Another busted up UPS package - Do U have this Problem too

Jeadm · Mar 6, 2015

Years ago I received a severely crushed and split open box, and the product box inside crushed on one whole side, with a Canon 60D from B&H/UPS. I called B&H expressing my dissatisfaction and hesitation to accept this item, they agreed to take it back and shipped me a new one overnight. Shipping is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

I would love to give local retailers my business, but I can't find most of what I'm interested locally. Several years ago (film days) I had at least two great local camera stores to choose from, 10 and 35 miles away from me. The 35 shut down, the 10 was bought out by Calumet (who, for a while didn't have much of what I was looking for). Calumet's stock improved and they were at least carrying Sony gear (or you could order it), next thing you know they're out of business! I'd have to make >200 mile round trip now if I want to look at things, hardly "local" anymore.

I still order camera gear online because there's simply few options. A consistent pattern of premature failures has lead me to never order hard drives online anymore, only buying those locally. I blame that entirely on shipping, and sometimes packaging, both things I have no control over.

Tequila MockingjayBird · Mar 6, 2015

Travelino said:
Damaged box for Tamron lens from B&H, thanks to UPS, maybe they thought it was a football

B&H does use thinner/less sturdy boxes than Amazon. There is no denying that.

--
you need a team to realize your dream

Gary Waugh · Mar 7, 2015

tqlla said:
I used to get that crumpled up paper as well from amazon. But its been at least a year since I have seen that happen.

I have to admit I haven't ordered much from Amazon over the last year. So maybe they have improved.

lehill · Mar 7, 2015

Tequila MockingjayBird said:
Travelino said:

Click to expand...

B&H does use thinner/less sturdy boxes than Amazon. There is no denying that.

First off, that's a complete disappointment to have to refuse shipment of a incredible new toy. I'm sorry this had to happen to one of our group.

The first thing I noticed is the cheapy looking, low-strength cardboard. Like the type you might find a bargain no-name power tool packed in. Really terrible stuff for shipping.

I've never ordered from B&H just Adorama, Sony, or Amazon (no particular reason why). Is this typical for B&H shipping box?

By some miracle, or maybe I'm a hoarder, I still have the original shipping boxes and packing for my A77 and A77M2. Just for comparison here's what they look like. Can anyone else add their own photos to this comparison. If not, then I'll consider counseling:

A77 shipping box with packing from Adorama. Packing on all four sides but not top or bottom. No rattling here.

A77M2 shipping box with packing from Sony. Packing on one side only, box can move around about a couple inches at most.

Both boxes have the same ratings.

--
Lance H

henryp · Mar 8, 2015

Travelino said:
...I doubt that B&H damages their own shipment. UPS must really be throwing these packages around.

I am very sorry UPS mishandled your package so egregiously and apologize for your dissatisfaction. Unfortunately from the information here I cannot ID you or this order. My email is in my forum profile. Please sends these photos there with your original B&H order number. Also let me know if anything that was in the ox needs to be replaced.

Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video

Scottelly · Mar 8, 2015

I just got a Sony A65 from B&H, and the box was not damaged. I don't remember getting a damaged box in the past few years, and I've ordered lenses on several occasions from KEH. They all came by UPS with no damage of note.

lifenprism · Mar 8, 2015

Travelino said:
I buy most of my stuff from B&H and highly recommend them, but over the last two years, I get more UPS packages where the outer boxes are ripped open or banged up a bunch.

Part of the problem in my opinion is B&H. I've found their fiber tape doesn't hold up on many of these shipments, or parts of the box are ripped on a side or edge. The other blame goes to UPS, as I doubt that B&H damages their own shipment. UPS must really be throwing these packages around.

My hit rate seems to be about 50 percent arriving busted up. My fault is that I should have complained to UPS and B&H a long time ago.

I'm particularly upset right now, because today was the first time I rejected an order from UPS. The order was for a Tamron 150-600 that my wife ordered for my birthday and I was anxiously awaiting all afternoon, as lately UPS doesn't get here till after 6PM.

The delivery person presented the box to me, and it required a signature because of its value. The box looked ok from the way he handed it to me, but then I looked at the other side, to find a large break in the box. Even some of the corners are dented. What concerned me the most are two factors. First, there was no bubble wrap on the side that was busted. B&H seems to only place bubble wrap to fill the rest of the box, not around the item. Secondly, it took a pretty good throw or rough handling to split the box as it was. I feared accepting in case non obvious damage occurred. There are so many reports that some of these lenses are not aligned properly etc that as a real novice, I would be wondering, if it didn't perform to my expectations, if it was me or if the lens was damaged.

I've had similarly damaged boxes for my A77ii, a new projector, tripod, and printers. Again, about half of my orders come like this. With this order, I also placed a second order for a gimble mount and that box showed no outside damage. I did this separately, so the gimble didn't swish around and damage the box with the lens in it. Both boxes arrived at the same time. It seems like its always the delicate and expensive stuff that gets this treatment.

Sorry to go on and on, but the main question is if any of you are having this same problem with UPS shipments and especially with B&H packages.

If this is a systemic problem with B&H packages, they need to re-evaluate their packaging. Again, their tape usually fails on many larger packages. Or is the rough handling by UPS a local issue.

Damaged box for Tamron lens from B&H, thanks to UPS, maybe they thought it was a football

I believe your problem is with one of the UPS terminal between Maspeth, N.Y. and your location. I know when I order from B&H and use standard UPS ground shipping, it goes through 5 terminals before it reaches my doorstep. Out of all the order I have had come from B&H, 90% have been ground service and the other 10% overnight next day. I had one box that had slight damage to one corner and that was around 7 or 8 order ago (roughly a little over a year ago). So somewhere in route to your state, one or more UPS terminals have employees that should be looking for work elsewhere. With the looks of the box you show in the pics, I seriously doubt air bags all around the item within the box would have helped considering the abuse the box shows would implicate the bags would have most likely been punctured.

Superglue · Mar 8, 2015

My UPS person once left my OMD EM5 and 2 lenses laying near the back tire of my car in the driveway. My brother said he saw her run and toss/drop the package before running back to her truck. Later on a package of a lens for my A6000 she left it in the roses out front from the USPS . I filed a complaint to both UPS and US Postal. They just said they appreciate my concerns and would address them whatever that means.

digitalshooter · Mar 8, 2015

Superglue said:
My UPS person once left my OMD EM5 and 2 lenses laying near the back tire of my car in the driveway. My brother said he saw her run and toss/drop the package before running back to her truck. Later on a package of a lens for my A6000 she left it in the roses out front from the USPS . I filed a complaint to both UPS and US Postal. They just said they appreciate my concerns and would address them whatever that means.

USPS goes no where! They are the only organization that I know of that tolerates total incompetence and will do absolutely nothing about it!

For over 5 years now, we have had a postal person putting the wrong mail into the wrong boxes. We have complained for years now all the way up the ladder, they will do absolutely nothing!

Travelino · Mar 8, 2015

Henry, it is so gratifying to see a rep from B&H respond. I continue to love and recommend B&H for all the years I have been buying from you (some 40 years now).

I contacted Customer Service on Friday, the morning after the late Thursday delivery and as usual and normal for B&H, I received excellent help. The rep has ordered me another lens, and requested additional packing material, and also asked if I felt Fed Ex was a better choice, to which I replied yes, so the order is being sent via Fed Ex. I was notified that the order has been packed and should ship on Monday. the return is on its way back according to UPS and their tracking shows it should show up on Wednesday.

I told the rep that I wanted to make B&H aware of not only this problem, but the others I have experienced with UPS and since just about everything I get is with B&H (we don't order a lot of anything), I wanted to provide more details. I sent off an email to B&H this morning and addressed it to Management via Customer Service.

Henry, I don't know what your position is with B&H, but perhaps you or someone in your organization will read my email. I'll try and contact you via your profile too.

Thanks to everyone for all your responses. Seeing comments about others regarding their UPS shipments is helpful. I do suspect it's a problem along the way for my shipments, as I live in Central Texas and the shipments are handled multiple times. Someplace along the way, things are handled roughly. Again, this has been a problem on a number of orders, and mainly the higher dollar ones and ironically the ones that you have to sign for.

For those that recommended a different supplier, I say we all have our favorites, and B&H remains mine.

henryp · Mar 9, 2015

Travelino said:
Henry, I don't know what your position is with B&H, but perhaps you or someone in your organization will read my email. I'll try and contact you via your profile too.

I am director of corporate communications and online reputation manager. When you get to make up your own titles you can call yourself almost anything (except COO and king of the universe, both of which I was admonished, were already taken. Of course it was the COO who told me this).

An email from you with copies of the original photos and the B&H order number which is now in my in-box will go a long way towards helping me share your experience with others here who need to know.

FWIW while I regret the original dissatisfaction and inconvenience I am pleased to read this is being resolved to your complete satisfaction. Thank you for taking the time to say so.

--
Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video

jimbooth77 · Mar 9, 2015

I have never recieved a damaged package from B&H when it was shipped UPS. The couple of times it was shipped USPS it looked batter and beaten, but the items were not fragile. The 1 time I recieved a damaged item that was not packed properly, B&H replaced the item with 1 phone call. I have nothing but praise for B&H and there customer service.

Tequila MockingjayBird · Mar 9, 2015

jimbooth77 said:
I have never recieved a damaged package from B&H when it was shipped UPS. The couple of times it was shipped USPS it looked batter and beaten, but the items were not fragile. The 1 time I recieved a damaged item that was not packed properly, B&H replaced the item with 1 phone call. I have nothing but praise for B&H and there customer service.

Here is an example of the soft boxes. The boxes I get from Amazon on the other hand have a stiffer and tighter skin feel and do not exhibit these crumples and tears.

--
you need a team to realize your dream

digitalshooter · Mar 9, 2015

Tequila MockingjayBird said:
jimbooth77 said:

I have never recieved a damaged package from B&H when it was shipped UPS. The couple of times it was shipped USPS it looked batter and beaten, but the items were not fragile. The 1 time I recieved a damaged item that was not packed properly, B&H replaced the item with 1 phone call. I have nothing but praise for B&H and there customer service.

Click to expand...

Here is an example of the soft boxes. The boxes I get from Amazon on the other hand have a stiffer and tighter skin feel and do not exhibit these crumples and tears.

--
you need a team to realize your dream

--
Thanks,
Digitalshooter
PS: all posts are just my opinion!

Jeadm · Mar 9, 2015

Just so happens I received a box literally just now from B&H, looks very much like yours. It's absolutely unblemished, not so much as a ding or scratch, and the box feels plenty rigid and firm. It's definitely a shipping related issue, I've gotten plenty abused "soft boxes" before. That happens after UPS and others gets a hold of it, you never know if your package is going to be unscathed or not. As long as what's inside survives the shipping process, the outer box has done its job.

Lensmate · Mar 9, 2015

Have had my fair share of UPS carelessness. They ruined a computer and monitor out of pure recklessness!

-Martin P

Martin Passchier

Explore Martin Passchier’s 973 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

Tequila MockingjayBird · Mar 9, 2015

Jeadm said:
Just so happens I received a box literally just now from B&H, looks very much like yours. It's absolutely unblemished, not so much as a ding or scratch, and the box feels plenty rigid and firm. It's definitely a shipping related issue, I've gotten plenty abused "soft boxes" before. That happens after UPS and others gets a hold of it, you never know if your package is going to be unscathed or not. As long as what's inside survives the shipping process, the outer box has done its job.

Yes. Which is why I did not cry foul and send my stuff back. The box acted as a crumple zone barrier. Only one time use.

Amazon boxes are much stiffer on the other hand, and I wont be able to do justice via pictures as you have to hold it in your hands to experience that. I can reuse them easily.

Travelino · Mar 10, 2015

When I bought the lens I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, I also ended placing a total of 4 orders. Funny, how one can think up more stuff to buy. One of those orders was for a Lowepro case for the lens, which I ordered later the same day. That was delivered by UPS last night.

Now the contents were just the soft lens case so no problem with it getting damaged, etc, but the package was very light, so it wasn't the weight of the contents that caused the tape to break.

But I've had this tape breaking problem often in the past, and for more expensive items, it raises a concern and a few times the breaks were such that the contents slid out. I'm fortunate, in that nothing was missing in those cases. Likewise, nothing bad here, but I'm trying to figure out why the tape breaks.

Someone mentioned earlier in this thread, that UPS grabs the boxes by the edge of the lids and that is what I suspect happened here. But it must be the force applied under the lid that caused the break, as the weight of the box wouldn't have been enough. The first picture, is the top of the box and you can see how the tape tears parallel to the fibers. That happens too easy. The second picture is on one side where the tape is intact. The other side shows the bottom of the box, where the tape is totally torn. This is what I typically see in my shipments.

This morning, I stuck my hand on one of the good seams to see if I could break it with a little force and it seemed pretty strong. I could break it if I applied excessive force, but with just moderate force it held up, so I'm wondering how much handling force it took to break.

Tear along top seam, and parallel to fibers. This is just a soft sided lens case in package, so no damage

One side with box face up, can see where lids were pulled probably in handling, box is only 3 pounds

Bottom of box on opposite side, totally ripped packing tape.

dlkeller · Mar 10, 2015

Do business with your local stores. Do have to admit, Sony doesn't make that very easy.

--
Dave

Travelino · Mar 10, 2015

There are no "local" stores where we live and yes, Sony is not carried by many retailers.

As I just posted in the similar thread, I did learn tonight that our shipments are not directly loaded onto the delivery truck from Austin, as I thought all these years, but rather are put on a trailer truck and brought closer to our area and then the individual delivery trucks load from it, so its a truck to truck loading in a non UPS facility. The UPS tracking info always shows its "out for delivery" from Austin, which is our nearest big city. This might be a reason why my packages seem to suffer more "rash" than some of the other that have replied. And so it could be even more of a local problem with those that are doing this remote handling.

Another busted up UPS package - Do U have this Problem too

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Forum Pro

Active member

Forum Enthusiast

Forum Pro

Well-known member

Veteran Member

Forum Enthusiast

Senior Member

Attachments

Forum Pro

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Well-known member

Veteran Member

Well-known member

Keyboard shortcuts