Going Postal

By Rod Dreher • January 2, 2013, 2:56 PM

Look at that. It was once a book. It came in a Christmas package today sent by some dear friends in the Netherlands. The package looked perfectly fine from the outside, but when we opened it, all four of the books in the package had been completely destroyed — apparently chewed up by a machine in the delivery process. No idea whether this happened in the Netherlands or in the US, and no explanation from the postal service(s) as to why all the books in the box were chewed to bits. Happily, the two Christmas ornaments and the stroopwaffels made it through intact.

I’ve never seen anything like this. I feel so bad for our pals. These books weren’t cheap, and according to the form on the outside of the box, they paid something like $50 to mail them. They were good books, too. What on earth do you suppose happened to these books in transit? Perhaps the box came open, the books fell out and got caught in machinery, and the postal service repackaged the remains and sent them on their way?

I’m trying to figure out if this is merely a shame, or also kind of an outrage. Not that it much matters; one way or another, the gifts are destroyed.

Posted in Whatever!. Tagged post office, postal.

17 Responses to Going Postal

M_Young says:

January 2, 2013 at 3:04 pm

Looks like the Great Wave of Kanagawa got to ‘em.

I’ve got to say I’ve never had anything remotely bad ever happen to stuff I’ve posted via the USPS, and I did and still use them regularly for packages, including business related post. I found them competitive, and their 3 day priority mail actually usually took two days to arrive clear across the country.

I hope this isn’t the result of some new machine they are introducing.
David J. White says:

January 2, 2013 at 3:05 pm

I’m sorry to hear that, Rod. I wonder if your friends had the package insured. But I’ve mailed packages of that sort, and I generally haven’t thought to insure them. I mean, why insure books unless they’re rare first editions or something?

This year a Christmas card I sent to some friends was returned because I had mistakenly miswritten their address — I was off by *one* digit (I wrote 153 instead of 152). The card came back with the stamp “No Such Number” — even though I had also included the entire nine-digit ZIP code. I thought the whole idea of the nine-digit ZIP code was that each block would have its own unique number, which means that just about anything should be deliverable just with the person’s name and the nine-digit ZIP code. Sheesh.
lankyloo says:

January 2, 2013 at 3:26 pm

My experience is that the USPS will attach a note on the front if the outside of the package was damaged and they had to repackage it.
cka2nd says:

January 2, 2013 at 3:44 pm

How utterly bizarre that the books should be ruined and the Christmas ornaments (!!!) and waffles should be perfectly fine.

I’ve never heard of a situation like yours, Rod. In my experience, whenever a periodical or envelope being sent to me has been seriously damaged in transit, the post office has popped it into an envelope with a large window to keep it from further damage and a standard note that the item had been damaged in the mail. Most of the times when I have received a package with damaged goods, the problem has been with the packing and I have informed the company about it, with advice based on my several years as a shipping and receiving clerk as to how better to pack the items (books, periodicals, cans, etc.). I do recommend insuring packages when the value is above $100.

“Perhaps the box came open, the books fell out and got caught in machinery, and the postal service repackaged the remains and sent them on their way?” This sounds like a reasonable guess on your part, but if this did happen, whichever postal service was responsible should have noted it on the package.
Magister Aurelius says:

January 2, 2013 at 4:11 pm

Here’s a thought Rod, having not inconsiderable experience with the Post Office via my place of employment, is that the likelihood of the damage is either on the Netherlands end or Customs on this side. As mentioned above the Post Office includes a notice of damage on trashed mail, etc, but as a friend told me, “S happens at Customs”
Daphne says:

January 2, 2013 at 4:32 pm

The same thing happened to me a few years back.

A dear friend in London sent a gift of gorgeous handmade notecards featuring her jaw-dropping photography skills.

The box was mangled beyond belief, obviously re-taped and only a couple of cards out of two dozen remained intact. I nearly wept and found it heartbreaking to tell her about the postal service destruction.

***I simply love your blog. So smart, thoughtful and generously kindhearted.
cecelia says:

January 2, 2013 at 4:54 pm

I’d say it was customs also – use USPS all the time for many years with few problems and certainly nothing that looks like that. Customs however is a whole other story – once shipped wool I had bought back to the US instead of carrying it around – now how can you damage skeins of wool? Customs – each skein had been cut in half – useless.
James says:

January 2, 2013 at 4:55 pm

Check the bottom side of the box and see how it was packaged. My wife’s gift last Christmas arrived from Tiffany’s via UPS looking fine from the outside, but when I opened it the bracelet was gone. The jewelry box, invoice, and gift bag, however, were as should be. While dealing with a very gracious Tiffany’s employee on the phone, I glanced at the bottom of the box. Mystery (partially) solved. The bracelet was not stolen at Tiffany’s. It had been discretely opened from the bottom (not messing up the UPS labels), then the box was retaped. How could I tell? The UPS employee didn’t use matching tape when swiping the gift.

This was just six months after a childhood (irreplaceable) fishing rod disappeared from a UPS shipping tube the same way. In that case, I knew it happened in transit because I’d shipped it home myself, and had watched the UPS Store employee properly pack it.

* Not picking on UPS, that’s just way the cookie crumbled.
Evgeni says:

January 2, 2013 at 5:14 pm

Customs was my first thought as well. If the package itself was fine, then there’s no way that sort of mechanical damage occurs without some serious intentionality.
Rebecca says:

January 2, 2013 at 5:23 pm

A little Mod Podge will fix that right up. It won’t ever be what it was, but could be transformed into something never seen before.
Bryan says:

January 2, 2013 at 5:36 pm

I once mailed a box of school materials from New York. When I told the Post Office counter-lady what I was mailing, she recommended that I send it media mail, because it was all school books, discs, hand-out materials, etc. It was a pretty hefty package; cost me $70 to mail.

When I got back to Oregon I went to pick up the box. The *ahem* gentleman at the Oregon post office had apparently opened the package, gone through it, and upon finding that there were a few handwritten flashcards buried in some book, decided that the package did not qualify for “media mail” rates and demanded that I pay the difference.

For the sake of not seeming like an unhinged maniac, I will leave out my response to the *ahem* gentleman behind the counter. In the end, of course, I still wound up paying the extra money. In a very sad way it seemed like an appropriate final note to my New York college experience.
Douglas LeBlanc says:

January 2, 2013 at 5:37 pm

Rod, about every few months we’ll receive a piece of mail that’s been mangled by a machine at the U.S. Postal Service. It’s usually about a third of a magazine or catalog cover, with the postal service’s expressed regrets about the incident.

Sometimes I wonder why the postal service bothers notifying me, but I also have to respect the effort at saying “We blew it on this. Sorry!”

If the mangling of your book occurred in the United States, someone either failed to notice or is less conscientious than the postal workers of Virginia.

Relying on web merchants, when possible, probably gives a consumer a bit more recourse when something like this happens.
JoeMerl says:

January 2, 2013 at 5:42 pm

Maybe you can alert the postal service and get some kind of refund for you or your friends?
Coldstream says:

January 2, 2013 at 5:53 pm

That pic seems more random than any damage a Customs agent could conceivably come up with, so the likely answer is the box was opened accidentally (or under inspection and improperly resealed) and the contents spilled out and were mangled by a machine/conveyer belt somewhere, thrown back in the box (is it still the original?) and sent on their way.

Easier to let the end customer deal with the damage than mess with it in a sorting center.

Or so is my experience in the field of international shipping, which isn’t inconsiderable.
k says:

January 2, 2013 at 6:11 pm

I’ve had this happen more than once before. I receive and ship a lot, and it is incredibly uncommon to happen.
Myron Hudson says:

January 2, 2013 at 7:46 pm

I gave up on the USPS for parcel service and critical mail years ago. When I send packages of documents or business correspondnece or contracts it’s UPS or FedEx because I can’t (or won’t) afford to have them late or not delivered at all.

And my son recently payed $10 for Express Mail which was never delivered.

That said, having lived overseas, it’s not much better over there. I could not assert that the damage in the pic happened here. Actually I suspect otherwise.
Peterk says:

January 2, 2013 at 8:54 pm

I would say it was customs that did it and not the postal services. especially since the other items weren’t damaged