Never Using Fed Ex to ship again.

Second straight package flattened to a inch thick. These were packaged to withstand anything other than getting run over. I will never use these guys to ship anything again. Totally incompetent.

Cheers,

Bud

Surprising. They are the only shipping company I use. Are you doing the standard peanut and bubble wrap? I’ve been using styro , they can’t flatten if they wanted too

+1 Bud. Sorry for your “losses”.

Everytime I get a package with bubble wrap and peanuts, the boxes are beat to shit. I don’t know why beer traders don’t use styro. Safer and more insulation. All this talk about freshness on BA and no one cares about heat impact or bottle security.

Wine selling has spoiled me!

I use wine boxes with dividers and bubble wrap the crap out of each bottle, I line all sides with it as well. Maybe styro is the only way for now on Charlie. Its just that two shipments in two weeks were flattened, not crushed or dented but frickin flattened.

Cheers,

Bud

True and duly noted….

Cheers,

Bud

I’ve consistently had horrible horrible delivery issues with Fedex (no damaged packages that i recall). I think there’s been a few threads on it, so I won’t keep on. Still somehow UPS manages to do a much better job of figuring out how to deliver packages.

I think this has to do with location. I’ve shipped a lot with Fedex and have never had a problem.

My last FedEx wine shipment was supposed to be next day air. They sent it from Oakland to Texas to Memphis and then to Denver. And it didn’t happen in a day. They also left wine on the truck in sub zero temps for 2 nights last winter. No harm no foul, but their service used to be consistent. Now my experience has been anything but.

All shipping companies have issues. No company is better than another. That being said, I’ve generally had success using both UPS and Fedex, and also disasters with both. I do think Fedex is generally faster by a day or two.

As to why beer traders don’t use wine shippers, it’s probably because they don’t have easy access to them or don’t wanna pay the extra money to buy them. Most of the time it’s fine. I’ve done over 50 beer trades and have only had a couple of leakers, once due to weather and once due to poor packing.

I’ve been generally happy with FedEx. UPS (at least here) is very inconsistent when shipping on a Monday…sometimes four days from West Coast…sometimes a full week.

My main problem with styro is the exponential increase in shipping costs for all that unused space in the box. Really bothers me. But I take extra precaution when packing if I’m not using styro (Joe I hope neither of my boxes had damage to the bottles).

Beer is more sensitive to heat than wine, and most people I know wouldn’t ship wine this time of year. Do you really think that shipping something across the country in a FedEx truck in the summertime will result in a beer that is anywhere near as good as that beer would be on home turf?

When I see Rate Beer or Beer Advocate reviews for my beer from folks on the east coast in the summer (we only sell beer in Oregon and California), I just cringe. Usually the beer they describe bears only a slight resemblance to what we bottled.

No, not yours.

Rick, completely understand your stance, however this beer was one day old and was overnighted via air to arrive at the destination the next day. The damage was done again at the sorting/ loading terminal, just like before.Flattened like a pancake, I mean how do they do this ?

Cheers,

Bud

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Joe, good points all. As a large consumer of mailing list wine I do have access to wine shippers and will use them to ship beer back east. When I am out I use the same method I have been using for years, which is a standard wine case box with bubble wrap galore and full wall cushioning. Looks like I will not ship that way anymore, I will just ship styro from now on.

Cheers,

Bud

What do you mean here Nolan? Exponential increase for unused space? I don’t not believe volume has much bearing on shipping costs, at least not nearly as much as weight. A half full 12 bottle shipper will not cost you much more than a full 6 bottle shipper as far as I’ve seen. Also if you aren’t using stryo you gotta use a bunch of bubble wrap so how exactly is that using much less space than stryo, let alone less weight?

With UPS, space has more to do with price than weight. If I ship 12 12oz bottles in a 12 bottle shipper with UPS it will run ~$40 for ground. If I take out the styro, bubble wrap each bottle, line the box with newspaper and use a smaller box (or cut the corners and fold the flaps in further to make the box less tall), the same weight can bring the cost down to less than $20.

Pricey. I just shipped 12 btls in styro to New Jersey with fedex for $29. Rather pay extra for the security. It’s astounding how little beer trading cares about the security if the bottle. Bubble wrap and peanuts so almost nothing if the box gets pressure put on it like in bud’s case

Fedex is currently basing their rates on weight only, but are switching to a size/weight ratio. When that takes effect I’m sure that same shipment won’t be $29.