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Apologies to Consumerist for borrowing the title, but it seemed to fit here.
We've picked up a local vendor for brown mustard; J hates the stuff, but apparently customers have been asking for 'mustard' and are annoyed when we direct them to the equivalent (mostarda is pretty yummy and could be a perfect substitute, but people around here aren't very adventurous).
The outer shipping box is a Home Depot moving box that has been cut down to about half-height, and not reinforced properly (just folded down and taped like normal).
Shipment 1: Almost a full case of product (split between two SKUs) was lost (jars had broken in such a way that had I not picked them up by the lids I could have ended up in the ER). No cushioning in the shipping box at all. Yes, myself and J documented the hell out of it.
Shipment 2: Central kitchen also ordered four one-gallon jugs of mustard...two were some shades of damaged/leaking and I don't know if the other two were salvageable. Four jars in a case of glass retail jars were also lost. A had just received it a few minutes prior, so we documented the hell out of it and sent pictures to J. Padding was an empty product case.
Shipment 3: Today. I saw it sitting innocently on the warehouse floor, immediately recognized the outer box and commented to J "Wanna place any bets on what's actually usable in this one?" At least the outer box wasn't stained and I didn't immediately smell mustard...I zip the tape open and the larger of the three cases inside looks wet. Yup, at least one of the gallon jugs the kitchen ordered was broken. Of the two smaller retail cases, one had one broken jar--astoundingly none of the other jars even had splatters on them--and the other case was completely intact save for some residual mustard stains from the broken cases. No cushioning in the shipping box.
So....3 shipments, 3 damage claims. I'd expect that level of packaging ineptness from a clueless private Ebay seller, not an actual company. The larger boxes have got to be cheaper from Uline.
We've picked up a local vendor for brown mustard; J hates the stuff, but apparently customers have been asking for 'mustard' and are annoyed when we direct them to the equivalent (mostarda is pretty yummy and could be a perfect substitute, but people around here aren't very adventurous).
The outer shipping box is a Home Depot moving box that has been cut down to about half-height, and not reinforced properly (just folded down and taped like normal).
Shipment 1: Almost a full case of product (split between two SKUs) was lost (jars had broken in such a way that had I not picked them up by the lids I could have ended up in the ER). No cushioning in the shipping box at all. Yes, myself and J documented the hell out of it.
Shipment 2: Central kitchen also ordered four one-gallon jugs of mustard...two were some shades of damaged/leaking and I don't know if the other two were salvageable. Four jars in a case of glass retail jars were also lost. A had just received it a few minutes prior, so we documented the hell out of it and sent pictures to J. Padding was an empty product case.
Shipment 3: Today. I saw it sitting innocently on the warehouse floor, immediately recognized the outer box and commented to J "Wanna place any bets on what's actually usable in this one?" At least the outer box wasn't stained and I didn't immediately smell mustard...I zip the tape open and the larger of the three cases inside looks wet. Yup, at least one of the gallon jugs the kitchen ordered was broken. Of the two smaller retail cases, one had one broken jar--astoundingly none of the other jars even had splatters on them--and the other case was completely intact save for some residual mustard stains from the broken cases. No cushioning in the shipping box.
So....3 shipments, 3 damage claims. I'd expect that level of packaging ineptness from a clueless private Ebay seller, not an actual company. The larger boxes have got to be cheaper from Uline.
Corporate is in NYC so all buying decisions go through them which can be annoying. A few of our local (MA/RI) vendors do deliver personally which is nice.
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