I'm trusting FedEx/ UPS less by the day


Many of the people working these high demand jobs in the shipping industry were already hating it before the pandemic and what not. Now I think many simply dont care one bit. Then you throw huge "fragile" and "do not drop" stickers on the box with a nice big beautiful picture advertisement of the component/ speaker on the outside box for everyone to see and its almost goading them to mess with it. 

Recently bought a subwoofer and  there was a hole/dent in the box  so deep it penetrated through the 2nd interior box. Obviously this was dropped from some distance. Not too mention the fact that the UPS driver just flopped the box off the dolly causing it to roll forward on to its other side. Right in front of me. No apology or anything,  just handed me the sign pad and acted like it was nothing. And that's how it's being treated in front of the customer I can't imagine what goes down in these warehouses. 

Ok end of rant 🙂

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I redirect any high value shipments to a FedEx hold/drop location. I have a Walgreens close by that is a drop location. Worth the 15 minute round trip for piece of mind. So far so good. 

I was in freight  and trucking  for over 40 years, even worked as temp. for UPS. All I can say is triple box it. Then crate it and  strap it to a pallet when possible. Stickers of fragile or this side up mean nothing at all. You can bet your  equipment is going to travel upside down on its side no matter who you use. You can bet if its heavy it will be rolled or slid across a dock on to a truck. Boxes fall off the conveyor belts all the time. any where from a 2ft- 4ft fall.

OVER KILL PACKING A MUST

How about fedex neglecting to pick up at a fedex box for 3 weekdays in a row without notice and then promising to rush the delivery and failing to do so?

I want to thank all of y’all that have had such bad luck with UPS, FedEx, USPS, or any of the other alphabet soups of agencies.

It’s the rare package or shipment that arrives damaged in any fashion.

I guess the luck is due to our ’live/work situation’, where we know our ’daily drivers’ pick-up and delivery routines, and are able to meet them in person. Since we’ve got a number of items incoming, know when to expect them and from who and by whom.

Our ’personal packages’ are part of the flow, and everything gets the same treatment.

It helps being next to a high-profile pottery (45$ for a coffee mug....Yes, One.).

The exceptions: OTR truck deliveries of some of the large items we use and/or install. The packaging on pallets can be iffy...holes allowing hardware to ’escape’, pallets on the verge of disintegration, exposed edges and ends with scrapes or dings. Worse is the boxes of galvanized chain marked ’OVERWEIGHT’ and treated as such...

But our ’lightweight’ (in contrast) personal’ stuff....no issues. *S*

(The ’lost’ stuff gets replaced ’Next Day’ generally when we call it in....)

There’s always a place on the outgoing and incoming forms where one can note ’Arrived Damaged’ AFTER you open the box and Look @ It.

The driver Must Wait while you do.

The driver has a name tag; if they say they’ve got to go, you can object.

Take pictures, note time/date/where/whom.

If dropped off and left, same routine.

Don’t open the package if damaged and dropped off without driver contact; this is considered ’acceptance by addressee’, signature or not.

If you feel screwed, Don’t continue to drive it in.

Yours for better, J