8 Shipping Horror Stories

Posted August 1, 2018 by Matt Morelli

If you are like most Americans, you’ve ordered products online. It’s simple, fast, and is a huge time saver. The convenience of online shopping can’t be beat.

The challenge, of course, is rolling the dice when it comes to speedy and safe delivery. Now don’t get me wrong, the major parcel carriers do a phenomenal job, and the majority of packages delivered show up at their final destination completely unscathed.

But, not all are so lucky. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes packages fall off of the back of a truck, or fall out of an airplane into a mean spirited volcano. For these times, of course, we’re here to insure those packages and get you back on your feet.

Fortunately for us, some of those unlucky people took to the internet to share their stories. Some names have been censored to protect the innocent.

  • I bought a (car) radiator from a catalog and a carrier sent it to the wrong zip code, more specifically, a hospital. When I finally got it, there were tire tracks down the middle of the box and the entire radiator was bent in a slight curve. Second one was shipped through another carrier and it arrived in 2 days. – Reddit
  • One carrier left a package under my car. I didn’t notice it until I left for work the next morning and had to go back inside the house to drop it off since I didn’t want to lug it around with me. But the worst part is, it was right under the tire, ready to be crushed if I didn’t happen to notice something poking out from under my rear tire (I was backed in too). – Reddit
  • There was a week where my packages looked as if the delivery person had defended themselves from marauding grumpy bears using my parcels. I assumed the sorting machine had chewed them up, but there wasn’t even a note, even though it happened to 4 different packages. And once there were teeth marks. (Animal teeth, not human.) The contents were always fine, thankfully. – Reddit
  • Once I ordered a really pretty mirror/hairbrush/tray set for a friend and when it was delivered the delivery guy dropped it on my doorstep, rang the doorbell, and booked it out of there before I could see the state of the package (probably so that I couldn’t stop him). The package was pretty badly banged up and was torn in several places, and when I picked it up I could tell by the sound of it that everything was broken inside. Sure enough, when I opened it everything had shattered into pieces. Luckily the seller was kind enough to send out a replacement package (since the carrier didn’t seem to think anything was their fault) and the replacement package arrived in perfect condition (though it was too late for my friend’s birthday). – Reddit
  • I had a box smashed in. The box was stamped “fragile”. Otherwise, I really haven’t had any issues other than some delayed priority shipping. – Reddit
  • In NZ but we have Courier Post and NZ Couriers who are both just as bad. Last year there was an incident around Christmas last year where a bunch of them met up and started kicking and throwing packages around, breaking some expensive stuff because they were forced to work on Christmas day. – Reddit
  • Ordered an original OBEY print and it came with one side of the tube caved in. Had to perform near surgery to get my poster out in tact as best I could. Complained to the carrier for a month straight, nothing happened. – GiantBomb
  • The next one is posted without further comment…

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