The Supercar Registry - A quick tutorial on how NOT to ship carburetors

(I was going to post this in my sponsors forum, but since this one gets much more traffic and it's important that people see this I decided to post it here)

So...around 8:30 this morning I get a phone call on the business line. I almost didn't answer it since it's before hours, but when I glanced at the caller ID it said "US Government", so I figured I'd probably better answer it. ( [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img] )

On the other end of the line was a rather surly man from the local Post Office asking to speak to someone from "Vintage...uh...muscle...uh..."

To parse down a unnecessarily unpleasant conversation, said fellow informs me that there's a package there addressed to the business, and that there was some sort of "oily substance" on the box that appeared to be leaking from whatever was inside the box. He mentions the senders name and address and asks me what I'm expecting from said sender, to which I inform him I'm not familiar with this sender and I'm not expecting anything from them.

I informed him that I restore carburetors and that it was likely some residual fuel that the sender had failed to drain...whereupon he begins to berate me over the issue. I politely remind him that I'm not the one who sent the package, and that while I always try to remind customers to make sure their carbs are dry before shipping, sometimes one slips by. Next I'm briefly lectured on his concern for the safety of his employees...to which I completely understand and I'm fully in agreement with, but again, I'm not the one who sent the package.

He informs me that someone will need to come by and pick up the package.

Rachel kindly obliges and returns with this:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps51a24da9.jpg

Here's the "substance" on the top of the box.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps6ff1bcaa.jpg

What he described as said "oily substance" appears to be dried glue or epoxy that had been spilled on the box prior to shipping since it was underneath the packing tape.

As if that wasn't enough, here's the bottom of the box.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps45df75ad.jpg

But wait!...it gets better!

Here's what I find when I open the box; note that I didn't remove anything, this was exactly how it was packed & shipped.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...psd0e81815.jpg

I removed a hand-full of crumpled papers and found this:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ps9a22761e.jpg

Yep. They got banged up, but I didn't see anything that can't be fixed.

The point of this post is twofold (and it's not to raise hell with the sender):

1) For MY sake: Please make sure that whatever you box your items up in isn't contaminated with anything that might cause undue distress by whomever may be handling said package. (I'm probably on some DHS watchlist now...[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img] )

2) For YOUR sake: Please make sure your items are packed securely.