Inadequate Packing Leads to Damage!

I remember helping my son with one of his school projects years ago. We had to design a packaging system that would allow a raw egg to survive a 5' drop.   All shippers should strive for that goal and all would be good.

By the way, our egg survived.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Now let me get this straight. You say when something inadequately packed gets shipped it could lead to damage?......no way?!

And then you kept the damaged items and did the repair yourself? What does this teach the dealer?  Its O.K. to expect out of the box damage and repairs?

Where have I heard this before?

Not entirely sure if this was a private sale or not, but the reality is that many manufactures cut corners allot to save money for the bottom line. The items have to make an arduous and often long journey from places like China, via truck, ship, rail and then back into a truck again before they arrive eventually at the hobby store. By the time they do, it is entirely possible that the item might have been damaged no matter how well it was packed.

Generally speaking, most items do not suffer from this debacle, but in reality, one must expect at some point in this hobby to have one item not come as advertised. Which in a word is dismal. Especially when one has waited for a number of months, weeks and even a year for that item.

I have been through this so many times I have actually lost count. I consider myself to be an expert at receiving damaged goods......LOL

Lose packaging is a sure sign of very poor quality control as well as poor management. While I understand the tendency not to blame the retailer, in reality, they must also share in the blame. After all, they should be checking these items quite frequently to ensure these type things do not occur. Just my two cents worth......

Pete

I might add that some, not all, but some manufactures/companies actually conduct what they call rough shipping test to determine if the product can survive the typical pitfalls that happen when being transported by so many means of transportation. The test are designed to improve packaging and the materials used within the packaging. Sometimes, too much packaging can have deleterious affects on items being sent too and fro.

Pete

This WAS a commercial dealer, who DID offer a refund and return shipping costs. 

It is quite possible that the item was damaged in transit from China. 

As I mentioned above, the other three (passenger cars) were undamaged.

Things happen! 

If I had to count all the stuff I've gotten for upgrades or repairs that was poorly packed, I'd have to split it into multiple posts!  I've seen all sorts of shipping damage, and virtually all of it was due to poor packing.

Probably more important than excessive padding is making sure the item can NOT move any way inside the packaging.  If it can move, it can beat itself to death!

Glad you were able to work this out. A damaged item is sometimes so distressing at times. Especially when one has waited a long time and is excited and has expectations.

Pete

I have a little saying when I pack something to ship."If you can't drop it from a plane it's not ready to ship"

I'd agree, but if what you use doesn't fit the guidelines, the shippers will take you to task for it (i.e., say it was packaged improperly).

I suppose there could be an argument for packaging that is too rigid just transferring shock to the item wrapped inside, but I am not a dynamics engineer doing shock analyses.

I remember years ago shipping some Acela cars to Lionel for exchange and the guy at the UPS store asked how I packed them (probably due to the amount I insured them for). 

When I told him I had padded everything very well with crumpled newspaper (rigidly, not just a few loose pieces), he told me I improperly packed it (newspaper is apparently not approved for insurance claims) and should have used packing peanuts (which they just so happen to be selling bags of at the store). 

There is no way I was about to unpack what I had done and "half fast" (apologies to Verizon) it with a quick repack in the store.

I then told him since it was an exchange I was primarily insuring it just in case they lost my package, so if I had to make a claim, no one would ever be able to prove I didn't pack it right.  I'm not sure he liked that part of the conversation.

-Dave

I ordered a replacement power window motor for my wife's Pilot on Ebay.- the part came in the box with NO packing at all, and the window guide was bent, right where the box had been bent/stepped on. It took another 3 weeks to receive a refund, and when I ordered the same part from another vendor (this time Autozone), I made sure I could get a faster refund if the part was damaged the same way. Fortunately it came intact- but these Chinese parts manufacturers really need to increase their Quality assurance. How much does some packing foam cost to prevent a damaged product? It was a total waste of my time.

Geno

This can't be stated enough!

It's so simple. 

I won a rare 3rd Rail locomotive on an auctions site.  You can imagine my disappointment when it arrived and was beat to hell during shipping-seller left a 1/2" gap between box and locomotive.  Easily prevented with adequate packaging.

If you ship a lot of items, it's a matter of when, not if, this is going to happen.  Usually, it's that rare item you've been searching years for!

Wife received a box of plates from Kohl's last week. I we were in trouble when I opened the large outer box to find a much smaller box just set in there, no attempt to protect it or fill it with foam. Luckily Kohl's has easy returns at the local store

My train store is always getting stuff beat to hell. Rips, tears, dents etc. I am there and here them complain about it, but what can one do when one is at the mercy of such careless and thoughtless shippers?

It is what it is.

Pete

I used to buy and sell art glass online.  Despite my offer to pay extra for double-boxing and bubble-wrapping an expensive piece, you would not believe the idiots out there that would ship on the cheap, wrapping glass in newspaper and loosely shoving it into the wrong sized box.  Nothing worse that receiving a $250 dollar box of glass, complete with the ominous rattle of broken glass.

What a timely topic. I have had a rash of poorly packed items lately. The last was a Mccoy boxcar that was shipped in the original box with original single sheet of paper wrapped around it. It arrived crushed. Proper packing would have prevented the problem. Still trying to get that issue resolved.

Bob

Reading this reminds me of last year when I won an auction for a postwar Lionel radar tower. The seller did a horrible job of packing at best with plastic grocery bags and recycle thin cardboard boxes with lots of tape. The thing arrived crushed and **** near bent 90 degrees. The seller was a jerk and demanded a lot of pictures and then wanted me to pay shipping back he could inspect the damage. What? Pay for now packing, new bigger box to place this in, and then pay out of my pocket? I was so mad that I just left a horrible rating and moved on. I now use what is left of it with a big spider for a Halloween display.

You guys might also enjoy model rocketry...Jeff Davis

I should mention that there was only ONE other dealer on the MTH Product Locator that had a set of these passenger cars. So, to get a new replacement car, and also a duplicate extra coach, I decided to get another set.

I once had to ship a $3000 RC-controlled G scale (1:22.5) live steam loco and insure it via UPS. I purchased a foam mattress roll and after wrapping the engine in some Lionel plastic engine sheets, I then rolled the engine up in the mattress pad. I used additional sections of the roll on each end of the loco and then packed it in an extra heavy duty TRIPLE-walled corrugated carton. The tender was similarly packed.

Shipping cost with $3000 worth of insurance was about $150, but it arrived there in perfect condition!