Package completely destroyed by FedEx WTF

Its beer, which you are not allowed to ship through them, so they owe you nothing. They'll also deny your claim since I'm sure its notated that beer was in the box. Sorry to hear that. How was it packed?

 

1st you shipped a non approved product, and two even if #1 wasn't true your only insured for $100 unless you pay for more. So...... your basically screwed.

 

Hey bud, I've been there. I thought I packed my boxes extremely well, until a few weeks ago when I had one damaged. I posted up a similar thread a few weeks ago, check it out http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/advice-on-a-damaged-packaged-being-shipped-via-ups.111472/

Should answer many of your questions.

 

We all have. See MM post above, I thought I packed well, and now I do. Still not grenade proof though.

 

No it sloshes , but protects. It can't slosh, sound is a tip off to open a box.

What I do is double box. I use a 12 cube inside a 14 cube, or a 14 cube inside a 16 for a bigger shipment. I put a layer of insulation all around between the inner box and outer box. I then line the inner box with a trash bag to stop leaks if they occur. Then I prefer to baggie each bottle, then wrap in dense foam or bubble wrap each bottle. Then if there's multiple layers of more bubble wrap, then repeat for each bottle. Then when it's all and bundled and done, I shove in as much bubble wrap as I can shove in to sound proof the box. It can still be busted up, but it makes it tougher , nothing is fool proof when it comes with dealing with these guys.

 

I think sloshing is the boogyman in the closet. I have sent out probably 50+ wine shippers and had nearly 20 with beer sent to me, never has there been an issue (knock on wood). Though if you have a method that works for you, go ahead and keep doing what you do.

 

I've sent 2-3 in wine shippers, love them, but they can be noisy, one was Found and returned undelivered from CA. had to reship UPS, lost my ass on that trade.

One thing I also do if the beers I'm shipping I can't replace is I don't drink a beer I've received until I get a BM saying all is good on his end. If disaster hits I can always send the other guys beers back.

 

The company I work for makes baking sheet paper, I wrap bottles first in that, then bubble wrap, followed by another layer of baking paper. I then tape the hell out of it, followed by cutting chucks of cardboard between each bottle so they don't bang into each other. Dump packing peanuts all around. The biggest step is advice the FedEx guy gave me for shipping any box, tape it up like its going to the moon, said it cuts down on bored guys in distro areas taking a look.

 

THANK YOU! I do that, and get made fun of all the time. Buddy told me "I think you broke the record for most tape used on a box" but I just figure some guy at FedEx isnt going to want to deal with opening and re-sealing THAT!

 

How well you pack is all determined by your partner's satisfaction. Apparently you can't pack it well enough to satisfy your partner.

 

Here is your mistake: thinking the box was damaged that badly.

If I had to guess 1, maybe 2 bottles broke.

FedEx has a protocol they go through with a leaky box that is very subjective. The worst case scenario is that they throw the whole box out.

I actually had this happen with a couple BA Mexican cakes recently. A bottle broke, they claimed total loss and threw the box away. Me being the beer psycho that I am offered to come to their hub and search for the box and surviving contents. My offer resulted in them pulling the box from the trash, and re boxing the bottles that survived. One BA Mexican cake broke but the other one plus extras survived. I picked up the surviving bottles and the trader replaced a BA Mexican cake (major props)

Feel free to BM me if you have questions.

 

You gotta pack better! Didn't you also have a mead leak in the box you sent to Matty_Monster? After this happens twice, you should stop blaming FedEx and start looking at your packaging job. I have only ever had a growler begin to leak on me in transit and it turned out to still be fine (Kuhnhenn DRIPA growler. I taped the hell out of that cap, too). I often do international trades with beers that are known to leak (Cantillons) and I have yet to have an issue because I pack properly.

Two things on this point... First, just because you are "experienced" doesn't mean you can become careless or lazy. It looks like you might have to step it up. Second, according to your profile and the Matty_Monster thread, you have around 10-15 trades completed by mail. There is no need to inflate reality here. We're all still learing how to do this better.

I hope this doesn't come off as too aggressive. I just think it might be a wake up call. Once you make a name for yourself as a person who happens to have boxes that break or leak, people will not want to trade with you. I hope you can get this resolved and I hope it doesn't happen again.

 

Knowing Andrew, I'm not going to doubt his claim of 30+ trades. Though still a recent BA'r, he's embraced the culture and it's devotees, and a lot of you old dogs should be as passionate as he is. He earned a bad rap from the Matty_Monster ordeal, unnecessarily, just because he spoke up about not getting what was promised to him in a trade - would you want to be out $160 to some asshole who paraded around his ill-gotten gains and refused to make good?

 

I feel for ya! Ive had one box destroyed by UPS in Orlando as a palate fell on my box and totally destroyed it...This was in the box..Kuhnhenn Raspberry Eisbock/ BB French toast/ Simcoe Sillier/ Aldebaran/ Braggot..Jolly Pumpkin Biere de Mars GR...Founders Doom/ KBS...Dark Horse Plead the 5th/ Double Crooked Tree...Shorts Rye Not/ Freedom of 78

So, I had to resend and give up my last Raspberry Eisbock, Biere de Mars GR and make up for the BB French Toast as I had no back up to that...It sucked!! but it is what it is.....Hell, being we live in the same city we could have done an IP trade as I wanted some of what you had...lololol

 

Sometimes there is nothing you can do. I am an excellent skid steer driver and I have put a fork through a computer monitor, as well as once dumped a bale of cardboard. No matter how well you wrap there is nothing can be done if a fork goes through your box, but if you pack correctly an entire skid of boxes falling on your box shouldn't damage the beer, or if a bottle or two breaks it shouldn't leak out. If your box can't withstand this then you aren't packing well enough.

 

Interesting...Would you know how heavy this said palate of boxes was.? I could not use Styrofoam shipper as it was too much beer...But if a Double Boxed, bubble wrapped to shit, with peanuts inside of a leaf plastic bag is not packing well enough, than I guess I dont know how to pack..

 

My point wasn't a specific palate of boxes, it was that folks need to pack so that most of the things that could damage the box won't destroy the beer, and if a bottle breaks beer won't easily leak out of the box. I have had a box delivered to me with a broken bottle that didn't leak out of the box because it was in a ziploc and the inner box was wrapped in a trash liner. Some shit can't be helped, a palate of 3 tons of dinner plates falling on your beer box is gonna be disaster. All we can do is pack so that the most common disasters don't break the beer.

 

Pretty much every time I've sent or received kuhnhenn mead at least one leaked even when heavily electrical taped. I've even heard of them leaking on a short car ride home. Pretty sure that's Kuhnhenn and not a bad packing job. I have traded plenty of cantillon as well but never had a problem there.

 

I've still never had a problem with a damaged package...knock on wood...