Package Perfect

The package arrives and is left on your front porch.  You step out to retrieve it and the first thing you do when you pick it up is to inspect it.  Because visible damage to the outside of your delivered goods surely means that the ordered goods inside have been compromised.  If there is no damage on the outside, we are good right (yea, yea, I know, fragile products could still be damaged)?  Generally speaking, if the packaging looks good, then the treasures inside should be the same. 

Boy, have I got a story for you.  We receive heater and AC filters every 30 days.  This works as a great reminder of when I need to change the filters on our environmental control unit.  Every package that arrives from our product supplier is shipped in a cardboard container that would survive a freight train collision.  Our recent package arrived in pristine condition, not so much as a scratch on it.  And it nearly took one hour of fighting multiple layers of box and tape to get it open.  The package was hermetically sealed and was not intended to be opened for a millennium.

Once I managed to penetrate the fortress-like composition of the packaging, what I found left me totally flummoxed.  The filter inside of the box was tightly tucked into its corrugated slot and neatly wrapped in a plastic bag, however, upon inspection, one corner of the filter had been mutilated.  The damage was significant, the entire corner of the filter was bent and torn.  The effectiveness of the filter was diminished as dirty air will flow easily around the damaged filter. 

So, what I want to know is how the filter got damaged, when the packaging was absolutely in mint condition.  There wasn’t so much as a scratch on the outside of the box, yet its contents had significant damage.  This leaves me with only one conclusion—the filter was damaged before it was packaged.

Ok, chew on that for a minute.  Someone at a packaging plant, somewhere in the US (the claim is that they are manufactured in this country), inspected a damaged product and shipped it anyway.  Or it passed the inspection, then was damaged by whoever put the filter in the shipping container.  Perhaps it was loaded by a machine, and the device missed the recessed window in the package, I can buy that.  But doesn’t someone inspect the package afterward?

I have had several situations where a package is damaged, and the product inside maybe was or maybe wasn’t harmed.  This situation is new to me, the package is good, but the contents are damaged—maybe it was the Havana Syndrome.  I am quite sure that Russia had to be involved somehow, after all, they are responsible for everything that is wrong in the world.  I just can’t understand how anyone would let that product go out the door.

This could be another situation where the employees are paid shyte and really could give a furry rat’s ass less about the quality of the product that departs the facility.  Irrespective of the reason why this happened, it seems to be happening on an ever-increasing basis.  Products coming out of production or shipping facilities are being shipped damaged before they are placed in heavy-duty packaging.  The quality of the products we receive for our hard-earned money has been on a steady decline since the crash of 08-09.  This isn’t the first problem I have had recently and certainly, shipping companies share in the blame.

This case is crazy, filters are made of pressed paper, which is somewhat flexible and nearly impossible to damage in a solid container.  Even if the container has been tossed around, there would be no damage to a paper product.  It wasn’t like the package had tire tread marks on it, in fact, there wasn’t a scratch or blemish to be found.  I am one who believes that shipping employees use packages as beachballs.  But this package showed no sign of mishandling.  Even if it had been mishandled the ruggedness of that box would withstand their best efforts.

As we continue down this road of inflation, job stagnation, and salary decline, we face an uphill battle in receiving quality products.  Our hard-earned money will continue to bring us only mediocrity.  Maybe I will live long enough to see people get better pay, healthcare, and more tolerable work conditions.  With this should come better quality—I believe.  As always, this is just my opinion.

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer

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