Don't Trust the USPS

This weekend  provided  me  some laughter  from the USPS.  If you are  planning  to ship any gifts to  your loved ones  this year, please  consider insuring your boxes. While my Etsy  shop has  open for only a half year,  I have  run across   a lot  of things the  USPS  has  done and it doesn't matter what service  you are choosing whether its media mail, first class rate, or priority mail, some how  something happens to my packages  sooner or later.   Hence, I have  learned  that no matter what the price  of the item is, I  need to  have it fully covered just in case. I know that  shipping cost can be high with insurance  but  for just a bit more  it provides a  added protection that is needed.  If you  are running a shop or planning   to mail stuff  to your  love  ones this holiday please spend that extra money to get insurance, you will fill better knowing that   you are covered.



Here's my story:   As some of you might know, I donate to sampler boxes  each  month. Well Sampler Village  gets 100  lovely samples  by me each month, and I have to say this is the first time USPS  has  done something  this  cruel.  I  made  very  cute samples of my candles and bath salts and I was excited to give them out   for the holidays for those people that were willing to purchase a sampler box this month. Now,  here  is the  picture  of  the  samples:

I decided to ship them Media  Mail in  Home Depot box.  These are new Home Depot boxes that I  buy to ship them and I make sure I   throw in   peanuts   to  cushion  my  samples.  This  is the third  box  of 100 samples this year I sent out so  its not like I was new at this... hence  this is what happens.  I receive an  email from  Traci   letting me know that the   package  did not arrive yet. She also told me that the package was missent.  So then I checked in on USPS and they assured me that  it  would arriving  by Dec 4th.  Now the funny thing is before I sent out this package, I knew  something was going  to happen to it... It was just a big  feeling and I almost  did not insure  the   items  but I stuck with the insurance and I am  glad I did  because what happen was totally   unbelievable.

The box was totally damaged...  and from what Traci told me it looked like they  some how broken the bottom of the box so  my 100  samples  must have fallen out  of the  box. How they didn't notice 100 samples falling out of the box is beyond me.  I dont know if they are just plain stupid or blind because if  100 samples falls out wouldnt you  notice??  lol, anyways  who ever it was decided  not to send an empty box this time... hence they decided to  replace  something, even if it is  trash... LOL so  now we have this....

I swear  that isn't my order, when I  boxed this all up, all my samples were  fill  up to the top , and I know that isnt 7 pounds worth of stuff... Lets take  another  Look what's there shall we??....lol

ROFL, what can I say my lovely samples got replaced by a Dog  bed and I have no  idea  what that other thing is either! LOL,   So  just warning everyone , this is why I insure everything  and I really care what service it is because I have  done it all and something has happened  to every service  I use  so far... For Priority mail , they   actually break open their priority  boxes  open and have stolen my items  for my clients before, then send  them an empty  box with  orange  tag saying missing contents??  Then there was first class  mail  where I send a sample bottle of oil to my  customer and she  never received it. Here in the US, it only takes about 5 business days   to get it , sometimes it seems to take them forever but I had  an instance where  it didn't show up  until 1 month later....lol... I mean wow seriously, I insured the package and they also wanted to  fight me on  it saying it was delivered when it wasn't delivered... Luckily  my  customer was sweet and notified me that she finally  got that bottle of  oil even though I made  another order for her. She was sweet to pay me the other oil , that was kind of her to do that.

Now,  you know why  I insure my products when I ship them out.  you cant trust the USPS these days  and since its the holidays, please use precaution because I know  people will  open boxes to steal, why not if no one is looking, what if its a cool Christmas gift your are sending? See what I mean?  Don't take the  risk... sadly, my customers at Sampler village aren't   getting any samples from me this  holiday box.. And one more thing, I just checked USPS website to file my insurance claim online  and guess what the link is not working... so now I have to file  it by hand to get  my  insurance money back...

Bottom line  Buy insurance, really please do yourself  a  favor, these  days you can't trust people working there to   take care of your packages over there... save  yourself worry and headaches... insure your items.