Shipping stuff? This is key...

[Avatard]

I used to do it for a living....ship stuff to customers. Expensive stuff.

The cocksmokers at FedEx, and UPS did everything possible to put me out of fucking business. They'd smash my shit, and then deny my claims.

Even though my company was shipping product packed in OEM boxes, with special foam inserts and bulkheads, and even though everything was packed in a double-corrugated box as per their spec., they'd always find some lame excuse, and fuck me in the end, sometimes (usually) for hundreds or thousands of dollars in losses.

I positively hate these fucking people for the grief, time, hassle, and financial harm that they exacted on me and my business for years.

Now, I don't do that for a living anymore...but for anyone here that does, or has friends or family who do, I'd like to share a little secret that may help folks escape the constant maltreatment I received as a customer to these goatfuckers:

ShockWatch G-force sensors (just saw these on Mythbusters!):

http://www.mrboxonline.com/shockwatch-l47-red-50g-p-4205.html

and the companion label:

http://www.mrboxonline.com/shockwatch-companion-labels-p-4207.html

Paired, these two items will set you back about $5 per box shipped.

They provide irrefutable, irreversible proof of gross mishandling (which is seemingly almost the fucking norm with these flaming assholes), and may help you to make sure that you get your claims settled properly, and responsibly.

I wish they had and/or I knew about these when I was in the biz.

I'd be thousands of dollars ahead, and probably have considerably less gray hairs...

[101lifts2]

Personally, if I was making 8 bucks an hour loading shit on a truck and I found a "Fragile" or "Warning: Shock Sensor Equipped" label, I'd be inclined to drop the box. LOL

Where were u shipping? You should have put the thing in mutliple layers.

[Avatard]

Nope, it wouldn't have helped...for reasons too complex, that I don't care to go into here, but which were finally disclosed to me, regarding the internal workings of their operations, by a friend of mine's GF, who happened to work at FedEx, in the Memphis sorting facility.

They know they're responsible, but they conveniently play dumb.

This holds their hands to the fire, and makes them accountable.

[askmrjesus]

Those were SOP for cases containing consoles, guitars, etc., when we airlifted tours overseas. Only thing is, the carrier has to agree to the procedures for check-in and verification to be held responsible.

JC

[Krypt Keeper]

Had a few dealings with their fine working network. Over the yrs.

Use to work for a company that received 1,000's of packages a day was funny see what was sent there wrong. Seen everything from bubble gum to handguns and rolexes. This was a daily thing.

[marko138]

I use USPS mostly 100% of the time.

[Particle Man]

Those are freakin' cool

[Amorok]

They are pretty awesome. My buddy sticks them on his helmets to make sure they don't get damaged. That's a little obsessive for me, but I guess it's not a terrible idea.

[askmrjesus]

They are pretty awesome. My buddy sticks them on his helmets to make sure they don't get damaged. That's a little obsessive for me, but I guess it's not a terrible idea.

:lol:

Should come in handy when he wants to sue the pavement.

JC

[njchopper87]

UPS.. I don't trust them with anything even remotely valuable. I got a shipment of computer parts a couple weeks ago and saw a huge indentation in one of the corners. Luckily newegg packs everything nicely or there could have been some damage there. It seems everything I receive from them has either a dent or a hole masked with nothing but tape..

[Hydrant]

I just recently went through this. This was shipped with UPS.

I bought a Browing Citori 625 Sporting over and under shotgun, with a value of about $3,000, from a very reputable store in Pennsylvania. They shipped it to a local gun dealer for the FFL deal. When the local dealer called me (myself, and family have bought a lot of guns from this dealer so its a first name basis) they said to bring a camera. I feared the worst. I checked the gun over with a very fine tooth comb, and the gun is unscathed. In the second to last pic, they came within about a half inch of denting the stock. I called the place I bought it from, bitched about it, sent them the pics, and they said they were going to do some checking with UPS, since they ship a lot of high dollar guns, they don't want have to go through that process.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v127/Hydrant/070.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v127/Hydrant/069.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v127/Hydrant/068.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v127/Hydrant/067.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v127/Hydrant/076.jpg


Here it is.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v127/Hydrant/IMG_0903.jpg

[Avatard]

Unbridled Package Smashing.

[Dnyce]

i always always waaaaaaaaayyyyyy overpack, to the point of ridiculousness-but i havent had any damaged items.

[Homeslice]

Personally, if I was making 8 bucks an hour loading shit on a truck and I found a "Fragile" or "Warning: Shock Sensor Equipped" label, I'd be inclined to drop the box. LOL
.

They make way more than $8/hr.

[OneSickPsycho]

They make way more than $8/hr.

What, $10? Last I knew and granted, this was several years ago... the package handlers at UPS started at $9/hr.

[Mudpuppy]

Those shock labels are very cool.. I might have to buy some of those.. I ship a fair amount of stuff both for business and personal.. I mostly use USPS because they are way cheaper than UPS or FedEx.. Their tracking and speed of delivery kind of blows but most of the time I am not shipping anything valuable.. I haven't had much problem with damaged packages.. FedEx has fucked me a few times with deliveries and playing games like that but never any damaged packages.. For work I ship probably 1,000 packages via UPS and FedEx a year and maybe 1 or 2 out of the 1,000 get damaged..

[Homeslice]

UPS are union jobs.

[Dnyce]

What, $10? Last I knew and granted, this was several years ago... the package handlers at UPS started at $9/hr.

start at somewhere around there for part timers but with set raise schedules (union), o.t., seniority(hit full time), making $50k-$100k is easily possible.

[Papa_Complex]

Nope, it wouldn't have helped...for reasons too complex, that I don't care to go into here, but which were finally disclosed to me, regarding the internal workings of their operations, by a friend of mine's GF, who happened to work at FedEx, in the Memphis sorting facility.

They know they're responsible, but they conveniently play dumb.

This holds their hands to the fire, and makes them accountable.

Sometimes the courier hubs are set up to fail. When you put a loading conveyor 15 feet up in the air, with no side rails on it, shit is going to fall off. As the service managed for a computer manufacturer I was constantly screwed over by couriers who would destroy my clients' equipment, then play dumb. It didn't help that the clients wouldn't put any insurance on the stuff that they were shipping back for repair either, which meant the default (usually about $50.00) was all that they'd get for a $2K computer.

The vast majority of out-of-box failures we had for monitors, was a broken neck on the CRT. Do you know how far something has to fall in order to break that?

[shmike]

The vast majority of out-of-box failures we had for monitors, was a broken neck on the CRT. Do you know how far something has to fall in order to break that?

15 feet? :scratch:

[defector]

15 feet? :scratch:

12 feet. The other 3 feet are "just in case".

[Papa_Complex]

12 feet. The other 3 feet are "just in case".

We tested it with a couple of written-off monitors. Roughly 10 feet (3 metres), onto a concrete floor, landing on the bottom of the box.

[OneSickPsycho]

Sometimes the courier hubs are set up to fail. When you put a loading conveyor 15 feet up in the air, with no side rails on it, shit is going to fall off. As the service managed for a computer manufacturer I was constantly screwed over by couriers who would destroy my clients' equipment, then play dumb. It didn't help that the clients wouldn't put any insurance on the stuff that they were shipping back for repair either, which meant the default (usually about $50.00) was all that they'd get for a $2K computer.

The vast majority of out-of-box failures we had for monitors, was a broken neck on the CRT. Do you know how far something has to fall in order to break that?

I'd venture to say it probably had less to do with a drop and more to do with heavy shit piled on top of it.

[Porkchop]

I use USPS mostly 100% of the time.

Fuck usps. I used to use them because they were fairly reliable and fast. Then the one time I am sending somethign remotely expensive, Bose speakers, the buyers sends me a prompt email asking some odd qustions. She says, wait until my husand takes some pictures, then we can work this out. Pictures come back.... fucking box is crumped to HALF of its size, accordian style, with a rip running diagnally from bottom to top. No fall would have done this, this was smashed. Called usps asking for a claim. She said did you get insurance? I said i though packages were insured up to $200??? She said, you have to upgrade to prioroty mailing. I said then you need to change your signs, because they are misleading. So I had to take the product back for a full refund, and only sell it for half of what I previously got. Loss of about $130....

[Papa_Complex]

I'd venture to say it probably had less to do with a drop and more to do with heavy shit piled on top of it.

You'd have to completely smash a CRT monitor with a heavy weight, to break the neck of the tube. If you drop it from a sufficient height it can be snapped off, with no apparent damage to the case. We boxed our shit well.

[Avatard]

That.

See, the geniuses that designed the sorting facilities have belts moving along 45 feet off the ground. If boxes jam up on the belt, your package tumbles three stories onto the floor (and if it lands flat, the box shows little or no damage).

The box is then casually scooped up, put back on another belt, and then sent to you...where it delivered complete destroyed, and then they claim it's your fault for not packing it correctly/insuring it enough/or whatever...in flagrant disregard for interstate trucking laws that actually make them ENTIRELY responsible, no matter what.

Problem is, you need to sue them to get them to respect that law.

They're all scum.