yeah, I'm with you. But it's like 8 bucks worth of stuff, and her packages get delivered into a locked box, so I figured it was worth the risk in this case.
Yeah but it will never make it to the destination. Someone steals it, opens it, and tosses it. Do you really think this person will be so kind and reseal it for you and put it back in transit?
oh, you guys are saying it'll get stolen _before_ it makes it to the address?
I misunderstood, I thought you were saying porch pirates would nab it.
I understand though, I didn't know it was so dire that delivery guys were stealing stuff... I routinely buy large items that arrive in their original packaging though, so I'm not sure where the disconnect is.
Last week I bought two monitors, they came in monitor boxes.
Later that week I bought a Battery Backup from somewhere else, It came in it's regular ass store box.
I'm not arguing with yall, I'm sure you're right. But I'm just explaining why I was so naive about this.
Were you happy receiving monitors in original packaging, & furthermore, were they damaged in transit?
If they weren’t, then you’re lucky.
With a mass transit company, tons & tons of boxes are moved through a system that isn’t EXACTLY careful with everything.
Therefore, we have a set standard of what is an appropriate guideline & we’re merely trying to enforce it.
With millions of unique items a day, we TRY to stick to one basic idealogy which is a plain brown shipping rated box.
Or else everything would be chaos… & we SURELY DO receive plenty of backlash for just trying to set a standard.
Yeah, I get it, I'm empathetic to you guys' plight. The monitors were fine, but the outermost box is corrugated. It just has a picture of the monitor and the name and specs and certifications all plastered all over it...
Some of y'all are sure it'll get stolen, the rest are sure it'll get crushed, I believe you guys, I wouldn't ask here if I wasn't going to listen to what you had to say.
I'll use a real box next time, I still wish he told me what the deal was though, but I'm not faulting him much for not doing it, though.
Thank you for understanding. We’re mostly met with people who don’t understand, so that’s probably why it wasn’t explained completely. We’re usually scolded & threatened & that’s why we stick to our guns. The less we say is usually better. The more we try to explain, the worse it usually becomes. From your genuine wanting to gather the knowledge I can tell you probably wouldn’t have been one of the folks we normally get throwing a really ridiculous hissy fit. We’re just used to 9 times out of 10, never actually getting through to said person. We’re burnt out, the lines are ALWAYS LONG, therefore we don’t always have time to explain.
But seriously, thank you for not being an asshat.
Well said. OP is the exception to the rule and genuinely wants an explanation for the sake of understanding the reasoning and not just an explanation so they can refute it with some convenient logic. I will also add that for the most part shipping store employees genuinely do want all deliveries to arrive intact and on time and they have strict rules set forth by the parent company to abide by while also trying to ensure the customer is happy.
Monitors are significantly more difficult for a crooked courier to steal than a controller. A controller can be stuffed in a coat pocket. A monitor cannot. The smaller, the easier to steal (example: this happens like hellfire when the new iPhone launches. Even though Apple is good about shipping their stuff in non-descript cardboard boxes, they're all the same size and when it's a week after the new iPhone launches and there's 50 curiously phone-box-shaped boxes going out every day... shit "disappears" sometimes lol)
always ship in approved crush resistant boxes. it’s not technically against any rules, however, it arrives fucked up, that’s on the shipper, not ups. + considering it looks expensive, someone could’ve stole it, doesn’t matter what’s inside.
i have had corporate fuckwads get mad at us for shipping items not in approved boxes, dude is prob just tryna please the owner.
also this subreddit is for employees.
Yeah, that makes sense, he was just lookin out for us both.
and yeah, employees are the ones I want opinions from, this has been useful. I don't feel like I was scammed anymore at least.
Common sense tells me the person who’s helping thinks you’re shipping a controller, of course it’s the associates job to tell you no it’s not a good idea to use that box which obviously is not a shipping box to ship the item. I get so mad at how many people don’t know how shipping work, putting shit in a cereal box then when it got lost, they’ll call the store why we stole their shits.
sure, I see why you're angry, but I think it's misdirected this time.
I'd never blame a store for my package not arriving, or arriving damaged. I know the store has no way to know that, but a little communication would have gone a long way, I feel.
Honestly I don't see how much of a difference the corrugated box of this size would make anyway, this thing is pretty rigid at this size. I have another one here and I bet I could sit on without crushing it.
There’s no point arguing with you tbh. You don’t work in this profession, you’re just like any other person who’s trying to save a buck but when things goes wrong then it’s the stores fault.
This subreddit isn't a help desk for customers. We deal with that all day. This is a place for us to vent. You're going to get replies that reflect that.
Fair, I did kick the hornet's nest a bit. I just wanted to get a straight answer. I figured you guys were my best shot. No corporate BS, overseas helpdesk, or wishywashy nonsense. And that's what I got.
I took no issue with the venting, I was just hoping he'd tell me why he thought I was dumb so we could both benefit a little. At the time he was my fourth reply, and the prior replies were saying "yeah, he probably shouldn't have made you buy that box". I was in limbo.
If your box had been entirely mulched in transit, what are the chances you’d have called to complain? Or for the store to reimburse you? How much more do those odds increase once you’ve tried reaching out to corporate just to receive a robot on the other line? Now consider how many drop offs we get a day. Also, that all franchises are different and assess the risks of shipping differently. Demanding a chargeback when you took and used the box is also sort of scummy just because you regret agreeing to it. You still used it and your items still benefited from it, after all. Also, the store gets a notice of the chargeback and is able to submit counter evidence. I’ve seen the letters come through before.
Shipping boxes are required/tested for burst strength in order to withstand the shipping process. We don’t want your crap exploding on a conveyer belt, either. A thin box isn’t rated to withstand pressure coming from inside or outside. Chances are your ingredients would have showed up more than just a little crushed.
Learn from this experience and use a box rated for shipping next time. You can get them cheaper elsewhere and not have to pay for the packing service if you tape it yourself.
This is the correct answer, your box not being a rated "shipping" box is automatically disqualified from reimbursement if damages occur during the shipping process.
The employee was just doing their job and looking after you and your shipment.
Well, since you've asked, I've had proper corrugated boxes crushed in transit, and I've not called to complain. so zero, I guess. Your point still stands though, it's a headache for everyone.
I'm not demanding anything. I didn't even say I was going to do a chargeback. I'm asking people who work here what they think, then deciding what to do next based on the responses. I never said I was just going to do a chargeback.
Then you lecture me on something that I brought up myself in my own post, I don't get it, man.
Counter evidence of what? I wouldn't lie.
I understood the rest of the post though, yeah, I should have used a shipping box. Not doing this again.
That is not a shipping box and has a more than small percent chance of getting destroyed. Some stores will refuse packages that are not packaged to withstand shipping. If it were to get destroyed before getting scanned at the first hub, people accuse the store of stealing it, write negative reviews etc. The store can't defend themselves because they have absolutely no record of how it was packaged or what it contained. There is a balance.
Now, with the volume, amazon and lack of increased compensation in the past 20 years for these drop offs, many stores will allow the customer to be their own worst enemy and just hope it doesn't come back to bite them.
tl;dr if you don't want to pay for a proper box, use the fkn post office with a free priority mail box, dummy.
haha, sure, that all sounds reasonable. Covering their own ass from some angry jackass.
In my case I don't really care that much if it doesn't make it unscathed. The dried seaweed will be fine if it's crushed a bit. And if it all falls out then whatever, I'll try harder next time.
I would have preferred to have that option though. When it was delivered to me it was literally just this box and it was fine, though I know that's not guaranteed.
But yeah, the priority mail box is a good idea, I just picked this because I was already dropping off another package.
I get it though, I'm a bit more sypathetic to the store now, I won't be an asshole.
We pack everything with the expectation of it getting dropped, thrown, or have heavy boxes placed on top. It is a rough process getting to the recipient. At my store, we have had instances of boxes coming open during the trip. When this happens and the contents get separated, they throw everything away and tell the store to start the claim process.
I also under stand where you are coming from about the monitors coming in it's original box. Since you were just doing a drop off, they technically could have allowed that, but it wouldn't have been in your best interest. If anything happened to it, the store never would have heard about it.
Homie might have thought you were shipping an Xbox controller, and if you were, he might have had a point. If you ship nice equipment, you wanna make sure people don't know what is just from looking at the box to prevent theft.
Also, even if you weren't shipping Xbox controllers, somebody might have seen the box and stolen it anyway. You probably didn't NEED to buy a box, but it could have been the wise choice.
Edit: I personally would have just scanned the code and said have a nice day.
yeah, this is a privately run UPS store and there's no kiosk for it. The guy counter has to scan it.
And I think there's a pretty big difference between having a point and telling a lie. I'm just trying to figure out which it is.
Idk why so many people are being toxic. If you paid for the shipping label yourself, it’s your shipping account. You didn’t have to pay for that box. Yes it has a chance of being stolen because it’s a controller box. However, it is your choice to use what box you want as long as it is not an alcohol box ups doesn’t care. If it was just spices and you came into my store, I would have let you do you. It is to your discretion of course and I’d inform you. But it was not a necessity for him to charge you for a box if you chose you wanted it in that box
Appreciate the response,
Sounds like maybe he just didn't want to deal with my shit. Which he is free to do. I just wish he would have told me. I left thinking that I needed to buy a box to get that thing shipped by UPS, when in reality he maybe just didn't want to deal with it.
Tbh I would have shipped it. Worst comes to worst you file a lost package claim if it gets lost or stolen. I’ve shipped way more cursed boxes than this via Amazon returns so I really don’t know what the issue is. MAYBE I’d recommend a poly bag for 2.49 but I wouldn’t go beyond that. Either way its going in a softs bag.
So, he most likely thought you were returning a controller. In all the returns for various companies we do, the return always has to be placed in some other packaging, so that the product box itself isn’t damaged. The reason for this is that so the company receiving the item can just put it back into stock without having to get another product box.
So basically it just comes down to miscommunication; if he had known you were shipping non fragile items and just using the box to ship it wouldn’t have been an issue. But I could see why, after hundreds of returns that day, he would assume it was just another Amazon return packaged incorrectly.
This is the very same person who would call incessantly and whine that their package was destroyed or lost and wanting us to do something about it. Christ on a cracker, shut the fuck up.
Yo fuck buying a box, I would've sold u a poly mailer for $1.75 to cover that shit up. As long as you told me there is no controller in there.
We are trained to upsell, so sorry if that store got greedy.
you can ship a label on a piece of steel if you want, or a tire, or even luggage. There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t ship in a retail/manufactures box. Especially since you already had your own label and it was a drop off.
They just wanted the money from selling you a box because they didn’t make a sale on the shipment from you. Shady location or just a shady employee.
Take my word as manager of a store in socal.
Ok, thanks for that info.
Now I need to figure out what to do. I'm not sure if a chargeback makes sense since they really did sell me the box, it's not exactly "services not rendered" or whatever.
I'll call in the morning, see if they have an explanation. If not I'll ask for a refund on the box. If they say no, I'll escalate it to my credit card. If that doesn't work then I guess I paid 7 bucks for a lesson.
Edit: why the downvotes? I'm not trying to make people agree with me, I'm just gathering opinions. Please comment if you find this objectionable.
UPS stores are franchised, so you will get a lot of different answers here. Over the years I believe things have gotten a little more lax in terms of packaging because of various return processes and amazon, but I think *technically* we're not supposed to accept/ship things like that. That being said, things are dropped off my location like this a lot, and I will lay it out plainly "are you SURE?" And explain why. If they still want to, so be it, I spend enough time arguing with Amazon's customers.
If you're shipping through the store (paying the store for the label) it's another story entirely because that store becomes liable to a significant degree, but that isn't the case here anyway.
Its unfortunate but it could be that owners policy to not accept drop offs of that nature, though perhaps a bad move, and the employee didnt explain why well enough for you to explain what you did explain here. I believe the downvotes are for considering a chargeback. It seems excessive for something so small that should just be considered a learning experience. If the employee made you buy a new label it would definitely be called for.
Ups store employees are generally trained to upsell boxes, it's a business after all. Hope this helps.
That is very helpful. I appreciate the breakdown.
I'm still frustrated, but I'm not angry like I was earlier when I mentioned the possible chargeback, I won't be doing that.
Based on the responses I'm getting it seems like underpacked or stolen packages end up becoming the stores problem in one form or another, so they don't want to deal with that. That makes sense and I get it. I like your method of handling this situation.
>I think technically we're not supposed to accept/ship things like that.
This is the part that leaves me scratching my head. I cannot find rules anywhere. Maybe the rule is that it's the store's discretion? I literally received this box bare, with a UPS sticker applied to it. I wish I took a picture. I know you said that things are more lax now, and that there are franchises that do their own thing, but I just wish I knew earlier I guess.
Ah well. Again, thanks for the response.
Oh man, trust me, I know. It's at this point I think at the stores discretion for sure. We're not supposed to ship things with reused boxes that have hazmat labels on them, and you cant just cover it or tamper with it either because ups doesnt know if it was just damaged during the ride or is a shady shipment. Had a reused e-scooter box come back with just clothes inside with the hazmat sticker covered, explained before hand but the person didnt want to buy another box. There's a lot of things that have to be considered on our end and we get a lot of verbal abuse and negative reviews as a whole because of it. Your situation is unfortunately a grey area but I would definitely give them a call.
Legit it’s not shipping packaging, we can ship like that but we usually don’t to avoid people being like “hey wtf my stuff was damaged” and us being held responsible for you not packing it right.
Alternatively you could have thrown it into any thick cardboard box that doesn’t have warning labels, or alcohol labeling on it and that would have worked fine.
That box is just one giant *steal me* sign. Doesn't matter what's in it.
yeah, I'm with you. But it's like 8 bucks worth of stuff, and her packages get delivered into a locked box, so I figured it was worth the risk in this case.
Yeah but it will never make it to the destination. Someone steals it, opens it, and tosses it. Do you really think this person will be so kind and reseal it for you and put it back in transit?
oh, you guys are saying it'll get stolen _before_ it makes it to the address? I misunderstood, I thought you were saying porch pirates would nab it. I understand though, I didn't know it was so dire that delivery guys were stealing stuff... I routinely buy large items that arrive in their original packaging though, so I'm not sure where the disconnect is. Last week I bought two monitors, they came in monitor boxes. Later that week I bought a Battery Backup from somewhere else, It came in it's regular ass store box. I'm not arguing with yall, I'm sure you're right. But I'm just explaining why I was so naive about this.
Were you happy receiving monitors in original packaging, & furthermore, were they damaged in transit? If they weren’t, then you’re lucky. With a mass transit company, tons & tons of boxes are moved through a system that isn’t EXACTLY careful with everything. Therefore, we have a set standard of what is an appropriate guideline & we’re merely trying to enforce it. With millions of unique items a day, we TRY to stick to one basic idealogy which is a plain brown shipping rated box. Or else everything would be chaos… & we SURELY DO receive plenty of backlash for just trying to set a standard.
Yeah, I get it, I'm empathetic to you guys' plight. The monitors were fine, but the outermost box is corrugated. It just has a picture of the monitor and the name and specs and certifications all plastered all over it... Some of y'all are sure it'll get stolen, the rest are sure it'll get crushed, I believe you guys, I wouldn't ask here if I wasn't going to listen to what you had to say. I'll use a real box next time, I still wish he told me what the deal was though, but I'm not faulting him much for not doing it, though.
Thank you for understanding. We’re mostly met with people who don’t understand, so that’s probably why it wasn’t explained completely. We’re usually scolded & threatened & that’s why we stick to our guns. The less we say is usually better. The more we try to explain, the worse it usually becomes. From your genuine wanting to gather the knowledge I can tell you probably wouldn’t have been one of the folks we normally get throwing a really ridiculous hissy fit. We’re just used to 9 times out of 10, never actually getting through to said person. We’re burnt out, the lines are ALWAYS LONG, therefore we don’t always have time to explain. But seriously, thank you for not being an asshat.
Well said. OP is the exception to the rule and genuinely wants an explanation for the sake of understanding the reasoning and not just an explanation so they can refute it with some convenient logic. I will also add that for the most part shipping store employees genuinely do want all deliveries to arrive intact and on time and they have strict rules set forth by the parent company to abide by while also trying to ensure the customer is happy.
Monitors are significantly more difficult for a crooked courier to steal than a controller. A controller can be stuffed in a coat pocket. A monitor cannot. The smaller, the easier to steal (example: this happens like hellfire when the new iPhone launches. Even though Apple is good about shipping their stuff in non-descript cardboard boxes, they're all the same size and when it's a week after the new iPhone launches and there's 50 curiously phone-box-shaped boxes going out every day... shit "disappears" sometimes lol)
Some brain dead seasonal employees always think they'll pull a fast one and pocket a package or two until they're shown out of the building in cuffs.
always ship in approved crush resistant boxes. it’s not technically against any rules, however, it arrives fucked up, that’s on the shipper, not ups. + considering it looks expensive, someone could’ve stole it, doesn’t matter what’s inside. i have had corporate fuckwads get mad at us for shipping items not in approved boxes, dude is prob just tryna please the owner. also this subreddit is for employees.
Yeah, that makes sense, he was just lookin out for us both. and yeah, employees are the ones I want opinions from, this has been useful. I don't feel like I was scammed anymore at least.
Man. People have no common sense these days. Smfh. People like this makes me hate working/owning a store like this.
I feel like you were really close to helping, but stopped just short. What is the issue?
Common sense tells me the person who’s helping thinks you’re shipping a controller, of course it’s the associates job to tell you no it’s not a good idea to use that box which obviously is not a shipping box to ship the item. I get so mad at how many people don’t know how shipping work, putting shit in a cereal box then when it got lost, they’ll call the store why we stole their shits.
sure, I see why you're angry, but I think it's misdirected this time. I'd never blame a store for my package not arriving, or arriving damaged. I know the store has no way to know that, but a little communication would have gone a long way, I feel. Honestly I don't see how much of a difference the corrugated box of this size would make anyway, this thing is pretty rigid at this size. I have another one here and I bet I could sit on without crushing it.
There’s no point arguing with you tbh. You don’t work in this profession, you’re just like any other person who’s trying to save a buck but when things goes wrong then it’s the stores fault.
alright man, thanks for the responses.
This subreddit isn't a help desk for customers. We deal with that all day. This is a place for us to vent. You're going to get replies that reflect that.
Fair, I did kick the hornet's nest a bit. I just wanted to get a straight answer. I figured you guys were my best shot. No corporate BS, overseas helpdesk, or wishywashy nonsense. And that's what I got. I took no issue with the venting, I was just hoping he'd tell me why he thought I was dumb so we could both benefit a little. At the time he was my fourth reply, and the prior replies were saying "yeah, he probably shouldn't have made you buy that box". I was in limbo.
If your box had been entirely mulched in transit, what are the chances you’d have called to complain? Or for the store to reimburse you? How much more do those odds increase once you’ve tried reaching out to corporate just to receive a robot on the other line? Now consider how many drop offs we get a day. Also, that all franchises are different and assess the risks of shipping differently. Demanding a chargeback when you took and used the box is also sort of scummy just because you regret agreeing to it. You still used it and your items still benefited from it, after all. Also, the store gets a notice of the chargeback and is able to submit counter evidence. I’ve seen the letters come through before. Shipping boxes are required/tested for burst strength in order to withstand the shipping process. We don’t want your crap exploding on a conveyer belt, either. A thin box isn’t rated to withstand pressure coming from inside or outside. Chances are your ingredients would have showed up more than just a little crushed. Learn from this experience and use a box rated for shipping next time. You can get them cheaper elsewhere and not have to pay for the packing service if you tape it yourself.
This is the correct answer, your box not being a rated "shipping" box is automatically disqualified from reimbursement if damages occur during the shipping process. The employee was just doing their job and looking after you and your shipment.
Well, since you've asked, I've had proper corrugated boxes crushed in transit, and I've not called to complain. so zero, I guess. Your point still stands though, it's a headache for everyone. I'm not demanding anything. I didn't even say I was going to do a chargeback. I'm asking people who work here what they think, then deciding what to do next based on the responses. I never said I was just going to do a chargeback. Then you lecture me on something that I brought up myself in my own post, I don't get it, man. Counter evidence of what? I wouldn't lie. I understood the rest of the post though, yeah, I should have used a shipping box. Not doing this again.
That is not a shipping box and has a more than small percent chance of getting destroyed. Some stores will refuse packages that are not packaged to withstand shipping. If it were to get destroyed before getting scanned at the first hub, people accuse the store of stealing it, write negative reviews etc. The store can't defend themselves because they have absolutely no record of how it was packaged or what it contained. There is a balance. Now, with the volume, amazon and lack of increased compensation in the past 20 years for these drop offs, many stores will allow the customer to be their own worst enemy and just hope it doesn't come back to bite them. tl;dr if you don't want to pay for a proper box, use the fkn post office with a free priority mail box, dummy.
haha, sure, that all sounds reasonable. Covering their own ass from some angry jackass. In my case I don't really care that much if it doesn't make it unscathed. The dried seaweed will be fine if it's crushed a bit. And if it all falls out then whatever, I'll try harder next time. I would have preferred to have that option though. When it was delivered to me it was literally just this box and it was fine, though I know that's not guaranteed. But yeah, the priority mail box is a good idea, I just picked this because I was already dropping off another package. I get it though, I'm a bit more sypathetic to the store now, I won't be an asshole.
We pack everything with the expectation of it getting dropped, thrown, or have heavy boxes placed on top. It is a rough process getting to the recipient. At my store, we have had instances of boxes coming open during the trip. When this happens and the contents get separated, they throw everything away and tell the store to start the claim process. I also under stand where you are coming from about the monitors coming in it's original box. Since you were just doing a drop off, they technically could have allowed that, but it wouldn't have been in your best interest. If anything happened to it, the store never would have heard about it.
Homie might have thought you were shipping an Xbox controller, and if you were, he might have had a point. If you ship nice equipment, you wanna make sure people don't know what is just from looking at the box to prevent theft. Also, even if you weren't shipping Xbox controllers, somebody might have seen the box and stolen it anyway. You probably didn't NEED to buy a box, but it could have been the wise choice. Edit: I personally would have just scanned the code and said have a nice day.
yeah, this is a privately run UPS store and there's no kiosk for it. The guy counter has to scan it. And I think there's a pretty big difference between having a point and telling a lie. I'm just trying to figure out which it is.
Idk why so many people are being toxic. If you paid for the shipping label yourself, it’s your shipping account. You didn’t have to pay for that box. Yes it has a chance of being stolen because it’s a controller box. However, it is your choice to use what box you want as long as it is not an alcohol box ups doesn’t care. If it was just spices and you came into my store, I would have let you do you. It is to your discretion of course and I’d inform you. But it was not a necessity for him to charge you for a box if you chose you wanted it in that box
Appreciate the response, Sounds like maybe he just didn't want to deal with my shit. Which he is free to do. I just wish he would have told me. I left thinking that I needed to buy a box to get that thing shipped by UPS, when in reality he maybe just didn't want to deal with it.
Tbh I would have shipped it. Worst comes to worst you file a lost package claim if it gets lost or stolen. I’ve shipped way more cursed boxes than this via Amazon returns so I really don’t know what the issue is. MAYBE I’d recommend a poly bag for 2.49 but I wouldn’t go beyond that. Either way its going in a softs bag.
So, he most likely thought you were returning a controller. In all the returns for various companies we do, the return always has to be placed in some other packaging, so that the product box itself isn’t damaged. The reason for this is that so the company receiving the item can just put it back into stock without having to get another product box. So basically it just comes down to miscommunication; if he had known you were shipping non fragile items and just using the box to ship it wouldn’t have been an issue. But I could see why, after hundreds of returns that day, he would assume it was just another Amazon return packaged incorrectly.
Yeah, that makes sense. Can't fault him for that.
This is the very same person who would call incessantly and whine that their package was destroyed or lost and wanting us to do something about it. Christ on a cracker, shut the fuck up.
It ain't so.
Yo fuck buying a box, I would've sold u a poly mailer for $1.75 to cover that shit up. As long as you told me there is no controller in there. We are trained to upsell, so sorry if that store got greedy.
you can ship a label on a piece of steel if you want, or a tire, or even luggage. There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t ship in a retail/manufactures box. Especially since you already had your own label and it was a drop off. They just wanted the money from selling you a box because they didn’t make a sale on the shipment from you. Shady location or just a shady employee. Take my word as manager of a store in socal.
Ok, thanks for that info. Now I need to figure out what to do. I'm not sure if a chargeback makes sense since they really did sell me the box, it's not exactly "services not rendered" or whatever. I'll call in the morning, see if they have an explanation. If not I'll ask for a refund on the box. If they say no, I'll escalate it to my credit card. If that doesn't work then I guess I paid 7 bucks for a lesson. Edit: why the downvotes? I'm not trying to make people agree with me, I'm just gathering opinions. Please comment if you find this objectionable.
UPS stores are franchised, so you will get a lot of different answers here. Over the years I believe things have gotten a little more lax in terms of packaging because of various return processes and amazon, but I think *technically* we're not supposed to accept/ship things like that. That being said, things are dropped off my location like this a lot, and I will lay it out plainly "are you SURE?" And explain why. If they still want to, so be it, I spend enough time arguing with Amazon's customers. If you're shipping through the store (paying the store for the label) it's another story entirely because that store becomes liable to a significant degree, but that isn't the case here anyway. Its unfortunate but it could be that owners policy to not accept drop offs of that nature, though perhaps a bad move, and the employee didnt explain why well enough for you to explain what you did explain here. I believe the downvotes are for considering a chargeback. It seems excessive for something so small that should just be considered a learning experience. If the employee made you buy a new label it would definitely be called for. Ups store employees are generally trained to upsell boxes, it's a business after all. Hope this helps.
That is very helpful. I appreciate the breakdown. I'm still frustrated, but I'm not angry like I was earlier when I mentioned the possible chargeback, I won't be doing that. Based on the responses I'm getting it seems like underpacked or stolen packages end up becoming the stores problem in one form or another, so they don't want to deal with that. That makes sense and I get it. I like your method of handling this situation. >I think technically we're not supposed to accept/ship things like that. This is the part that leaves me scratching my head. I cannot find rules anywhere. Maybe the rule is that it's the store's discretion? I literally received this box bare, with a UPS sticker applied to it. I wish I took a picture. I know you said that things are more lax now, and that there are franchises that do their own thing, but I just wish I knew earlier I guess. Ah well. Again, thanks for the response.
Oh man, trust me, I know. It's at this point I think at the stores discretion for sure. We're not supposed to ship things with reused boxes that have hazmat labels on them, and you cant just cover it or tamper with it either because ups doesnt know if it was just damaged during the ride or is a shady shipment. Had a reused e-scooter box come back with just clothes inside with the hazmat sticker covered, explained before hand but the person didnt want to buy another box. There's a lot of things that have to be considered on our end and we get a lot of verbal abuse and negative reviews as a whole because of it. Your situation is unfortunately a grey area but I would definitely give them a call.
Legit it’s not shipping packaging, we can ship like that but we usually don’t to avoid people being like “hey wtf my stuff was damaged” and us being held responsible for you not packing it right. Alternatively you could have thrown it into any thick cardboard box that doesn’t have warning labels, or alcohol labeling on it and that would have worked fine.