How to stop USPS & UPS from breaking breakables?

[liawrig.nq8rdwqa3]

Two times this week I had buyers tell me their bowls & cups that I sold arrived broken.  I do everything to secure these breakables.  I put them in boxes. I wrap them in paper and bubble wrap and stuff with air pillows.  Yet, the shippers still manage to break them....what else can I do? (don't tell me not to sell them)

[chapeau-noir]

Paper (particularly newspaper) isn't a real great option for padding - it tends to compact and then offers no resilience.  I've shipped a lot of glass and used large gauge bubble wrap and packing peanuts. You might need to double box.

[mtgraves7984]

Might sound silly... but are you also filling the voids in your package? Down to bubble wrap inside  the bowls and cups?

[lamber9347]

You chose to label your thread with a silly question- how to stop carriers from breaking your glassware, yet you don't want people to reply with the obvious answer. Okay, why not accompany your packages on the truck while they are being delivered?....

Double boxing is the best answer. Over packaging your items. Pack them as if they will be used as a football. Mummify them with bubble wrap and fill all dead spaces with air pillow and peanuts. It will increase the weight but pretty much the best you can do to ship breakables. Best of luck to you....

[rfmtm · Accepted solution]

If you are packing properly and there is obvious excessive damage to the exterior of the box, then the carrier is to be held responsible.  However, if damage is mostly hidden with little or no exterior damage to the box, you are just not packing the contents well enough, regardless of how well you think you are.

Basically if you can't bounce the box from four feet off a concrete floor without internal damage, you need better packing.  This includes separate or special inner packaging, and even double boxing with a shock layer between inner and outer box, making sure nothing is loose or able to shake around inside.

If your boxes are heavy, then you also want to use heavier walled (double walled/double thick corrugated) boxes.  And sometimes it is just better to not to put so much in a single box.

[friskya]

I used to have a big red stamp that said "FRAGILE - PLEASE THROW UNDERHAND" that I marked all my breakables with. Never had any arrive broken. 

[liawrig.nq8rdwqa3]

I am filing insurance claims.  But 2X's in one week tells me they are not handling packages properly.  They are kicking them, or tossing them.

[yuzuha]

Air pillows and paper are not good packing materials for fragile items-- they need to be double-boxed with packing peanuts.  I've shipped blown glass Christmas ornaments internationally this way and haven't had a single one get damaged yet.

[kensgiftshop]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Paper (particularly newspaper) isn't a real great option for padding - it tends to compact and then offers no resilience.  I've shipped a lot of glass and used large gauge bubble wrap and packing peanuts. You might need to double box.

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News paper is about all I use, but I don't just stuff it in there, I pack it tight so there is very little if any compaction later.

I double box and use plastic wrap sometimes.

[lja440]

I when selling often sell pottery and glass. I also sell to replacements.com (they have a great tutorial on how to pack).

I haven't been selling online because I am also a mail carrier and we have been BUSY!!!! 

I have shipped probably over 100 packages of glass, china and pottery. I have yet to have ANYTHING arrive broken. 

Tips:

Fill all voids, this includes inside of vases, cups, and the like. 

There should be 2 inches of quality padding between each piece and the box sides. 

If you close a box and give it a hard shake in all directions and feel shifting it's not good enough,  add more padding. 

Pack this box in another allowing for 2 inches of padding on all sides, top, and bottom between the inner and outer box.

Tape the box in an H pattern this eliminates both the twisting of the box and the chance of the flap edges from catching on anything.

[toysaver]

If you are not comfortable dropping the box down a flight of concrete stairs you are responsible for any breakage.

[doubledz-a2z]

I peeked at your listings and I think the issue is in the shipping costs you list.  They are too cheap to cover the actual cost.   The two cereal bowls that broke you listed with $8.99 shipping.    I would bet that they cost much more to send unless you shipped in a Priority Padded Flat Rate Envelope (which is great for the clothing soft goods).    Personally I steer clear of breakables, anything with a power cord or small moving parts.  

[johnrj1226]

Have you tried to use Expedited shipping (via Air) vs Economy (via Ground)? 

[lja440]

I also looked at your listings and I agree with doubledz.

Taking the Dr. Who mug as an example your listing states $8 for economy shipping. With USPS that means parcel select or retail ground. From your zone to mine I worked with the bare minimum which I would say with shipping materials you are looking at 2 pounds. Priority would be $7.96. Parcel select is $7.76 (a whopping 20 cents savings). 

At the same time, you are lumping it together with the other ground packages which tend to be items prohibited from traveling via air and those items that exceed priority size limits and items that are TOO HEAVY to ship priority at a rate that is manageable. Things like cases of canned dog food from Chewy, trunks of items service members ship back home. I just ordered 2 gallons of resin from Michaels that came Parcel Select as well as about 20 paints that were on sale, while it isn't an extremely heavy box it is pushing 30 pounds rather hard. Think of it sitting on top of your cup, and many other boxes on top of that bouncing up and down the roads from Il. to Oh.

[blingfling123]

Unless you are using the super duper strong air pillows they are useless with heavy and breakable stuff. Most of the stuff I get delivered in the south with air pillows arrives with them deflated or broken.  Air pillows expand and contract in the belly of a plane. They also do not like really hot weather and it gets hawt in the back of a truck all day.

As much as I hate peanuts. They are much better than the cheap air pillows.