eBay

ooak-tammy · ‎06-23-2017

This a USPS video showing the process of getting a package from point A to point B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX16-52bHvg

ersatz_sobriquet · ‎06-23-2017

The you tube videos of them drop kicking packages are better!

6:59 is where the package sorting starts on this video. They are treating them all with respect....not very accurate.

poppyswag · ‎06-23-2017

Slick promo piece. The reality is far worse, I agree.

partial*eclipse · ‎06-23-2017

If you don't want to give up 9 minutes of your life, just watch the first 30 seconds of this one:

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

mistwomandancing · ‎06-23-2017

Interesting video to watch. Thanks for posting it.

I've received the occasional broken item. Only had a couple arrive broken though, in all these years. Once I realized packages were tossed, dropped, tumbled and banged around as they processed, I better understood the importance of great protective packaging! They aren't passed gently hand to hand. lol

And, yeah... that FRAGILE stamp? It's obviously simply to make the civilians on each end believe that package will receive extra special gentle care, but it just goes bumping and thumping down the conveyor belts along with everything else, plopping into a canvas bin with a 30-pound box crashing down on top of it.

Important to package well, but very interesting to see how it's all done. Didn't realize that the USPS processes about half the mail of the world.

michael_atw · ‎06-23-2017

Shipped perhaps 15000 items in 10 years - can count the number of breaks on one hand.

As a buyer, I get $1000 packages shipped without boxes, without any packing protection, wrapped in paper or trash bags. I wish I could neg every one of those people 25 times each.

Not sure what people expect - do people expect USPS to hand carry packages across massive distribution warehouses, one by one?

southern*sweet*tea · ‎06-23-2017

@michael_atw wrote:
Shipped perhaps 15000 items in 10 years - can count the number of breaks on one hand.

As a buyer, I get $1000 packages shipped without boxes, without any packing protection, wrapped in paper or trash bags. I wish I could neg every one of those people 25 times each.

Not sure what people expect - do people expect USPS to hand carry packages across massive distribution warehouses, one by one?

It wouldn't surprise me one bit. Most people have no clue how packages and mail are processed. I believe they truly think it's still done like it was in 1900 with no machinery.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

michael_atw · ‎06-23-2017

Ha. The stuff in the video only happens to packages maybe 3 times in transit.

I remember specifically one damage (that's how few I've had to my packages both as buyer and seller) where I received one with a forklift hole through the lower part of it. That was one of the few times where I said, "this is the carrier's fault".

Most other times, it's people doing the most demented, cut-rate, lazy packing jobs. Stuff that would boggle the mind. I thank the carriers every day for managing to handle these ticking time bombs and getting them to me intact.

Shame on anyone reading this who is too lazy to package an item properly, by the way. I have gotten items that were almost totally counterfeit and had a harder time negging than someone who ships $1000 musical instruments bouncing in an empty box for 2000 miles. I confront those buyers every time (J.C., it happens so much these days) and so many respond with, "Well, did it arrive undamaged?" Yeah, DESPITE you. And that's assuming that the nicks and dings on vintage items were there before it left the seller.

deep-garnet-red · ‎06-23-2017

I've never had any of my stuff break so I know I'm packing well...lol.

Come to think of it, I've only received two broken items. One was shipped from china in one of those little plastic envelopes. No protection at all. The other was FedEx. The seller packed a vintage martini picher in a box with air bags. Just air bags. This pitcher had a glass tube in the center to hold ice. Nothing was put inside the pitcher. I imagine that piece broke off with the very first bump. I got a box of green glass shards and a few baggies. I offered to cooperate with fedex if she wanted to file an insurance claim. She called me a scammer.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎06-23-2017

@deep-garnet-red wrote:
I've never had any of my stuff break so I know I'm packing well...lol.

Come to think of it, I've only received two broken items. One was shipped from china in one of those little plastic envelopes. No protection at all. The other was FedEx. The seller packed a vintage martini picher in a box with air bags. Just air bags. This pitcher had a glass tube in the center to hold ice. Nothing was put inside the pitcher. I imagine that piece broke off with the very first bump. I got a box of green glass shards and a few baggies. I offered to cooperate with fedex if she wanted to file an insurance claim. She called me a scammer.

And ten years ago she would have left you a neg.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

victorjunkman55 · ‎06-23-2017

After watching the way they throw these boxes around, I can't believe any of my packages arrived without damage. I Ship Glass, and pride myself on my packing, but find this video outrageous the way they toss them across the room and on film yet for all to see. Gee, I'm in awe.

partial*eclipse · ‎06-23-2017

@michael_atw wrote:
... Not sure what people expect - do people expect USPS to hand carry packages across massive distribution warehouses, one by one?

I know there's at least one person who does, because I was behind her in line during one of my rare trips to the PO. She actually was telling the counter clerk how to hold the package carefully upright so things wouldn't get "jiggled." I didn't get a chance to hear the outcome, but if I had been that clerk, I would have advised her to go home and repack.

gramophone-georg · ‎06-23-2017

@mistwomandancing wrote:
Interesting video to watch. Thanks for posting it.

I've received the occasional broken item. Only had a couple arrive broken though, in all these years. Once I realized packages were tossed, dropped, tumbled and banged around as they processed, I better understood the importance of great protective packaging! They aren't passed gently hand to hand. lol

And, yeah... that FRAGILE stamp? It's obviously simply to make the civilians on each end believe that package will receive extra special gentle care, but it just goes bumping and thumping down the conveyor belts along with everything else, plopping into a canvas bin with a 30-pound box crashing down on top of it.

Important to package well, but very interesting to see how it's all done. Didn't realize that the USPS processes about half the mail of the world.

I'm pretty sure all shipping company employees take those as a challenge. The other fun one is "do not crush". Inevitably any box I get from any carrier will be caved in right where it's been marked 'do not crush'.

I refuse to mark anything "Fragile", "Do Not Throw/ Crush" or "This Side Up". I just pack it assuming all of the above will happen. I can't tell you how many parcels marked "This Side Up" have been dumped on the porch that side down. If it's not marked, it's always label side up at delivery so if I want one side up that's where I put the label.

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

albertabrightalberta · ‎06-23-2017

I guess I'm going against the tide here. I found that promotional video to be impressive and accurate. In all my years of selling and mailing as well as paying bills and sending birthday cards by snail mail, I can count on one hand the number of losses. And for all the items the post office handles, that's impressive.

This isn't to imply that every postal employee treats my shipments with care and respect but my items get to where they're going and they get there intact.

Thank you USPS. You're cheaper and more reliable than the competition.

And no, I don't work nor does any family member for the postal service.

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor