It's unfortunately starting to look more and more like some asshole at the HORSHAM, PA UPS facility nicked my copy.

I preordered it through Amazon (I've got Prime, used the two-day shipping, of course), and as of 12:11:48 P.M., April 28th, the status was "Carrier notified to pick up package". At 09:44:00 P.M., April 28th, the next detail was "Shipment picked up from seller's facility". My tracking number has not updated since then.

I looked back at the tracking numbers for other recent Amazon purchases I've made, and none of them had a 20+ hour lull between the initial pick-up and departure from the first UPS facility in the shipping chain. I DID get something else shipped recently that went through the Horsham facility early in the chain, and it did seem to sit there longer than most other facilities, but it was more like 8-10 hours.

The real kick in the nuts about all this is that this was the item I used my Amazon $50 HD DVD 'e-coupon' towards. I'll have to wait until the end of May 1st to report the item as "Lost" (appropriate day of the week, I guess) to UPS, but if it doesn't turn up, I don't know if I don't know if they'll confer with Amazon and only give me the $9.99 back, or the full, non-discounted amount. If it's the former, then I've got to bitch to Amazon...I should've known better than to try to buy the biggest thug-and-asshole-magnet game ever online.

With any luck, Fate will immediately make me look like an impatient bellyacher by updating the shipping details minutes after I post this. I would welcome looking bad here, no doubt.

jollydwarf

I wonder if they were doing similar stuff to Wii and PS3?

Either way, Ive had games go missing from Gamefly. USPS probably not any better than UPS.

Altima NEO

I'm not surprised. When our review copy of San Andreas showed up in 2004 from FedEx, there was a big hole in the envelope that had been hastily patched up with shipping tape. I opened up the envelope to find some stickers, a hat... and no game.

I wrote the angriest letter of my life to the company, and never heard anything from them. That's the only time it's ever happened, too.

Dudes_McGee

Oh fu... nuts, I can't count how many times the cock-garglers that UPS hire have damaged, torn open, or have tried to out right steal nearly every god damned package that I have had the immense displeasure of having transmitted through their abominable "service", they are completely absurd. I try to avoid using them as much as possible.

Now come to think of it, I should be expecting some crap PC parts making their way to me, through THEM, SHIT! I'll never learn will I.

Please, for the love of anything good,

PLEASE DO NOT USE UPS!!1 FUCK UPS!

They need to crackdown and become WAY stricter with their employees.

I swear, if your a thief/asshole, there is a job opening for you at UPS!

@chris16447:

Everyone and their grandma knows that, but it STILL doesn't prevent the asshat shenanigans. I haven't had anything SUCCESSFULLY stolen, just lame attempts by some dipshit drivers who were some fucking idiot kids. They would evade drop off for like 2 days, claim no one was home, then next day, claim they left the package somewhere near the front door, and, and try and take it for themselves.

Here's a funny little story that ain't too long. This one time, one of their idiot drivers decided it would be a GRAND idea to leave a package in front of my homes FRONT DOOR on HALLOWEEN NIGHT. We all know what happened to that one now don't we?

@shouryuuken:

Tell your "friend" I'm going to "MURDER" him. Is that a threat? I don't know, let's see.

Bando

lol ive worked at ups for 3 years, ppl steal games all the time. i knew one dude that would sell games, cds, and all kinds of stuff in the parking lot friday nights after work. he also got some ipods, zunes, ds lites and crap too.

shouryuuken

Good thing I never order games online. As long as they don't swipe my Rock Band Pedal, I'll be fine.

RickyTV

@zanzibarlegend:
Ya people are incredibly stupid. Lets just steal a loaf of bread and two gallons of milk from the guy who works at 7-11 even though you drive a Bugatti Veyron.

Ignorance's Enemy

@chris16447:
"These people make the rest of us UPSers look bad."

Correction, "they make the people that are unemployed for reasons against their will upset."

@MasterC-los: If they get caught look on the bright side, they will lose a job that was going to guarantee them a decent salary,health benefits,paid vacation, and retirement plan... all for a 60 dollar game.... isnt that remarkable?

zanzibarlegend

@Antiterra: Woohoo! I do like me some trumpeteering! (It's a word *now*, foo's.)

ShaggE

Thank God!!!!
I had UPS at first when I placed my order but it suddenly changed to USPS....I can trust them. ^.^

xXSlayer77Xx

I used to work for UPS, and you'd have to be a complete idiot to try to steal anything from a hub or truck. Everything is scanned at every step, and the exits to the buildings are closely monitored. These people make the rest of us UPSers look bad.

chris16447

I still haven't received a shipping email from GameStop. When I pre-ordered, it said they'd guarantee shipment the same day and I paid extra for overnight so I could get it tomorrow.

I will be pissed if it doesn't come tomorrow. Also, their website is really slow at the moment.

SubKamran

I've had things stolen a few times from the Post Office, not once for UPS. Two issues of Mad magazine when I subscribed a few years ago (coincidentally, both were the Harry Potter issues) and the special 1000'th issue of Rolling Stone, to which this day I still don't have because of a thief.

kylo4

@ShaggE: I don't use the term often (or loosely), but: LOL! For that post, you deserve confetti (confederate and/or union), bells and whistles, candy and nuts (unless you're allergic), and a stripper of whatever gender you prefer popping out of a cake covered in whatever icing you prefer.
I don't have a trumpet handy, but I do own an old bird call that belonged to my grandfather, which I think could do the trick if I blew real hard in it.
And believe me, I blow. Like, totally.

Antiterra

So let's see... Postal workers steal GTA IV from ya.... I blame Uwe Boll. But don't worry, no need to get disgruntled, you'll get your game soon enough.

Ha! Someone call me butter for I am on a roll. :)

DONNYchiban

@Michael McWhertor: Why don't I ever get a "Hey, look everyone" intro?

I want a "Hey, look everyone" intro... and a theme song would be spiffy... it'd go "It's ShaggE Time!" and trumpets would play a catchy ditty... and the live studio audience would cheer... yeah. And confetti. Lots of confetti. But not too much. Ever try cleaning confetti? Sucks. You just sweep at it and say "Hey! Confetti! Get off of the floor and into my dust-a-pan!" and the confetti says "No, dude. We're forming a Confetti-rate army. It's like a Confederate army, but more festive."

...

So yeah. GTAIV. Quite the game.

ShaggE

HA HA HA!!! I work for UPS in the hub and between thursday and friday i know of at least 8 people who opened up the GTA boxes and stole copies. I was just telling a friend how many people i knew that already had the game then this story popped up. Classic.

MasterC-los

@Cogito:

in the state of California..any theft under $400.00 is petty theft..so here it would be:

Petty Theft Grand Theft Auto.

qBIRD

@EnigmaNemesis: Hey, look everyone! It's EnigmaNemesis!

Michael McWhertor

@Witzbold:

LOL! I have lurked, just bout time I posted again.

@zanzibarlegend:

Been really busy since being back to work from winter break. Things are getting normal now that the routine has set in again.

@Ignatius:

Isnt that great? Brand new games that you will keep for $35-$45 ... and rental ones as long as you want or need them.

Though sometimes I can be so impatient I will run to the store for full price.

EnigmaNemesis

Better than them stealing handguns, like they used to before UPS mandated they all be shipped overnight.

Tibeerius

@RPGr: Customs fees are precisely why I never use express delivery companies when importing games and/or media. It seems as though couriers ask customs officers to please check the parcels, so that they can pay the fee and then slap a big, hefty commission on the recipient.
A postal employee once told me that customs never bother checking media under $100, and yet for some reason they always stop $60 games when those come through UPS/DHL/Chronopost/etc.

As for UPS being the worst, well, DHL ain't all perfect, either.
A few years back, working for an online retailer of high-tech equipment, I was in charge of our dealings with DHL, and... suffice it to say that I have never used DHL for my personal stuff since then.
Their customer service was truly abysmal. It would sometimes take weeks before they declared a shipment officially lost (and thus paid us back). Of course, it was never the blank DVDs and keyboards that went missing, but always the camcorders or high-end cameras...

In one ear, I'd have the customer losing patience (rightfully so); in the other, DHL telling me that they were "still looking"; and hovering over my shoulder, the bosses who forbade me to send a replacement before DHL had concluded their inquiry.

After a while, I started sending replacements on the QT, and it only happened once that the original parcel eventually found its way to destination (at which point I told the customer he could keep both - I was much too soft-hearted for that job, but the guy was really kind, and we'd spent so much time talking on the phone that I knew basically everything about his family!).

Antiterra

This thieving seems to be a trend in the good ole usa where parcels, packages are concerned.
Quite a few times we sent bithday presents out to philadelphia and boston to nephews and nieces and they dont get to them a lot of the time. :/
Also when my sister in law came home from philly with her husband for christmas, some thieving git in the airport luggage handling stole 2 brand new ipods from her case.They were presents for relations.
I hope their knobs fall off,scumbags!!

UFO

@Optimistic Prime: They think they are going to get away with it.

Kohath

I hope this doesn't happen to me. Seeing as Ebgames shipped my copy via UPS.

Xshinobi

STEAL THIS GAME! Haha, I still remember that review that said GTA was so good that you shouldn't just buy the game, you should steal the game.

alby13

I just walked into Futureshop on April the 28th, at 7:00PM. What was I doing there mere hours before the midnight release? Pre-ordering it.

See, it wasn't that hard.

aR-Tard

Haha nice photoshop. Well I was going to order it from Amazon but decided not to. I guess it was a good idea but it sucks that people are going to have to wait longer for this. I'm not going to be able play it for a while because i'm going to have to send in my ps3.

Shindokie: Read my Messages

If you live in Canada, you'll know UPS are a bunch of crooks. Not necessarily the drivers though, I mean the damn accountants and those that pass the shipments through customs.

Example. $40 dollar game, $30 dollar fee for getting it through customs.

UPS = worst delivery company ever.

RPGr

Im opening my copy in the store.

Ra is back on the A-Team!

Well, I guess the warning on GS came half way true.

The UPS truck did get stolen, therefore having those individuals lose their copies; just in a indirect way

Fyren

Rain and Thunder late Monday night to Early tuesday morning.

Thats putting a serious damper on the midnight release.

I am at a watering-hole to bottom up with my colleagues and hoping for the rain to go away.

Fyren

just steal it from your coworker's truck

klew

@EnigmaNemesis:

Mine did too, it'll be Thursday before I get it, but hey.... I don't have to pay $60 for it up front. :P

Ignatius

@Arttemis: When did you preorder them? My friend and I ordered ours almost 2 weeks ago. The website says they shipped out on the 27th, but ups says its on it's way to my city right now. Amazon is opening a new shipping center in my town, WOOHOOO. And no you wont like me when I'm angry. I don't like me when I'm angry.

Mr Fortitude

It's Grand Theft Grand Theft Auto!

SuperStingray

@EnigmaNemesis: YOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! where have you been dude?

my copy better be at EB! or its gonna be grand theft Game store Riot j/k

zanzibarlegend

I do know someone who knows someone who does that, or at least used to. I don't think they work for the shipper anymore. I'd hear through the grapevine that I could get "a PSP on launch day" (as if that was tough to begin with). Not sure if they worked for UPS or DHL or FedEx, but it annoyed me to even hear the offer.

I don't do anything about it because I am much too busy being awesome.

KaneRobot

@EnigmaNemesis: About time you got back!

Witzbold

I'm having my copy of GTA IV shipped from Canada to Europe by regular air mail, so hopefully, by the time it gets here, postal employees will have stolen other people's games and mine will go through smoothly. What? Me, selfish?

@Covert_Knight: But can you imagine a "GTVG" game? What would you play as? A UPS employee?
"Press Triangle to steal parcel. Congratulations. You win."
"If spotted by supervisor, run to nearby UPS employee break room to hide among other delivery people in shorts until you have lost wanted level."
"Press Square to have sex with hooker. Oh. No. You cannot afford with your salary."

And at the end of the game, you steal a whole truck and flee to Mexico, where you fence your precious cargo and live like a king until... dun-dun-dun-dun! The past never stays buried... GTVG II, coming soon.
Oh, I am so doing this - ordering Game Development For Dummies as we speak. I'm gonna be rich, RICH !

Antiterra

One of my coworkers was fired for stealing a disposable camera -though the situation seemed suspect at the time- and another for eating a piece of candy which had fallen out of a broken package.

poduski

it's probably a microsoft agent sabotaging the PS3 shipments.

carbonelli

I used to work at UPS and merchandise theft was not that uncommon. IPods and games were probably the most popular to be stolen.

poduski

another reason why UPS sucks.

Sandbox_Emperor

So that is why the guy that sold me my copy of GTA4 4 days early was in a UPS uniform. Tricky devil. At least I got it for only 60 bucks.
UPS - 1
Fed Ex - 0

JustJake

@Trowble (XBL/PSN): Aw man, way to crush a man's sexual drive. :( I gotta get People magazine so I know who is a prego or not before commenting my wanting to see a certain some naked. And no, dont you dare file a restraining order Crecente! Its a man love thang! lol

AlcoholicZombie

@EnigmaNemesis: Sameness. I couldn't believe my eyes, I didn't think they'd have enough copies. :D

ShaggE

@ca$h: HA! Man, this is so amazing. It's better than when I bought my PS3.

Now I gotta get to play! Sweet jeebus! Enjoy your copy when you get it soon!

Candlejack

Wouldn't the thief just have to say his box was already opened when he got it and they'd go after the hapless patsy in line before him?

How would you even confirm it, anyway? Waterboarding?

Justice7541

That's funny. I ordered something last week and it's still "Billing Information Received" on my UPS tracking status even though it's supposed to be 1-2 day shipping.

Fuckin' UPS.

dynendal

Good thing Gamefly just sent mine today!

EnigmaNemesis

@Mr Fortitude: I'm an Amazon Prime customer as well but neither of my two GTA4:SE packages have shipped yet. Both are one-day shipping expected to arrive on the 30th. =/

Arttemis

@AlcoholicZombie: Dude, she's pregnant, time to move on.

@snk429: UPS delivers to Gamestop and I wouldn't doubt many other retailers as well.

I just know that the Gamestop by me already has their shipment and my friend holding onto my copy (with his dear life he knows what's good for him), so I'm good to go.

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

@Cogito: Zing!

Kenny

@Candlejack:
Goddamn you and your future time =P

ca$h

Stealing GTA 4, that's irony.

Now if it was Grand Theft Video Games 4, well that would be the ultimate irony.

Covert_Knight

@ Mr Fortitude: Would I like you when you're angry?
@ Moonshadow101: I can has severance check?

rainking187

@Cogito:
Too quick man, I was so happy I thought of that, but you're faster.

jambe

How fitting. I just got my copy of GTA4 from GAME.

Midnight. Launch.

YES. YES YES!!!! YES!!!!

This feels so awesome. Pics, if desired, can be delivered ASAP.

I even got the free 360 points and all, but I bought the PS3 version :D Hah!

Candlejack

As someone who works in transportation, I am totally not getting this. They're losing decent paying jobs for a couple bucks, or even the "thrill" of playing "first." Then again people can be pretty dumb.

Optimistic Prime

man, thats just f#$� up
the world is full of evil

@Cogito: paradox!

GREY GECKO

I would be lying if I said I didn't find all those copies just sitting in the back of the GameStop beside the store I work in, separated from me by few measly inches of drywall, just a wee, tiny, wee bit tempting. The crazy thing is I've never felt that way about a game before. It was like a bad nicotine craving. Fortunately, I'm a good person and not stupid. It's sad when people decide to fuck up their lives over an urge to play a videogame.

Oh, and four more hours!!

ca$h

@impreza:
yeah, you are probably right. You wont believe how many times i saw burst boxes full of games, toys and dvds meant for stores when i worked at UPS. Its probably true and is happening at Fedex, USPS, and DHL.

meltyman

UPS just delivered my GTA just now 4:55 pacific time... I wasnt supposed to get until wed. This is exciting... go amazon

madbassman39

I live in Indiana, my copy left on a semi truck or plane headed for me in a box full of deliveries for other people around here. They don't seperate into individual shipments until they get the box here in the city of delivery. Either way, if it comes up missing I will get my money back one way or another.

Mr Fortitude

Good thing I'm picking up my own copy.
Midnight tonight!! SO EXCITED!
Only a few more hours! Skipping school for 2 days after!

snk429

Great pic and all, but unless you intend to photoshop a cat into it somehow, please fix the spelling. Please.

Moonshadow101

So it's Grand Theft Grand Theft Auto?

Cogito

I find this absolutely hilarious for some reason.

Unfortunate for those who had their copies stolen, though.

TOWER_JUNKIE

That's pretty hot.

Sailorcancer

Haha and watch someone do a drive by on the people waiting at the midnight sale. GTA Madness!

Earthslide

Well if GTA has taught me anything its when you are burned hire the new up and comer in town to find the peopel who burned you and teach them a lesson. If the law has taught me anything its that this is a bad idea.

Rurik

So GameStop's premonition was true? That's odd.

Ignatius

@Mr Fortitude:

I think this article relates more to actual retail location shipments, and not single orders to customers.

Stealing one copy from a box of 30, for example.

impreza

Meh. Its not worth losing my job for a measly $60. I mean, if it was special lingerie for Jessica Alba or something like that. Then I would definitely lose my job for that. That or a advance copy of The Dark Knight movie. :D

AlcoholicZombie

Good thing my copy is arriving via Amazon and the US Postal Service. Because no one's ever heard of disgruntled postal service employees, right? Right?!

peAr_nectAr

If someone takes my copy I will be very upset, I might even get angry. My copy was just shipped out of Lexington, KY on it's way to me today. Amazon Prime service ftw.

Mr Fortitude

I'd hate for that to be my copy.

DesmondHume