UPS
Over the years I’ve seen items that UPS shipped coming out of their boxes crushed, scraped, and/or gouged. I experienced this myself a few years back when I shipped to Florida a large, detailed stained glass window project that took me weeks to produce.
I enclosed the piece between two bolted-together sheets of plywood padded with foam rubber. Then I put the plywood package inside a U-Haul mirror shipping box with 4″ thick styrofoam corner pieces at each corner to keep it secure. So, there was not only plywood protecting the glass, but a few inches of buffer space existed between the plywood and the outer box, plus each corner was protected.
Somehow, UPS still managed to inflict a severe trauma to the center of the ~20″ square of plywood packaging, splintering the wood and crushing the glass. The process of trying to get UPS to take responsibility for this was frustrating, and the end result was infuriating: UPS was not responsible because I evidently did not pack the glass according to UPS’ standards.
Folks, I don’t give a damn how much you pack around a plywood enclosure; if the package is man-handled or somehow endures a more-than-just-a-bump trauma the glass is going to break. Plain and simple, UPS broke the glass because the package was handled unprofessionally.
Fast forward to today. I don’t use UPS for ANYTHING unless I’m forced to do so. Recently I ordered letterpress paper for a school project and the company gave me no choice but to use UPS. I received the package a few days ago. I just opened it today so I could start flattening out the paper (it was rolled up).
Of course, UPS managed to crush one end of the paper in spite of the tight packaging job.
You’re probably thinking “big deal, it’s just paper.” Unfortunately it’s $35 worth of paper, 14 sheets of 22″x30″ Somerset Velvet (Antique) and is not something I can simply write off.
Am I going to complain to UPS? Maybe. And I’m sure it’ll produce the same results as last time: UPS is not responsible.
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p> This is pure incompetence. How can one company be so consistently negligent in its handling of packaging and still manage to be successful? I have no idea.]]>
