Disgruntled UPS guy?

One time when I order some bulk ammo to be delivered to where I work the company put the wrong suite on it (#10 instead of #110). The UPS guy delivered it to me anyway ...

Oh, ... that's a good thing

Guess I'm just lucky.

OK first off I know exactly how you feel. I deal with UPS,FedEx,DSL, and freight every single day(pickup and delivery) through my buisness. We get at least 20 box a day just from ups and numerous freights a day. We ship out about 60-100 ups shipments a day and numerous freights. Plus I get all my personal stuff sent to the office as well. The driver that does my route has been doing this route for about 5 years so we are pretty cool. He tells me stuff and shows me stuff that I can only laugh at. I see boxs on hsi truck so jacked up its a joke. He is pretty gentle with our boxs becuase he likes us. But the people loading at the hub dont give a ****. Thats where most of the damage happens at the Hubs. The drivers dont laod their own truck. Everyday our driver comes his truck is literally filled to the top with boxs just crammed in there any which way. Most of the time he has to unload a 1/4 of his truck to get to all of our boxs. Some ar eat the back some are in the middle. And let me tell you when he is unloading those other packages to get to ours he hie chunking them out the back onto concrete. There is a weedeater dist. center close to use and most of the time the things getting chunked are weedeaters. Its pretty bad and thats in front of people. He has told me the loaders dont give a damn about anyhting. I asked him why dont you tell a higher up that your loader is a crack head and cant load worth a joke(im not talking about everything isnt stacked right Im talking about hundreds of boxs in a pile) and he says that would make it worse for him. He says the other loaders will screw you over everytime if you snitch! lol ! So when I get a box thats a opened or a little damaged I know that most likely it was the loaders. Not just the delivery truck loader either any laoder that touched it on its trip. I can tell you this though I cant remeber the last time I had a package that was even mildly damaged. But FedEx doesnt do the same amount of buisness as UPS. What I do when I ship something and what the warehouse guys are instructed to do is pack the boxs we ship very very good. Certain items need packed certain ways.

The tips of them there bullets don't look to uniform

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That's how Sierra Match King bullet tips look. Seems like they would be inaccurate, but it is just the opposite.

Another good reason to live in a small town- All the UPS and Postal people know me on sight, know I'm a shooter, and know that 99 times out of 100 if a package has my name on it, it's probably for shooting- Everything else has my wife's name on it- If I'm not at home when it's delivered they bring it to the office and vice versa- Once had a UPS driver flag me down as I was passing him going the other way to give me an obviously boxed rifle, then shot the breeze a little talking about my latest acquisition- I have much more of a problem with Fedex since they are not local-

I've gotten boxes from UPS with multiple dirty footprints on them.

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Ditto here. It's bad enough when you're talking about guns, hardware, whatever. I'm an amatuer radio operator and I am still amazed when things like the radios work when I open the box after how they get thrown around.

Ive seen UPS drivers step on,throw, and kick packages out the truck in front of me and from what Ive been told by numerous UPS drivers the guys at the hub are even worse thats why I said when I and my shipper ship things we pack and tape them as good as we can to help against the wrath of UPS. Its like a damn game! lol

Unionized
Parcel
Smashers

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for the record if your package goes UPS Air it will most likely pass through the hands of at least one NON-unionized company in teh course of it's journey. UPS uses unionized personel at their major hubs (anywhere that the handlers work directly for UPS is union) but outlying non "Hub" locations tend to be (at least they were 7years ago) contracted out to a cargo/baggage handling company and depending on location they may or may not be union. I know this b/c i used to be a "Cargo handler" at the UPS Air operation in Raleigh NC.
I personally think that being a non-UPS handler increased the amount of care we did take with packages. I do know that the guys that worked both for the Raleigh ground hub (direct UPS, no contractors), and at the airport for the contractor, were how shall i say, much less careful of how they treated packages, speed not care was their concern.

i won't go into some of the things i saw in the corse of that job, i was just glad when i moved from a "package handler" position ie box mover/stacker, mainly loading igloo shaped containers that went in the top deck of the planes, to an "Equipment operator" one where i drove or operated various equipment on the ramp for moving or uploading said containers.

My son's first job was with UPS

He told me his supervisor told him that "FRAGILE" was an Italian word meaning "Throw It Further"

My son's first job was with UPS

He told me his supervisor told him that "FRAGILE" was an Italian word meaning "Throw It Further"

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or conversly translated as "do a hail mary pass it'll be sweet!" or "bounce it on the back of the can to see if it makes a noise"

new translation each week,

The way we see it

Another way to look at it is also:
Think about how many times your package is handled.
From the time it is picked up,off loaded at local station,loaded into a can,to off loaded at local station or hub,loaded into another can,sent off to regional hub,off loaded then redirected to distination hub,off loaded to correct station,trucked to local station,off loaded at station onto truck belt loaded into delivery vechicle.
So it's not always we couriers fault the package was under packaged from the start,then handled atleast 6 times by various hands and loading techniques before we deliver the Golden package to you.

Once you accept package you have little recourse but if you refuse damaged shipment company can file complaint with UPS, FEDEX, Midway, or whatever carrier it contracted.

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Very rarely they give you a choice. If you don't happen to be looking outside when the truck pulls up, they'll leave it at the door without ringing the doorbell, knocking or trying to make any noise. They've done this with everything, even stuff marked signature required. They once left a case of ammunition on my doorstep (blocking the door no less - what happens if somebody is inside and simply couldn't get to the door in time?).

Here's another one: A friend of mine owned a small, one person gunshop while we were in grad school. His classes limited the hours the shop was open, so very often it was closed. Most of his business came from special orders anyway. So he offered once to order a gun for me at his cost, shipping, and the b/g check. Well, the UPS driver left the gun on the doorstep of the shop in the middle of one of the worst neighborhoods in Norfolk. He was surprised it was still there when he arrived more than seven hours after delivery (he had a small apartment right above the shop). We had no idea it was shipping, the importer was giving him a hard time about filling the order. When a new batch was released for shipment, they just UPS'ed it and didn't contact my friend with a tracking number. He found out the delivery time when he called the next day and roundly complained to their customer service people. Got the usual "What do you expect me to do about it?"

I use FedEx when I can't use USPS. USPS, BTW, is much faster on everything save priority shipped items. UPS ground takes 5-9 days most cases. USPS express mail usually only takes a couple of days and, from the vendors I've used, hasn't cost me any more - usually less. FedEx seems to be doing better these days. But they've still sent things in the wrong direction (I've got lots of stories like this, BTW).

So it's not always we couriers fault the package was under packaged from the start,then handled atleast 6 times by various hands and loading techniques before we deliver the Golden package to you.

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Damage due to routine handling an underpackaged item is one thing. Obvious abuse is something else entirely. There's no excuse for packages arriving with footprints on it (yes, that's happened to me too - more than one). When something arrives looking like it's been wedged between two pallets and crushed or run over by a forklift, that's excessively careless.

I have a question

Why is it that neither the FedEx nor the UPS guy can find my house @+ $20.00 per hour but both Papa Johns, and Hungry Howies can @$6.00 per hour????
I should add that the numbers are on the door, the house above the garage door, and both sides of the mail box- Maybe I'll have it painted on the curb as well:banghead:

I work for FedEx

1st, when millions of pkgs are moving for an overnight delivery, some will be damaged. But overall, it's a small number, and should statistically be random. If you have an ongoing problem with shipments being damaged, there is some problem in the regular lane of movement to/from you, and needs to be addressed with complaints. As to theft, it does occur. But again, it's pretty rare overall. There is just no time to be opening and digging around inside pkgs. The movement is constant, and there are just too many witnesses that would see it happening. When a pkg is accepted, and then afterward, found to be damaged, there is recourse. Call the claims dept. I've been successful with this with a UPS shipment that was dropped off & damaged. I know it can be done with FedEx. If you see visible damage to the box when it's being tendered to you, there are delivery exception codes the courier can use, to indicate the package was delivered, but it was damaged at the time. FedEx also has scan codes for indicating a pkg appears damaged while enroute through the system. So even if a pkg is left at your door when your not there, there may already be a damage scan on it. Call claims dept.

And finally, over the years, I have seen some packages, that I could not believe the shipper truely could expect to make it through the shipping process. Envision millions of boxes, picked up, set down going down conveyor belts, shoved by mechanical arms onto large slides, running into each other & piling up. This can happen several times from origin to destination. This is happening FAST. Some of the damage is just do to the nature of the system, not how a person may handle your pkg. So pack it like it's the ball at a rugby game. Use a strong box. Don't just rely on the waybill attached to the box to get it there. Those sometimes get torn off. Then we have a mystery pkg. Don't know where it came from, or where it's going. WRITE on the box, on two sides, all the shipping & delivery info. I personally put it on a piece of paper as well & put it inside the box. If your using some sort of wood or plastic container, the sticky pouches & labels don't stick very well, and come off. Put your info inside, in case we need to open the pkg to find out who it belongs to. Use REAL packing tape, and plenty of it. I've seen file boxes full of papers ( read that as HEAVY ), sealed with a single strip of scotch type tape. NO way that is gonna hold. Guess saving a dime on real tape was more important than those files.
We want the pkg delivered on time & in good condition. But it's a partnership. The shipper has to do their part as well.

Tuckerdog1

duh

First off it is not the job of the Post Office to find out where it goes if you do not have the correct address on it. If it is an expired address you will get it back. they will only forwarded it for 12 months. Also courthouse downtown is not the correct address. Machines and computers sort 60-80% of the mail anymore, and computers don't know where it is. So if it is not a correct readable address the machines kick it back way before a carrier ever sees it. If it gets to me and I know where it is then I will attempt to deliver it. It is not our job to assume where you want it to go. We see so much mail that only says grandma thomas anytown usa 65*** and you expect us to deliver it. 80% of the time it will get to the right place even without your help. RANT IS NOW OFF.....


steve the mailman

OK, but did somebody say something bad about the USPS (United States Postal Service)? We were all griping about UPS (United Parcel Service)? Several people, including myself, have stated that they prefer using USPS.

yes they did

Yes warren did. here is his quote.

"Once I got a jury summons, I marked my excuse and sent the government self-addressed (that is it said L.A.Superior Court on it with their address) envelope back....

Some long time later it comes back to me all stapled up with a sticker from the dead letter office saying that the address could not be found/no such address exsisted.

The Superior Court building in down town L.A. could not be found? Big building full of lawyers...just a bit away from City Hall....that building didn't exist?

Sure if it was a jury summons from "Fred's Bait & Tackle with Courtrooms 'round back" I could see them not finding the place. But the Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles?"

I used to work for FedEX ground. Most of the boxes I saw that got damaged were on the conveyor belts. All it take is for one long skinny box to block the conveyor and all the other boxes keep pushing on that one box until it rips in half.

Also the way that the boxes are loaded in trucks and container does not lend it self to keeping them in one piece. Sometimes you have to fit a box in a hole that is way to tight and the loaders would have to push and shove to get it in. I always use lot of tape now, and will often time put a box inside another box just to reinforce it.

Yes warren did.

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Well, it seems to me that particular instance was the court's fault. I think you pointed that out. BUT, maybe they didn't want to get any of that kind of mail?

I always wondered why the postal service hasn't put up a fuss about the IRS address. I mean IRS, Atlanta GA (or wherever) is kind of vague. Of course it does have a zip on it and that makes a world of difference. For the record, you guys (USPS) do and excellent job that sometimes reaches into the realm of outstanding (very rarely do I ever give outstanding on anything, btw). Take a bow, steve. This, of course, is my experience and now somebody will pop up and tell us how crappy a postal service we have, but I can mail a letter (properly addressed) from Chesapeake, VA to San Diego, CA with the letter arriving within 5 days (best was 3, I think). That's great service, in my view.

I'll tell you something else: I've had plenty of packages go through USPS and never has there been visible damage of the sort that I've seen on more than one occasion with packages from UPS.

For a while we were shipping a lot of very fragile stuff. Our best success was with USPS, 2nd was FedEx, and UPS was a far distant third (worst) in terms of damage

Our UPS driver has a key to the garage and will put stuff inside out of the weather. Then again, we get him stuff at Christmas and know him by name. FedEx carries it to a covered porch. If it's raining, either will put it in a plastic bag.

Know your carrier and make friends.

I try to avoid sending or receiving things from UPS. Last time I used them to ship, a piece of masonite 2 inches thick was broken in half. It was part of a tool and well packed in styrofoam peanuts. The box was not even recognizable and had been a new one purchased from UPS. They refused my insurance claim saying that it obviously was not packed well enough. The last time was the LAST TIME I will use them. USPS and FedX has been great for me with never a problem. A friend even had a rifle stock broken in half during UPS shipment. That is more than throwing -- more like running over it.

(that is it said L.A.Superior Court on it with their address) envelope back....

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It had the street address on it! It had the name of the building on it! That building probably gets millions of pieces of mail a year which means the local USPS boys should know where the building is.

Does this not make sense?

I USED To Work At the Post Office

Before the good Lord gave me my escape, I used to labor at the Post Office; (close to 15 years).

So, you want the REAL scoop on damaged boxes, and how they get that way?

Picture a group of 5 to 10 Postal Employees working off a conveyer belt. Also picture 40 hospital type laundry hampers positioned 20 wide x 2 deep. NOW, there are days when the "boss" is hiding, or is in sight and does not care. Some employees will pretend that they are NBA stars, and instead of letting the package, which is labeled "Los Angeles" go further down the conveyer belt to get "thrown" in the Los Angeles labeled laundry hamper, "MR/MRS NBA" will throw the package from the opposite end of the work area. Oftentimes the package will miss and hit the HARD floor.

Sometimes the Boss will even laugh at "the miss" along with the employees.