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[Frumple]

So, like. Little background. Since I started working in the department I'm in now (so around 4-5 years, now), we've been getting a particular monthly delivery. Every time they've shown up -- so probably somewhere over 200 deliveries, at this point -- it's been a delivery of two boxes. Two boxes, monthly, more or less consistently for half a decade.

Today, there was three boxes. Now, little odd, but okay, not really anything super unusual, yeah? Yeah. So I open the smallest box, and.

Inside the box was another, smaller box, with the usual order material in it. And, like. Okay, that was weird, but whatever, next box.

Next box also had another, smaller box in it. So did the last box.

After literally hundreds of consistent deliveries, instead of two boxes, they sent us the usual order in three sets of nested box pairs, six boxes total. Why they sent us matryoshka boxes, I don't know, but.

It definitely made me wtf a bit.

[Egan_BW]

I suppose they packed the stuff into smaller boxes by mistake, which meant they needed a third box, and then put those smaller boxes into the normal sized boxes because those are the boxed they're actually supposed to send things in?

[dragdeler]

It obviously was a distress signal and I would hope you remembered the original orientation of the boxes, or else we got (6^6^6)(6^6^6) gps coordinates to check buddy...

[Eric Blank]

Don't be ridiculous, they'd have to show up at the warehouse it was shipped from to set up the distress signal, just wait there

[Lord Shonus]

My immediate suspicion is that they had damaged packaging along the lines somewhere, and their managment demanded stronger boxes.

[Frumple]

I mean, yeah, that's more or less what I figured, too. Still odd it's taken like a half-decade for it to happen, but still. It'd be a reasonable explanation.

I suppose they packed the stuff into smaller boxes by mistake, which meant they needed a third box, and then put those smaller boxes into the normal sized boxes because those are the boxed they're actually supposed to send things in?

It's possible for the two larger boxes -- the smaller, presumably angrier boxes inside of them were actually notably smaller (had packing paper and everything to keep stuff from rattling around). The smaller box had its smaller box just flush. No space, no give, the smaller smaller box was barely any smaller than the smaller box itself. Would have been fine to just ship the smaller smaller box instead of putting it into the smaller box and shipping the smaller smaller box inside the smaller box.

There was definitely mild disappointment there was only one iteration of smaller boxes per box, though. It's better when there's a smaller box inside the smaller box inside the box. _{theeere we go, smaller has finally stopped looking like a word to me now i can post}

[dragdeler]

the smaller, presumably angrier boxes

That got a sustained chuckle from me.

[wierd]

I have had two heavy objects get...   Horrifically mistreated by package handling companies.

I will admit to being an offender on over-packaging.  What a normal person considers normal, right, sensible, and fit for purpose for shipment of a parcel, is often in my experience, "Simply insufficient", when the package handler treats the parcel like they are playing fucking Rugby with it.

Had a 2000$+ large format printer dropped (breaking plastic gears, parts of the ink retention system, shredding the drive belt, et al--resulting in over 200$ worth of damage, because of the degree of the blunt force trauma the poor thing suffered from it) by a package handler, and because the box was not "Horribly over packaged against people manhandling the damn thing".

Also had a piece of vintage computer peripheral equipment (that has not been manufactured in 40+ years) get dropped hard enough to brutally deform military grade steel frame construction.  Again, because the box was NOT "Horribly overpackged with boxes inside boxes inside boxes".


When you find that kind of thing, rather than wonder "What the f*ck!?", instead go "I wonder what horrible thing this person endured, to feel the need to package things this way?"

[pisskop]

Apparently Beiber got the virus that causes shingles stuck up in his eye. Have his face is paralyzed, kind of like a stroke victim. Rough

[Lord Shonus]

I will admit to being an offender on over-packaging.  What a normal person considers normal, right, sensible, and fit for purpose for shipment of a parcel, is often in my experience, "Simply insufficient", when the package handler treats the parcel like they are playing fucking Rugby with it.

"Overpacking" is a good idea, but it isn't the people that break packages, it's the machinery.

Nothing a package handler can do matters at all compared to what the sorting machines do. 99% of parcel damage comes between the time one package handler puts in on the belt and when the package is delivered to the next guy for loading. Belts get overloaded and jammed (often because somebody else did not "overpack") and you have several hundred pounds of packages slammed together before somebody notices the flow isn't coming and stops the belt (generally only a few minutes, but the volume going through is insane), or your package gets pushed to the very edge of the belt and rubbed until it bursts, or an unlabled can of paint explodes because it is on the belt you aren't supposed to put paint on and it drenches everything, or ...

If I were to perform the hammer throw with every package I got, it wouldn't increase damages by a noticeable amount.

[Eric Blank]

Maybe we need machines that can detect a jam and auto-shutoff. Expensive, not going to happen likely

[EuchreJack]

Maybe we need machines that can detect a jam and auto-shutoff. Expensive, not going to happen likely

I'd be surprised if that wasn't a thing.
If my printer stops on a jam, I don't know why the box bots wouldn't be the same.
But printers can damage the paper during the jam.

[Lord Shonus]

Printers detect a jam because the rollers and such stop moving. Conveyor belts don't stop moving- they just keep on trucking while the packages stay put (if left long enough, they'll sand right through the box, though that never happens). A jam almost always gets noticed within minutes, but the sheer quantity of packages going through means that even 10-15 seconds creates a huge mess.

[King Zultan]

My mom had a friend that worked at a major parcel shipping company and according to him his fellow employees would apparently drop kick any box labeled fragile.

[Lord Shonus]

That straight up does not happen. We rarely even notice if a box is marked fragile, and certainly don't have time to deliberately abuse packages.