Just curious

[tre305]

I know this forum is mostly made up of retired drivers, current drivers, feeder drives, sorters, etc etc but i was curious as to know are there any clerks on here? you know....the ones dealing with theload of packages that somehow didn't get scanned coming out of the trailer..or that have to have the address typed in by hand since the shipper or whoever didn't upload the info when the shipping label was printed.

or how about us who deal with repacks and damages on a daily basis? broken flower vases from proflowers or 1800 flowers. that mona-vie juice, or the occasional liquid detergent or floor cleaner than popped open due to bad package handling?

and how can i forget those over 100lbs exercise equipment that's packed in a 32lbs box strength box?

I guess in a way...as management and co workers tell me, all the stuff i do...including processing over goods is "job security" but i also believe in the more you know in the place, the worse it could be for you. sometimes i don't even think its worth me getting the hours i do.

but yeah....i was just curious to see if i was the only "multi clerk" on here.

 

[Anonymous 10]

My buddy(he is retired) once missdelivered a soloflex. About a month later a tracer was sent out and he remembered where he left it. He went to the house and the guy was actually working out on the machine at the time. The driver explained that it had been delivered by mistake and he was there to pick it up. The guy helped him load the machine all put together into the back of his old p600 and off he went about his day. He ran two and a half hours late and I helped him drop the workout machine at the clerks cage. The clerk was probably thinking cha Ching I know I would be.

 

[tre305]

My buddy(he is retired) once missdelivered a soloflex. About a month later a tracer was sent out and he remembered where he left it. He went to the house and the guy was actually working out on the machine at the time. The driver explained that it had been delivered by mistake and he was there to pick it up. The guy helped him load the machine all put together into the back of his old p600 and off he went about his day. He ran two and a half hours late and I helped him drop the workout machine at the clerks cage. The clerk was probably thinking cha Ching I know I would be.

wow! a month later?i dont think ive ever heard of any tracers on any package being out that long in my center, when i jumped last year....or the year before last, i did a route with a cover driver for maybe a week (young run and gunner) and one time we actually did miss-deliver a box of books (barns and noble i believe) but luckly the driver caught it before we made it to the next stop, popped a quit u-e and got it back before the customer even came out the door.

but man i hate those bowflex machines and west elm and PB boxes, most of the time they're packed in flimsy boxing and when the sorters get a hold of it, by the time it hits the belt its probably torn to hell which means at the end of the sort i gotta put on my thinking cap and try to figure out how im gonna repack it, unless i can salvage the whole thing and just saran wrap it real tight and make it half way presentable to the customer, other wise the worse that can happen is its refused and then its the reloads problem lol

 

[brownedout]

My buddy(he is retired) once missdelivered a soloflex. About a month later a tracer was sent out and he remembered where he left it. He went to the house and the guy was actually working out on the machine at the time. The driver explained that it had been delivered by mistake and he was there to pick it up. The guy helped him load the machine all put together into the back of his old p600 and off he went about his day. He ran two and a half hours late and I helped him drop the workout machine at the clerks cage. The clerk was probably thinking cha Ching I know I would be.

Too funny 407! I had a somewhat similar experience with a Nordic Trak. While covering a route, had a call tag for one. The person asks me to come in. While not excited about dragging it through their house was just glad it was "ready". However it was not, it was completely assembled ready for use. They said shipper told them we would take it apart and rebox. UH UH! I asked if we delivered it like that. They said no it was all boxed up. I replied then that's how it needs to be, to be picked up. Another funny Nordic Trak tale, one of my former co-workers salvaged one from in front of someones house, that they were looking to get rid of. He drove around with it most of his day. Don't we get plenty of exercise as it is on our job.

305, I am a cover-clerk, do all that you mentioned and more. Getting to the point where I'm clerking as much as driving. There are about 3 or 4 others on here that post with some regularity.

 

[DS]

tre, I would not want your job,I'm a driver and a roll of that thick plastic tape is my savior.
I've been soaked in monavie,rounded up 3000 grommits,repacked wine,and much more.
Can you believe that there are so many morons out there that tape the hell out of the top of the box and forget about the bottom?
aye aye aye aye aye

 

[menotyou]

I was a clerk. That job is hell. People have no clue how to pack things. Monavie-AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
I hated it when QVC had a Today's Special Sleep Number Bed that didn't scan.

Worse yet, when the "budget" wouldn't allow a purchase of tape. I hated/loved that job.

I miss preload.

 

[Nimnim]

As an irreg driver I get to see some of the most lovely insufficient packing attempts possible. Though as egregious as some customers pack things I've had things just as bad come from our own repacks.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

I worked as a FT counter clerk for a while and also DA/SPA, as well as updating the queue in the db (which was found not to be union work). lol

 

[Babagounj]

I'm still working customer counter; shipping and parcel pick-up plus same day will call . For the OP , you are not alone here.

 

[Babagounj]

ah, sleve. I now keep all sdwc people waiting as a group in the guard shack.
I write down what I have and call out the addresses.
It can be annoying for the drivers who are leaving and they have to push their way through the crowds.

 

[tre305]

wow, glad to see im not alone in this lol.
but that has to be one of the biggest kickers for me for most of my damage reports..."insufficient packaging"
i used to have a field to write down any comments about that stuff in my ETT damage input and was "told" that the shippers would begin
to be charged for that but ehhh i doubt that ever happened. i just throw most of it out anyway, especially that cheap wine.

just curious though...any of you current/past clerks/customer counters ever came across any "weird" packages?
i had one "hazmat" that was "fuming"...had to put it on a table and roll it out thru one of the overhead doors out into the yard and an outside responder had to be called in for it. yet my idiot co workers still wanted to go over and popped their head in on it to see what it was.

ive also had an elephant foot come thru that was going to some lab....mighty gross if you ask me. and i cant forget the horse sperm

most recent was some high value bull sperm that the dry ice around it....something happened to it...i dont know but we treated it as a hazmat. turns out it was a high value as well.....10k worth.....needless to say it was repacked and sent out that same day.

 

[fethrs]

Clerk here, Customer Counter, re-wrap, damages, overgood, ECS, UDC, small spa, small DA, big DA, and whatever else I missed. Oh the joys of clerk "werk".
Done it all and then some, and still do some of it daily, it's my yob.

 

[menotyou]

The worst packages I saw/smelled were the funky foods going to different ethnic folks. Or, this one guy got his 'organic goat milk' for a shipper who INSISTED on using ice to chill the 'milk'. Some place in Vermont. I don't think one shipment during the summers I was a clerking ever made it through in any ingestible form. They never changed the way they shipped as far as I know.