A quick tutorial on how NOT to ship carburetors

[VintageMusclecar]

(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 &quot;US Government&quot;, 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 <span style="font-style: italic">surly</span> man from the local Post Office asking to speak to someone from &quot;Vintage...uh...muscle...uh...&quot;

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 &quot;oily substance&quot; 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 <span style="font-weight: bold">me</span> over the issue. I politely remind him that I'm not the one who <span style="font-style: italic">sent</span> 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 <span style="font-style: italic">again</span>, I'm not the one who <span style="font-style: italic">sent</span> the package.

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

Rachel kindly obliges and returns with this:



Here's the &quot;substance&quot; on the top of the box.



What he described as said &quot;oily substance&quot; appears to be dried glue or epoxy that had been spilled on the box <span style="text-decoration: underline">prior</span> to shipping since it was underneath the packing tape.

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



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 &amp; shipped.



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



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 <span style="text-decoration: underline">not</span> to raise hell with the sender):

1) For <span style="font-weight: bold">MY</span> 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 <span style="font-weight: bold">YOUR</span> sake: Please make sure your items are packed securely.