fedex frustrations..

[HerbChambers]

So I ordered a bunch of stuff, some tools, some color, some punties, some blowtubes. All through abr and fedex. It was supposed to be delivered today. In fact the tracking updates said it was dropped off and left by my garage. except it wsnt in front of my garage, or any of my neighbors garages. I called and had them start an investigation, Im supposed to hear back within 2 hours. I hope they find it, It was my first real order! :bangHead:

[LooseSeal Baller]

fedex is the worst imo. I always use ups or standard usps if the package isn't too big...lol

[istandalone24/7]

oh man, that sucks. whatever it ends up being, you'll get taken care of it just might take a while.
my guess (from experience in the past) is that it's probably in the back of some fedex truck in the corner. insurance claims take a while, but you just might get the package in a day or two.

[Yeef]

if it's abr, you might want to look for a box the size of a minivan. just a thought.

[HerbChambers]

oh man, that sucks. whatever it ends up being, you'll get taken care of it just might take a while.
my guess (from experience in the past) is that it's probably in the back of some fedex truck in the corner. insurance claims take a while, but you just might get the package in a day or two.

thats what I'm hoping. just dont wanna lose the glass and the money I paid for it..


if it's abr, you might want to look for a box the size of a minivan. just a thought.

haha its supposed to be pretty small actually.

[istandalone24/7]

and don't count on it being small. Mtn glass sent me a one pound of Momka blue lightening and it came in an 8x8x24 box and a ton of bubble wrap. the bubble wrap, i'll reuse but what a friggin waste.
if they'd invest in some shipping tubes, for smaller orders it'd be cheaper i'd imagine.

[HerbChambers]

Yup thats the size of the box I'm supposed to receive haha, 24x8x7.I guess its not that small now that I think about it. I was hoping it'd be on the smaller side and maybe was just tucked away in the corner of a truck but I guess we'll see what happens.

[Yeef]

the last order i got from abr was something like 4 uncut tubes, a dozen or so uncut 7mm clear rods, and a handful of color rods, maybe 3/4lb in all.

the box was .. ahem.. "custom", and was at least a foot square by nearly 5 1/2 feet long. you could have easily fit a smaller adult in the thing, or probably at least 12 full cases of glass. it would have been comical if it wasn't so expensive.

[HerbChambers]

I guess they have 2 extra days for the driver to respond to the report. never using fedex again. Theres one job, dropping the correct package at the correct address, shouldn't be that difficult.

[HerbChambers]

the last order i got from abr was something like 4 uncut tubes, a dozen or so uncut 7mm clear rods, and a handful of color rods, maybe 3/4lb in all.

the box was .. ahem.. "custom", and was at least a foot square by nearly 5 1/2 feet long. you could have easily fit a smaller adult in the thing, or probably at least 12 full cases of glass. it would have been comical if it wasn't so expensive.

ha thats ridiculous.

[Mr.P0rn]

I ordered a case of clear tubing from ABR once, and they took it out of the Schott box and made a "custom" ABR box made from three other boxes.....yeah....it was comical.

[Jxbey]

i placed a little order, just some clear rod, from abr for first time order took a little longer than MGA but as soon as i seen they ship through ged ex i was like ugh. the package came fine i didnt like how they ask you if you want your rods cut for a fee but if you dont want them cut they show you the breakdown of how fed ex will charge them more after its scanned through for shipping at like 300% increase or something. bottom line confusing over how MGA states they will try to save you money by cutting your glass. the packaging seemed super excessive for what was ordered it was my first time place a order under 100$ but it was still a huge box and padded and tapped up how it should be but to the point i was getting frustrated trying to unpack the few things i got, joint holder was so tapped up and ended up scoring the joint holder its whole length with razor blade removing tape wont effect function at all. i thought i was just having a bad day getting easily frustrated isnt normally me, anyway bottom line after hearing about a few peoples card info getting stolen them using fedex and the product packaging shenanigans ill stay away from them from now on.

[Jxbey]

oh yeah it was the staples on the box keeping the already tapped sections held together that got me going

[istandalone24/7]

what gets me, is what distributors take clear rod or tubing (when ordering less then a full case) and shrink wrap it together with nothing in between.
i mainly make marbles, and usually order simax 28mm rod for "marble stock". i like my lenses to be crystal clear, so i need to peel off the outer layer of the rod in order to get to the pristine inner.

now i can't be the only one who would pay a little extra for them to wrap each rod (only talking large diameter rod...wrapping 5mm would be silly) with a layer of tissue before stretch wrapping them together. this is probably my biggest pet peeve.

when i was using soft glass at the very beginning of my glass addiction, i'd order Double Helix clear....Zephyr i think it was called. anyway, even if you ordered 2nds, DH would have each rod separated by a layer of paper, and i loved them for that. idk if they're still doing this, but i hope so.

[Jxbey]

how are you peeling off outer layer i dont understand how one would do that, cleaning them isnt enough? ive never worked rod that large so i wouldnt know

[istandalone24/7]

well, if it's soft glass, you can "pickle" it in a vinegar solution (and they make chemicals that'll also do the trick) and that actually makes a crappy scuzzy rod of 104coe clear, pristine. boro is too hard i think....but don't quote me on that.

kinda hard to explain.....basically i'll weld a 4" section of 28mm rod onto a 10mm handle, get the whole thing red hot and let it cool a bit. then pick a spot to start, get that one spot (the whole length of the slug) hot and either take a piece of 5mm and "wipe" it down the length of the rod, or use good tweezers to grab a small spot, and make the same swiping motion. this takes the outer layer off, leaving the nice clean inside. making marbles w/o peeling the clear...they come out like crap. dirty lenses, surface "pits" etc. i'm going to cut and paste from Drew Frittz post that explains how he does it, in better detail. but once you get the hang of it, it's easy. yes it does waste glass (if you choose glass to swipe with) and gas, and time, but i honestly think it's worth it in the end.


"Here's the way I do it... First, I use my large tweezers, not pliers. I find that I have a lot more control with them. Second, instead of trying to peal the rod as is, first attach a steel punty to the end of the rod. I use steel because I can then heat all the way to the end of the clear rod and the punty won't melt. Start heating the rod an inch or so from the punty and make it a pretty wide heat. As the glass starts to be able to "move" start pushing it together. Move your heat on both sides of the bulge that forms. Alternate between the two sides of the bulge and gradually grow the bulge into as large a blob as you're going to need. Don't push so hard, or get it so hot that it folds over on itself. You want the skin of the rod to stay on the outside of the blob - never twist it or mix it in. Once you get the blob as big as you want either remove the punty, or transfer it to the punty by removing it from the rod. I personally do the latter because then I don't have to worry about the rod cracking.

Heat the blob and shape it into a football shape using a graphite cup mold that's way too big for the amount of glass you have. Fire polish it smooth and allow the blob to cool significantly. Then, using a very oxidizing flame, heat the outside of the football in strips, pole to pole, and peel the blob pole to pole. Since all of the skin from the rod is still the skin of the blob and you haven't mixed any of it in, you maximize your peeling by doing it this way. When doing it this way you'll also find that there are parts of the blob that just don't have any scum on them, so don't peel them. It just wastes glass.

After it's peeled you can either use it as is, or you can pull it out into a clean rod for use later. Mark the end of the rod by melting a dot of some color onto the very end and then allowing it to round in the flame. Once it's cool, the indicator dot will tell you that the rod is already peeled. I use specific colors to mark all of the different kinds of glass in my studio so that I can tell at a glance what it is"

[istandalone24/7]

Drew mainly uses soft glass, but the process is the same.

[TCsGlassworks]

FedEx is horrible.. but usps absolutely blows. I sent a package via usps from plymouth,ma to haverhill, ma... for some Strang reason it's down in Jacksonville, FL and is back on its way up

[daveabr]

If you ship color in one of those little tubes, and it breaks, they won't pay a claim. Fed Ex and UPS have both been here several times, and give us this absurd guidelines of clearance space in the box, and amount of packing material between the glass and all walls of the box. If you don't meet the criteria, they won't pay your claims. So, it is an unfortunate part of shipping glass that requires "over packaging" Pretty much the moment a courier figures out you are shipping glass, they are on your ass about packaging. UPS even sent some dudes in lab coats here to perform pressure tests on our boxes we had to pass. It's absurd, but required.

[daveabr]

And agreed with others, USPS is the worst option. It may be cheap, but there is little to ZERO recourse when it gets lost or damaged. They literally will laugh at you on the phone.

[Nuggie]

USPS is very reliable in my experience. There are sometimes slight hiccups in a delivery, but I've always received my order, undamaged - and I have had lots of things delivered to me via usps. Bought a kiln from a member here, and USPS got it to me in 3 days. Bought a phantom from a guy in California (I'm in Chicago) and not only did it get to me in 3 business days, but they delivered in 3 days during our worst snowstorm of the year so far! Props to USPS for that, it was like 1.5 feet of snow, lol. The phantom also wasn't insured (risky!) so if that got lost during the storm...I'd be fucked. But sometimes ya' just gotta take that risk and roll the (metaphorical) dice, ya' know?

[HerbChambers]

apparently my address appears twice in my town and got delivered to the wrong one, which is super weird and never happened before. Got all my stuff though.

[daveabr]

USPS does great 98% of the time. It's the times they lose or damage something, and then give you no options. After it happens to you once, you pretty much can't stand them. Because, unlike UPS or Fed Ex, they are govt run, not a public company. They don't have to do anything for you, and they won't. But, yes, you are correct in saying they have great success rates. It's the 1 or 2 percentile of shipments that go wrong that are the problem. Whereas with UPS and FedEx there is claim process that is handled quickly

[istandalone24/7]

i take pics of and quick & dirty vid when opening a box that has more then $100 worth of materials in it. just in case. ups/fedex/usps alike.

[Nuggie]

USPS does great 98% of the time. It's the times they lose or damage something, and then give you no options. After it happens to you once, you pretty much can't stand them. Because, unlike UPS or Fed Ex, they are govt run, not a public company. They don't have to do anything for you, and they won't. But, yes, you are correct in saying they have great success rates. It's the 1 or 2 percentile of shipments that go wrong that are the problem. Whereas with UPS and FedEx there is claim process that is handled quickly

Your post worries me because after thinking about it, I'm probably coming up on 100 deliveries over the past few years - so I'm about due for a lost package...better start insuring everything, lol.

[daveabr]

haha. they are few and far between, but when they screw up, you are the one who gets screwed.


pics are always smart

[Simian]

Insurance is a better bet at a blackjack table in Vegas than at USPS.