What is an acceptable rate of damage?

[inhawaii]

There is a item i sell,  it's a small plastic item. I've sold about 100 of them so far. I recently had a customer let me know his item arrived broken/damaged.  He sent me pictures. I believe him. 

I package them all exactly the same way. The item gets wrapped in newspaper to provide some cushioning. Then shipped in a padded envelope. 

So far only 1 out of 100 has been reported damaged. That's a 1% damage rate. I'm trying to decide if i should start packing/shipping them in a box instead of a padded envelope.  Of course my cost would go up a bit.  Or is a 1% damage rate acceptable?

[myboardid]

inhawaii - you work in a hardware type of store - don't they get any merchandise that comes wrapped in bubble pack?  it is much more protective and much lighter weight than newspaper, and you would help them by recycling something the store owner has to pay to get rid of.  But a 1% damage rate - that would not bother me, as it probably wouldn't even be that high over time.  I just sent out a tightly packed 6 x 6 x 6 box that the post office must have run over, because it arrived to the buyer completely flattened.  😠

[rpalma]

How much you have to increase your price depends on your profitability.

If it's a $10 item and your profit is 10%, then you made $100 when you sold 100, but you lost $10 when one arrived damaged.

If you only increased the price by 1%, then you increased the price by $1 on the hundred sales but lost $10.

Also, you don't know that only one was damaged. You only know that one buyer complained so that is the minimum damage rate. There may be other buyers who received the damaged item, shrugged and threw it in the trash, and now shop elsewhere.

[gwzcomps]

I would go with the the none opinion as well. I would be curious on what the item is. There are a few things I ship in bubble envelopes. Mostly since they are fairly durable and low value.

[beross]

calculate which costs more: the box or the 1% damage.  Even in a box there might be some damage.

[upgradedendmills]

Realistically, we will never get to zero % damaged items, it happens. But, for a few pennies extra expense or lost profit, it seems worthwhile to have some extra packaging material in the package when a customer opens it rather it is damaged or not. Better customer service.

[gwzcomps]

The irony of getting an order in the day after this post of a plastic item I bought that has gotten damaged in shipping. Granted it was just shipped in a poly bag with no protection. A SNAD will do more damage to the seller's account than it is worth. It is low value enough to not matter to me. Yet a bad experience for me as a buyer. It causes an interesting dilemma for me as an experienced seller. As a buyer I am hesitant to buy stuff here anymore for various reasons. One of them being people consistently poorly pack stuff. In the end I don't like my options in general because it leaves me feeling like the loser in the transaction.

[sin-n-dex]

In Canada if you bulk buy small boxes, you can get 100 for $0.50 to $1 per box (in CAD funds). 

With the small boxes I put them inside a poly mailer or bubble mailer since the box is too small to ship like that.

The Canadian supply company for good discount stuff is called Uline. You probably have a USA equivalent that can ship a giant box of boxes to you.

C.

[inhawaii]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

In Canada if you bulk buy small boxes, you can get 100 for $0.50 to $1 per box (in CAD funds). 

With the small boxes I put them inside a poly mailer or bubble mailer since the box is too small to ship like that.

The Canadian supply company for good discount stuff is called Uline. You probably have a USA equivalent that can ship a giant box of boxes to you.

C.

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Living in Hawaii can have disadvantages.  Noobody will ship me cardnoard boxes, well, they will but for outrageous prices.  Uline wants $200-something to ship me 50 small boxes to me. Ebay shipping supplies is the only place i've found that will ship me cardboard boxes for free. 

[byrd69er]

Take a look at "the boxery".  I buy boxes from them via eBay. Shipping is free....can't say that applies to  Hawaii.

[uncseniorsportsfan]

I've had a box of books damaged - tire marks on the box.   No matter how well an item is packaged there is always a chance it can be damaged in transit.  

[femmefan1946]

@doubledz-a2z 

and write Do Not Crush on the outside of manilla envelope.

Who do you think reads your note?

It's not that the postal workers don't care, or that they "play football" with packages marked fragile, it's that they are too busy tossing fallen items back on the conveyor belts.
Once out of your post office, your packages may not be touched by hands again until they reach the post office near you where your carrier picks up her day's work.

[femmefan1946]

@inhawaii 

If online suppliers are charging you $200 for shipping, check out suppliers on your island.

They are buying in greater quantities than you are, and getting better shipping rates.

BTW- some of us Canadians have done well shipping to Hawai'i and Alaska, because we just pay the USA rate with no distance premium.  This may have changed lately (I don't do a lot of parcel shipping), but check out ULine anyway. I used them a lot when I had a shop and later before eBay started offering "free" shipping supplies.

Research before decision.

[inhawaii]

I was talking about that with a postal worker.  He laughs at "fragile" or "do not crush" labels.

"I was going to smash the BLEEP out of this package, but then i saw "fragile"  on it and decided to gently set it down"

LOL

[gamersbaystore]

In many cases a padded mailer is not enough to protect some items. This is why I wrap every game and movie in bubble wrap besides the bubble mailer itself. It does raise costs, but not by much. I bought 350 ft of bubble wrap for $18, and went thru one entire roll this past month, but it was over $1,000 in sales, so the cost is irrelevant really.

[sin-n-dex]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

In Canada if you bulk buy small boxes, you can get 100 for $0.50 to $1 per box (in CAD funds). 

With the small boxes I put them inside a poly mailer or bubble mailer since the box is too small to ship like that.

The Canadian supply company for good discount stuff is called Uline. You probably have a USA equivalent that can ship a giant box of boxes to you.

C.

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Living in Hawaii can have disadvantages.  Noobody will ship me cardnoard boxes, well, they will but for outrageous prices.  Uline wants $200-something to ship me 50 small boxes to me. Ebay shipping supplies is the only place i've found that will ship me cardboard boxes for free. 

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Try finding a service that uses a flat rate of postage. When I shop online, I see all kinds of boasting of low shipping rates and free shipping.

You might end up paying more for each box, but you should be able to find somewhere online.

C.