What UPS really thinks of your package

Racerbvd · Racerbvd's Garage

This says it all!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgRIZ8Dgob4

Zef · Zef's Garage

UPS is the last solution since a long time for me...!

Joeaksa · 12-17-2006, 04:42 AM

FedEx Ground is even worse. Their prices are good but its for a reason. They toss the package on the ground at your door and run, even if its marked "signature required."

I have had both UPS and FedEx ground try to forge my signature and caught them in the process. Sad to see...

austin552 · austin552's Garage

UPS bud had a flat screen on his truck. I asked there any way you could lose this one? He replied "You don't want this, it has fallen off the shelf three times". He also told me don't ever put a fragile sticker on your packages. Those get the most abuse.

speeder · speeder's Garage

In the video, there is clearly another UPS worker inside the truck catching the packages. I doubt that anything was broken.

I send and receive quite a few packages from them, they lost one large window for my truck about a year ago but otherwise I've had good luck w/ UPS. Much better service than FedEx, at least where I live.

DaveE · 12-17-2006, 07:07 AM

UPS is great where I live. FedEx Ground sucks. They only deliver when they feel like it.

Zeke · 12-17-2006, 07:13 AM

I find them both to be OK. But, I adhere to the rules: Sturdy packing and no other left over labels or markings. Lots of insurance, like double or triple. Some of the stuff I recieve is so poorly packed, I'd make fun of it, too, if it came down the line at me. I'd abuse the sad stuff. I know they do.

BVD, You're on a mission. Just how much was your loss and how much does that represent in the total you've shipped and received?

artplumber · 12-17-2006, 07:48 AM

They (UPS) certainly seem to take pride in leaving no box undamaged - and I mean they really try to put holes in the boxes.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by speeder
In the video, there is clearly another UPS worker inside the truck catching the packages. I doubt that anything was broken.

Yep. That was painfully obvious to me within 5 seconds of watching. Typical you-tube stupidity/waste of bandwidth.

Evans, Marv · 12-17-2006, 09:33 AM

I bought a one cylinder, 10 hp Tecumseh engine block off of Ebay to be shipped from Indiana. Of course it was cast iron. The guy I bought it from packed it in a box with a triple layer of cardboard inside with styrofoam inside that. When he got the the UPS shipping location, they made him put the whole thing inside one of their boxes. When it made it to me, the base of the block was broken. They had to have thrown it from a 10 story building to do that.

campbellcj · 12-17-2006, 07:28 PM

I must say that I have had consistently good results from UPS. In the last 10 years, I only recall one package that was damaged, and it was packed pretty poorly by the seller/shipper (they were car seats). My company has used FedEx quite a bit and has had more issues there, in recent years, including 'temporarily lost' or completely lost packages.

john70t · 12-17-2006, 07:29 PM

I can say that I've worked for a very, very(cough) similar company(7 years) and that package handling seems pretty normal to me.
The worst kind gets repacked, written off, and auctioned by the trailerfull in-house. Lose a buck but make three.

Some highlights:
-Coveyer systems installed that go from 6 feet to 4 feet.
When unclogging the jam 20 feet up in the air you hear screaming"keep that belt moving".

-Boxes and letters mixed together on a moving belt- just imagine the sounds.
I once saw a 210lb overweight tumbling down the belt, bounced across the dock and bounced off a pacage car putting a dent in it.

-Walkways, stairs, and trailer heights that don't line up- sometimes off by 4ft. Multiple that by a couple hundred times a 4-hour night!!!

-Broken scanning and conveyer equipment which slows each transaction down, and requires having to walk an extra 10 feet to pick from a knocked-over pile of boxes.
Multiple that by a couple thousand times a 4-hour night!!!

-Letting young, dumb new employees take the day off (in order to better the bottom line), and having 1/2 the number of people necessary (supervisors insult/scream at youyou untill it's more efficient for them to jump in and start working themselves).

-Shorting paychecks-often repetively. Let's just say sometimes by several hours.

-That's just a start......

The driver who are vested/10 years or more sometimes don't give a care about anything. The others get:
-New routes switched almost randomly. This makes a difference when each stop has a unique routine.

-Package cars filled in entirety to the ceiling against OSHA rules. Yup, I've seen entire axles that ripped off from potholes.

-Hothead supervisors who "kick ash and take names", and then are rotated out to avoid class actions.
I found this was common in many locations.

A friend who was a driver left the company with 3 knee surgeries and sciatica.

I left after carpal tunnel in both wrists, two left and one bad right knee sprains, and a back "sprain" which left my right leg locked and numb for a year(the spasms and feeling were a relief).
$16k retraining to replace a $60k/year career was a joke. Especially after 5 years of 16 hour days.

Union protection? Two words: Ron Carey.

john70t · 12-17-2006, 07:37 PM

I forgot to add that during the HOLIDAY season, they'd ROLL BACK the start times so the place was a disaster when you'd walk in the door.

I don't blame that driver one bit.

EdT82SC · 12-17-2006, 10:40 PM

My brother worked his way through college as a truck loader for UPS. His stories of how they abused the packages make me stay away from UPS. Smaller packages were kicked like footballs. Anything that says fragile was thrown hard against the floor or walls. If they heard glass shatter they cheered. And management didn't care. To my brother-in-law's credit he didn't take part in any of the package abuse, and he hated the hypocracy of the place.

fastpat · 12-18-2006, 05:04 AM

Yet, despite all of these experiences, the United States Postal Service is documented to be 10 times worse in undelivered or undeliverable (due to damage) parcels.

Private enterprise is always superior to government.

lendaddy · 12-18-2006, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by john70t
I forgot to add that during the HOLIDAY season, they'd ROLL BACK the start times so the place was a disaster when you'd walk in the door.

I don't blame that driver one bit.

Yea, $60k a year isn't nearly enough to deal with such a high stress job

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

I've never had a problem with UPS, Fedex or DHL in all the years I've been shipping/receiving various packages and some were fragile. I don't use the USPS for packages because I've never had a positive experience with them...

Racerbvd · Racerbvd's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by milt
I find them both to be OK. But, I adhere to the rules: Sturdy packing and no other left over labels or markings. Lots of insurance, like double or triple. Some of the stuff I recieve is so poorly packed, I'd make fun of it, too, if it came down the line at me. I'd abuse the sad stuff. I know they do.

BVD, You're on a mission. Just how much was your loss and how much does that represent in the total you've shipped and received?

Well Milt, when you ship a rare, valuable one year only part, in concours condition, to guy needing the part to finish off his restoration to show the car and they damage it. Didn't matter that I had before and after pic, didn't matter that I had step by step pix of the packing (I was sending him udates as I packed it, bubble wrapped, shrink wrapped, double card board box and packing peanuts, then more cardboard & shrink wrap, didn't matter that it was fully insured. First thing they said was that it wasn't insured, then they said it wasn't packed correctly, well, it was fully insured, I paid for that, and it was very well packed, so then they said there was no damage to to box, so it couldn't be their fault. I paid to have the part repaired, before that had 3 est. and sent them, then sent the bill, which was less than what had insured it for (1/3) they still refused to pay for the damage they did even though it was insured. I have been shipping things for many, many, many years, and between my day job, my car hobbies and bike hobbies, I do a lot of shipping. All they had to do was appoligise for damaging the part and pay for the damage as I did pay to insure it, but no, first they lied about it being insured, then they said it wasn't packed properly, then there was no holes in the box and it was so well packed that they couldn't have damaged it. After that I started checking them out and found out what happened to me is very common and that paying them for insurance is a scam. I used them one other time, I was in Vegas at the SEMA show and I went to Office Depot, bough boxes and packing stuff to ship samples home (I had no choise at the time and about $1,000 in "stuff", well these 3 boxed looked like they had been run over by the truck, about have was damaged and unusable

Then one of my gun buddies, who is a dealer who also reloads and buys & sells ammo. We went to his house one day, but he wasn't there, yet on his front porch (older, historic area, small yards, side walks, lots of traffic, cars and people walking) was a couple of boxes, not real small either, clearly labled Do Not Leave, adult sig required and on the side of the box, 223mm ammo. His house is a lot like the one in this vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRrfWLcM7RU&mode=related&search=

if the box is mangled the U.P.S. guy's get pretty stealthy! Even if you're supposed to sign for it they will just put it on the porch and not even knock.

I have had much better luck with Fed-Ex.

If you look at this picture you can kinda see an orange sticker. It says "INSPECT BEFORE ACCEPTING".

m21sniper · 12-18-2006, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by speeder
In the video, there is clearly another UPS worker inside the truck catching the packages. I doubt that anything was broken.

I send and receive quite a few packages from them, they lost one large window for my truck about a year ago but otherwise I've had good luck w/ UPS. Much better service than FedEx, at least where I live.

Agreed, i've never once had a problem with UPS.

Maybe i'm just lucky.

notfarnow · 12-18-2006, 09:30 AM

I've never had a problem with damage, but we canucks get nasty "brokerage" fees when items cross the border. I have had an $18 brokerage fee on a $30 CD, and a $32 charge on a $60 valve cover. It's a SCAM, and they have made millions on it. I will only buy things from the US if they are shipped by USPS.