Is anybody else having problems shipping CTU's?

[chris6084]

I have been having problems lately shipping CTU's. I posted in a separate thread about a month ago about a box I shipped to NJ that was rejected at the receiver's post office because I used tape. According to that post office manager, you can not tape boxes....seriously. But anyways, I was not trying to debate that again. I just had 8 CTU's shipped back to me because at the airport, they claimed that the boxes were all overweight. I had to go to the post office to pick them up. Since they are a pickup only office (no retail), I had to take them to another post office just to drop them off again. I had the people there take a postal label (the kind they print postage on when you pay there), stamp it with a date stamp and write the weight on them. I just hope they don't get sent back again. Last time, on the NJ box, I lost out on all my ebay, paypal, and shipping fees. I'm hoping it doesn't happen again on 8 CTU's, that would be a big hit. I am not doing anything different, and have shipped many CTU's without any issue. I am just wondering if it is people at the post office not wanting to do their job. Is anybody else having any issues?

[itsmerobbyb]

Sounds like someone doesn't want to do their job. That is a great idea of writing the weight on the outside of the box. I wonder if we could do that ourselves with a huge sharpie on top.

[mishra142]

Only issue I've had is that I weigh them at home and they will be good. And some times the post office will say they are over. Their scale or mine must me off. So I sometimes have to removal a layer of tape to get under the weight limit.

[Zincanator]

I hope it’s an exception to the rule, but my post office has awful customer service. They are lazy, rude, angry people. If you ask them to do anything beyond slapping a stamp on your package, they throw serious attitude and roll their eyes with a sarcastic sigh. Never a sense of urgency, never an effort to make sure you’re happy. I talk to other customers while waiting in line, and most have the same observations.

As a recreational online auction seller since 1999, I’ve had several insured packages lost or destroyed - and the claims process was so full of excuses and passing the buck, that I usually just give up after months of “check back tomorrow”. I’ve mummified fragile items in bubble-wrap and Styrofoam, only to have them still somehow broken in transit. I’ve had priority mail packages delivered two months late. And since it’s not a guaranteed service, they’ll just shrug their shoulders when you’re trying desperately to locate it. And they’ve always been especially abusive to packages that are heavy.

So it’s my guess that when they actually have to burn a few calories to process heavy flat rate box full of copper, they treat it with an extra amount of disregard (or find a reason not to deliver it).

I have quit taking pre-paid USPS packages to the post office counter for acceptance, because they like to argue that I owe them more postage due to size or weight. Now I drop packages off at my work’s mail room for pickup instead… no problems… yet.

[wheeler_dealer]

U.S. postal employees are union. Sadly they can pretty much get away with anything. I try not to ship during holiday as they are busy enough and 68 pound boxes are PIA. Help to take directly to post office and post there. Beware of the temporary workers, the wild card.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

I am sorry to hear about your recent experiences. I like the idea of having the Post Office writing the weight on the package. One of my post offices usually does that (Yes, I ship from more than one PO to spread the action around.. just like dumping). I have "tons" of experience in this area and have experienced many of the same disappointments as you.. though never 8 at once. I think part of why they sent those back is they were looking for any reason to mess you up for giving them so much action at one time.. much like a dump bank will cut you off if you don't spread your dumps around. I think staggered shipments have a much better chance of at least some of the boxes getting through.

On the excess weight thing, what happened to me was they put the box in one of those postal tubs at the regional level and didn't tare the tub.. then sent it back to my local PO as overweight. The local post office where I have been shipping from for years knew I never have a package overweight. They checked the weight on 3 different scales and then sent it back to the regional office, telling them to weigh it without the extra tub this time (Those Xmas cookies I bake for my local PO sometimes pay off).

The regulation on the tape says you can reinforce the flaps and seams, but not alter or change the shape of the box. Some postal employees have different interpretations of what this actually means. Some of us tend to overtape a bit because we know the abuse these 69 pounders are likely to receive in the system. The workers really don't like those copper bricks and some of them slam the packages around to try to make the package fail. I have seen "HEAVY" stickers on some of the packages I receive, but have been unable to get any from any of my local PO's. I guess I will have to make my own. Sometimes if they know it is heavy ahead of time it will eliminate the surprise factor.

I have shipped a lot of Copper to a lot of eBay customers (before fees and PayPal fees got too big) and to several members here without too much trouble, but occasionally not everything goes as perfectly as planned.

I once shipped an entire mint sewn bag of 1968-S pennies is in a flat rate envelope to Indiana for $3.20.. before flat rate boxes even existed and before the tape rule. That was really "stretching the envelope." The package looked like a football. I love a challenge! She said the package got there, but I might want to use more tape next time, the packaging was blown to smithereens!

I used to ship regularly to a member from Louisiana and he was having problems with one of his local postal guys sticking his boxes with a knife to see if he could get some of the coins to leak out. We knew it was a local PO employee because it only happened to shipments to him and not just packages sent by me. We used to joke about if "Jack the Knife" had made an attempt at his boxes. Imagine trying to reinforce a box enough to stop a dedicated postal employee with a sharp knife. I had to pack a lot of the cents in the hard plastic penny rolls just to stop the knife.

I shipped a CTU to a member in NY with the top covered in postage stamps for exact postage. They got it at his local PO with all the stamps stripped off. They wouldn't even let him pay the postage due and pick it up. They insisted on shipping it back to CA for insufficient postage (maybe to teach me a lesson about using stamps) No wonder they are losing so much money. Obviously I couldn't have shipped it out from my PO with no postage on it.. but because they mishandled it enough to strip off all the postage it was somehow my fault and I needed to be punished. I put the meter strip postage on it the next time I shipped it and it somehow arrived safely.

I had a package I sent to a member in Southern CA take 6 months to arrive. The tracking # showed it as going to Atlanta (Presumably the dead mail office) and sitting there for months. It took a long time and several inquiries but after many months they returned the package to me at the return address clearly printed on the package, rather than forwarding it to the buyer. I reshipped it to him and it arrived within a few days on that attempt. Fortunately it was not an eBay transaction.. lol.

On the tape thing if they are against tape on the outside of the package we may have to start taping the entire inside of the box for reinforcement prior to building the box, and then only taping the seams and flaps.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

I just sent the first CTU of a 5 CTU deal to another member today. I sure hope I get lucky!

[thedrifter]

Yes, this time last year (maybe it was closer to Christmas) I shipped a CTU through my local post in Oregon to member of this forum. I had shipped about a half a dozen CTUs from this post at this point. It was returned as to heavy. At that time I was visiting my girlfriend at her parents place in Colorado but I knew it had been returned because I used delivery confirmation and tracking. I worked with my local Postmaster. He re-weighed it. Wrote the weight on the box and sent it back. It was returned again. The Postmaster some phone calls and pushed the package through.

A good PM is as important as good bank tellers.

[chris6084]

I am sorry to hear about your recent experiences. I like the idea of having the Post Office writing the weight on the package. One of my post offices usually does that (Yes, I ship from more than one PO to spread the action around.. just like dumping). I have "tons" of experience in this area and have experienced many of the same disappointments as you.. though never 8 at once. I think part of why they sent those back is they were looking for any reason to mess you up for giving them so much action at one time.. much like a dump bank will cut you off if you don't spread your dumps around. I think staggered shipments have a much better chance of at least some of the boxes getting through.

On the excess weight thing, what happened to me was they put the box in one of those postal tubs at the regional level and didn't tare the tub.. then sent it back to my local PO as overweight. The local post office where I have been shipping from for years knew I never have a package overweight. They checked the weight on 3 different scales and then sent it back to the regional office, telling them to weigh it without the extra tub this time (Those Xmas cookies I bake for my local PO sometimes pay off).

The regulation on the tape says you can reinforce the flaps and seams, but not alter or change the shape of the box. Some postal employees have different interpretations of what this actually means. Some of us tend to overtape a bit because we know the abuse these 69 pounders are likely to receive in the system. The workers really don't like those copper bricks and some of them slam the packages around to try to make the package fail. I have seen "HEAVY" stickers on some of the packages I receive, but have been unable to get any from any of my local PO's. I guess I will have to make my own. Sometimes if they know it is heavy ahead of time it will eliminate the surprise factor.

I have shipped a lot of Copper to a lot of eBay customers (before fees and PayPal fees got too big) and to several members here without too much trouble, but occasionally not everything goes as perfectly as planned.

I once shipped an entire mint sewn bag of 1968-S pennies is in a flat rate envelope to Indiana for $3.20.. before flat rate boxes even existed and before the tape rule. That was really "stretching the envelope." The package looked like a football. I love a challenge! She said the package got there, but I might want to use more tape next time, the packaging was blown to smithereens!

I used to ship regularly to a member from Louisiana and he was having problems with one of his local postal guys sticking his boxes with a knife to see if he could get some of the coins to leak out. We knew it was a local PO employee because it only happened to shipments to him and not just packages sent by me. We used to joke about if "Jack the Knife" had made an attempt at his boxes. Imagine trying to reinforce a box enough to stop a dedicated postal employee with a sharp knife. I had to pack a lot of the cents in the hard plastic penny rolls just to stop the knife.

I shipped a CTU to a member in NY with the top covered in postage stamps for exact postage. They got it at his local PO with all the stamps stripped off. They wouldn't even let him pay the postage due and pick it up. They insisted on shipping it back to CA for insufficient postage (maybe to teach me a lesson about using stamps) No wonder they are losing so much money. Obviously I couldn't have shipped it out from my PO with no postage on it.. but because they mishandled it enough to strip off all the postage it was somehow my fault and I needed to be punished. I put the meter strip postage on it the next time I shipped it and it somehow arrived safely.

I had a package I sent to a member in Southern CA take 6 months to arrive. The tracking # showed it as going to Atlanta (Presumably the dead mail office) and sitting there for months. It took a long time and several inquiries but after many months they returned the package to me at the return address clearly printed on the package, rather than forwarding it to the buyer. I reshipped it to him and it arrived within a few days on that attempt. Fortunately it was not an eBay transaction.. lol.

On the tape thing if they are against tape on the outside of the package we may have to start taping the entire inside of the box for reinforcement prior to building the box, and then only taping the seams and flaps.

I used to write HEAVY on all sides of the boxes in black marker. My regular post office gave me a bunch of bright orange stickers that say Caution: Heavy Parcel, so I use those now. I do like the idea of spreading large orders around to different post offices. I had never shipped 8 at once before, so this time I went to the main post office and dropped them off at a loading dock. I figured I was helping by not making some poor employee at the front have to lift so much.

[natsb88]

I use these on anything over about 40 pounds.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350214711440

I use reinforced water-activated tape (the kind of stuff you have to use for Registered, except I buy it in white because it looks nicer on Priority boxes ). You can tape boxes as much as you want as long as the flaps fold down like they are supposed to and you aren't changing the shape of the container. You are supposed to leave the "Flat Rate Box" marking visible so they can confirm it is really a FRB, but my local PO doesn't make a big deal out of that. When I am shipping or receiving multiple heavy packages, they just roll a cart out onto the dock instead of lugging them through the front and over the counter.

[cesariojpn]

The only troubles I had other than the odd mangled mail for packages was the carrier telling me "Ship around the 15th as thats where it matters the most for the books." Okay......

[NDFarmer]

Here is what my boxes look like when I ship them.






Completely covered with reinforced strapping tape plus then after that I cover the box again with clear tape to keep the edges of the strapping tape from rolling up.

[Zincanator]

Wow that is a work of art!

[itsmerobbyb]

Here is what my boxes look like when I ship them.






Completely covered with reinforced strapping tape plus then after that I cover the box again with clear tape to keep the edges of the strapping tape from rolling up.

Great job! Best packaging ive seen yet.

Im curious how this makes it when others get rejected for having very little tape on the outside of the box (more than just the seems) ?

[itsmerobbyb]

btw i just bought the "caution heavy" stickers on ebay

[GGerrands]

those boxes of ND farmer sure do look familiar!

[Engineer]

btw i just bought the "caution heavy" stickers on ebay

I need some of those for the next time my wife asks if her jeans make her look fat.

[mishra142]

If anyone wants to sell some of those stickers or go in together on some pm me. I don't see me needed 1000 of them.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

btw i just bought the "caution heavy" stickers on ebay

I need some of those for the next time my wife asks if her jeans make her look fat.

.
We will miss you.

[NDFarmer]

btw i just bought the "caution heavy" stickers on ebay

I need some of those for the next time my wife asks if her jeans make her look fat.

I thought you were smarter than that too!!! Now you and Thogey will both be in the dog house!!

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

I've had some issues receiving 'em, though! They were mad at me. Telling me they wouldn't take 'em anymore. And, that you CAN'T tape 'em up. I asked how do you get 70lbs to stay with no tape? Just people complaining. I smile and say lodly as I walk away......If it fits...it ships!

[itsmerobbyb]

If anyone wants to sell some of those stickers or go in together on some pm me. I don't see me needed 1000 of them.

i just got a pack of 300 for $10 shipped.. there are other lots on feebay for the stickers check em out

[Engineer]

btw i just bought the "caution heavy" stickers on ebay

I need some of those for the next time my wife asks if her jeans make her look fat.

I thought you were smarter than that too!!! Now you and Thogey will both be in the dog house!!

I've been doing some remodeling work on the doghouse. It's getting to be a pretty nice place!

[chris6084]

This is what I get free from the post office.

[chris6084]

I've had some issues receiving 'em, though! They were mad at me. Telling me they wouldn't take 'em anymore. And, that you CAN'T tape 'em up. I asked how do you get 70lbs to stay with no tape? Just people complaining. I smile and say lodly as I walk away......If it fits...it ships!

I have heard that too. You can't tape the boxes. Some people like to make up their own rules.