Rant on the US Post Office

RWanke

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I was fortunate enough to win an auction on eBay for what appears to be a really nice Skinner 6" 4 jaw chuck with the right backing plate for my South Bend Lathe. The Post office tracking said it was arriving Monday and as I was working out in the shop, I saw the mailman approaching from down the street. I walked down the driveway to get the mail and my anxiously awaited chuck. The mailman handed me a small stack of junk mail and bills along with a small package that I was also waiting for from Brino on here (thanks again Brino) and started to drive off. I said I was supposed to be receiving another package. He then said "Oh yeah, I almost forgot it. I have to scan it first." He reached behind him with his left hand and brought out a box and proceeded to scan it. I immediately looked at his arm and thought, this guy must work out, but his biceps where smaller than my forearm. He handed me the package and I said "Hold on. Somethings not right". I immediately open the box in front of him and all that was inside was a couple pieces of bubble wrap and a "air packing pillow". The bottom edge of the box had been torn and the post office had put a piece of tape across it with a sticker on it that said "received in damaged condition". How in the hell can an 18 pound chunk of cast iron and a T wrench fall out of a box and no one notice it! The shipping label has the original weight as 18lbs 13 ozs. I contacted the seller and he has initiated a claim from his end but what's the chances of anyone caring enough along the way between Pennsylvania and Indiana to actually try to figure out where this big chunk of steel they are probably stubbing their toe on actually belongs. I'm sure I'll get my money back but it was the chuck that I wanted!!
 
I will expand on John's answer a little more he posted while I was typing.

I understand your pain. However, I have always felt that the guy that packaged it is partially to blame as well. Anything with any weight to it, is to be packaged so that it absolutely cannot rattle around or you have the result you are experiencing. The problem is it takes time and expense to do this correctly, and that is why it is a common problem. Even inexpensive commercial retailers and manufactures have this problem and then they like to blame the package delivery system. Not to say that parcel carrier cannot damage a well packaged item, but the likelihood is greatly reduced. And not to say that someone in the Post Office didn't see it escape it's package. But then again, we are talking about government run business. Cardboard alone will not get a heavy package to it's destination. It has to do with the laws of physics.

I hope you are able to recover your payment at the very least. Good luck.
 
If the guy would have used a bunch of cut up slabs of cardboard all around the item instead of bubble wrap and air pillow, the package likely would have survived; it is not just the PO that handles heavy items in this way, UPS is no better; they say that if a package is breached, it is the fault of the sender for not packing it well enough; I was told that their policy is to never bend over to put a package down, at least in the terminal, but to drop it, because of back injury issues.
 
I too have had several poor packing experiences. Ebay for one needs to have better advice on packaging especially for large heavy items.
They give poor instructions like "choose a box only slightly larger than the item itself" WRONG! The box should be generously sized with thick dense packing material like cardboard or thick foam all around. Styrofoam peanuts are next to useless. Good packaging takes time and some effort and expense. Some people do it well. Many others, not so much.
I had a 6" lathe literally fall out the bottom of the box during the ride across country to me. I was able to get back a hefty refund but I would have gladly paid extra for a good packaging job and an undamaged machine.
Mark
 
I bought a laptop on ebay. Well it never made it to my house. The box arrived empty and all taped up where it was torn open. The box was a regular laptop shipping box and should have made it all the way. Anyway, the seller sent me a another laptop which got here just fine in the same type of box. 2 weeks later the original laptop showed up in a padded envelope with the ebay slip inside. No battery and no power supply. When I asked te seller if he wanted me to ship it to him he said not to bother. I bought another battery and power supply for $25 and now have a spare laptop for the garage.
Sometimes things work out for the best.
 
I bought a Levin lathe from back east. The seller had it “professionally packaged”. I received it destroyed. The lathe was 65lbs. Packaged, the lathe had one layer of bubble wrap on it and the rest was popcorn inside the box. When I opened the box the popcorn looked like it went through a shredder, just little pieces left. Insurance paid for it and I got to keep the broken lathe, but it was not a fun ride…Dave
 
I shipped packages out on a daily basis for 22 years, mostly by UPS. The typical package weight was 17 lbs. and this was electronic equipment, Back then, UPS insisted on 2" minimum packing surrounding the goods. I packed super tight, often to the point of a skight bu;ge in the package. Over 22 years, I never had a claim for received damaged goods.

For heavy items like machine vises or chucks, I would ask the vendor to put a second tag attached to the item with all the shipping details. It won't prevent damage from falling out the bottom but at least it won't be floating around some USPS or UPS terminal with no idea of where it is supposed to be.
 
I'm a big fan of "Fiberglass Reinforced Strapping Filament Tape" for packing heavy items. I don't sell much stuff on ePay anymore but when I did is was mostly small heavy items. I shipped over 1200 items and never had the post office damage or lose anything I sold. I can't say the same for stuff I bought :). I will always remember something my very first eBay customer told me "Please package it very well, I'm buying a piece of history not pieces of history."
 
Yeah, I have to agree with all of you on the packing part. My rant on the Post Office part is that surely someone saw the problem and could have/should have done something to help. You know, a little customer service. I'm 64 years old and have been earning a living since I was 14 and I honestly don't believe I once turned my back on an obvious problem that a little effort on my part couldn't at least help a little.
 
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