# UPS a "smashing" success?



## stingfrog (Apr 1, 2007)

Twice in the last week I got packages ddlivered by UPS that were just smashed. I ordered crickets from Ghanns and they were shipped in two boxes banded together. The bottem box was absolutely crushed to the point that crickets were escaping. The UPS people put the boxes in a plastic bag they said because they had crickets all over the back of their truck. ( Serves them right). Today I got a box with 10 fruit fly cultures from Josh's. It too was smashed. 6 of the 10 cultures inside were crushed. Luckily the lids were still intact thanks to their being taped on. The cultures are still usable but the cups were destroyed as they are creased beyond being reusable. Ghanns replaced the escaped crickets by the way. doe UPS have no pride in their service or do they just not care? Frankly I am getting sick of smashed packages. I hope the escaped crickets haunt them for some time.


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## MonkeyFrogMan28 (Feb 3, 2009)

I would let them know that this seems to keep happining to you and you are switching over to fed ex. Maybe they might talk with the driver to see what happened.


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## Brian Ferriera (Nov 1, 2006)

stingfrog said:


> Twice in the last week I got packages ddlivered by UPS that were just smashed. I ordered crickets from Ghanns and they were shipped in two boxes banded together. The bottem box was absolutely crushed to the point that crickets were escaping. The UPS people put the boxes in a plastic bag they said because they had crickets all over the back of their truck. ( Serves them right). Today I got a box with 10 fruit fly cultures from Josh's. It too was smashed. 6 of the 10 cultures inside were crushed. Luckily the lids were still intact thanks to their being taped on. The cultures are still usable but the cups were destroyed as they are creased beyond being reusable. Ghanns replaced the escaped crickets by the way. doe UPS have no pride in their service or do they just not care? Frankly I am getting sick of smashed packages. I hope the escaped crickets haunt them for some time.


Calm down here for a second...you have to relies how many people a company like this employees..chance are its one person thats doing this and not the "company" thats doing this...thier are always a few bad seeds in any company with that many people...
Brian


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## yumpster (May 22, 2009)

> Calm down here for a second...you have to relies how many people a company like this employees..chance are its one person thats doing this and not the "company" thats doing this...thier are always a few bad seeds in any company with that many people...
> Brian


I completely agree. It's _people_ that are unreliable, not UPS.


On a side note, banding two boxes together is just asking for trouble in my opinion.


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## stingfrog (Apr 1, 2007)

Calm down? I am perfectly calm. As a matter of fact I am bout to go to sleep. The problem here is that shipments are being made and damaged far too frequently. What if that had been a box of frogs? Though I usually ship the frogs by FedEx. Yeah you can always file a claim and hopefully get reimbursed but that wouldn't help the possibly dead frogs. I would have made a claim on the crickets but Ghanns said they were going to and after all they did replace them for me. I took a photo of the smashed box in the box and sent it tothem. The bos of flies didn't appear to be that bad until I opened it up and found the smashed cups. I guess I should have taken a photo of it again and turned it in.


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## AzureFrog (Feb 3, 2009)

That's funny, I got a package from them last week that was damaged. Not only was one bottom corner smashed in, but the bottom tape was completely gone and it was open, the delivery person had to turn it upside-down to keep the contents from falling out. Who knows what happened to it. 

I must say though that this was the first time that something like this happened to me.

Peace
Shawn


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## ggazonas (May 11, 2008)

I had a similar problem with UPS in my town. I kept recieving my packages smashed. I called them up and they weren't to responsive to my problems. 
Fortunaelty for me I just stopped having things shipped to work and instead had them shipped to my office.

Hopefully the UPS people in your area take better care of you then mine did.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I used to load boxes for UPS.... AND I WILL NEVER USE THEM TO SHIP!
The boxes are loaded into standing walls in the semis... like tetris if you will. My boss used to hop into the truck I was loading, and shake my walls of boxes, and see if he could make em fall. If a box fell on him, I was F-ED 
Fragile just means it bends or compacts to squeeze into that tight space you need to fill. 
Its not just one person, its every UPS employee Ive ever known.


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## Occidentalis (Jul 11, 2009)

I shipped a VHS overnight via FedEx, and the person who received it thought from the sound of the absolutely flattened box that I had sent them a bunch of legos.

Each service has its problems I guess. Never had a bad package from DSL or Airborne Express though.


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## Paul G (Feb 27, 2007)

frogparty said:


> I used to load boxes for UPS.... AND I WILL NEVER USE THEM TO SHIP!
> The boxes are loaded into standing walls in the semis... like tetris if you will. My boss used to hop into the truck I was loading, and shake my walls of boxes, and see if he could make em fall. If a box fell on him, I was F-ED
> Fragile just means it bends or compacts to squeeze into that tight space you need to fill.
> Its not just one person, its every UPS employee Ive ever known.


UPS....United Parcel Smashers.

I would have to agree with frogparty. I have a cousin that has worked for UPS for over 15 years and she said she would never ship anything UPS. She has told my family and I many similar stories as you described.

Personally, UPS items almost always arrive late and smashed in my experience. Fedex is always fast and never damaged.


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## Brian Ferriera (Nov 1, 2006)

Doesn't Mark Pepper ship all his frogs through them??? They cant be all that bad if he is shipping god knows how much money in frogs through them every few months..every place that ships has its horror stories
Brian


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## Kgbower (Jul 9, 2009)

I have to agree, UPS is bad. We had to switch carriers at my store, we would get 10 lighting fixtures and at least seven of them would have the bulbs smashed. The boxes were packed very wellbut no match for UPS! For them fragile means throw it harder lol.


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

Well, I have seen problems with all shippers. I will not state a preference. Just wanted to make sure you folks all know that DHL in the states isn't an option any longer.


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## yumpster (May 22, 2009)

From all you people saying you have first or second hand experience with how UPS transports their packages, do you really think other shipping services do it any differently? I agree that they should take more care in shipping packages, but sadly it is human nature not to care very much about something that doesn't affect your own life. If only there was a better way...


edit: the only thing I can suggest to people shipping living things is to mark the outside of the box heavily with phrases such as "careful:live animals" or something to that effect. If they know full well what is inside, a kind hearted person would take more care of it.


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## Occidentalis (Jul 11, 2009)

Dragonfly said:


> Just wanted to make sure you folks all know that DHL in the states isn't an option any longer.


Yeah, sad. I miss the yellow and red pulling up outside. Time to go back to Germany!


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## NathanB (Jan 21, 2008)

i use usps and never have problems, Their tracking sucks but everything else is fine


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## rollinkansas (Jun 9, 2008)

bussardnr said:


> i use usps and never have problems, Their tracking sucks but everything else is fine


USPS overnight uses Fedex.

That said I know people who work for both UPS and Fedex and they have told me boxes that say "Fragile" or "Live Reptiles" get treated exactly the same, if not worse than unmarked boxes.


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## massha (Aug 30, 2009)

Every time I hear of boxes smashed by UPS I always remember this story that a gal I knew told once - apparently, her female neighbor had a rather loving nature. So every day her husband would go to work, and closer to lunch timee, a UPC truck would pull into the driveway. She'd jump into the back of the truck followed by the driver and they'd have a rather happy and active lunch hour together... Figure that'd smash or box or two, no?


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## rpmurphey (Mar 9, 2009)

I work in the shipping industry and to let you guys/gals know, _REFUSE, REFUSE, REFUSE_. Take pictures and contact the shipper. do _NOT_ sign anything and tell the driver that you are going to refuse because of damage. I can not stress, take pictures. Most of the time you will get your money back. It will take time and it is a big pain, but they are a company and they do have policies put in place for this type of thing. 

Oh, one more thing, make sure that there is insurance on the package if it costs more than $50.00


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## rpmurphey (Mar 9, 2009)

> Originally Posted by Dragonfly
> Just wanted to make sure you folks all know that DHL in the states isn't an option any longer.


DHL was the worst out of all shipping carriers, in my opinion. When I worked at Intel we had to refuse 73% of the packages that we got from DHL due too damages. With UPS it was around 40%. With FedEx it was around 32% and with USPS it was around 4%.


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

I remember a time I could rely on any of the 3 more than the USPS. 

At this point, I wish my customers' (not in the hobby and I will not name my employer) would refuse refuse refuse.

The stories I hear, and I know this to be true, is unless, the shipper requires a sig or the person is in a bad (according to the driver) area, both UPS and FedEx will leave on the doorstep. Which is part of the problem I deal with on the phone periodically soothing ruffled feathers....


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## yumpster (May 22, 2009)

> That said I know people who work for both UPS and Fedex and they have told me boxes that say "Fragile" or "Live Reptiles" get treated exactly the same, if not worse than unmarked boxes.


That baffles me a little. I have no references so I can't refute this, but that is messed up if the employees actually treat packages they know are "fragile" worse than others. They must not like their jobs at all.


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## rpmurphey (Mar 9, 2009)

Dragonfly said:


> I remember a time I could rely on any of the 3 more than the USPS.
> 
> At this point, I wish my customers' (not in the hobby and I will not name my employer) would refuse refuse refuse.
> 
> The stories I hear, and I know this to be true, is unless, the shipper requires a sig or the person is in a bad (according to the driver) area, both UPS and FedEx will leave on the doorstep. Which is part of the problem I deal with on the phone periodically soothing ruffled feathers....




You're right about that (some people are not home or leave at door), that is why you take pictures and send them to the shipper. Most of the time the shipper will refund the package.


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## stingfrog (Apr 1, 2007)

You can bet that from now on I will refuse any smashed boxes and take photos of those are damaged otherwise and their contents. Sometimes though you just have to have them. In these cases the crickets and flies were needed quickly and I could not wait for new shipments. I will however complain. Like I said though the crickets were replaced by the supplier and the flies were useable though the cups will not be reusable.


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## MeiKVR6 (Sep 16, 2008)

Our parent company used to use UPS exclusively in the late 90s... We've switched to Fed-Ex who is a little cheaper (with a corporate account), faster, and 98% of the time doesn't destroy the boxes. 

We ship a lot of plants & flowers... Fed-Ex is primarily air transit while UPS is primarily truck transit... Better chance of heating/freezing in a long truck trip.


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## ZeeMan (Sep 19, 2008)

I agree... 
UPS has on average delivered more dented and smashed boxes than i care to remember.
The worse was a shipment of 8 ff producing cultures that was crushed entirely to have its original height. The containers were all cracked so there were no fruit flies at all.
The UPS man for our area was a very nice man and careful... It was probably in the intermediary transport where the boxes were crushed.
Though I have found that if there is a Styrofoam box inside the paper box... there is not as much damage... So the vendor's packing does make a different.

Like someone else had said... what if it were frogs in the box? I could refuse the box but then vendor and I have to deal with the shipping company and their reps... and all this is due to someone negligence.

At work, we use Fedex... They take more care in packing the boxes and our packages have arrived with not too much issue.

I was under the impression that one couldn't ship live animals w/ USPS


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## Marinarawr (Jan 14, 2009)

yumpster said:


> edit: the only thing I can suggest to people shipping living things is to mark the outside of the box heavily with phrases such as "careful:live animals" or something to that effect. If they know full well what is inside, a kind hearted person would take more care of it.


About a month ago I received frogs through USPS. I wanted to pick them up at the post office so they wouldn't have to ride in the truck all day but they refused and said it would take two days to ship it if I wanted to pick it up at the post office?? Then later that day after waiting impatiently for the package to arrive at my door (I was checking out the window every 30 mins or so) I walked outside and found it stuffed into the corner of my front steps where I couldn't see it from the window. It was clearly and brightly labeled "LIVE TROPICAL FROGS: KEEP OUT OF EXTREME TEMPERATURES" on every side of the box. Needless to say I was rather irritated but when I complained to the postmaster he said that the deliverer wasn't required to put the package inside because the shipper didn't request a signature (which is a really subtle way of saying "screw your frogs" and "I couldn't care less about my irresponsible employee"). The frogs were fine and it wasn't terribly cold that day but the moral of the story is that people can really let you down at times when you most need them to be considerate (especially when it's their job).


*EDIT* I know you couldn't ship live animals via USPS not all that long ago but apparently there's no issue with it now. They may have changed the policy in order to widen their customer base?


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## BChambers (Sep 12, 2009)

I guess I have to disagree somewhat. Here at the Center for Reptile and Amphibian Propagation, we send and receive TONS of live reptile/amphibian shipments (10-30 a week), and I would have to give the edge to UPS..... Maybe it's our local drivers, but the incidence of damaged boxes is very similar between Fedex and UPS (and not high with either). But where I give UPS the edge is in timely delivery. It is extremely common for Fedex to deliver packages sent "next day air-10:00 AM delivery" as late as 2 or 3 in the afternoon! And since it very commonly exceeds the mid-90s in the afternoon from April to October here in south Texas, this is extremely dangerous.

So we've gone to UPS for all our outgoing shipments, and are pleased with the result.


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## GBIII (Mar 20, 2008)

The company I work for ship 200-500 boxes of merchandise every day. We ship using both UPS and Fedex. What we have found is that certain locations have more issues than others. Each carrier has areas where they need improvement. There are certain areas where I couldn't ship a rock in a wooden crate without having it broken with either carrier. It's just luck of the draw with where you live as to which carrier will service you best.

George


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## stingfrog (Apr 1, 2007)

Shippping next day priority or 2nd day with USPS is a crap shoot at best. If it doesn't get there when it is supposed to they just say that " it isn't guaranteed" So why do they charge extra for it?


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## CHuempfner (Apr 27, 2008)

I agree with George, a lot of the issues are probably based around certain locations. I have had no problems with USPS in the Atlanta area. I have received a damaged box with all the goods inside still in tact through UPS. But when it comes to FedEx, I get very nervous. Every time a box was delivered to me through FedEx there was an issue. The box was severely damaged, the package was open, the "THIS SIDE UP" was delivered upside down. . . Obviously it depends on who the people are that are handling the packages. Seeing that so many people have good results with FedEx makes me feel that the ATL sorting center and delivery team is the problem for me.


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## reggorf (Oct 24, 2006)

rollinkansas said:


> USPS overnight uses Fedex.
> 
> That said I know people who work for both UPS and Fedex and they have told me boxes that say "Fragile" or "Live Reptiles" get treated exactly the same, if not worse than unmarked boxes.


We just found this out a few weeks ago with a package that we shipped overnight. The gal at the post office asked what was in the package. My husband did not label the package at all with "live" or anything. He told her live frogs, and asked should it be labeled. She said no, it would be fine. She must have written LIVE on it after we shipped it and FEDEX called us that night to ask what was in the package. We missed the call and it got delayed an extra day. Frogs arrived safely, but a day late. But, now we know to label the box LIVE FROGS. It will get stopped if they dont know exactly what is in the package. Also, Fedex won't ship live animals, but they will take USPS's packages with live animals. That is strange to me. 

We have not really had problems with damaged boxes, but I don't think any drivers know what the UP arrows on a package mean.


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## jfehr232 (Apr 13, 2009)

GBIII said:


> The company I work for ship 200-500 boxes of merchandise every day. We ship using both UPS and Fedex. What we have found is that certain locations have more issues than others. Each carrier has areas where they need improvement. There are certain areas where I couldn't ship a rock in a wooden crate without having it broken with either carrier. It's just luck of the draw with where you live as to which carrier will service you best.
> 
> George



I agree. I work for fedex and its unfortunate when you have over 3,000 packages you have to put in the trailer in 4 hrs. Yes, damages are going to happen but some people that work there just don't care. The main thing is just to take pictures and report it right away. Maybe you should ship fedex..lol Hope all goes well. 

Remember some packages go through a lot of hands before coming to you so finding the source may not be an easy task. Take care.


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

I will agree that it is often the locality where the shipping starts and ends. I like both depending. Sometimes it is poor packing and sometimes there are actually other issues attributed to the delivery agent. 

Always, always, always document.


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## mikestra (Oct 16, 2008)

I have worked for UPS as an Area Supervisor (managing the people who load packages into semi trailers during transit) for the past few years, and I can say that there are people that don't give a care in the world to what is in the packages. We receive trailers all the time, mostly coming from the same places that look like a disaster when they arrive. However, I can also say that the hub I work at prides itself in being the number 1 ranked UPS hub in the country for five out of the last six years. So we take extra effort in providing fast, quality service. But that doesn't mean a thing if the people at the next destination are throwing and stepping all over packages (and I have seen packages with big footprints going right through them). It mostly comes from how well the hubs are managed, if management doesn't care then the people physically touching your packages are more than likely throwing your packages all over the place and not even looking for "fragile" or "live animal" stickers. Your best bet would be to try to contact a division manager or hub manager at the nearest UPS hub and explain EXACTLY what is going on. Be very specific too, because just telling them your box was crushed doesn't mean squat. Tell the where it was shipped from, when it was shipped, and every location the package stopped in between. This will help them find who is possibly responsible for damaging your package. If your problems are constant, its more than likely the same person every time. 

Just some thoughts... and sorry for the long post
Mike
Oh, one more thing... ninety nine times out of one hundred it is not the UPS delivery driver's fault. Those guys are usually the most moral and responsible people who work at UPS, from my experience. Most of the bad seeds are newer employees, or union protected slackers who never made it anywhere in the company even after twenty-some years of employment.


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## stingfrog (Apr 1, 2007)

mikestra you are right. It is usually NOT the local driver that is at fault but someone loading at a hub or loading the semis or planes. Also while I don't agree with just leaving a box at the door I also understand that they are hurried and can't always wait to see if someone answers the door if no signature is repuired. That is why we like to require signatures so as to assure that the package is not left setting in the sun/heat or cold (YES WINTER IS WELL ON ITS WAY). I personally have anything shipped that is live or perishable to my wife's office so that does not happen and someone is there to sign for it if needed. However I also remember a film clip on TV ( don't remember the program or documentary or whatever you want to call it) where a UPS hub was having problems with damaged packages. They installed hideden cameras and showed two individuals literally stomping boxes and running and diving into the stacks. Needless to say I'm sure they were promptly terminated.


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## Imperial_Aquatics (Aug 27, 2009)

Unfortunately the company I work for uses UPS for shipping, and we have had nothing but horrid service.

Damaged packages seem the rule, not the exception. Last year we cut off all ties with UPS and went FedEx. 

For personal use, I've had nothing but problems with UPS. In the last year I've had to get several shipments of things replaced that arrived damaged, and on 4 separate occasions my orders were returned, according to UPS, as "undeliverable. No such address". 

Even though I get deliveries from them on the average of 3 times per week or more. 

Your mileage may vary.


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Occidentalis said:


> Each service has its problems I guess. Never had a bad package from DSL or Airborne Express though.


Exactly. The worst experience I ever had was DSL--the package was an overnight delivery...but I didn't receive it until three days after it was guaranteed to arrive. The box of frogs had been labeled "PERISHABLE!" I opened the box only to find many dead, very frozen frogs. The gel pack that had been included in the inner styrofoam box (at room temperature) was also frozen solid. Evidently, during the days it was for some reason just sitting at some facility somwhere (who I couldn't contact because DHL frequently contracts out with different courier services and weren't able to provide me their name)...they must have stuck it in the freezer to keep whatever was in it from perishing.

I don't think any one service is foolproof: it's simply the luck of the draw with who happens to be handling your package that day.


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