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A little discussion on modern shipping practices and trends...

Well thats a first. With what I pay for shipping every year as a seller I have NEVER had a reimbursement.
The most recent Up-Charge I got was for a numpad I mailed out to a friend a couple towns over. Other than getting lost for a week and routed to the wrong state, I then got a message stating it was double the weight I put down. I already padded the weight, I always do. I am going to fight it with my credit card because its a complete lie!
 
If it was dropped in water it would be heavier. Wouldn't put it past them.
I've had boxes handled by then that look like the fork lift not only dropped it, but drove over it, too.
Anything that's bigger than a shoe box and too heavy to be lifted with one hand tends to develop shipping damage, in my experience (the packaging, the goods shouldn't if packed right), but the same as you, I pack things under the assumption they're going to be dropped, banged, kicked, and generally handled with contempt.

Despite that, the worst issues I have had are where the delivery hits a front desk and is signed for by the clerk there; the box looked like it had been trampled by elephants but it was signed for and once that old habeas-corpus has occurred then yeah, no recourse.

Makes me wonder where the damage occurs. At the airport? Loading the truck? Loading the delivery vehicle?

Phil
 
VERAULT said:
Sorry to say this link no longer works. Everything takes me to the shipstation signup now. So I have been using pirateship but it only gives me UPS and USPS, I would like a fast convenient method for using Fedex. Irritatingly the fedex website is terrible and doesnt offer Fedex home options to me.
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Shipbot doesn't require an account (consumer version of Shipstation), but again seems to only do UPS and USPS shipments...
 
Thanks but as mentioned at the start of this thread I am done with UPS. I am paying extra for FedEx now on some ocassions but life is easier.
 
Every time I've used UPS it's been an experience that left me wanting to cry alone in a cold shower. I don't even know how people can afford to use FedEx so much.
The fact that its cheaper for me to travel to Seattle to pick up items rather than pay to ship it to my door even before the pandemic is an indication there's a problem.
 
Anyone ever had this happen? I drop off most of the stuff I sell on eBay at the nearest Mailbox recepticle. Its about 1.4 miles from my home. Pickup is generally 1:30pm to 3:30pm. The majority of what I mail is very lightweight so it goes out first class mail (under 16 ounces). I dropped off a custom cable I made and sold on tuesday evening so it should have been picked up wednesday. Now I am very OCD (I really am its not just a figure of speach. Much like checking door knobs or my range knobs 20 times you can imagine I check the mailbox hatch a bunch when I add something to it. The item was in the mailbox.

Here it is the 18th and tracking still shows "preshipment - label created on Oct 10th" Now a few times here and there this can happen and will usually get scanned in up in springfield Mass at a large sorting center. But nope. This item should have been delivered by now and not a single scan.

So I am out just about $150.00 with parts, payment I will need to refund, and postage. I know what some of you will say. "Did you insure it?" And the answer is " IT DOESNT MATTER! They will never pay a claim out when the item was never scanned in even once" I went to our tiny us post office branch which would be the ones who collect from that box. I explained what happened and who I was. They even said "We know you, we see all the packages you mail" The woman who claimed to be the one to empty the box on that day said "Everything was scanned in". Well apparently not. they also asked if I insured it.. I said the same thing I just mentioned. They said they would look into it.

Have you ever watched a mail carrier empty a mailbox? I have a bunch of times in my life. They open the lower hatch and inside is a plastic basket which looks like a mini plastic laundry basket full of small items.. Sometimes overflowing depending on the calendar and location.

So my mind is speculating what could have happened. Was it full and loose mail slipped out while pouring into the collection sack (thats where it goes when they pick it up). Did it get collected but fell out the side when dumping out the sack?

All I know is Human error is the only 100% culprit here.

What I wish was the local branch I mentioned was like others I have used in other towns I have lived in with a lobby that is open 24hours to accomodate the PO box renters. Its strange it closes because the outer lobby has the PO boxes and I would assume all if not most also have the "local mail" slot. And if they did I could literally bring all my items any time of the day and drop them in the slot and I could say "ITS IN THE POST OFFICE NOW".

But would that really matter? Would that actually change what I have done mailing it in a USPS mailbox recepticle? It can get lost, destroyed, etc even inside the post office.

I am hoping someone finds it maybe with a ruined outer label and opens it and would see the packing slip inside with my mine and the buyers name and address and reached out to one of us.. But that would involve effort and nobody cares today; even if they are being paid to care.

You just can win.
 
Usually, if something gets dropped inside the box and falls out of the tray, it gets noticed the next time the tray is swapped. I prefer dropping items off at the counter thereby ensuring that items are successfully logged in.

I have been noticing the opposite problem. Some online address validator has a problem and I have been getting packages with my address but someone else's name. Returning the packages seems to be impossible. Apparently, it is cheaper to ship a second package than to have FexEx move the packages about 10 miles to the correct address. Worse is that the packages contain materials that I can't simply toss in the trash.
 
We get mail with our address and someone elses name. I think a former person who lived here still uses the address for insurance or something.

I have too much outgoing mail to be able to get to the post office durring thier strange hours (small branch with a 2 hour gap for lunch). I dont want to have to drive another 20 minutes to another brand just to drop it off. Again, this has never happened before. Clearly its human error.
 
Just throught you would all get a kick out of this. I ordered some toner as my laser printer was running on dust on the 20th of dec. I picked a seller nearby to me (NJ). I sent a note that i had an urgent need and the sooner he could mail it the better. He of course ignored the note and mailed.it a week later. Please look at the absolute nonsense that this package went on.


Screenshot_20240106-095120_Chrome.jpg
 
I had a USPS package come from California, go first to NJ, up to MA, then finally back down to me in Maryland.
It took about two weeks.
 
VERAULT said:
Im not sure what you mean. Those services I mentioned were offering discounted shipping labels. Not address labels.
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Generally shipping labels, the computer generated ones, have the source and destination addresses on them. I was a dispatch manager for an aeronautical engineering company sending parts all over the planet in another life.

You can get pads of shipping labels to either hand write or type in the addresses as well. These are multi sheet labels that transfer the top label details down to the two or more lower ones and you sick these in a clear envelope and place on the out side of the package. The second copy goes in the box and can be used as a customs declaration if only a few items and the third held at the source address for there records an tracking purposes by the dispatcher.

I found providing a separate Customs Declaration was the best thing to do on every shipment I sent out. Some customs Offices can be very picky to the point on not allow a shipment past the boarder without one....
 
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Even though springfield is a couple hours north east of me all my mail has to go by me to get there first.. then it goes to a CT sorting center. Complete waste of fuel.. manpower.. resources and tax payer money.
 
VERAULT said:
Even though springfield is a couple hours north east of me all my mail has to go by me to get there first.. then it goes to a CT sorting center. Complete waste of fuel.. manpower.. resources and tax payer money.
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So you live in a remote location. Just suck it up and take it like a man then....Or get the Grizzly's to drop it off. ;)
 
I can have a part for my 1976 Honda CB550F Super Sport delivered to my home address here in New Zealand from the East Coast of the Continental US in less than a week non urgent. Urgent two days depending on what time of day I order it.
 
VERAULT said:
Even though springfield is a couple hours north east of me all my mail has to go by me to get there first.. then it goes to a CT sorting center. Complete waste of fuel.. manpower.. resources and tax payer money.
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The USPS does not receive any taxpayer funding.

But if you think they should, in order to help the service run more efficiently, then I'm all for it!
 
vwestlife said:
The USPS does not receive any taxpayer funding.

But if you think they should, in order to help the service run more efficiently, then I'm all for it!
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I actually would be too if I thought it would make them suck less, but it would be equivalent to setting the money on fire
 
vwestlife said:
The USPS does not receive any taxpayer funding.

But if you think they should, in order to help the service run more efficiently, then I'm all for it!
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They dont? Wow, thats news to me. Yeah Id be ok with my already paid money going to that rather than alot of the other places its going.
 
Here is another one. Something I bought from ebay didnt arrive friday the 5th but the shipping says it did. I opened a case and the seller sent me a few unhelpful emails stating I am lying and its delivered. Then they posted this photo showing someone elses house.notmyhouse.jpg

I sent them an email stating that is not my house and a photo of my house showing something drastically different. They arent going to help me. I left negative feedback and now I need to call ebay which is like dealing with a retarded robot.

Here is some speculation. The USPS tracking: https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?strOrigTrackNum=92055903332000300036216750
Shows no photo. Meaning they must have amazon drop shipped this. No surprise those crackheads went to the wrong address. Thats issue one.
ISsue 2 is I might know who this is as there is only one red house near me.. And what stinks is even my neighbor didnt do the right thing and put my mail in my mailbox when I am having to do this constantly.

There is a twilight zone episode called peopel are the same all over.. The moral of that story was all people suck...
 
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