I have now had two bad experiences in a row. About a two months ago I ordered a new Tomahawk Legacy series longbow. When it got to me the package was beat to H***. I was lucky though and the bow was not harmed. Then today I get in a 6 pack of arrows and again the box was crushed. Thankfully though all the arrows were intact. I know I was lucky though in that none of my stuff was damaged, but this rough treatment of packages is unacceptable. I won't be doing any more business with UPS.
I sent off a box containing jars a couple years ago. They crushed the box, broke jars, and contents ruined everything else in the box. :mad:
I knew some guys that worked at ups. They told me when they see a package marked fragile they really really abuse the package. Seriously!
I think it's hilarious that I've seen more "don't ship with UPS" threads on here than USPS,yet folks still insist on using them.
your ups tales of woe are common amongst any and all commercial shipping vendors - not just ups.
pack well, insure ONLY if you have proper and adequate means of proving value, pick a vendor - ups, fed ex, usps, dhl, whomever - and hope to get lucky.
very large emphasis on "lucky", cause if you think that one shipping vendor is better than any other, you must also believe in the tooth fairy. :D
I have to say, I've had the worst luck with UPS.
I've had damaged packages from every vendor, but I've gotten packages back from UPS where I had put a 2" square osage stave inside a schedule 40 PVC tube and the osage arrived snapped in half!
I'm pretty sure I couldn't snap a stave like that in half with my truck! I can't imagine how the package guys did it.
Probably was a lunchtime challenge. LOL
I must be lucky because I have shipped and received numerous things from UPS over the years with no problem. I was standing in the driveway as the Fed Ex woman walked up with my new tent and three of the four sides of the box were torn open and smashed. She had me open it there and look for damage. It was not damaged but I don't know how it survived..
QuoteOriginally posted by Jeff Strubberg:
I have to say, I've had the worst luck with UPS.
I've had damaged packages from every vendor, but I've gotten packages back from UPS where I had put a 2" square osage stave inside a schedule 40 PVC tube and the osage arrived snapped in half!
I'm pretty sure I couldn't snap a stave like that in half with my truck! I can't imagine how the package guys did it.
it happens for sure, jeff. remember the tembo that usps broke on me? and that was also in a substantial pvc tube. long stuff just gets hung in their machinery, i guess. whatever. we're all at their mercy.
now, i got my full insurance back from usps, along with the shipping dollars, for that busted longbow - took a month, which is darned fast. i ship some big items nationwide and had a ups claim once that took six months for them to reimburse only part of the insurance dollars because the item shipped - a surfboard i made - had no "legitimate and acceptable" proof of value. so be very very careful when insuring stuff - that can be a waste of money if they won't pay out on a "technicality" such as "inferior or incorrect packaging" or not having very precise commercially approved proof of value.
also, there's a lotta "cross vendor shipping partnerships" where ups parcels are delivered by usps, and i think there's another company doing that kinda thing as well.
I agree with Rob,that there is damage with all of them. I have had the best luck with fed ex,then ups,and finally usps being the worst.
Sorry about your luck! Be thankful you don't live in Canada! We get really screwed by them!
I was shipping a bow at the local Post Office and made the comment to the clerk working the counter that I would never ship anything of value with UPS. I was shocked when the clerk told me that the big brown trucks are in and out of their dock everyday with parcels shipped via the USPS.
QuoteOriginally posted by Rob DiStefano:
if you think that one shipping vendor is better than any other, you must also believe in the tooth fairy. :D
Yup. Ain't none better than the other. Wait, there is...throw it in the car and deliver it yourself. Costs a bit more, though.
Unless someone ships a bow in drilling pipe and it still gets destroyed, nobodys complaint holds any water. Why would anyone think a bow wrapped in a bowsock and slid into a cardboard tube is gonna repel a forklift?
Shipping is a gamble. Prepare for the worst.
No problems here with USPS but sure have had with UPS. I'll never use UPS!
QuoteOriginally posted by Rob DiStefano:
a surfboard i made
Wow I had no idea you shaped boards Rob - all I did in highschool was surf :thumbsup:
They all have problems. Shipped a bow priority mail on the 19th from TX to Alabama, No sign of it since it left the sort facility on the 20th! Called every number I can find to call at USPS nobody can help or tell me anything.
A friend that owns a shipping store told me that getting UPS to pay on insurance claims was like pulling teeth.
He continued to say that USPS will pay the claim much faster, if there is damage/destruction.
I used to work part time for UPS about 20 years ago.The problem with our bows is the length. They get caught in the turns on the conveyor belts and cause a log jam.The packages keep piling up behind it until something gives.Think we got it bad with bows?,ship a one piece fishing pole,I can't even tell you how many I saw snapped in half while working there!
I used to get up at 4am head into UPS and unload trailer trucks (by hand) until around 9am,come home grab something to eat and go to a logging job and work until 5 or 6pm.come home,eat dinner then take my coondogs out until around 11 or 12.Then do it all over the next day.Man!,I'm tired just thinking about that now!!!!
These stories make me cringe. Ive seen way to many horror stories on here. Sad
If we didn't use shippers who damage items...we would never use any shipper, period. They all do it. I personally don't blame it on the company, which must use automation to move and sort boxes. Damage is part of the deal (occasionally) and they know it. It's the price of doing business. All you can do is be sure the item is packed perfectly, strong box, well documented, track and insure. If it's damaged, you work within the system to get it made right...and it may take quite a bit of effort.
I must be the lucky one. I've shipped at least $20k in valuable bows thru UPS and USPS. Arrows, electronics, machinery, fishing rods and tackle, and way too much breakable gear to list here. I ship $3k worth of hunting gear back and forth to Alaska every fall via USPS. I also ship gear to Hawaii. I use UPS just as successfully as USPS. I can't recall even one episode of serious gear damage by a shipper in all my decades of using them.
Kevin, you're not the only lucky one. Maybe we're over due? Funny story. My dad loaned me his air pistol (I know archery related only, but this fits the thread). I went over to Germany with the pistol and started shooting in the basement. Went out to the local shooting club and was immediately put on their team. Of course my 'el cheapo' pistol had to go. They loaned me a good Feinwerkbau pistol until I could buy my own and I mailed Dad's back to him. It had to go registered mail. Never arrived and they paid my insurance claim. Nearly a year later, Dad gets a notice that he has an item to pick up at the customs warehouse in Detroit. Guess I should have refunded USPS the claim money, but i forgot.I suppose that means I'm WAY overdue.
PS, Killy, please don't rat on me :)
My new Toelke Whip that was shipped in a leather bow sock that was inside of a hard tube with lots of duct tape over the ends, and bubble wrap in the ends!!!
(http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k591/huntmaster80/DSCN3245.jpg)
Now I will say that my postman does an absolute great job!!! But the folks that work in the sorting places, need to be a bit more carefully sometime???
The last one-piece bow I shipped out was in a PVC tube. That's the only way I'll ship a bow anymore, regardless of what carrier I use.
If you're not using a PVC tube or similar to ship, then you're playing Russian Roulette with your one-piece bows. :nono:
I donated a Legends Bow to Terry Harris for the Howard Hill Classic this weekend.Its been setting in AL.for two days i just did the tracking on it.It should have been there by the very lattest yesterday. :banghead:
I have packages come to my office daily and rarely have anything with an "abused" look to it. They do a great job!
QuoteOriginally posted by ishoot4thrills:
If you're not using a PVC tube or similar to ship, then you're playing Russian Roulette with your one-piece bows. :nono:
Sure about that??? I think you'd need more like a piece of titanium pipe with caps welded on the ends to be safe.
Here's the PVC tube one of my bows arrived in.
(http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc156/goshawkin/photo-80.jpg)
While living in Texas City, Tx, I wrote (3) separate letters of commendation to the Postmaster for "Exemplory Service" above & beyond for that USPS office. Here in Cleveland, Texas the exact opposite! This USPS office is a disgrace as I included in 2 letters again to the Postmaster. *No replies. Currently, I'm looking for a bow one month overdue & a knife shipped from Canada almost a week ago. Point being, the shipment is only as good as the service provided which may be entirely based upon the managers (chain of command) & subsequent work ethic involved? Just a guess & I've had great service w/UPS in Galveston County.
Looks like we're gonna have to use 3" Rigid metal with threaded caps...that should be cheap!
Eric
I guess it's just the law of averages at work. We all know (if we're honest) that automated machinery can't be made to handle long tubes, skinny boxes, and irregular shapes as well as it can a rectangular and rigid box. Some of it's going to break or get punished by the process. I've had $400 fishing rods shipped to me in rather flimsy plastic tubes...no problem. Then I see rigid plastic tubes broken in pictures. For myself, I always assume that I have to provide as much protection as the contents require. You can't squeeze a mouse turd into one of my bow boxes after it's all packed tight and ready to ship. I've shipped long shaft (read "easily damaged") power tools in cardboard cartons and they made it fine.
Huntmaster80: With absolute respect to you, I think the person who shipped you that Whip should not have relied on bubble-wrap and tape to keep the bow tip from poking through. I would have wrapped the bow tips thickly with heavy paper, and then taped bubble-wrap to the tips. The tube should have (imo) had hard or rigid end caps at least as thick as a heavy-duty cardboard carton. That longbow tip is nothing more than a dull spear needing just a push to go through bubbles and tape.
One negative about rigid plastic pipe: The pipe or caps can shatter if struck or dropped. A plastic pipe is no match for a roll-down door slamming shut. External glue-on or thread-on caps can and will catch on machinery edges during movement and sorting...which is why most companies use recessed end caps on cardboard or plastic tubes.
Once a long time ago they ran over my shipped bow in a pvc tube.totally crushed it.I almost went to jail over it. Usps did it.
I think Buddy has a good point, location and distribution points may be a factor in damaged or undamaged goods. I order quite a few items delivered by UPS, and have never received any damaged items. However, none of those items were a one-piece longbow!
UPS, USPS, FEDEX .... they all have their share of damages....
I think the biggest problem with using that PVC pipe to ship a bow, is that they are round and they roll off the conveyor belts and spin around too easily. There's nothing wrong with using PVC pipe for protection.... but tape some card board around it or something to keep it from rolling.
USPS has those triangular priority mail boxes that work pretty good. i use those with just bubble wrap. You just need some reinforcement on the ends and bubble wrap the bow real well so it doesn't slide around.
insure your stuff.... and prayers don't hurt at all.
I'm 62 years old. Been receiving package from UPS from who knows when. Never had damaged goods. Ever. Never had lost goods. Ever. I think they do a fine job.
I'm not so sure about the point of a thread trashing UPS. But, have at it if you need to do that.
Warning to fellow Canadians: From previous experiences, I will not purchase anything from across the border that is shipped UPS.. the way that they calculate duty, taxes, and brokerage fees is totally outrageous.