Printing FedEx shipping lable from home - weight?

Whether or not it is right or wrong, stealing or not, apparently doesn't matter to a lot of people here.
I think if you want to do that and can sleep at night with a clear conscience then good for you. I don't think anyone is going to change their ways because of what someone wrote in a forum.
I have a scale and put the right weight on it so as not to draw attention to the fact that there is beer inside, and am willing to pay that extra couple of bucks to increase the chance of it actually getting there. I got he postage scale which weighs up to 30lb for about $10 from ebay.
I don't judge anyone else for putting the exact weight or just 1lb. You do what you have to, and what works for you.

 

A better analogy would be you doing this at the self checkout and calling it cilantro instead of parsley, not the clerk (since it's you lying about the weight of the box, not Fedex). Alternatively at my self checkout they often ask "how many items are in the bag" for rolls, lemons, cucumbers, etc. Lying about the weight of your package is the same as saying you only have 1 roll when you really have half a dozen.

 

http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...ing-lable-from-home-weight.11270/#post-129374

 

can this thread please die?

1 right (accurately declaring the weight and size of your box when printing out your labels)

...and 1 wrong (illegally shipping beer)

is still wrong. can all the martyrs who declare the exact weight of their box correctly please give up this fight? if you trade beer you are a rule breaker. get over it. if declaring the weight to a fraction of an ounce makes you sleep better at night, then so be it. bottom line is that if you trade beer you are no saint. chastising those who "estimate" or don't care to weigh their boxes gets us nowhere. if the shipping companies really cared they would cancel accounts after x number of adjustments. it is just business...you live in a capitalist world, don't take it personally, you are just a number on a graph and you aren't fooling anyone. if the losses were big enough to justify a process change, the process would change. thinking that they aren't aware of these practices is just naive. these companies want the business enough that they will occasionally repack boxes with broken bottles and be accomplices to illegally shipping beer. that, in itself should be enough evidence to show you that the most important thing to the shipping company is getting your business for your shipments. the truck is going out to make deliveries with or without your box so why not take that extra box? perhaps it will be accurately tracked and you will be billed $20 or perhaps it will be tracked as entered and you will be billed $10. at the end of the day, it is another box on the truck and more earnings for the company. whether you are mailing a priority express letter or a 50lb box, the truck still has to make the stop and aside from cubic volume on the truck (they pack them good, but they aren't packed to the brim - could you imagine the amount of effort of prioritizing where boxes went if they were packed to the brim?), gas costs and labor costs are largely unaffected by the size/weight of your box.

it is just a silly argument and fighting about it makes baby jebus cry and changes nothing. we might as well be arguing about ebaying beer...those threads seem to stir up just as much passion/anger/righteousness and always result in no change (oh wait, i forgot, on ebay, people aren't illegally selling beer, they are selling un-opened collectible containers - yet another loophole in a system set up solely to generate additional profit - and also illegally shipping those containers).

 

You're mixing ethics and laws but your point is well taken (though I don't trade or buy off ebay so can't I just chastise everyone?). This thread certainly got derailed.

 

So Jaywalking is the same as killing someone, they are both breaking the law

 

That's why I always kill someone when I jaywalk.

 

In all honesty I see your point that violating the TOS is also wrong. And I agree.

What I dont agree with is saying well if I am going to do this then its ok to do anything thats against the law.

and part of your argument depends on how they are shipped. If they need to be flown anywhere or even driven long distances there are weight constraints. You can only put so much weight on a plane or a truck, so by paying for 1 lb and the company needs to ship 20. And even on a fuel usage, to drove 1 lb 3,000 miles is way different than driving 20 lbs. Now multiply that by how many people using this "loop hole" and it will add up. Not to mention if I didnt have a box on that truck they probably would not even come within a few miles of my house (I live way out in the boonies) so they may be driving 15 miles round trip to deliver a package that someone may have put 1 lb and in fact its 20, so they would be losing money on that deal.

 

To finish my point, if you want to put 1 lb that's your choice. But you cant tell me that just becuase I may ship beer via UPS or Fedex, that I am perfectly ethically right to then falsify the shipping weight to save a few bucks. If you don't have a problem ethically, than that's your decision. I don't have to agree with it just like you dont have to agree with me.

the "its a big company so it doesn't matter" doesn't jive with me either. How many "big companies" have i seen go belly up? And it doesn't matter if its a multi-national billion dollar company or a small hole int he wall mom n pop shop.... morally and ethically you are still doing the same thing.

The Catholic church is huge and probably has a lot of money, would you feel ok taking money from the collection plate?

 

I don't think anyone is saying it isn't wrong...it's just a matter of the company being responsible to ensure you are accurately weighing the packages you drop off because I assure you every UPS/FedEx drop off location has a pretty accurate scale available.

 

I guess my disappointment is that most people seem to think its ok becuase they werent caught. I see so many comparisons. Often I go to a coffee place and get the same thing, and most of the time I have exact change. Sometimes they are so busy that they dont even count it, thay ask "is this exact" and I tell them it is and they toss it in the drawer. I COULD easily short them a buck or two, but I dont. Just becuase they wouldnt check doesnt mean that I would feel ok about doing it.

 

Life is full of these little moments. It's like when you speed on the highway...it's illegal (and dangerous), but sometimes getting where you need to go faster is worth it.

 

And I agree. What I don't agree is with the thought that if you break one law then breaking another becomes a moot point.

I absolutely recognize that if I ship bee I am breaking a law. But I dont think that since I did that then I shouldnt feel bad about not paying the correct total or if they didnt check its ok

Any-whos I think my point has been clear and possibly beaten to death. I wont say much more on this topic.

 

for your argument about strictly breaking the law, i guess so...though i'd hardly think that anyone would compare the 2 in any other way? you could also say that "jaywalking" and "killing" are both present participles...so perhaps they are more similar than i'd like to give them credit?

you can be selective about which laws you think apply to you and which you can ignore (i think most of us do this anyway - all of us traders do). more of an ethical question i guess. just don't get on a soapbox and preach right and wrong if your ethics can be brought into question in a different light. it is as silly as someone saying it is okay to steal from a big corporation but not a ma/pa shop.

 

Fascinating read and insight to the community and how people justify various actions in life, how people think and how they don't take time to think... big Co. vs small Co.. Like any community there are people that are me,me,me and others that know in their soul what a handshake means vs some sneaky contract fine print, they really know what honesty is, what honor is, what fair is, what is just, what community means, respect etc... it is not all necessarily in everyone by default and some can be swayed to the alternate paths (good or bad) in life, and some are near hopeless for change (good or bad). Typical society. All interesting, even if assuring or disappointing at times. ...as it relates to beer trading/gifts/whatever, I'm learning more about people here and processes of trade,packaging etc, so thanks.

 

'The reasonable person' never steals or breaks any law. But no one here on this site or elsewhere (especially me) never breaks the law, statute, social norm etc.

I don't work for fedex, and yet they are asking me to essentially be their agent by weighing my own box and determining its size. They are going by the honor system. I guess I am breaking the honor system.
I'll still sleep tonight.