Pottery Barn Must Die...

But Benefits Are Great! · 07-06-2008, 05:55 AM

I was unloading a feeder last Friday, and came upon THE largest cardboard box I have ever seen. I have no idea what was in it, but I swear to God the damn thing could have held a Volkswagen.

This box from hell, with the sweet little "Pottery Barn" writing on the side, took 3 people to get out of the truck, and WAS TOO BIG to fit onto the Oversize/irregular slide.

Took 4 guys to lift it over the framework of the slide. I hate Pottery Barn. Three questions-

1. How in GOD'S NAME is a driver going to deliver a box like that?
2. What is the name of the guy who sold the Pottery Barn account for UPS? Home address would be appreciated.

3. What was my third question again?

Baba gounj · 07-06-2008, 06:15 AM

You think you had it rough. You should see the look on the people who come to the customer counter in their eco-box cars to pick those monsters up.
ps. on most stops its first floor only, I tell them.

scratch · 07-06-2008, 06:54 AM

Sometimes these gigantic oversize boxes get into our system because they were loaded in the trailer by the shipper at a Feeder pickup. I have had a couple of boxes that wouldn't come out of the bulkhead door because they were too big. They are supposed to go back to the shipper, but if they make it that far, I just back up in someone's driveway and bring it out the back door. If I sent it back, it would probably just get damaged.

UpstateNYUPSer · 07-06-2008, 06:58 AM

Same here--if it has made it all the way through our system I go ahead and deliver. The same with booze boxes or re-used hazmats. These should have caught if not at the P/U then certainly at the center and should have been RTS.

BBAG, add this to your "to do" list for when you become CEO.

But Benefits Are Great! · 07-06-2008, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratch

Sometimes these gigantic oversize boxes get into our system because they were loaded in the trailer by the shipper at a Feeder pickup. I have had a couple of boxes that wouldn't come out of the bulkhead door because they were too big. They are supposed to go back to the shipper, but if they make it that far, I just back up in someone's driveway and bring it out the back door. If I sent it back, it would probably just get damaged.

I mean, this box was bigger than my 1/2 bath in my house for God's sake - I thought it was a joke, honestly.

Jack4343 · 07-06-2008, 07:12 AM

We have a route in our center that only has 2 ground delivery stops. Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids plus a few mall air stops. It's a 24 ft. van and starting in September (Mall peak season), it'll be 2 24 ft. vans filled with oversized rugs, and enormous Pottery Barn furniture pieces. During peak, the guy delivers way over 1000 pieces and takes an additional diad to make sure the entire load gets scanned. On my route, I dread the days that a Pottery Barn piece shows up on my truck. Imagine a route that is nothing but those pieces! Ouch! He has to be done delivering everything by 1pm so he can go to lunch and start his 30 pickups in another zip code. I've done that route and it's not too stressful but I just wouldn't want to sit at one stop 1/2 of the day just unloading bulk piece after piece. I'll take my 130 stops with 15 pu's and be happy.

over9five · 07-06-2008, 08:01 AM

Sometimes the shifters have to move trailers to a floor OH door cuz the PB boxes are to big to be loaded at the regular loading doors.

I wonder how one guy can possibly deliver them. I suppose it would have to be my first stop, and I would back into their driveway and slide it out the back (and leave it right there, regardless of out of site/weather!)

soberups · 07-06-2008, 08:11 AM

The fun really starts when you have a Pottery Barn delivery for a 3rd floor apartment. You break trace and get there first thing because you know you arent getting anything done until you blow this constipated mass out of your package car. The customer is inevitably not there....and the neighbors probably arent gonna want this 200-cubic foot pile clogging up their living room all day. Solution? DRIVER RELEASE. I dont care if its an apartment and needs a signiature, its got to go NOW. I have never had a claim on a PB delivery.

lost · 07-06-2008, 08:24 AM

I used to be in revenue recovery, We had a special thing with pottery barn and did not weigh or measure them, because of the deal with them. That was 3 years ago, but if those thing are still coming like that its a good chance its still on.

New Englander · 07-06-2008, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack4343

We have a route in our center that only has 2 ground delivery stops. Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids plus a few mall air stops. It's a 24 ft. van and starting in September (Mall peak season), it'll be 2 24 ft. vans filled with oversized rugs, and enormous Pottery Barn furniture pieces. During peak, the guy delivers way over 1000 pieces and takes an additional diad to make sure the entire load gets scanned. On my route, I dread the days that a Pottery Barn piece shows up on my truck. Imagine a route that is nothing but those pieces! Ouch! He has to be done delivering everything by 1pm so he can go to lunch and start his 30 pickups in another zip code. I've done that route and it's not too stressful but I just wouldn't want to sit at one stop 1/2 of the day just unloading bulk piece after piece. I'll take my 130 stops with 15 pu's and be happy.

I would take his route any day of the week over yours

barnyard · 07-06-2008, 09:04 AM

It has been so long since I had a PB package (knocking furiously on wood) that I thought we lost the account.

Thank doG I deliver to hicks.

TB

But Benefits Are Great! · 07-06-2008, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnyard

It has been so long since I had a PB package (knocking furiously on wood) that I thought we lost the account.

Thank doG I deliver to hicks.

TB

LOL! Box was at least 6 feet per side.... No possibility that anyone measured or weighed it.

There are two other types of boxes I dread -

1. Anything that shows the weight as "69 lbs." "69 lbs." translates to "We didn't weigh it, but it is well over 140lbs and we wanted to save $$$ keeping it under the 70 lb limit"

2. The little 6 inch square boxes with re-inforced strapping tape around them. Invariably, they contain nuts or bolts made of some material 10 times as dense as lead, and no matter how secure they were prior, they split open & spew their contents on the belt the moment I glance at them. And they are usually marked as "69 lbs."

barnyard · 07-06-2008, 09:19 AM

Cases of paper, for me, are the worst. I have 2 banks that get 6-10 cases of paper a week. It's almost like they are printing their own money.

TB

drewed · 07-06-2008, 09:22 AM

Thats why there is a limit on the physical size of the box in the small package arena, i believe its something like 127"x62" (something like that roughly 10 ft by 5) and theres a depth limit too i dont remember what it it but its based off the size you can get in and out of an air container......this sounds like it should have been freight though

But Benefits Are Great! · 07-06-2008, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnyard

Cases of paper, for me, are the worst. I have 2 banks that get 6-10 cases of paper a week. It's almost like they are printing their own money.

TB

Ah, God, I hate the cases of paper from Staples...

As an unloader, cases of toilet paper - by the time it gets out of the truck it either looks like an envelope, or rolls are all over the place.

".........this sounds like it should have been freight though..."

It was too big to slide down the "Large / Irregular" schute. They were about to move the feeder truck so we could just drop the damn thing..

Thorn · 07-06-2008, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnyard

Cases of paper, for me, are the worst. I have 2 banks that get 6-10 cases of paper a week. It's almost like they are printing their own money.TB

...or how about when every office in town decides to get the same special deal on paper and it all comes in on the same day and the preloader loads it all in one pile. Nothing more fun than digging through 30 boxes of office depot paper to make 5 deliveries.

IDoLessWorkThanMost · 07-06-2008, 10:55 AM

Funny all this talk about office depot and PB.

First one- why does Office depot use their own style UPS labels? It's a huge pain in the azz for DECAP/SPA. the boxes come in, you try to PAL them in SPA and they always come up blank. All those 50 pound packages of paper (usually 100-200 of them ) come gushing up to DECAP where we have to fix them in Package to get a good PAL. Why can't these idiots use regular UPS labels so they all PAL properly? Why must they be those cheap proprietary Office Depot ones that don't PAL? It's no wonder there's so many damages on the crap and straps everywhere, it's because about 12 people have to handle them per center to get them onto a car!

Secondly, on Wednesday we had a Pottery Barn package in the bulk train. This was no ordinary PB though, it was about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide. I have seen loads of PB in my day, thousands, but this one took the cake. It was only around 80 or 90 pounds, so I figured I'd try to lift it myself to get it onto the shelf for a loader to load. I couldn't put my arms around it (only 5'9 145) Then, interestingly , I had some help with it by a fellow teamster, and the package wouldn't fit in the hole at the azz end of the trailer. lol We had to carry it around outside the building after the trailer was being pulled to get it in.

/end rant

looper804 · 07-06-2008, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soberups

The fun really starts when you have a Pottery Barn delivery for a 3rd floor apartment. You break trace and get there first thing because you know you arent getting anything done until you blow this constipated mass out of your package car. The customer is inevitably not there....and the neighbors probably arent gonna want this 200-cubic foot pile clogging up their living room all day. Solution? DRIVER RELEASE. I dont care if its an apartment and needs a signiature, its got to go NOW. I have never had a claim on a PB delivery.

I would do the same.I had a lady re-doing her kids rooms.Was ordering everything from PB kids.For 2 weeks I was delivering 3 HUGE boxes a day,all over weight.I slid them out the back onto a hand truck and DR them to the side of the house.(she was and is still never home)

looper804 · 07-06-2008, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnyard

Cases of paper, for me, are the worst. I have 2 banks that get 6-10 cases of paper a week. It's almost like they are printing their own money.

TB

Used to have a CPA on the 3rd floor.Would order 15 cases at a time.Would take me over an hour to get them all up to his office.Thank goodness he moved.(also I was much younger then.Would probably take twice as long now)

FromBluetoBrown · 07-06-2008, 11:36 AM

One of the trucks I load delivers to an company that is a middleman for providing cheap office furniture for other companies. The furniture? Pottery Barn. Luckily the route the driver runs is the office park our building is in so most of them he leaves the 10-15 Pottery Barn boxes behind until he can make some deliveries and free up some room.

helenofcalifornia · 07-06-2008, 12:00 PM

The Fedex driver was soooo... happy to hear years ago that they had lost the account and UPS now had it. We all know why. Pottery Barn has to be delivered before 10a.m. in our center which is a real pain in the butt for that driver. I hope UPS is making a lot of money on this account.