posted on March 29, 2001 03:18:45 PM
I went to UPS this morning and they have big sighs that all boxes must be open so they can inspect the packing. Does not matter how much insurance you want or anything.
They slkit my nice tight box open then wanted to slap one short piece of tape across it to close. I would not allow that and made them seal it with 3 long pieces.
That's it for me. I am using FedEx ground from now on.
I suspect this is a safety thing from the government like the 1 pound limit on postal packages. Paranoid? - You bet...
posted on March 29, 2001 03:46:17 PM
I send very few things via UPS, but it looks like I'll be sending them via FedEx from now on. I had the same experience with UPS a while back, but it was just a one-time thing with a cranky supervisor. After inspecting my wonderfully-wrapped china, she also tried to put one piece of tape on the box. I went a little ga-ga and jumped up and down until she sealed it properly. I mean, how often do I receive a box via UPS that has been kicked in, with the tape barely hanging on by a thread - all the time! I wonder if UPS is trying to phase out customer drop-off or something. I'm sure they don't do this sort of thing to their regular pick-up customers.
posted on March 29, 2001 09:46:36 PM
They've been doing this quite a while - at least since last fall. I shipped some heavy pistons through them - for customer drop off, they require the packages be unsealed so that they could review the items and the packing. When I asked, I was told that it was because their claims had shot up 400% because of online sales.
posted on March 29, 2001 09:59:46 PM
Try going to Mail Boxes Etc. My local one doesn't care what is in there, they just weigh it and make you fill out a form. You can put an entire roll of tape on as long as you do it before you enter the store and you are willing to pay for the extra weight...
posted on March 29, 2001 10:22:41 PM
While on the subject of UPS and Mailbox Etc. Recently UPS purchased Mailbox Etc. but the name is staying the same. You just pay twice as much for someone else to process the package.
posted on March 30, 2001 01:43:08 AM
The open box thing has been in place for 2 years or so. Also, no glass, china and various other things I can't remember at this hour.
posted on March 30, 2001 06:04:47 AM
The "no glass" rule is old old old. I tried to send my grandmother framed pictures of my children one year for Christmas. This must have been around 1985. And UPS would not accept the package because of the glass in the picture frames.
posted on March 30, 2001 06:13:11 AM
ubiedaman---I'm smacking myself on the head...LOL...I sometimes get USPS and UPS mixed up. I should have worded my statement something like, "Maybe they are looking for things to auction like USPS." Sorry for the mixup...
posted on March 30, 2001 07:10:23 AM
I'd put money on it that their managers have been told to open the boxes, seal them poorly, then when they get damaged & customer puts in claim, it can be denied due to "poor packaging".
posted on March 30, 2001 07:32:15 AM
"I suspect this is a safety thing from the government like the 1 pound limit on postal packages. Paranoid? - You bet"
"I'd put money on it that their managers have been told to open the boxes, seal them poorly, then when they get damaged & customer puts in claim, it can be denied due to "poor packaging"
hmmm...while it is exciting to come up with explanations that feed our view of "big bad" government and "big business", let me suggest a simpler explanation:
Many (most?) "random mailers" (the people who walk into UPS) know nothing about secure mailing of items. (Stand in line someday, and see all the mistaped, poor boxes, etc that people somehow think will survive being shipped thousands of miles!) Also one suspects that if someone were out to con UPS, they'd be more likely to be a walk-in rather than a regular pick-up customer. I can't prove this, of course, but I'd be willing to bet they have 10 times the problems with walk-in packages, in terms of loss/damage/fraud than regular customers, so they are just cracking down and protecting themselves from the public.
Frankly, I'm all for this, since *I* know how to send a package, and I'm not going to defraud them, so I don't want them raising the rates for everyone to recoup their increased costs from the fools and thieves who walk in the front door.
By the way, it might ALSO be a "safety thing", but not mandated from the government. Again, if you were worried about explosives and such, they'd come from walk-ins, not the regulars. But I don't think this is really the explanation.
posted on March 30, 2001 07:56:54 AM
Trouble is I pack TOO well to be able to use the open box system.
I often pack a wooden box with tools iside a box with peanuts or bubble wrap and then suspend the inner box in an outer box with layers of packing.
I doubt if they will accept the outer layer only being open.
I woke up to this thread and it answered a question I was going to telephone and ask my vendor of fabric as soon as I got up this a.m. Late last night I got a UPS delivery I was expecting with a box weighing about 22lbs. The driver said as he handed it to me "careful, it's open there". I was surprised to see the box was upside-down and the tape slit.
I took it inside and examined all my purchases. They were in a clear bag, taped shut. They were WAY too small for the box used...... or another way to put it......the box was WAY too big for the size of items, maybe twice the size needed, and no, no fluff/peanuts/newspaper. Everything was 'more than perfect', I checked very carefully. I wonder if there was any connection to opening a package that items could be felt to shift around in? I think I will still telephone the company I bought from....... just with a comment on the too-large box, opened when I got it, and I'd requested that my package NOT be left w/o a sig and driver actually refused a sig when I offered!
Be nice to animals. Go back and try shutting that door a little more quietly. Get your finger outta there, are you hungry? Mom
