I’ve had an electric drum set for a few years now. It’s been fun, but since I started playing bass a couple of years ago, I recently realized that I haven’t touched the drum set since. After going to a local music store and hearing they’d offer me next to nothing for it, I decided to sell it on eBay. The four boxes left my local Staples fine – look at how the boxes arrived at their destination, courtesy of UPS…
I’m a bit outraged. The Staples worker put Fragile stickers all over them. Obviously, UPS thought this was Italian for “drop kick ” and/or “smash at will”. I’ve shipped a few hundred items over the last decade or more – this is the first time that I’ve seen this type of abuse, but frankly, I’m pretty pissed off about it.
Thankfully, they packages were insured for their full auction amount so the buyer can get some cash back from UPS, but imagine if it was something irreplaceable?
I’m at a loss and pretty pissed off… I can’t imagine how the poor buyer must feel.
Old, but here’s my tale of dealing with UPS: http://arcterex.net/rants/ups.html
I can explain it all:
Randy; The person loading the truck has a serious drum machine complex from his/her childhood. This person was simply seeking “amends”…
Arcterex; Simple. The driver wanted the game and tried to welch it away from you. All of his/her supervisors were in on the deal…
I wish those were the reasons, it would seem more human and less of just simple evil.
Really makes you wonder about work ethis and if people care about anybody else. Also it could be the driver or may be Bugs Bunny had it right. Think back to the time he had to do battle with Gremlins. That is what must have happened, the little green guys are evil. We actually should feel sorry that UPS has to deal with them.
First, let me start off by saying that there is absolutely no excuse for UPS handling packages so harshly – fragile sticker or not. I am not trying to defend anything that they’ve done.
That being said… the idiot at Staples who allowed these boxes to go should be shot (after the bodies of the UPS folks are picked up and dragged away).
I worked as a “shipper” for a few years, packaging electronic parts for return to a repair facility. While UPS was supposed to treat items with respect, I quickly learned that they seemed to push the boxes off the back of their trucks as they sped past the destination address. As a result, I started packaging things to be drop-proof and had no more broken stuff thereafter.
When we packaged for our house-move a few years back, I packed all the boxes using previously learned skills and had zero breakage.
The average person does not know how to package for damage free transit, nor should they be expected to. This is the responsibility of the shipping clerk. Even if you packaged these boxes yourself, the guy who slapped the fragile stickers on them should have known enough to tell that they were damage susceptible and tell you how to do a better job. If they packaged them for you, shame on them.
You have every right to be pissed, but need to add some other folks to your list.
That is funny is a horrid way. The above comment by KevinP is probably right, but here’s a nice link to an order I recently got from Think Geek. People who are in the business of packing things for a break free ride. I blame no one but UPS as you can see my items which were never breakable in the first place were packaged quite nicely.
It was the loaders/unloaders/drivers at UPS. When I went to pick up the box at UPS (since I missed the drop off at home) they were not at all shocked to see this box. As a matter of fact they laughed and said that someone may have dropped it here and there.
That’s an understatement.
http://www.noddingmonkey.com/thinkgeek/thinkgeek.html
The link to the pictures ;)
Nice selection on the Jolt gum, tho. :)
This trend is so common now, it’s a clich. My favorite example is a quote from my UPS driver, upon delivering a large beat up box with FRAGILE labels all over it. He said, “If it’s fragile, why did they ship it UPS?” Upon looking at the remains of the package I was forced to agree with him. I appreciate fast air cargo service, but it would be nice if they landed the planes before unloading them. From now on it’s FedEx Ground for anything heavy or fragile.