Word to the wise...avoid UPS Store and others...

Hey Newbie! check my posts. Not a serial complainer just had some of my threads that were actually about hot rods closed by mods. I have sold thousands of hot rod parts and I have never been so lazy as to take an item to a shipper to have them wrap it up. Case in point. Just sent out a set of huge pro trac tires and rims to NM. I wrapped em, weighed em, Then dropped them off. Got there fine. Hell I've shipped an engine & transmission as well. Strapped it to a pallet and shrink wrapped it. So I guess I have nothing to contribute other then the fact that my UPS counter person is a bitch. As far as picking up a wrench? Not a problem in that department. I'm usually the one wrenching while others look on.

 

I am not lazy either. The only items I have the UPS Store box/pack are really expensive or fragile parts. UPS likes to deny damage claims with a standard "Wasn't Packed Properly". If UPS packs it and ships it, they can't deny a claim...period.

And as for why this thread is still here and relevant, is because it's about shipping traditional parts and saving money while doing so.

 

This is a general question, not knocking you Larry Will a costomer understand and pay the UPS Store packing price or are you the seller covering this expence? I'll go one on one with any UPS Store packer using free materials and not charge the buyer, I look at as the cost of doing business. Bob

 

My bro is away from a computer for the week, so I'll tell his UPS Store horror story before this gets closed:

He bought a PRISTINE '34 Ford door on Ebay from across the country. No way to go get it himself. So the seller was going to ship it via UPS.

Seller takes the perfect, undamaged door to his local UPS Store for a "professional" packaging job. They should know how to do this, right? Price wasn't a consideration.

The door arrives at bro's house in a messed up cardboard box. Not anything like a "professional" packaging job. But inside is even worse - the door's edges and skin are bent, tweeked, basically not perfect anymore.

Now you'd think they would pay the insurance with no complaints, shouldn't they? IIRC it took months and months to get some sort of payment out of the UPS Store. They just wouldn't own up to their crappy packaging.

Don't trust the UPS Store to be a better packager than yourself.

 

The only time I ever utilized the UPS Store's packaging service was on an N.O.S. rear body panel to a Pontiac Grand Ville convertible. Because of the item being very rare and oversized I didn't want to ship it due to packaging difficulties and liability. Well the guy that wanted it was in Illinois and couldn't pick it up, he made all the arrangements with the local UPS Store. All I had to do was drop it off.

Well between packaging and shipping it cost this guy almost $200.00 which was more than the cost of the part itself.

 

After I explain to the customer it's better to have UPS pack it, they have no problem paying for it. Even if I pack it so it could survive a tornado, UPS would still deny a claim. If they pack it, they can't deny it. Yes, they can drag it out for weeks like all insurance companies do, but eventually they have to pay.

 

hey NEWBEE ..SPYDER been here 2 years longer than youse

 

I think I may have been on the receiving end of this deal, because that happened to me and I left identical feedback. PM'd ya.

 

Thank you for that...it helps tremendously...

 

I was referencing "Ragtoprides" comment not spyder so go crawl back into your hole Jersey boy.

 

OK, time for me to step in here. STOP COMPLAINING WHEN YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! Absolutely ZERO tax dollars supports the United States Postal Service. Every dollar comes from postage sales. If you don't believe me, do some research, & not on some fucked up right-wing message board.

What you may not know, is that the USPS delivers packages for UPS, Fed-Ex, etc, every day. They charge you X amount of $, take it to the recipient's city, & your mail carrier delivers it to your house. It's called "last mile."

Yes, there are some occasional problems w/ lost items, but the other shippers have the same problem. Usually, the problem is the idiot that packed it in the first place. When you put a heavy car part in a flimsy box, you get what you deserve. The problem is that the clerk that accepted the package, probably should have refused it.

Failed business model? Do some more research. Last year USPS lost a bunch of $$. Why? Because your republican controlled congress mandated that they pre-fund retirement. Why? it's the agenda of big business & small government. Check this out: At the heart of the matter is a 2006 Congressional mandate put on the US Postal Service contained in the “Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006” to pre-fund healthcare benefits of future retirees, a 75 year liability over a 10 year period. No other agency or corporation is required to do this. This provision costs the Postal Service $5.5 billion a year. When you add in an adjustment that was made in how workers’ compensation costs were calculated based on interest rate assumptions and long term predictions concerning health care and compensation of $2.5 billion (a non cash accounting adjustment), you come up with $8 billion in cost. Actual loss was $500 million and when added, comes to the $8.5 billion reported for 2010. While $500 million is a lot, it doesn’t compare with $8.5 billion and is down from the previous year loss of $1 billion. If you took out the onerous pre-funding mandate, the Postal Service actually shows a $700 million profit over the last four years instead of the $20 billion loss.

I am not trying to turn this into a political debate, but these are FACTS. Us Wisconsinites have been on the front line of taking away bargaining rights, & promoting big business at the expense of the middle class. Google Gov. Scott Walker & see what you can find. Now, if you want to change all of this, go and vote correctly. Otherwise, do nothing (or vote republican) & instead of paying $.45 to send a letter across the country, get in your hotrod & drive it there.

 

Someone pass me some butter...Sorry I couldn't resist.

 

Soooooooo, steering away from the political rants and stuff, maybe this should come back on track.

I used to work for UPS in my teens. You could pack the hell out of a package and we would find a way to break it. Nothing was above reproach. Boxes flew all over the place and you wedged them in anywhere you could. It was the 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag (trailer). Ironically, if it was an obvious car part, it generally got the best treatment. One of the worst things shippers can do is mark their package "fragile" or even worse be condescending about it. No mercy. Totally immature and not justifiable. I do not voluntarily ship UPS since that time.

 

hhmmm... It did sound like a political rant, didn't it? Sorry 'bout that. Put your popcorn away. I was trying to correct the falsehood that the USPS is funded by tax dollars, & got a little heated. Every shipper has lost parcels, & has some employees with poor work ethics. Pick the one in your area that you think does the best job, & use them. I just happen to know a little about the P.O. If you do use them, here's some advice: Pack your boxes well. Add filler, bubble wrap, whatever. Things WILL get stacked on top of it. Use packing tape on the box seams to keep them from splitting. PUT THE ADDRESS ON THE PART YOU ARE SHIPPING IN CASE IT COMES OUT OF THE BOX. It will be delivered then. These are sorted by machines, so things happen. Get insurance (it's cheap), & use delivery confirmation bar codes. Then, you can track your parcel online, & have proof it was delivered. That way, when the asshat you sent it to says the P.O. lost it & wants a refund, you will know he is lying because your carrier will have scanned the barcode at the time of delivery. Also, if the P.O. happens to pick your package out of the millions it handles to lose or destroy, you are covered. That's enough of this, I'm headed to the shop to work on the Merc.