Shipping Damage - AGAIN!

Alright people - what's the deal? In the last year I've had 4 out of 6 hobby packages be damaged at the hands of a shipping company. Three of four are USPS's fault; today's arrival is UPS's fault. This is absolutely unacceptable. The loss - a 4" LOC airframe. No biggie. The anger I am feeling right now - biggie. Had the tube been out of round I might have just decided to fix it myself. Nope - it has a nice crush depression in it. I'm so angry that I won't even continue to vent.

The good news - UPS actually gives a darn. They will gladly refund the cost of the item and shipping cost. Thankfully, the other items (Operation Enduring Freedom Kits) were unscathed by the shippers.

See picture...

When I got my 4 enduring freedom kits the box had been squashed
in the process,they had mashed a tube on the cluster bomb..I have plenty of tubing to replace it, so I'm not going to deal with the hassle this time .but I'm suprised that hobbylinc did not put one piece of padding/newspaper in the box for support.

argh!.

There's no reason a box should be THAT badly damaged, but there's also no reason there shouldn't be some padding in the box.

Originally posted by gothique_97
There's no reason a box should be THAT badly damaged, but there's also no reason there shouldn't be some padding in the box.

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Oh, please don't be misled by this picture. There is padding in the box, but I had already removed it before taking the picture.

Really though - as badly as this box is crushed, padding wouldn't have done much to save it. The impact or pressure applied exceeded the diameter of the tubing itself. Even with padding, I believe the tube would have caved regardless. IMHO, padding is there to prevent shifting, shock, vibration, or to protect items from banging together and breaking (ie - glass). To prevent something like crushing you'd need to ship in a wooden crate.

eugenefl
that tube should have been sent in a triangle box!
I think that's poor judgement on the suppliers part

Hey, Eugene,

The UPS driver had to sit somewhere and eat his lunch!!! What better place than on a nice soft box?

Glad they are going to take care of the damage.

Originally posted by eugenefl

The good news - UPS actually gives a darn. They will gladly refund the cost of the item and shipping cost. Thankfully, the other items (Operation Enduring Freedom Kits) were unscathed by the shippers.

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It's good that they will refund. I deal with UPS at work, and while they do not smash a lot of stuff, they will often deny claims saying "the packing materials were not adequate". If you push them, they will eventually cover the claims, but the first response is to always deny it out of course. :kill:

Originally posted by stymye
eugenefl
that tube should have been sent in a triangle box!
I think that's poor judgement on the suppliers part

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well.......

I have had two confirmed (same post office) and two more that i'm investigating where a postal employee actually FOLDED a triangular box in a shipment from FlisKits (yea, we made good on it and took it up with the post office...)

In these cases (get this...) the destination was a PO box and (as I understand it), the only way to get that box to fit in the PO box is to fold it in half... I'm *not* kidding!

You should have seen the look on our Post Master when I told her *that* and had data to back it up. Their original argument was that since it wasn't insured, it wasn't covered. They quickly agreed that such deliberate destruction of property was covered even without insurance.

So, in any case, a triangular box isn't always the solution. Those of you receiving FlisKits kits in such boxes will notice that they are now stamped "Do Not Bend" (i get a lot of looks for *that* one too... LOL)

Also, for what it is worth (there will be a website announcement about this soon), FlisKits has implemented a new policy concerning certain shipments.

All shipments to retailers will be insured and will have delivery confirmation applied, at our expense.

Further, all shipments outside of the United States (not *just* retailers) will also have insurance and delivery confirmation applied, at our expense.

All other shipments can have insurance and delivery confirmation applied, at customers expense, if you inform FlisKits of your desire for these added charges.

I am glad that this situation did not occur with a FlisKits shipment, but rest assure that it would be corrected instantly.

and, kudo's to UPS for fixing this!

jim

But has the Wizard of NEMROC had any shipping problems after he started adding the magic dust?

Sorry about your shipping problems eugene.

Originally posted by stymye
eugenefl
that tube should have been sent in a triangle box!
I think that's poor judgement on the suppliers part

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Stymye,

Please see EXHIBIT A - <a href="https://www.rocketryforum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=17857">TRIANGULAR BOX FOLDED!</a>

You can read the thread here: <a href="https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2256&highlight=USPS">Post Office Scew-Ups</a>

FYI - A set of replacement Black Brant II decals shipped in a photo mailer that read "DO NOT BEND" was bent in half and shoved in my apartment mailbox. Subsequently, all of the decals that were on the bend were broken/cracked. This is a BLATANT disregard for someone's property.

I hate to be crass and to be a sourpuss, but it is my belief that the poor men that went "postal" were probably pushed to the edge because some rocketeer out there gave them an earful about damaging their stuff. :kill:

The nice person inside me tells me that I should be thankful all of these items that have been damaged are replaceable. I can't imagine how I'd feel if there was a vintage kit inside one of these boxes and it was damaged.

Originally posted by jflis

Further, all shipments outside of the United States (not *just* retailers) will also have insurance and delivery confirmation applied, at our expense.

jim

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Really? Is that even possible, Jim? I thought DC was domestic only.

I'd really like to know how I can get something like Delivery Confirmation outside the US. I do a lot of selling internationally on eBay, you see.

Will

eugenefl
It takes some effort to fold a traingular box .thats awefull

I can't tell you how many times a month I used to get an e-mail regarding shipping issue's. All of my orders for rocket kits are shipped Prioity Mail with confirmation. I won't send anything over 60-70 bucks without insurance (which I eat...and gladly) and if it's over 300 I skip the delivery confirmation and go with signiture confirmation. But here is the rub. Confirmation doesn't mean SQUAT! It just means that they scanned it before it was dropped off (unless it's signiture confirmation) to what THEY think is the delivery point...which could be the wrong address.
I have finally decided to bite the bullet and buy over sized boxes and then use PLENTY of packing materials to help combat the postal gorilla's!
I worked on a loading dock for a couple of years for my uncle...items don't get crushed for no good reason!

Well, luckily for me, Christine at Estes has been gracious enough to replace my big hunk-o-BT101 and coupler for my Saturn V kit. Airbore Express has been great on this so far in communicating with me and once the parts come in from Estes, I'll let them off the hook. It really was horribly insufficient packaging which caused my problem though.

Relatedly, I know a few folks who worked at UPS and they have horror stories. Guys would get ticked off at the company during contract negotiations and purposely pick out the shipments marked "FRAGILE" and smash them to pieces just so the company would have to pay for them.

I too cringe when thinking about a collectible kit being wasted like that.