited.
Knowing that 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. was about the latest deliveries are made, I tried calling the supervisor's phone again at about 6:45. No answer. At 7:00 I called the 800 number again. They expressed a complete lack of knowledge about any of this, saying that nothing was recently put in the system about the package other than a note at 10:00 a.m. that the item was waiting at will-call in Stafford (no doubt the result of my earlier call to confirm it was there before I drove down). Their only advice was to keep trying the supervisor's number, including calling on Saturday (which I couldn't do because I'd be in an NRA class at PSC), or to wait until next week and call again to have the will-hold-the-package-for-pick-up time extended.
Kept trying the supervisor's number. At about 7:30 I got an answer, but the fellow I'd spoken to earlier had gone home. So I dove into the long explanation once again. The guy said he would check into it immediately and promised to call me back.
About an hour later, he did call back. The news? The package had indeed been in Stafford since April 4, waiting on me, and it had never left the facility. He said since the shipment had been marked a firearm, it was being held in a special "high value" locked room. He said that the personnel who "helped" me when I was in Stafford didn't know to look in the special holding area, and just assumed the package had gone back out for delivery.
So after driving 60 or so miles in about 90 minutes roundtrip, plus waiting 30 minutes in Stafford while the clueless UPS employee(s) searched in vain for my package, then taking a half-day off work to go home and wait on the promised redelivery, here I sit in exactly the same position I was in on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday: the Kel-Tec is in Stafford and I have to take time out of my workday next week to drive down there (again) to get it.
<rant off>
Moral of the story: if you have every reason to believe your package containing a firearm is supposed to be waiting on you to pick it up at a UPS will-call desk, do not hesitate to disbelieve the line employee who tries to help you if the verdict is, "It's not here." Ask for a supervisor and do not hesitate to state that the package contains a firearm, that they should check all possible locked or secured areas where they might keep such an item.
At one point, the woman waiting on me came out from the back and asked me what kind of package it was. I replied it was small, probably no more than 6"x6"x4", and that it had shipped from Cocoa, Florida. I didn't want to say it contained a firearm, and I probably should have told her just that.