Rant on the US Post Office

[SSage]

Well, USPS people can only do so much, they don't handle the packages through the whole system. The boxes go through automated conveyors and various machines, who knows where it fell out. Its the seller's fault. USPS is great when handling the heavy flat rate boxes, but you have to pack them correctly. My 50 pound medium flat rate boxes make it just fine. You have to pack them tight, glue the box tabs together, use reinforced tape on all sides of the box and put extra tape on the corners. I would double box a lathe chuck and add extra card board around it to hold it tight.

I make bullet gas checks for a living, so my boxes can be very heavy. I can put 20,000 to 30,000 small pieces of copper or gilding brass in a medium flat rate. USPS only looses or destroys a couple per year, thats not bad. But, watch out for FedEx ground. They have destroyed a few heavy items of mine, like a nice old one of a kind ham radio tube amp that I could not repair. FedEx has been very rough on my packages, I avoid them when I can. UPS is far better in my area, I get my steel from them often and the heavy 70 pound boxes survive surprisingly well. But, I ship over two thousand heavy USPS boxes per year with very little issues. I wrap even the little small flat rate boxes with the reinforced tape on all sides if its over 2 pounds, lighter boxes still get all of the corners taped up.

 

[whitmore]

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 ...

I shipped a small lathe once, but it took nails, glue, lots of half inch plywood, and some creative
use of PVC pipe and nylon cable ties to secure and protect the smaller bits. The rows of screws that kept the lid
on only take a few minutes to remove with a power screwdriver. Heaviest box was the
lathe bed (90+ lbs). Some of the cable ties snapped, but they were employed in depth.

It never occurred to me to use bubble wrap, except for a plastic jar of loose scews that would have rattled.

 

[C-Bag]

Don't so much blame the post office, blame the guy who packed it; he should have known better to pack a heavy object with bubble wrap and an air pillow.

Amen brother! My whole biz is through the mail and in 33yrs of using USPS they have only lost 2 packages and one got returned for damage. The stuff inside was ok so I just re packed it and sent it back.

UPS is on average 30% higher than my same packages through USPS and lots of my rural customers won't deal with them.

I've gotten so many things from eBay that were so badly packed as to be a joke. I've taken to taking pics before I open them if is see anything weird. The last one was a 0-2" Starrett DI with no case. When it got here the probe was sticking out through the box! Bubble wrap and peanuts, worthless. I unwrapped the DI and it seemed stuck and I pushed a little and it came free and there was a whirring and it didn't work. The seller was nice knew she'd made a mistake and refunded me, but that would have been a score.

 

[middle.road]

+1
You can't blame the worker bees at the PO, that is grossly unfair. It's up to the shipper to do it properly.
The entire package handling system is so automated now.
If the package gets snagged on the conveyors it's over in a matter of seconds.
Back when I scored that pallet of lathe chucks, Honey and I abused the 'flat-rate' boxes. Out of over eight chucks shipped only one ended up mangled in New Orleans and the PO recovered that one cause we taped an additional shipping label right on the chuck.
We did up one 3-jaw that had to go in two boxes, body in one, jaws in another.
I'd hotglue the box together and put extra double core pieces all around.
And I agree with the FedEX Ground statement above, their conveyors could mangle a hunk of concrete.

 

[chips&more]

Well, USPS people can only do so much, they don't handle the packages through the whole system. The boxes go through automated conveyors and various machines, who knows where it fell out. Its the seller's fault. USPS is great when handling the heavy flat rate boxes, but you have to pack them correctly. My 50 pound medium flat rate boxes make it just fine. You have to pack them tight, glue the box tabs together, use reinforced tape on all sides of the box and put extra tape on the corners. I would double box a lathe chuck and add extra card board around it to hold it tight.

I make bullet gas checks for a living, so my boxes can be very heavy. I can put 20,000 to 30,000 small pieces of copper or gilding brass in a medium flat rate. USPS only looses or destroys a couple per year, thats not bad. But, watch out for FedEx ground. They have destroyed a few heavy items of mine, like a nice old one of a kind ham radio tube amp that I could not repair. FedEx has been very rough on my packages, I avoid them when I can. UPS is far better in my area, I get my steel from them often and the heavy 70 pound boxes survive surprisingly well. But, I ship over two thousand heavy USPS boxes per year with very little issues. I wrap even the little small flat rate boxes with the reinforced tape on all sides if its over 2 pounds, lighter boxes still get all of the corners taped up.

You are lucky to have a Post Office that will except Priority boxes with extra tape on them. Mine will NOT. You can put tape on the lids. But nowhere else. If you do, they will reject the package! And you cannot modify the Priority box in anyway…Dave

 

[ttabbal]

I do think 90% of the time things are automated. That said, I was picking up a package from my local post office the other day. There was a door open to the back room and I watched them throw packages about 10ft across the room and into bins. I'm not naive and I'm sure it happens with every carrier. I don't want to see it though.

Of course, if things are properly packaged it's not generally a problem.

 

[Eddyde]

I agree, poor packing is mostly responsible for the op's issue. I like to use the double box method for packing heavy or fragile items. Pack the item in a tight fitting box be sure it cannot move around by packing filler material around it, tape close. Then pack that box in a larger box with at least an inch of tightly packed packing material, surrounding it on all sides, tape closed with continuous wraps of tape around every axis. I prefer to ship via UPS or Fedex to the USPS but I know that not always an option.

 

[Superburban]

+1
only one ended up mangled in New Orleans and the PO recovered that one cause we taped an additional shipping label right on the chuck.

I don't get why it is so hard for sellers to understand that. I write that in the comments to the seller, on all medium or heavy items, and have only seen 2 packages that arrived with the address also on the inside.

 

[4GSR]

Some of the guys on here can say I pack the medium flat rate boxes with a wooden box on the inside that holds the contents when I ship. Haven't lost one yet. One of the wooden boxes has been across country twice and still holding up. Had a guy send me some chunks of material that was 8" OD and about 1" thick. The first two boxes arrived empty. The medium flat rate boxes only had tape holding the flaps closed. Third attempt, I receive part of the material requested. A couple of the pieces still exited the box. Tried to make the seller understand, didn't do any good. He just added one more wrap of tap around the box at the middle.

 

[bfd]

the same thing happened to me with a 3/4" 10" long solid carbide boring bar I got an empty box with a hole ripped into the side the person I bought It from just put it in a post office shipping box without securing it to a bit of cardboard. he refused to take ownership of the problem and I lost 80 bucks. bill