I'm a gaffer with a rental business. I'm shipping things all the time. Most of the time, everything is okay. I'm reluctant to say great because too often the package arrives battered even if the contents are okay.
I say about shipping companies, "They will break a bowling ball if they don't lose it first."
If it seems like my list is picking on any particular delivery service, I'm not. I've had trouble from lost-to-damaged packages with all the major services.
UPS Delivers 2 Matthews Hi-Hi Stands
Mishandling of packages is my biggest complaint about all the shipping services, but recently UPS seems to be the worst. It is a big problem that seems to be only getting worse and the shipping companies don't seem to care.
I recently (July 2022) was having 2-hi-hi stands delivered by UPS. If you are in the business, you know these are big, heavy stands weighing in at almost 40 pounds each.
Well, the day they were supposed to arrive, they did not.
The next day I was home when the UPS truck parked outside my home. I went outside to help because these are large and heavy. The delivery man only had one box. He didn't know why the 2nd box wasn't there. He said it would probably arrive the next day.
Here are pictures of the box as it was delivered my front door:
The box is absolutely battered with one end of the box completely torn open. I love the irony of the "Please Handle With Care Fragile Thank You" stickers all over the box.
Fortunately the only damage to the stand was one of the aluminum braces for the legs was bent. I removed it, straightened it, and put it back on. Not a big deal, but it is super annoying for a new expensive stand.
PS: The 2nd stand finally arrived a few days later. The box was similarly damaged.
PPS: Hat's off to Matthews Studio Equipment. These are some well-made stands!
My "First to Last Place Award" goes to the U.S. Post Office for delivering an empty tube
The Back Story:
I was doing maintenance at my mom home in Northern Kentucky about an hour drive from my home. It was April 2021.
On the day I was there, I was having a shower door seal delivered. It was an unusual package; a cardboard tube of about 2 inches in diameter that was 7 feet long. (The seal could not be bent.)
I happen to see the mailman deliver it. I went to the door to say "Hi" but the mailman literally ran away with his head down. I soon saw the reason why.
The Delivery:
This is the tube outside my mom's front door. Yes, it is an empty tube with a foot or so of the end missing. It is inexplicable how and why the Post Office would deliver an empty damaged tube with nothing in it.
Epilogue:
I didn't contact the Post Office. I figured their bureaucracy made it a waste of my time. I reached out to the company that sent the seal. They were very nice about it and quickly sent me a replacement.
A few weeks later I received an official looking letter from the Post Office. I actually thought it was going to be some kind of apology about the damaged package. Instead it was a curt letter informing me that I needed to present the damaged package to the local post office by my mom's house by a certain date.
That post office is over an hour drive from my home. I wasn't going to go there. The entire problem was theirs not mine. I wrote an angry letter to the post office with pictures of the tube. I told them if they wanted to see it, they needed to send me a shipping label and I would ship it to them.
I got no response and never heard more about it. The replacement seal was promptly delivered the following week.
Amazon Prime/USPS delivers an empty padded envelope
The Back Story:
I ordered 4 tie-down knobs for lights from Amazon. They looked like nice knobs made with anodized aluminum with stainless steel threads. The knobs were replacements for lost and missing ones. I don't know how; light knobs get lost on jobs with some regularity.
The Delivery:
I found in my mailbox this empty padded Amazon Prime envelope. It had a USPS service label on it. I was puzzled by it. At first I thought maybe it was a document, or card, or something like that. Opening the envelope, there was nothing in it; absolutely empty. I figured out that this was the order for the knobs. The envelope had no obvious damage, but closely inspecting it, I found one corner of the envelope was open. It was enough that maybe the knobs just fell out during shipping or maybe they were stolen.
I wanted to let Amazon know they delivered an empty package, but I couldn't find any way to do it. The best I could find with their order-troubleshooting menus, was to say I had not received the item.Amazon sent a replacement order.
UPS delivers a bent 8-foot Quasar tube
The Back Story:
I ordered 8-foot Quasar Crossfade tubes from Adorama. I'm guessing in the end, for every working 8-foot tube I have, I received at least 1 tube that was either damaged in shipping or had a manufacturing defect. It was frustrating. This order was a replacement tube for one that had previously been delivered damaged.
The Delivery: This box contained 1 8-foot tube. The box was badly damaged.
Here is the badly bent tube next to an 8-foot Kino Flo housing to show just how bent the tube was.
Epilogue:
The third time is a charm. Adorama sent yet another replacement tube. The next one arrived undamaged.
USPS smashes a vintage Eiki film projector
The Back Story:
My dad collected old 16mm vintage movies. His particular interest were old Laurel and Hardy shorts and Three Stooges.
(Laurel and Hardy made many great comedy short films in the silent era and the 1930s.)
I got the films when he passed away. They don't have much monetary value, but they have sentimental value to me. I haven't been able to watch them for a long time becasue the projector I had was broken and not worth repairing.
During the Covid shutdown, I wanted to watch them again. I found an old Eiki projector on eBay and purchased it. These are well-made, reliable projectors made in Japan.
The Delivery: I was so excited when the projector was delivered. I couldn't wait to watch my dad's old movies.
The box showed damaged but it wasn't obvious just how bad the damage was.
 |
| The irony of another "Please Handle with Care, Thank You, Fragile" sticker on a battered box. |
When I took the projector out of the box, I found this:
The metal housing of the projector was shattered. I was shocked about the damage. The only way I could see this much damage happening to the metal housing of this was to almost throw it on the ground as hard as possible.
I was heartbroken. I had been so excited to watch my dad's old films and now it wasn't going to happen, at least with this projector.
Epilogue:
The eBay seller was cool about promptly refunding my money. I still have the projector. I've been keeping it for parts. I still don't have a working projector.
To Be Continued . . .