[meteorite-list] Boxes to shipping issues

From: David Freeman <dfreeman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:15 2004
Message-ID: <40860CD3.5000400_at_fascination.com>

Dear List;
I thought I'd offer a handful of rolled oats for the quackers. I have
shipped a bunch of larger 5-15 pound and a few 30 pound rocks in
cardboard boxes recently. I roll the specimens up in about three layers
of newspapers, put them in a box full of styrofoam peanuts, settle the
box down real well, put more peanuts in until I fight the flaps in place
enough to tape and then tape like a demon.
I recommend anyone shipping more than a 10 pound rock, or a couple
rocks of that total weight to consider double boxing. Anything over 30
pounds gets shipped in a $15 Walmart cooler. I have had some real
nightmares over the past two months with our USPS and they do not get
my business now over those issues. Sour grapes, well, yes. Very poor
service after the items were deemed lost/destroyed/missing. My change to
FedEx costs less but, the web site there at FedEx.com is a mess to
navigate I feel.
Registered mail with USPS is about the only responsible way to track and
that costs $15 additional over the shipping cost. Any meteorite of real
value would warrant this extra cost since I lost a $135 4 ounce wood
specimen That could not make the 180 mile trip to Laramie,WY down
I-80.......Still crosses my eyes on this situation even though it took
58 days to get the customer taken care of/transaction satisfactorily
completed.
Just a little food for thought as you ship away the possibility of lost
time and money .
Best,
Dave Freeman mjwy
Received on Wed 21 Apr 2004 01:55:31 AM PDT