# Shipping Madness



## Doug Gray (May 16, 2021)

A quick giggle about the madness of shipping and packaging in the world today. I could not believe this package when it came!


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## NCjeeper (May 16, 2021)

I ordered some arbor wedges from Grainger. The little wedges came in a box twice that size. Makes you wonder who is working in the shipping department in some of these companies.


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## DavidR8 (May 16, 2021)

Part of the reason shippers do this is because small packages get "lost" too easily.


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## Ulma Doctor (May 16, 2021)

i got a box the other day, 15 oz worth of parts- the shipping box was as big as a breadbox


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## FOMOGO (May 16, 2021)

Pretty common, Amazon excels at it. Seems so overboard, and wasteful, but we are as a nation, unfortunately,  pretty wasteful. Mike


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## kvt (May 16, 2021)

A small part comes in a shoe box or bigger, Then and often the shipping is more than the part.   Ken


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## KevinM (May 16, 2021)

McMasters delivered a 1" round x 12" section of Dura-Bar.  The box was about the same size as 2 shoe boxes side by side.  The bar was in the bottom corner of the box with some loose packing paper on top.  Luckily the Dura-Bar was durable throughout the duration.


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## MrCrankyface (May 17, 2021)

I know a couple of companies around here send things in "oversized" boxes to make sure it doesn't get lost in transit.
They have a minimum box size so even if you order a single screw you get a box about half the size of the one in the first post.  
Luckily I re-use any boxes I'm sent so it's not a waste for me personally.


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## extropic (May 17, 2021)

A few years ago I ordered (on-line, about $63 total) an assortment of sizes (16 total) of Skroo-Zon file handles. The seller was an industrial supplier that I'd never used before but the price was right. There was no request for expedited handling, just business as usual. As I recall, the shipping portion of the $63 was about $10.

The goods were shipped via UPS and arrived in SEVEN packages. There were two different size boxes (both sizes larger than a shoebox) and a padded envelope. The entire order would have fit fine in the envelope.

I'd never seen anything quite like that before. Full disclosure: according to the return labels, the packages originated from two different addresses.
Out of curiosity, I took a sample of each of the three different (unopened) package sizes to a UPS Store and requested my (retail) cost to return each one to the sender. I don't remember the exact total but it was around $50 for just those three packages.

Can someone explain how this sort of thing happens?

I came up with a hypothesis (strictly out of my imagination). No morons were involved. Hypothetically, the seller's deal with UPS is essentially "flat fee" based on the total packages shipped and the seller needed more packages that month to achieve a quota.


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## Eddyde (May 17, 2021)

KevinM said:


> McMasters delivered a 1" round x 12" section of Dura-Bar.  The box was about the same size as 2 shoe boxes side by side.  The bar was in the bottom corner of the box with some loose packing paper on top.  Luckily the Dura-Bar was durable throughout the duration.


I've noticed a decline in McMasters packing, the other day I received a 1' piece of 2 ½" diameter 1215 steel bar stock along with 2 other small items. The bar was wrapped in bubble wrap, but the box was much larger than necessary, like 4 times larger and only had a token piece of paper packing to keep the bar from shifting around, it didn't and the box was full of holes. Thankfully, the other items managed to stay inside, but they could have easily fallen out. 
I also received some threaded rod, strut channel and flat bar in a cardboard tube that was open on one end, the cap missing. Somehow everything was still inside, I'll give thanks to UPS for that.


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## vtcnc (May 17, 2021)

extropic said:


> A few years ago I ordered (on-line, about $63 total) an assortment of sizes (16 total) of Skroo-Zon file handles. The seller was an industrial supplier that I'd never used before but the price was right. There was no request for expedited handling, just business as usual. As I recall, the shipping portion of the $63 was about $10.
> 
> The goods were shipped via UPS and arrived in SEVEN packages. There were two different size boxes (both sizes larger than a shoebox) and a padded envelope. The entire order would have fit fine in the envelope.
> 
> ...



The quotas agreed to between the shippers (UPS and FedEx) and suppliers are $ based not package based. The rewards are lower rates when you hit your quotas. 

@extropic, Your imagination is close to the truth. 

My first thought was multiple origination points which explains part of the problem. A likely possibility is that parts from the order were short, the packer staged parts available and then it sat waiting for other parts to arrive. When the short parts arrive, the packer takes the easy (lazy) way out and ships multiple boxes rather than consolidating. I would bet $5 the supplier lost money on this deal because of employee laziness.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## DavidR8 (May 18, 2021)

I just received a package from Amazon. Inside were two items, ordered separately from different vendors weeks apart. I am genuinely shocked by this.


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## extropic (May 18, 2021)

DavidR8 said:


> I just received a package from Amazon. Inside were two items, ordered separately from different vendors weeks apart. I am genuinely shocked by this.



Curious. 

Amazon shows both "Ships from" and "Sold by" for each item. Also, Amazon has the "Amazon Day" program which consolidates your orders into one weekly delivery, if you choose that delivery option.

If your two items were "Sold by" different vendors, but were both "Ships from" Amazon and delivered together on your "Amazon Day" that might explain what happened.


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## DavidR8 (May 18, 2021)

extropic said:


> Curious.
> 
> Amazon shows both "Ships from" and "Sold by" for each item. Also, Amazon has the "Amazon Day" program which consolidates your orders into one weekly delivery, if you choose that delivery option.
> 
> If your two items were "Sold by" different vendors, but were both "Ships from" Amazon and delivered together on your "Amazon Day" that might explain what happened.


Just checked. One item (a StarTechcom parallel port card) was sold by and shipped from Amazon, the other (a VFD) was shipped from an off-shore vendor. Definitely don't have the Amazon Day program.
Regardless, I'm just glad they both showed up as there was almost a month between the two purchase dates.


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## extropic (May 18, 2021)

@DavidR8 
That is surprising.


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## CluelessNewB (May 18, 2021)

This was a couple of years ago.  The only thing in the box were those coin cell batteries.


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## vtcnc (May 19, 2021)

CluelessNewB said:


> This was a couple of years ago.  The only thing in the box were those coin cell batteries.


So many possible stories...


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## tq60 (May 19, 2021)

Had an eBay item with free shipping.

Was about 28 pounds, cost if item 75 bucks.

Shipping label indicated 5 pounds....

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