Advice on damaged shipment

I got the same comment when a box of mine was discovered with alcohol. I wonder if it is a policy shift.

 

Wish this had been my outcome. Shortly after my post above I called the "northwest rep" from fedex that called me when my package was initially marked damaged. The first conversation he said they were returning the contents, but when I made the follow up call they had "opted to destroy the package as was within their rights". I got my letter from the fedex legal department shortly thereafter.

 

Ah bummer. Well I also was wondering if it was some sort of possible policy change, but I guess they are just inconsistent.

 

Use bigger boxes or ship less beer. I opt for more packing vs trying to drown the guy in Xtras. The first priority are the main trade bottles being safe. Dave first post is right on the money or the text book way to do it, you could add a double box if it's a rare or hard to get beer.

 

So I just got this update on a beer shipment that I sent out Tuesday via Fedex.

" Returning package to shipper: Damaged in transit - Unable to deliver shipment - Returning to shipper"

The package was 5 bottles and 1 can all sealed in ziplock bags and put in a six bottle Styro Shipper. I am not sure how I could package it any better. I have no idea how this could have happened. This is now the second package in three months where this has happened to me. After the first time I was worried that they would inspect all of my packages but I now have sent dozen of shipments since. I do put fragile stickers on the box and pasta in the box. Does that draw attention to it?

Has anyone else recently had FedEx do this? Any advise ? I have three more boxes going out this week and now afraid to ship them......

 

Just had this happen to me. Box was on truck for delivery, damage exception by driver is put on shipping status and now my box has been "destroyed". Was originally told it will be shipped back to me but after calling fedex several times I was told my box has been destroyed. I've never had a bottle break on yet alone 7 in one shipment. 3 weeks later here I am shit out of luck and sending a replacement box tomorrow. Wish i was lucky enough to get what wasn't "damaged" sent back to me.

 

i got the dreaded email today from UPS packaged damaged. Weird as it was supposed to be delivered on Friday, than delayed for weather in Colorado. Made it to Vegas on Saturday and today was out for delivery. Than a notice it was damaged. I am confident that my driver did not pay any attention to the box as she delivers to my house almost every day and sometimes I help her so she does not need to leave the truck. Now I am curious to find out what happened from out for deliver to damaged box.

 

FWIW, I got that notification from FedEx today and called and asked them to deliver it anyways. They said OK, it'll get delivered tomorrow, and my recipient will just let me know what survived and I'll replace anything that didn't.

 

You are not the only one to learn and use the wise ways of @cavedave , @gopens44 . Back when I was a BA "grasshopper" and practiced shipping on family; I posted how I packed and @cavedave , for the umpteenth time in these threads, patiently posted his tips and advice. Needless to say, I am grateful and believe my trading partners are grateful also.
Some will say it's overkill, or that I am overthinking it, or that it takes too much time ... etc. The way I see it is this: I treat each bottle as if it is irreplaceable. If you have to replace a bottle, then you have to find and reship said bottle. I think that is a little less cost effective to you and lot more aggravating to you and your trade partner than a little more packing weight or dimension to your package. I also have to trust the shipping company to bring these bottles to said trade partner but I don't trust them to 100% repack and reship if something breaks. They're "not supposed to ship alcohol". It can go either way, so I try to eliminate the odds of having to find out.
@cavedave was also correct about dropping it from six to ten feet. If you're afraid to do it, then you need to rethink your packing. I don't think he ever mentioned kicking it down a flight of stairs, though .

 

You are very correct on all points. I can't imagine not taking the time and effort to bombproof the shipment, as you are very correct - why not do it right the first time so you don't risk having to do it all again? That may actually become my only worthwhile point of advice to new shippers - TAKE YOUR TIME PACKAGING! The worst thing that can happen from overpacking is that you just helped another BA with their packaging material stash!!

On a side note, I really dug the wine bottle shipper that @kemoarps used to send me beer, and it WILL get passed along to another BA at some point in time!

 

Thanks and you are correct, sir. I feel like we owe it to our trading partners to get this right.

 

Glad I found this post, virgin shipper here.