UPS-Proof Packing

[Edward Greeley]

Good evening, Ron,

For openers, there's no such thing as "UPS-Proof Packing"! Ya pays yer
money and ya takes yer chances - unfortunately.

Example: A couple of years ago I shipped a Tektronix 7603 scope
mainframe half-way across the country. I custom-built a wooden crate for
it, and cushioned the scope inside the crate with three inches of
styrofoam insulation board all around, leaving no voids between the
crate and the scope.  That's six thicknesses of the stuff, since it's
1/2 inch thick. "Great job" I sez to myself, "that's as good as the
factory molded foam inserts." Hah! WRONG! The crate arrived at its
destination in great shape. The buyer said the scope looked great, so he
powered it up as soon as he unpacked it. NOTHING. He opened the scope
and found the CRT was busted. The neck was snapped of off the bell of
the tube due to the weight of the coils around the neck, which were
unsupported (design deficiency on Tek's part), and the fact that the
gorillas had dropped the damned thing somewhere along the line. So much
for "builder's foam..."

When returning the BROKEN scope to me, the UPS idiots LOST it for about
three weeks. I won't bore you with the stunningly frustrating details of
having to telephone know-nothing UPS idiots, dozens of times, and
literally all over the country, first to locate the missing BROKEN scope
so that I could be reimbursed by the UPS "insurance", and second, to get
that reimbursement. Now, they couldn't have "lost it" on purpose, could
they? But I digress...

I have also personally delivered items to the "Customer (victim)
Counter" at the local UPS terminal, paid the shipping, gotten my
receipt, and left. The item promptly DISAPPEARED! Never was scanned into
their so-called "tracking system", nothing. No evidence that anything
ever existed, EXCEPT for the receipt I had. Another wait for
reimbursement.

Those are just a couple of examples of stuff I've shipped with UPS. You
don't want to know about stuff I've received from them.

I'm not a big shipper; maybe a half dozen or dozen outgoing packages per
year, and about the same incoming. God help the big shippers!

Summary: It's hopeless; you're at their mercy (of which they have none).

FWIW

Ed Greeley