Mind your boxes

[Slow]

A rant (disguised as a public service announcement):

When you folks ship your glass out, be mindful of any box you may be re-purposing. I recently raided my ex-roommate's attic for a box large enough to pack a glass order into, removed/scratched out all of the old labels, and sent it out on an overnight delivery.
Business as usual, right? Well, after it failed to arrive, I checked the tracking #. Apparently, the package made it almost all the way to the destination (same state and everything, about 80% - yeah, I did the math) before being "returned to sender."
Why? Well, as it turns out, there was a small logo printed on the box from a cosmetics company. This led the delivery company to stop the package in its tracks, declare that it contained "hazardous materials" (with no further inspection or notification, btw), and send it all the way back (hundreds of travel-miles more than if they had just completed the delivery, some way to deal with a "hazard"). Oh, and this was on a Friday, and you have to pay extra for Saturday delivery (which no one told me before it was re-sent), so the "overnight" delivery I paid for is now taking at least 4 days. Awesome.

So, lesson learned: make sure any box you ship doesn't have any visible markings beyond the destination and return address, or you may end up paying for it.

[MUPH]

Who are you using to ship?

[ithruxix]

Usps has done that to me TWICE. To top it all off, the clerk crossed out the UPS barcodes with a black permanence marker. Why was it returned? Because usps scanners had were picking up the barcode. I asked what it said; they replied with, 'I don't know, we don't have the scanners to read UPS packages'.


Wtf.


!?

[Slow]

Another layer of mild frustration: I was asked to use FedEx (by the recipient), so that's what I asked for (closest place to my apt is a "Mail Room" that ships via FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc). After I paid, the receipt had a UPS tracking # sticker on it. Not sure how much difference that would have made.

[hashmasta-kut]

the mail people told me to make sure all old labels are covered or removed, i recently came up with a good trick if you have a flattened box you can cut one seam and reverse it, tape it up, inside out.

[gn0me]

the mail people told me to make sure all old labels are covered or removed, i recently came up with a good trick if you have a flattened box you can cut one seam and reverse it, tape it up, inside out.

Guess I'm not the only one that does this then xD

[Mecha]

I used to do that with the free larger sized priority mail boxes.

Guess they caught on to our scheme because now they have "priority mail" printed up all over the inside of the box.

Sweet while it lasted though.

[Slow]

Yeah, I used to just cut up & tape a brown paper grocery bag over the whole box; then it wouldn't matter what was printed on it. Hadn't shipped anything in a few years, though... Do they even make paper grocery bags anymore?

[menty666]

I was told not to use that paper unless you basically coat the entire package in tape. The flaps get snagged in the sorters.

Avery makes opaque labels. They're pricey, but they block stuff pretty well.

[Slow]

basically coat the entire package in tape

Uhh...yeah, that's pretty much what I would do. All along the edges and corners, anyway. No matter, time to grow up and at least appear professional anyway. Honestly, I often felt kinda shady mailing a taped-up shoebox covered in brown paper... like the Unabomber or something.

[rockstar glassworks]

Turn your boxes inside out.... one vendor is concerned over my drinking since every box they get is an inside out beer/wine case.

Just split that glue seam and turn it inside out.

[Kevin Bumble]

stickers work too just cover the bad labels up. i too had a box come back, that i swooped from a paint store.