[Boatanchors] Shipping damage

Sun Nov 25 17:43:57 EST 2018

Yea .. I guess it is asking too much now days for a company to provide the service and care you pay for and expect.   Many companies just don't have common decency anymore.  Theyre only interested in how much money they can line their pockets with instead of actually providing a good service that the customer wants and is entitled to expect.

It's not surprise to me that the Post Office continues to go deeper and deeper down the toilet, especially when it comes to letters.  Any day of the week, I would opt to send an email instead of counting on the post office actually deliver a piece of mail.  That's why they keep jacking up rates.   And at the same time, every time they jack up rates, fewer and fewer people are opting for other methods instead of sending a piece of paper through the mail.  Come January, they are jacking up the price of a letter to 50 cents.  And ... you can expect that fewer and fewer things will be mailed.   Even catalogs ..  a company can deliver a whole catalog by PDF in an email and doesnt have to pay the post office to carry it to your house, taking a week or more to get it to you.    When Amazon starts its own delivery fleet, youre going to see screams of agony from the post office, UPS and FedEx because they are really going to take it in the shorts.  Hopefully, Amazon will treat packages and customers with more respect than the other three.   Too bad though that Amazon wont be carrying anything other than their own merchandise.

________________________________
From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net <boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of w5jo at brightok.net <w5jo at brightok.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2018 2:09 PM
Cc: Boat Anchors List
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Shipping damage

You are asking for a lot Ray.  Back in the early 80's I was a manager for a
Land Mobile shop and one of my customers was a UPS transfer center.  When
trucks came in they would park them, remove the seal then take long steel
rods with a handle on one end and a hook on the other.  Using the hook they
would unlatch the door then use it swing the two doors open.  Reason...so
packages would not drop out of the trailer onto the person opening the door.
Some of the top ones might contain your heavy radio.

They stack packages in their trailers according to the way necessary to get
the most number in them, not how much they weigh.   At times I saw packages
that were supported when they were loaded, fall onto the asphalt then picked
up and put on the cart to take to the conveyer in the build for sorting.
There they could easily fall about a foot or so to another belt to take them
to the next trailer.   Everyone agrees that they should pay for damages if
they occur, particularly if you have purchased sufficient coverage for the
contents.

But don't expect the package to look like it did when it leaves the shipping
point.  It may,or most likely, it will not.  It depends on what was stacked
on top.  And under pressure, the help does not pay attention to the Fragile
stickers.  I have had better luck with FedEx and will not use UPS unless it
is the only option.  If you are shipping anything electronic over a
valuation of $999 UPS will not provide coverage for it.  Your only option is
FedEx.  Another option is a Freight Company such as Old Dominion or the bus
lines.  Some have had good luck with both.  Your success will depend on
packing the container, the destination and who handles it.

Jim
W5JO

-----Original Message-----

I'm having a string of bad luck lately apparently.   For the second time, a
package arrived at the buyers trashed.  The first was two weeks ago, sent by
UPS.  Despite being plainly labeled in LARGE print all over that said
FRAGILE, the Lafayette receiver was trashed on arrival.  I'm now in a battle
with UPS to get insurance payment, even threatening legal action.

Now, just  yesterday I was informed by and shown pictures of a package I
sent postal service, thinking maybe they would be more responsible.  A Swan
500 and power supply.   Sent in two separate boxes encased in peanuts
obtained from UHaul, which has a very good reputation for not treating their
shipments like footballs during the playoffs.  ALso had them wrapped in
bubble wrap and the boxes marked FRAGILE and the post office indicating so
on the tracking documents.   Arrived like the UPS boxes ...  looking like
other 50 to 100 lb boxes had been dropped on top of mine.  Buyer still in
the process of determining damage to the rig and if it is fatal damage or
minor.

My point is .. and my belief is .. I don't give a DAMN for ANY of the
shippers excuses.  I pay them for one thing..  to SHIP a box from point A to
point B, and for that box to arrive in one piece just like when I dropped it
off for shipping.  Especially when it is indicated that it is fragile.    I
hope to hell no one EVER tries shipping glass glasses because I firmly
believe they would arrive as a pile of glass shards in the box.  And, I do
not appreciate being told by a shipper that "it was not damaged during
shipping."   THAT crap is an insult to someone's intelligence....

I don't know the solution, except maybe to take the equipment to a place
that will absolutely fill the box with foam insulation and it becomes a
block that has to be cut away when it arrives.   Even then, I'm sure the
shipper would find some way to make it arrive looking like it had been
dropped from a B52 at 20,000 feet.   Remember when they used to tout the
durability of Collins gear, saying they could be dropped from a plane and
still be operational after landing.   I dont think even a Collins KWM2 can
survive the incompetence of the three major shippers.  The employees have no
respect or care for anything they handle.  It seems to be toss it on the
truck from 20 feet away, stack it 10 high with 50 lbs on top of each and
then toss it into the driveway.   Sometimes, I'm surprised they even get out
of the truck when they deliver a package instead of just tossing it out the
door and driving away.   They must get out of the truck if they have to get
a signature.
________________________________

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