US Post Office - "Fragile Please Handle With Care"

[The Kaptain]

You got to be kidding me! Luckily the books were sent in tons of bubble wrap, so no damage was done, but what the ___!

 

[PEP]

That looks about right. That's how almost all of my packages arrive from the PO. It doesnt matter what stickers you put on the box.

[Ryan.]

According to the post office, that Fragile sticker just means that the box doesn't take criticism well.

[B767293]

I have friends in the USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL. That FRAGILE sticker don't matter to them. They handle priority or express items the same way. It's getting mess delivered the fastest they're worry about, not keeping the item safe.

 

They all agree though that slower ground shipping gets taken care of better since there's not much rush for delivery

[Stguchi]

Terrible handling. At least your items were okay.

[Illustrious]

It seems like whenever you write "fragile", "do not bend", or "handle with care" on a box, it arrives in worse shape than it would had it been unmarked. It's like the shipping workers deliberately try to damage your item if they see those words, so now I don't mark boxes with those phrases.

[Boba]

Seems to be happening a lot lately. I had 2 packages arrive that looked much the same.

[toro]

That looks beautiful compared to some packages I have received. A few months back they left a box out in a 5 inch rain storm. When I got home and went to pick up the soggy mess, the box just fell apart and I was holding the bubble wrap.

[Stguchi]

no wonder why the post office is going bankrupt and closing locations. geez

 

 

 

[Benjamin Grimm]

I swear they see those "Fragile" stickers and think "Challenge Excepted!"

[crnbrd]

I just received an email this morning from a buyer on ebay that the cgc case had been cracked in the mail. It probably suffered the same fate as this box.

 

I'm voting for whoever decides to reforms the USPS first.

[VintageComics]

no wonder why the post office is going bankrupt and closing locations. geez

 

 

 

It's a catch 22, really.

 

On one hand, people want cheaper service. Chisel, nickle, dime.

 

On the other hand, a company needs to stay profitable (relatively speaking) and competitive so corners will get cut here and there in an effort to keep the core business running smoothly.

 

The day people are willing to pay a little more for a service than they are used to paying for it is the day that service will improve. Until then, everyone is just looking for the cheapest option and that is just going to continue to force people to tighten their belts.

 

That's how I see it.

 

[Mark 1]

According to the post office, that Fragile sticker just means that the box doesn't take criticism well.

 

 

My local PO told me that I can stamp it fragile but it means nothing.

 

Nice to know.

[DeliBebek]

It seems like whenever you write "fragile", "do not bend", or "handle with care" on a box, it arrives in worse shape than it would had it been unmarked. It's like the shipping workers deliberately try to damage your item if they see those words, so now I don't mark boxes with those phrases.

Does someone market stickers that say "STURDY: HANDLE WITHOUT CARE" and "PLEASE BEND?" Good for a novelty if nothing else.

[Stguchi]

I swear they see those "Fragile" stickers and think "Challenge Excepted!"

 

 

[MagnetoWasRight]

Frrah-gee-lay, it must be French...means please break me.

[comicwiz]

The day people are willing to pay a little more for a service than they are used to paying for it is the day that service will improve.

 

I may be cynical in my view, but the exceptions to this rule seem to be governmental orgs and even NGO's who receive a disproportionate amount of funding from government. They lack accountability and do nothing to address workplace issues that interfere with services.

 

The way I see it, this could be easily remedied like a car rental company manages damage to their fleet of vehicles. You have a checkpoint during each handling phase, and workers have to sign-off where damage is incurred.

 

With such a system, each workers employee ID is transferred on the parcel with notation of damage. If your handling causes damage to a parcel, you get an automatic warning. 3 warnings and you're dismissed. End of story. If operational corrections like this cannot be put in place, then it's got to come back to the customer.

 

If enough people ask for their money back, and express zero tolerance of any kind on parcels mishandled by the shipping company, then something will eventually give.

 

The way I see it, when workers use bizarro world mentality towards parcels asking them to handle items carefully, then the next best thing is to disclaim:

 

"Did you remember your brain? Cause you mess with my box, you mess with your job!"

[thehumantorch]

Sorry about the damage.

 

Mail isn't just handled by postal workers, it's sorted by machinery. Parcels move on conveyor belts, slide down chutes into bins, and sits there waiting for other packages to drop down on them. It's placed in sacks and those sacks are tossed into trucks.

 

The delivery person is rushed and generally only interested in making the delivery as quickly as possible. And sad to say, the PO is losing money hand over fist and cares most about costs and quick delivery.

 

I can only suggest packing the gerbils out of items you ship and making it as easy as possible for the delivery guy to make a safe delivery. Putting a large box on your porch marked 'Parcels' should prevent the deliverer from trying to fit a parcel into a too small mail box or leaving the item exposed on your porch. Getting to know your regular delivery person is always a good idea. Trust me, after 33 years delivering mail I always go out of the way for people I like and a $20 Starbucks card at Christmas will make me your bum buddy for life.

[Jiminy_Cricket-migration]

I took a part time, summer job with UPS about 20 years ago. (My God, how did I get this old?) There were recruiters on campus, so I signed up, and got the call. I showed up for the interview, and after having my background checked enough to satisfy the requirements for a mid-level CIA position, I got the job. It didn't take long to realize that my being 6' tall and 180 lbs. is what they were interested in. This was at the same time there was some kind of strike about to happen. They had also just allowed an increase in package weight for consumers. This was mainly so UPS could start accepting auto parts for delivery. I think the new weight allowed was 80 lbs?

 

Anyway, they put me in the back of a truck in a huge warehouse. There were about 30-40 trucks. There was a giant conveyor belt system set-up in the middle of the warehouse where 'sorters' looked at labels to see which region of the country packages had to go. They then directed the packages flying by them onto one belt or the others. Eventually a package would make it to your truck, by falling down the chute onto the back of your truck. (These are tractor trailer trucks, by the way.) Now you (and maybe another employee, depending on how many packages were coming down the chute) had to quickly grab the packages and make a 'wall' from side to side, floor to ceiling, then keep repeating the process. Those packages came flying onto the truck non-stop. There would be a supervisor with a book and pen, timing your speed. You would have to quickly push the heaviest (manifolds, alternators, coil springs, AC compressors, etc) boxes to the bottom and start building up from there. There was ZERO time to look at any labels. It was that hectic. Now, the types of packages coming down the chute did not co-operate with what you needed to properly build the walls. (Heavy on bottom, light on top.) So, you would end up jamming 80 lb. boxes on top of 2 lb. boxes. Employees would punch boxes into nooks and crannies to make them fit. You had to make the walls tight, otherwise the entire wall would collapse in transit. I saw so many packages smashed and ripped open. One time I picked up a small box and cigarette lighters flew out all over the truck. Had to just leave them there. Boxes kept coming down the chute at an alarming rate. There were so many packages that I knew were going to arrive damaged, but there was no one that cared. The supervisors would give me mess for trying to take the time to do it properly. Needless to say, I quit after 3 weeks. NO ONE cared about anything but speed, speed, speed!

 

If you are shipping something fragile like glass, expect it to arrive broken, more often than not. Get insurance for anything valuable. No one reads the labels. That's a fact. There is no time.

 

Don't use bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts to fill in the gaps of your package. (You can use that stuff for the immediate area surrounding your item, but the rest of your package has to be filled in with cardboard.) If you can squeeze that material in the palm of your hand, then it will cave in when a heavy box lands on top of it. Can you sit on your package without it caving in? If you know that it will cause damage, then you haven't packaged it good enough. Multiple layers of cardboard works best. I can't squeeze cardboard in the palm of my hand. If you can bend or make indentations in your box, then you haven't packaged it properly. The 'sandwich method' for comics works best. Just fill in all remaining gaps of your package with multiple pieces of cardboard.

[CKB]

Sorry about the damage.

 

Mail isn't just handled by postal workers, it's sorted by machinery. Parcels move on conveyor belts, slide down chutes into bins, and sits there waiting for other packages to drop down on them. It's placed in sacks and those sacks are tossed into trucks.

 

The delivery person is rushed and generally only interested in making the delivery as quickly as possible. And sad to say, the PO is losing money hand over fist and cares most about costs and quick delivery.

 

I can only suggest packing the gerbils out of items you ship and making it as easy as possible for the delivery guy to make a safe delivery. Putting a large box on your porch marked 'Parcels' should prevent the deliverer from trying to fit a parcel into a too small mail box or leaving the item exposed on your porch. Getting to know your regular delivery person is always a good idea. Trust me, after 33 years delivering mail I always go out of the way for people I like and a $20 Starbucks card at Christmas will make me your bum buddy for life.

 

I think most of the damage we are seeing today with the USPS is completely the result of careless human handling. These parcels are crushed from throwing them in bins instead of taking the time to place them in bins. From not taking the time to put bug heavy stuff in different bins from the regular stuff.

 

In comparison, the machine handling, belts, 12" drops, is tame by comparison. My $0.02.