Gnomes of Golarion and Faction Guide came damaged, Varnhold is perfect though. This is the reason I paid extra for UPS in the first place, post office wrecked some older books.
Thanks
I had the same issue with the US Mail ruining 2 of my books and I switched to UPS and havent had a problem yet...
Maybe your UPS delivery person doesnt like you?
:)
same guy for years :). He doesnt load his own truck though.
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We dumped UPS like a brick at my office awhile back.
Imagine sending a banker's box full of critical paperwork (by critical I mean paperwork required by the federal government).
Imagine having sent back to you the mangled remains of said banker's box barely taped together with packing tape with no explanation or letter regarding what happened. Now imagine opening the new box and finding the disorganized half-torn and crumpled remains of the paperwork: some was missing, some had tire tracks and footprints on them, and about half was covered in Cheeto-residue.
We're still trying to figure out the Cheeto-residue.
Director of Sales
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My experience with UPS has been that, while horror stories (such as the above) exist, these occurrences are very few and very far-between.
Granted, I mostly see outgoing packages. UPS packages are returned to us much more rarely than USPS packages. When they are returned, they are usually in "decent" to "pretty good" condition. These are packages that have traversed the shipping process twice, and usually have endured some "warehouse-time" as well. I've seen some doozies, don't get me wrong... but, for the most part, packages we ship out tend to arrive in good condition.
Therefore, Sunderstone & IconoclasticScream, I would like to know if this is the first damaged package you have received from UPS, or is this a part of a chronic problem? What I can do to help you out depends on this.
Please let me know and I will do what I can.
Thanks,
cos
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Cos, this is not the first time, but it's also not a regular thing. I'd say maybe every four months I can expect to get a box that's been crushed, and the damage is always the same- the box has been somehow compacted lengthwise until resistance from the books inside stops it (or attempts to). It's never been enough damage to the books or whatnot inside for me want to get replacement copies, but at the same time it makes me wonder just how much damage to someone's property UPS considers acceptable.
This is a one time thing for me so far, but I havent been on a Paizo/UPS thing all that long. I had alot of damaged goods by the Post Office which is why I switched to UPS even though it costs more. I hope it doesnt happen frequently.
Thanks for whatever you can do Cos. Im not to crazy about the Faction Guide, but the Gnome book I like alot (was looking forward to this one alot more). Varnhold came in mint condition in the same package, go figure.
Appreciated here as well, tyvm. :)
Fragile stickers are very likely nothing but a waste of time. I worked in a shipping company loading the trucks and I can tell you that nobody paid any attention to stuff written on the box. Reality is I did not look at a box to see what was written on it because I really did not care. I've got 6 hours to load a 16 wheeler pretty much from the floor to the ceiling. I'm lifting something insane like a box a minute and I've got a supervisor (occasionally) standing behind me screaming 'Faster you f&#~ing pussy'.
I personally completely totaled 2-3 boxes a day and totally crushed 2 or 3 times that because a light box was under some heavy one.
Not that I ever got in trouble for that - figured out what was expected of me early in this job and my supervisor liked me and gave me a good reference when I left.
Reality is if I were stopping to read stuff written on the boxes then my truck would not be loaded - worse yet I'd eventually be backed up so bad that they'd have to stop the belt - meaning that the 5 other tractor trailors hooked to this belt are no longer being loaded. When that happened not only was my supervisor going to be coming down on my ass but if the belt was stopped for more then a few minutes his supervisor was going to come out and rip him a new one - and you now that he did not want that to happen. His job was to keep his guys moving and a few trashed boxes along the way are what it took to make sure that the vast majority of the 3000+ boxes I loaded into my trailer every day got to where they were going on time.
If you want your stuff treated with kid gloves there is probably some kind of 'high value' shipping option you can take - costs bucko bucks I'm sure but this stuff was loaded last and the opposite rules applied for this material when I worked at a shipping company - we loaded this stuff slowly and with utmost care, here I would read the label - in part because by this point the belt is so empty that I'm only getting a box every few minutes anyway and have all the time in the world to do the loading 'right'.
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I am a supervisor at UPS doing a sort. We are suppose to do what is called a six sided check but that is for HAZMAT stickers or what not.
It is amazing what makes it to Alaska when it says do not ship via airplane. If it says do not ship via passenger airplane it is fine but the ones that just say airplane are bad.
Yet it is funny. Lithium batteries are a big issue right now but nothing is noted for all the iPad's, iPod's, or Macbooks that come through. They ALL have lithium batteries.
At any rate I would agree with you and loading into a truck might be a little different than an aircraft in terms of HAZMAT materials.
Another difference might be domestic and international packages. I know my crew take looks at the international stuff because they are always showing me issues or potential issues.
But yea...fragile stickers do not seem to make a big difference. Of course I'll take a little extra care and my guys seem to take a little extra care as well (or at least when I am their). :O)
Sean