The USPS is on a vidictive binge ... at least it looks like it.
 

I just received a Singer machine motor from another forum member. Or I should perhaps say, I received what was left of a Singer machine motor.
It arrived in a small cardboard box that was wadded up, mutilated, holed and taped up, and crushed.
The cast iron motor mount attached to the motor was broken, sheared off where it transitions from the motor to the pilar. The brush caps, both of them, are shattered. The rest of the motor looks to have survived but without the brush caps is dead on arrival.

The sender packed it in bubble wrap and that should have been sufficient. But with the USPS closing down many of the sorting stations it's my theory those that are still open are so overworked that they no longer care about what they are doing and simply throw the things around as fast as they can to get them moved along.

I don't know what to do about this, we didn't put insurance on it, and you know the management at the USPS will claim it wasn't packaged good enough. Pass the buck, blame anybody, never accept the responsibility.

Basically I posted this to let everyone know that when you ship something you need to over pack it.
When you think you have it packaged good enough, put two more layers on it.
Maybe even three.

I think this is going to be a really crappy week.

Joe

I think that the morale at the Post Office is very low right now and a lot of the people who work there don't give a flying fig. Its too bad because I think the Post Office will become a thing of the past.

For at least a few years much of the long distance transport is NOT done by USPS- They subcontract out to UPS. I doubt UPS has any incentive to treat their main competitor's package gently! There used to be a small basic amount of insurance on all shipped packages included in the price. Definitely report the damage- take all packaging with you!

cmrenno,

I do believe you are correct. What I have seen is the post office higher ups are playing politics with the sorting stations.
They are closing the ones that are running fairly efficiently and moving that mail to other stations that are already running very slow. They are deliberately sabotaging the system.
I suspect it will be like the phoney gas shortage of 1973. When they get a big enough rate increase suddenly all the stations will be open again and things will run well for a while. Then they'll do it all over again.


JMHO

Joe

I have long tried to support the USPS whenever I could. But I totally agree with you that they seem to be treating packages extremely carelessly lately. I even had a 1st class large envelope damaged recently. I am very nervous about a parcel post item I am currently waiting on. And I think my loyalty is about gone
Janyce

My DBF works for the USPS. True, morale is low, and some of the other issues mentioned are also true, but there are other things that come into play. Bubble wrap does help cushion things, but if the bubbles pop, theres NOTHING BUT AIR to cushion the item. If the tape on the outside of the box was left even a little bit loose it can catch in the machinery and then the entire box and contents can be damaged. This is true for the other carriers too. The USPS is really working hard to improve customer service - it may be worth a visit to your local PO to talk with the postmaster there. If you go at a less busy time of day they may have more time to help you. These can things happen with all the carriers - my BF's brother works for UPS and says they are having similar issues.

Sadly I purchased a cute li'l child's singer from an ebay seller who packed it by nestling it in a box filled with packing peanuts. Well... they shifted, the machine slid and the thread pin poked through the box and was badly bent. This is from a seller who had a great rating. In this case it's clear the packaging was the problem.

It's hard to know for sure how the damage happened to your motor, but the postal workers I know (and I know lots of them!) DO really care. They truly don't want to deliver anything that's been damaged.

please do NOT believe everything you see on the computer...IF the guy could really "pitch" a tv that big, don't you think he would have a better job than delivering the mail/packages?

I did not see this on the computer. I saw this on TV and the owner of FED EX addressed this incident. Needless, to say...the dude doesn't work there anymore. I think it was a 60 mins or something like that.
It wasn't a TV, it was a computer monitor.