Showing posts with label shipping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shipping. Show all posts
Monday, July 16, 2012
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
In Which I Only Pay For Tape and Shipping
I'm still feeling a bit lethargic today and the overcast weather is not helping. Though I have to say, I don't miss the heat. We're having crazy weather here though. (A thunder storm just started while I'm writing this)
Anyways, today I am going to provide a tutorial on how to ship books securely without having to pay for any packaging materials except for tape. I often hate it when my books arrive in an undesirable state due to bad packaging and the postal service's careless handling. This guide will help prevent most damage done by the post office and rainy weather.
Step 1: Raid your local post office of its free supplies.
You're looking mainly to get your hands on the free 12.5" x 9.5" cardboard envelopes and the Tyvek envelopes.
They look like this
Or, you can visit your domestic post office's website to order the supplies for free. Here are the links to get the above materials from the United States Postal Office.
Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope
Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope
Express Mail Tyvek Envelope
Step 2: Take apart one of the 12.5" x 9.5" cardboard envelopes
Step 3: Flip over the cardboard so that the colored side is facing you
Step 4: Take your book and line it up to the already creased edge
Step 5: Mold the cardboard to the shape of the book
Step 6: Remove the book and crease the new edges so that they can be more defined
Step 7: Place the book back on the cardboard. Make sure the side with the adhesive strip is under the non-adhesive strip side when folding the sides back into place.
Step 8: Peel off the adhesive backing, fold the other side over on top of the adhesive side, and press firmly down. Either cut off or tape down excess cardboard.
Step 9: If you have excess cardboard on the sides with the openings, trim it away so that you can more easily fold them down later. A good way to determine how much to cut away is to think about whether or not two-thirds of the book is covered when folding one side over.
Step 10: At the opening, cut along all four creases until you hit the four corners of the book
Step 11: You should now have four flaps. Fold down the smaller flaps then fold down the larger ones. Make sure when you're folding the flaps down that the creases are snug against the edges of the book.
Step 12: Stick one piece of tape over the top flap and press firmly down.
Step 13: Repeat Steps 9-12 on the other opening. In the end, you should have something that looks similar to this
.................................................................................
You can stop now, or you can continue on to water proof your package
.................................................................................
Step 14: Take a Tyvek envelope and cut along all the sides so that you have two separate pieces. One with the writing all over it, the other with a blank side. Toss away the side with the writing. In case your book is too big or you're packaging more than one book together, you may have to cut up multiple tyvek envelopes and tape them together.
Step 15: Flip the tyvek sheet over so that the colored side is facing up and then fold the sides toward the middle. The blank side should now be facing you. Tape down the side that is on top.
Step 16: At one of the openings, fold the shorter sides inward so that the longer sides now look similar to a triangle. Afterwards, fold the longer sides down. Cut off or fold any excess tyvek that sticks out.
Step 17: Tape down the top longer flap
Step 18: Repeat Steps 16 and 17 on the other opening. You are now finished!
Anyways, today I am going to provide a tutorial on how to ship books securely without having to pay for any packaging materials except for tape. I often hate it when my books arrive in an undesirable state due to bad packaging and the postal service's careless handling. This guide will help prevent most damage done by the post office and rainy weather.
Step 1: Raid your local post office of its free supplies.
You're looking mainly to get your hands on the free 12.5" x 9.5" cardboard envelopes and the Tyvek envelopes.
They look like this
Or, you can visit your domestic post office's website to order the supplies for free. Here are the links to get the above materials from the United States Postal Office.
Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope
Express Mail Tyvek Envelope
Step 2: Take apart one of the 12.5" x 9.5" cardboard envelopes
Step 3: Flip over the cardboard so that the colored side is facing you
Step 4: Take your book and line it up to the already creased edge
Step 5: Mold the cardboard to the shape of the book
Step 6: Remove the book and crease the new edges so that they can be more defined
Step 7: Place the book back on the cardboard. Make sure the side with the adhesive strip is under the non-adhesive strip side when folding the sides back into place.
Step 8: Peel off the adhesive backing, fold the other side over on top of the adhesive side, and press firmly down. Either cut off or tape down excess cardboard.
Step 9: If you have excess cardboard on the sides with the openings, trim it away so that you can more easily fold them down later. A good way to determine how much to cut away is to think about whether or not two-thirds of the book is covered when folding one side over.
Step 10: At the opening, cut along all four creases until you hit the four corners of the book
Step 11: You should now have four flaps. Fold down the smaller flaps then fold down the larger ones. Make sure when you're folding the flaps down that the creases are snug against the edges of the book.
Step 12: Stick one piece of tape over the top flap and press firmly down.
Step 13: Repeat Steps 9-12 on the other opening. In the end, you should have something that looks similar to this
.................................................................................
You can stop now, or you can continue on to water proof your package
.................................................................................
Step 14: Take a Tyvek envelope and cut along all the sides so that you have two separate pieces. One with the writing all over it, the other with a blank side. Toss away the side with the writing. In case your book is too big or you're packaging more than one book together, you may have to cut up multiple tyvek envelopes and tape them together.
Step 15: Flip the tyvek sheet over so that the colored side is facing up and then fold the sides toward the middle. The blank side should now be facing you. Tape down the side that is on top.
Step 16: At one of the openings, fold the shorter sides inward so that the longer sides now look similar to a triangle. Afterwards, fold the longer sides down. Cut off or fold any excess tyvek that sticks out.
Step 17: Tape down the top longer flap
Step 18: Repeat Steps 16 and 17 on the other opening. You are now finished!
Monday, June 13, 2011
A Morning with the Post Office
Dear United States Postal Office located near Costco,
Why is it that you don't fire employees that customers often complain about? You know who I'm talking about. Here's a hint, she's elderly, stick-thin, wears red lipstick, sometimes has on red-rim glasses, nosy, and generally puts customers in a bad mood due to her being unhelpful and bitter. Anyways, I'm not writing to complain about anyone specific today, but about the service your overall employees provide.
Today, like previous times I have done business with you, there was a long line going out the door. However, I was lucky enough to be first in line since I arrived a few minutes earlier than the rest. You had three people working the counters and I thought surely it wouldn't take too long for my turn to be serviced. Oh, how wrong I was. Once again, I overestimated the competency of your employees. It took fifteen minutes until my turn arrived. Why on earth would I have to wait fifteen minutes when I was the first in line?!? What is worse than that is that when my turn did arrive, your employee stopped in the middle of our transaction, and for a good five minutes, looked for a pen to provide for the customer before me. Only after another in-line customer gave that pen-needing customer what she wanted did your employee finally deem to continue and finish our transaction. What should have only taken about three minutes tops took about ten! That's not even including the time spent waiting in line!
In conclusion, I would like to suggest you train your employees better in efficiency and priorities management. It is obvious they are lacking in those areas of expertise given the unnecessarily long time spent on each transaction. Better yet, fire all your old workers that have grown complacent with their work and hire new ones that already encompass the above characteristics and a more likeable demeanor. In this way, everyone would be more happy in the long run.
Your long time customer,
Kristy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, I so wanted to stalk our neighborhood UPS driver today when we drove past one another. He had my package!
Why is it that you don't fire employees that customers often complain about? You know who I'm talking about. Here's a hint, she's elderly, stick-thin, wears red lipstick, sometimes has on red-rim glasses, nosy, and generally puts customers in a bad mood due to her being unhelpful and bitter. Anyways, I'm not writing to complain about anyone specific today, but about the service your overall employees provide.
Today, like previous times I have done business with you, there was a long line going out the door. However, I was lucky enough to be first in line since I arrived a few minutes earlier than the rest. You had three people working the counters and I thought surely it wouldn't take too long for my turn to be serviced. Oh, how wrong I was. Once again, I overestimated the competency of your employees. It took fifteen minutes until my turn arrived. Why on earth would I have to wait fifteen minutes when I was the first in line?!? What is worse than that is that when my turn did arrive, your employee stopped in the middle of our transaction, and for a good five minutes, looked for a pen to provide for the customer before me. Only after another in-line customer gave that pen-needing customer what she wanted did your employee finally deem to continue and finish our transaction. What should have only taken about three minutes tops took about ten! That's not even including the time spent waiting in line!
In conclusion, I would like to suggest you train your employees better in efficiency and priorities management. It is obvious they are lacking in those areas of expertise given the unnecessarily long time spent on each transaction. Better yet, fire all your old workers that have grown complacent with their work and hire new ones that already encompass the above characteristics and a more likeable demeanor. In this way, everyone would be more happy in the long run.
Your long time customer,
Kristy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, I so wanted to stalk our neighborhood UPS driver today when we drove past one another. He had my package!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
A Life Changing Discovery!!!!
P.S. The last arrow drawn was completely coincidental in regards to the remark. =)
Friday, June 10, 2011
My gripe against UPS and FedEx
It has recently caught my attention that shipping companies love to keep on track of their scheduled delivery dates. This isn't a bad thing as long as it's not late. However, sometimes they do the most peculiar things that either leave me scratching my head or thinking they're a satanic bunch. Through the wonders of online tracking, here are two examples in which UPS and FedEx delayed any chance of an early delivery to my humble abode.
WE WERE SO CLOSE YET SO FAR APART!
AT LEAST FedEX WAS ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY ENOUGH TO NOT REPEAT CITIES THAT ARE NOT THE DESTINATION
AT LEAST FedEX WAS ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY ENOUGH TO NOT REPEAT CITIES THAT ARE NOT THE DESTINATION
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