Letter to Editor | We’ve experienced ‘high’ delivery drivers, not once but twice

||| FROM JENNI BERRINGER |||

We have been working on a two year home renovation on San Juan Island. Aside from the pandemic creating major delays on supplies, getting good delivery services to our area is even more challenging. We had a large order of tile last year that we purchased from Lowe’s at the Mount Vernon, WA store. They subcontract out to DSI Logistics. The drivers came to our property and slammed into a large tree by our driveway. My husband and I both ran outside to stop the drivers and then they plowed into th tree again and snapped a huge limb off the tree. Our driveway is quite wide and there was no reason they should have gotten that far off the road unless they were not paying attention.

The drivers stopped and the minute they opened their door you could smell a strong odor of marijuana. A good portion of the tile being delivered was broken. In fact, one box they were handing my husband, he shook it to hear shattered tile in the box. We refused the order, snapped photos of the damage of the broken tile and the tree limb and contacted the store manager. We also spoke with DSI Regional manager who had he drivers drug tested and they were eventually fired.

For us, we felt the need to report this issue because the drivers were high and if they hurt or killed somone (the liability) because their mental state was altered on the job. How can they do a quality job at work when they are higher than a kite! As for the damage to our tree, I gathered up a cost estimate from an arborist resource, recommended by several Universities as Covid was still going on and no one was coming on site. I did the best I could do under strained times.

The insurance company (Pilot Last Mile out of CA) that covers the delivery service at DSI they basically denied our claim and left us with tree damage. I was also in contact with a supervisor at Lowe’s Corportate who did nothing more to assist us either. Once the claim was denied that was it! They acted like the tree damage photos did not exist and it never happened. So, for us doing business with Lowe’s, they basically passed the liability along to their second party carrier and then they did nothing to cover the damage they caused. I contacted our homeowners insurance to assist us and they stated unless they hit a structure they could not do anything further either. I wrote into the Washington Attorney General’s Office and that also fell on deaf ears and no further assistance. That was it, end of the line!

Now, a year later this same type of issue happened with another company. This time XPO Logistics. We had ordered a King mattress through Beautyrest. A $2,300 purchase and we had been waiting upwards of four months for it. The drivers called and my husband met them in the driveway. We certainly did not want another tree hit! They came in an open van vs a closed box truck like the Lowe’s/DSI team. The minute they opened the back of the van door, the strong stench of marijuana came wafting out. Our mattress that is made out of fabric material now has the smell of marijuana all over it. The young guys were so high they were unloading a boxed bedroom set for us too. My husband said we only ordered the mattress. A bit scary that they almost gave us an expensive bedroom set, frame, side tables and a dresser.

In this State you can’t ban their drug use, except they are on the job and they are drivers. Every time I see a delivery truck now, I think, are they high? Is this the way consumers are to accept getting their goods? As far as I have witnessed, my postal driver delivers our mail drug free and I have never seen my FedEx driver or UPS delivery kid high or smelling of marijuana or have any of our goods impacted with funky smells. They seem to have good standards but they also live on our island too, so word would get around real fast!

Manufacturing is still down, availability is very limited and freight costs are exceptionally high. We are all paying absorbent delivery costs. I called Beautyrest about the matter and they basically said take the matter up with the deliver service at XPO. They stated that the mattress left their facility in new condition. I get that and after it leaves their hands that’s it, however they should hold some responsibility on how it is safely delivered. I have a smelly mattress in my home now and I instantly was getting a headache from the stench. My pets could smell it, it was just terrible. If we wanted a mattress to smell like this, I would have bought it from a drug house, smell, stains, dirt and grime. Certainly, I could have saved a lot more money by doing that! Is this what consumers are to accept?

As for the XPO supervisor, she said I will call you back and well, she never did. I pushed for them to track down the drivers and have them drug tested. Who knows if that was done. The supervisor made some excuse that the drivers were new but that is still no excuse. There certainly needs to be better safety precautions. More drug testing, basically for a driver, there should be zero tolerance. There does not seem to be much protection for a consumer. We wanted to alert consumers to the issues we are having and give people a heads up on being as situational as they can be when a delivery service comes to your home.

Jenni Berringer