Red1313

I'm finally getting my Tetra Safestart. It's being shipped via UPS and I've never had anything like that delivered before. So how exactly does this work they just drop it off or does someone need to be here to sign it or what?

Dino

Generally, they will just leave it at your front door.

gremlin

It depends on exactly how its being shipped. if the shipper insures it for 500 dollars or more, it will have to be signed for. If the shipper specifies signature required, it will have to be signed for. If the UPS driver considers your home area "unsafe", it will have to be signed for. Generally speaking, when you order things online, they are shipped UPS Ground. That is usually left at the door unless the driver does not think it is safe. If the driver won't leave it, they will leave a yellow paper stating that you have a package and it will have a number (of the local HUB) for you to contact to arrange for your package.

Tavel

/\ pretty much. There is one more condition where you'd have to sign...if your address previously filed a claim for a lost/stolen package. They simply won't driver release to that address anymore.

Don't worry though, I'll give it the "stamp of approval" if it passes my hands...the stamp is a big ol' boot print, hahahaha.

gremlin

Boot print nothin...for it to leave our store, it had to pass the tire track test!

Dino

Which is why you should use USPS.

Tavel

for the bullet holes?

Slug

I used to work on the UPS Air Ramp and let me tell you....lol the things that go on behind the scenes....can't say i was surprised, but i was surprised at the same time. Lets just say when you get a beatup package, or torn package...i've seen why.

gremlin

What made me laugh was when people wanted to write 'fragile' or 'this side up' on the box...machinery can't read!

Slug

Haha, in the HUB maybe, but the PEOPLE on the Ramp couldn't read. To let everyone know, UPS works on Time not the fragile arrows or stickers. Pack your packages well! They have more of a problem if those birds don't get off the ground on time then one of your packages getting beat up.

Dino

Better bullets holes and cheap, than 3 times the price.

Oh, and extra money to deliver on Saturday.

gremlin

I agree! I was a packer at a UPS store. I wouldn't trust most of the packing the stores do...I saw how they teach the packers...If anyone I know needs to send anything, I tell them to bring it to me to pack instead of to the stores.

Slug

I was the guy that stacked people's boxes in the belly of the airplane, or back of the trucks. If anyone needs any tips let me know lol. Basically, if you box is big, no matter the weight, its going on the bottom of the stack as a cornerstone of the wall basically. If its small, its being tossed (usually literally) over the false wall to the back. Odd shapes will get beat up very easily as stackers become frustrated with them and toss them around and to the sides.

Tavel

surprised to see another upser...though you were in air ops, I'm a hubrat. I was a primary sorter for 2.5 years and hurt my shoulder, now I'm rockin' the small sort.

Yes ignorant onlookers, most UPS centers are manual sort...that means PEOPLE do the sorting, not machines.

Someone once asked me "do you treat packages better when they have 'fragile' written on them?"

Short answer, no. Long answer, no because EVERYONE writes fragile on their boxes...how is a 40lb box of bolts fragile?!? I do, however, observe the "Do not bend" notice. it's usually pretty easy to avoid bending something, it might just mean moving a few things around to fit it in nicely.

I also heed the warnings from insiders. you can tell, they write "Fragile: please throw underhand."

we're not that rough anyway, some people wantonly destroy things (they don't last long)...but most people just see them as boxes. It's just hard to think of them all as "someone's special delivery" when you move 4,000 a night. I've worked there 4 years and have moved millions of boxes, there's no way I could keep that gentle touch.

Just follow UPS's packing instructions and you will be fine, it's not like you have to buy ceramic-composite armor plating to get it through the system.

(new or like new box, 2 inches of packing peanuts on all sides, sealed with packing tape. EASY. If it's something with loose parts or parts that could become loose if dropped, secure the parts separately (like heat sinks in computers). If it's exceptionally fragile, like glass or china, put it in a box with 2 inches of peanuts all around, then put that box inside another box with 2 inches of peanuts all around. Never put more than one piece of glass/china in the same box.)

We've lost accounts to FedEx, but they come running back in a month because FedEx destroys twice as many packages...and USPS just loses stuff.

sirdarksol

That's interesting, Tavel.
I avoid UPS for a number of reasons, between them telling me that they wouldn't deliver a package to me because, according to them, I didn't live at my house (even though I had been there for a year and it's none of their business anyway), and what I've seen and heard of UPS hubs makes me cringe, especially with live animals. I know people who purposefully break uninsured "fragile" packages at UPS, and many others who play soccer with the packages. Give me a machine sorter any day. At least it doesn't maliciously break what I'm shipping.
The only problem I've ever had with USPS is that I've had two Netflix DVDs sit at the bottom of a sorting bin for two weeks. They're far cheaper, and their standard shipping is amazingly fast in my experience. I get my DFS orders within 48 hours of shipping, without fail.

Back on topic.
Red, there shouldn't be any problems. Most of the time they'll just drop it at your door and be off.

Slug

I was going to hug the UPS man that brought my discus at the beginning of the month, but he dropped the package off, rang the doorbell and literally ran back to the truck. I was disappointed.

gremlin

He may have been behind schedule - they can get fired if they are late with deliveries.

capekate

I would never use UPS. I have sold about 250 items on Ebay in 8 years. I used UPS only once and the pottery arrived to the buyer broken. I pack very well and will only use USPS, with them I have never had a broken item reported from any buyers.
That stat is good enough for me.

Red1313

Well I was told my package would arrive Oct. 1 guess who didn't stop at my house today!!!! I am thinking evil thoughts to whoever is responsible lol.

Tavel

It may have been mis-sorted or delayed due to weather or other things. Alternatively, if you live in the boonies (Saskatchewan is the definition of "the boonies" hahaha) they may have contracted the local post office to deliver instead. It's very expensive to have a UPS truck drive 100 miles off route to deliver one package, you know? Post office trucks are there anyway, what's an extra package to them?

Sirdarskool: yeah, that's a pretty cruddy situation. UPS corporate is a joke, a bunch of incompetent suck-ups all competing to see who can grunt and pound their chest the hardest. But the people in the hub are pretty indifferent, they're not out to exact their revenge on society or anything. I've only seen people destroying something once, and that was an open box of fluorescent tubes. They didn't' even stop when I politely pointed out that florescent tubes are filled with mercury vapor...their loss I suppose.

The automated sorters actually do worse than human sorters in mis-sorting and damages. Most packages are damaged by the equipment, package jams and sharp objects. People throw stuff around, but that's no problem if things are packaged correctly. I've worked there a long time and seen a LOT of damages, and I'd have to say that maybe 5% are caused by improper handling. I can't really figure out why the machines get more mis-sorts than we lowly humans...maybe some things are better done manually?

dinatwin

This was an interesting read

Slug

A package stuck in the machinery is not a pretty sight. We used to get them caught in the belt loaders on the ramp constantly. They would get wedged between the plane door and the belt loader and the belt would just eat them away. Thats if someone can't park the belt loader correctly. As well as when the belt loader overflows they fall from the plane, sorry but being the one in the plane, i wasn't hanging out of a 757 or 767 20ft in the air to catch your package.

If you still havn't gotten the package, don't be to worried just yet. Packages miss flights and trucks all the time. If its time to go and we are still loading, they pulled us out and we sent the rest on another shipment.

I've never seen someone really trying to destroy a package. I've seen people playing around possibly causing the package harm, but never actually trying to break something.

sirdarksol

From what you've seen.
I know people in two separate hubs, both of whom not only said that they have seen people pulling this kind of garbage regularly, but that they themselves have done it.
I've seen people at the distribution centers, in front of the customers, bash boxes around pretty bad.

So if I knew that the only place I had to worry about was the one you worked at, that would be great, but, from what I've seen and heard (and as a chronic college student, I've heard a lot about UPS), your hub is the exception.

gremlin

Working at a UPS store, I got to talk with a lot of the drivers. I heard stories, too, from the drivers. Eyewitness accounts of how some of the packages were handled. That's why I made sure anything I packed would survive. When I trained other packers, the final test was they had to pack a wine goblet in a box no larger than 8" by 8" by 12" to be run over by an S U V without breaking. I did it twice. The first time, the top of the goblet cracked. The second time, not a scratch or crack anywhere. When I took over the packing at our store, the claims from damaged packages dropped. I had one LARGE framed oil painting that the glass broke on, but it stayed in place and did not scratch the oil painting. The receiver was so impressed with the packing job, he called the manager of the store and told him what a good packing job it was. He said that because of the quality of the packing job, he was not going to collect on the damage claim. He would be more than willing to pay for the new glass himself since he was so impressed with the packing, and he was an engineer.

pamd

This is a very interesting thread.

I hope you all don't mind a little vent about USPS. First, I want to say that I generally like their services a lot. They're speedy, dependable and reasonably priced.

But I had the only bad experience I can recall with them a few weeks ago. I had a betta shipped from New York by overnight Express Mail. Well, he didn't arrive the next day and I knew for certain that the breeder had shipped him. I was freaking out a bit thinking of the fish having to go an extra day in transit.

I figured the carrier would ring the doorbell and leave the box by the door. I went outside anyway, just in case, and the box was by the front gate about 20 feet away from the door. In the hot sun. On a 95-degree day. With large writing on two sides that said LIVE FISH! DO NOT DROP!

That's not all. After I retrieved the fish, I saw an e-mail the breeder had sent about a half hour before. The carrier had called him because his phone number but not mine was on the box. The carrier said I wasn't home and that he'd leave the box by the front door. But I was home the whole morning waiting for the arrival. There was no knock on the door, no doorbell. I would have heard it and my dog would have barked. The really oddball thing is why didn't he go ahead and leave it by the door on the shaded porch?

This wouldn't have been my regular mail carrier. Apparently Express Mail comes from special distribution centers, not the regular Post Offices and branches.

At least the fish seemed just fine. Fighting mad from the moment I opened the box, snapping at the bag and thrashing around. "Let me outta here now!" I don't know how hot it might have gotten inside the box because I decided to let it sit unopened in the house for a couple of hours so there wouldn't be a sudden temperature shock.

Sorry for the long-winded vent. I guess no organization as big as USPS can be 100% moron-free. And based on many experiences, I guess about 99.9% of their employees are competent, which is excellent if so.

Did your Safestart arrive today, Red?

Red1313

Yes it did!!! Whoot whoot!!!!
I can't wait to try it out!!!
...
Also I can see what you guys mean about UPS packages being "handeled with care". The box wasn't box shaped anymore lol.

sirdarksol

Congrats! The bottle is whole, I presume.

Tavel

That's really a shame. I've talked to people from other hubs and got more of what I describe. Maybe it's local to your area, maybe you've raised a bunch of destructive teens. fight the machine

As far as the handling of live animals (which i saw somewhere but forgot to respond to)...we don't. They're not allowed, and if anyone finds live animals (aside from crickets and fish and other "small livestock" type animals) they call animal control. I'm sure animal control evaluates the condition of the animal and probably pursues criminal animal cruelty charges...but that's not on us because we have no capacity to handle animals, even for a short time.

I do have a funny story about dead cats (packaged in alcohol or formaldehyde for scientific research). the box tore open on a belt near the ceiling and the dead cats fell down 2 stories and went "splat" all over the floor. I heard it was pretty funny, but I wasn't there.

I just want you to know that I almost always choose UPS for my personal shipping...despite seeing all the shenanigans on the inside. I guess it doesn't scare me because I know what's going on. You all receive a busted up box and imagine some dudes playing soccer with it in the parking lot...I just recall how it probably got to that state and realize it's no big deal.

Slug

Same. I've never had a problem with a package being late with UPS, even if it was banged up.