A tip about the US Postal Service "If it fits it ships" priority mail when shipping brass.
"Yeah, I work for the postal service. What of it?"
I received today a box from a faithful reader who sends me brass now and again. It had been shipped from Louisiana in a large priority mail "If it fits it ships" box. Well, it was broken open when I received it and of the 40 pounds original weight only 32 pounds remained, and as it was split entirely along one whole width of a seam, I am lucky to have received what I did.
I spoke to a USPS employee that I know and this is what I was told: If you want to make sure such a package gets through, you have to use nylon-reinforced packing tape and make sure the box is well-wrapped with it before giving it over to the tender mercies of the postal service. Using doubled zip lock quart or gallon bags for the brass you ship (gallons are best) helps keep the brass within the box if it is compromised. Why is this necessary? Because, they explained, "postal workers hate the 'If it fits it ships' (expletive deleted) because the packages tend to be heavy and people don't like having to move heavy parcels so they make a game of seeing if they can bust them open to pay you back for making them work for a living." I kid you not. They actually said that.
Talking to my wife Rosey, who is inside sales manager for a local material handling company and whose shipping department ships dozens of boxes of forklift parts everyday via UPS, the Big Brown employees play the same game with heavy boxes. She told me they have to incur more shipping charges for a larger number of lighter parcels because otherwise they will find some gorilla to slam the heavier boxes around until they break open. This costs the shipper, the customer and UPS more money for damage claims and time lost, but nothing happens to the lazy bastards who do it, so it continues.
12 comments:
Time to start an anvil of the month club?
Hoo boy, you are just scratching the surface here, Mike.
A quick Google will turn up pics of guitars damaged in shipping, often vintage and/or rare instruments damaged beyond repair. Shipping an electric guitar amplifier can end up with the transformer being ripped loose from its internal mounting brackets - guess how much force it takes to do that?
And let's not forget the thieves. People assume that shipping companies are anti-gun - often their restrictive firearm shipping policies are to protect the companies from their employees.
When I was getting married, we ordered our wedding rings online. The rings never showed up. The vendor was more than happy to ship us replacements using another shipping company, and filed a claim with the original shipping company. When we got back from our honeymoon, our door was covered in those little post-it notices that the shipping companies leave. It seems that when the vendor filed a claim for $$$ in missing jewelry, much hilarity ensued and the 'lost' rings were found.
Like they say in boxing - protect yourself at all times. Pack your stuff like it's being shipped by pack mule to the moon. Insurance may still be needed.
No doubt there are 'lazy bastards' in the shipping & postal industries. There are also conscientious and hard working folks there. And plenty of vets.
I guess the key thing here is to not be a 'lazy bastard' oneself (now that you know), and thus be at the mercy of potential like-minded shipping personnel. Wrap it well.
Sounds like they are in competition with airline baggage handlers for the title of biggest assholes.
One way to deal with this when shipping something is to INSURE it at a high value- that tangible and traceable and track able aspect tends to ENSURE your package arrives safely.... Which is another reason damage is "allowed" to continue.
They want to sell more insurance and if they curtail the damage they would sell less. For that brass- ensure it for saaaaaay, 750 to 1000 bucks. That package would arrive pristine. If packing tape is the defense, then tape the bags inside - as taping it outside will only serve as a call to action to see if it can be busted up. And understand this too - if ya think dogs hitting on firearms related packages isn't a incentive to damage do damage then you are only fooling yourselves. Like I said - high insurance values is the way.... Consider it an investment with a hug payoff dividend.
Unions, with their habit of never examining quality of union work performed by union workers, prove once again that they are obsolete. I have been avoiding products and services performed by union workers for a very long time because organized labor unions are Marxist.
While on vacation In Daytona Beach I stupidly put my camera bag containing say $2k in camera body and lenses in an out of the way spot in the motel room so no one would trip over it. Needless to say is was also out of the way enough to be missed in out scans of the motel room on departure. When it was missed on our arrival at home I called the motel who promptly shipped it via UPS insured at my request for $3k. I tracked the package over a couple days till it arrived in the Miami area UPS hub then called to arrange to go pick it up but was told it was still in transit. When I pointed the fool to their own tracking website I was promised they would look into it. After driving across town in the hopes of getting things straightened out I waited while they "searched the warehouse". No camera bag was found. So I informed the people that we should move on to the $3K insurance claim and watched with some amusement when they produced the missing camera bag. It had been sitting just inside the "dutch door" where we had been conversing for near an hour. By "just inside" I mean within 3 feet of the person claiming it was lost forever and in their plain sight every time they walked off to look for it or came back to feed me more bullshit.
Let's get some flat rate boxes, line them with plastic, and fill them with concrete....
LOTS of flat rate boxes......
I like the "anvil-of-the-month" and concrete-filled box ideas - especially if they're insured for a thousand or so. Maybe experiment with a small flate-rate box for $5.95 + $200 insurance at $3.50 ($1K is about $14). They can lose all the concrete-filled boxes they want if they'll pay up.
But seriously, a couple hints from someone who shipped UPS/USPS/FedEx from the busiest package forwarding counter in Arizona for a couple years: DO NOT ever mark anything "Fragile". Our UPS rep said that local (Flagstaff) sorting personnel would give such packages "extra special" attention. Meaning they'd throw them as hard and as far as they could across the receiving warehouse. That's AFTER each package was dropped 7' off the incoming conveyor belt to the sorting floor. Imagine a 70 pound package behind your Grandmother's priceless (and poorly packed) ca. early 1800's dish set you just inherited. Pack as UPS recommends or they won't pay on an insurance claim.
USPS employees are much the same and they don't seem to have a packing standard (that I know of) but pack the same way and they'll probably pay up if they do damage it. Payment on a loss claim is supposed automatic (if you insure it) but a tedious process.
I like the way online suppliers like Natchez and Midsouth pack brass, ammo, etc.: they use a double-strength cardboard box that fits just inside USPS' flat-rate box. Also sealed with nylon reinforced tape. At least they used to. I notice that Midway hasn't done that the last few shipments, though.
-MadMagyar
I used to ship reclaimed lead ingots that I poured to fit exactly inside of these "if fits, it ships" boxes. Needless to say the postal boys were not amused. No matter how they tried and they did try.........they could not destroy those lead bars.....they only disappeared them which cost them due to my purchasing insurance. Very hard to claim that they lost 70+ lbs of solid lead. Many arguments issued about my claimed value but they had to eventually pay off.
Hah! That would surely explain why it takes me ten minutes to cut my way into the flat rate boxes the guy I buy steel targets from on eBay ships them in.
Same thing with the bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading.
I'm pretty sure UPS operates the same way.
I shipped a medical scanner UPS with all the tipping/rough handling indicators attached. Got a call from the customer saying they'd refused the shipment and filed a damage complaint.
When I got the scanner back it consisted of plastic and aluminum powder on the floor of the box...whatever hadn't spilled out through the holes the forklift forks had left.
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