Not to defend the postal service abusing packages, but looking at the picture of the box, I'm thinking that whoever packed it didn't stuff the carton tight enough. Seeing a section of the box that could be compressed that far suggests the cushioning wasn't dense enough.

If I'm shipping something as dense as a plane, I'm going to first wrap the plane in at least a couple of layers of the big-bubble (1" dia) wrap and tape it tightly. Then, I'm going to go with some kind of loose-fill material which I'll overfill the box with, shake it around to settle out, then overfill again and compress it to seal.

 

^ the plane was so thoroughly wrapped and taped in bubble wrap that it took me several minutes to get the damn thing out - it was wrapped in several more layers than what you recommend. The box was densely packed with newspaper - so much so that it came out of the box as a block, such as it was. The outside of the box was also wrapped over and over with packaging tape. But despite all that, all the bubbles on the the bubble wrap surrounding the toe as well as the heal of the plane had been popped because of the mishandling. Accidents happen. This was not an accident but deliberate.

As I stated: "It was packaged like a tank!"

Several weeks earlier, I had a package shipped from NYC to Western Massachusetts via priority mail and it took a week to get delivered - I can drive that distance in three hours. It went through the same hub (Jersey City, NJ) as did the above damaged package. The priority mail package sat in the Jersey City hub for four days before eventually leaving to my location. I regularly receive priority packages from the West Coast in three days.

The problem here was neither the packaging nor the USPS as a whole. The problem is the USPS Jersey City hub. pariswoodworking, nailed it. Apparently for postal workers at the USPS Jersey City hub, "Fragile, Please Handle With Care" means beat the royal hell out of this and "Priority Mail" means whenever the hell we feel like getting around to sending it off.

By the way, I'm not the victim here. The seller is. He insisted on refunding nearly the entire selling price, even after I gave him glowing feedback and asked him not to issue the refund. The contrast between the ineptness of the USPS Jersey City hub and the beyond-the-call-of-duty professionalism of this ebay seller could not be more stark.

This thing is still pissing me off - the system like any mega organization protects itself at every level, which means nothing will be done about this. Sorry for the follow-up rant, but I needed to vent.

 

I have to say I have a very good UPS delivery person. I built a lock box that looks like a bench, that sits underneath my mail box and he puts all my mail in there and actually locks it.

 

Send a copy of this picture to your Congressman and the Postmaster General stating this is why nobody wants to use their service. With them complaining about funding etc. perhaps you'll get a favorable response. If nothing else send a pic to one of those morning news shows. It would play right in with UPS funding reports.

 

Actually I suspect the plane was packaged too tightly and in too small a box. Not to fault the sender, but I've learned from experience that a large box and small item surrounded by lots of air is the best combination. And by air, I mean lightweight packing, like Styrofoam peanuts, or those little plastic bag pillows. So in this case, the box that the plane was in should have been packed into another box about twice it's size in each dimension and then surrounded this way. It's so sad to see something nice like the knob ruined. I just hope the plane is till true and square - have you checked it?

 

I apologize up front, this is only a related rant.

You can only ship firearms legally via UPS. It used to cost $4 - $6 each way. Now it costs $25 - $40 each way because UPS requires overnight delivery to cut down employee theft.

That's a Federal Felony, you would think that they would watch the work areas and have them arrested.

Go figure.