Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion should "fragile glass" be on a globe box?

Ok so i buy a globe from an oldgas member and he put "fragile glass" stickers on it. He thought should i or shouldn't i. UPS reads that as "smash this box".

Moral of story... don't ever mark box fragile.







It did make it though. No breaks!

FYI: It was double boxed... it was done right! Thanks 1937 GMC!

If I saw that at my front door and knew what it was, I probably would have had a minor stroke.

Dang JJ, Thought you said you were going to collect Horseshoes & Tractor Seats!

Aw come on! You're halfway to a perfectly serviceable accordion.

An engineer taught me to pack. Here are tricks I learned. When taping the top of box, wrap it the whole way around, top, sides and bottom, multiple times, pulling as tight as you can. Then tape the center of the sides, wrapping it around the all sides many times, just like you did the top. It pushes the box sides out and keeps them from crushing. If the makes sense... hard to explain.

I've found UPS will always go out of there way to destroy your box which is why at our business we only ship FedEx Ground. At UPS since the drivers are company employees they have no vested interest in the box showing up undamaged - they still get paid. But FedEx Ground drivers are not FedEx employees - they're contractors why have bought the route and when a box gets lost, stolen, or damaged it directly comes out of their paychecks. It should be noted this doesn't apply to FedEx Air however.

It all depends on the driver period when its on its last or first leg. The Hub grinds boxes and pushes Cast iron bombs into other boxes like that. Its sad !! Fed ex broke my wooden crate open, bent the porcelain sign, pushed it back in and then would not pay the claim even with insurance. IT WAS ANTIQUE !!

what good is the insurance?..

I shipped a clock fed ex the buyer received it said great packing was very happy with it but the face was broken, he took it to fed ex and they said being the box has no damage they would not give him the insurance money. They most likely dropped it from the dock or higher to break it. Your right what good is insurance. Also I had fragile on every side and top and bottom, I think that was maybe a bad idea.

If your package meets USPS size guidelines... that is the route to take. They are also less expensive then both UPS & FED-X. Additionally, look at the employee turnover... who do you know that leaves a government job, unless they retire.

The package above would have meet USPS size regulations IMO...

I'm glad it made it in one piece. I went back and forth on the fragile stickers; ultimately told the shipping store to add them.........never again! I should have checked with the Post Office to see if it met size requirements; I have never had any problems with them. I read the old post on the shipping / packing of globes and followed it to a “T“; paid off as you can see.......double box and a lot of peanuts is the key! Enjoy the globe JJ, it will go nicely with the rest of your collection.

tulsabug

You are incorrect about all FedEx drivers being contractors. Both of my daughters are FedEx driver and they work for FedEx, not a contractor.

I have had bad and good luck with both FedEx and UPS, but it comes down to packing, with so much being packed and shipped these days, I would not ship anything that was glsss in less than a wood box, and be sure to take picture of the box before you ship it.

One more thing, didn't the father in the movie "Christmas Story" state the box said Fragile and what it meant it was from France or Italy?

Jack Sim

I was clear that I was talking about FedEx Ground, not Air. Ground and Home Delivery drivers are contractors - they either own their route or work for someone who does. Our driver at our business owns two routes - he works one and hired a person for another and he owns both trucks. Yes, they wear FedEx shirts and their trucks have FedEx logos, but they are not technically FedEx employees.

When it was marked "Fragile Glass" from the looks of that box they probably thought it was a Glass Accordion from Italy.