TackleTour

KP Duty wrote:Well, my light inshore showed up today broken in half...rod tube was bent to hell. Second broken rod from them this month . I'm going to email them some pics of their thin, crumpled tube. It's a combo of their inadequate packing of the rod and UPS's mishandling of it.

I ordered a Fantasista rod and requested special packaging for it. I sure hope the rod doesn't get broken.

hoohoorjoo wrote:

KP Duty wrote:Well, my light inshore showed up today broken in half...rod tube was bent to hell. Second broken rod from them this month . I'm going to email them some pics of their thin, crumpled tube. It's a combo of their inadequate packing of the rod and UPS's mishandling of it.

I ordered a Fantasista rod and requested special packaging for it. I sure hope the rod doesn't get broken.

The 7'6" Fantasista that I ordered from STP came in perfect condition. They have great deals on all sorts of gear and very good customer service.

Well, my Fantasista showed up today and it is an excellent rod. I like it a lot. STP uses UPS sure post, which means UPS handles it all the way, then the post office makes the final delivery. Both times, my rods were delivered directly by UPS, because they were going to be in the area, according to the tracking page. I am almost positive that the last leg (the postal carrier) is where the rods get broken.

hoohoorjoo wrote:I am almost positive that the last leg (the postal carrier) is where the rods get broken.

I will no longer have a rod of 7 feet or more delivered on that last leg by the post office. The shipping tube for a rod that length will not fit in the truck that delivers to my neighborhood. Instead of leaving a slip for me to pick it up at the local P.O., they bend the rod tube until it fits. Sometimes the crease that puts in the tube breaks the rod; even when it doesn't, it leaves me anxious about the effect on the rod.

I wish I could find the link, but I read a post somewhere from a guy who worked at a UPS/Fedex sorting center and he was saying that there was a specific conveyor machine that most places use that only accepts items around 6'-something long, anything longer has to be manually walked to the end of the line. He was saying that the warehouse moves so fast that employees are encouraged to just chuck stuff on the conveyor if it "looks close", which if it is a 7-8' tube, will jam the machine and potently break the rod. I have started marking the length in feet and inches on the tube in big txt when I mail rods out, it might not help but it cannot hurt.

I mark all my rod tubes "DO NOT CONVEY!". Anything that long can get stuck sideways on a conveyor, then the other items pile against it. I used to work on roll-up doors and have been in several UPS facilities, which is headquartered near me in Atlanta. I have seen a tube block a conveyor on more than 1 occasion.....the result both times was damage to the tube. Both tubes were cardboard. I always ship in sch. 80 pvc, usually gray electrical conduit tubing.

Houndfish wrote: I have started marking the length in feet and inches on the tube in big txt when I mail rods out....

Great idea! Lots of people probably aren't very good at estimating the length of things.

hoohoorjoo wrote: I mark all my rod tubes "DO NOT CONVEY!"

Seems like another good idea.

I hope everyone has good experiences shipping stuff. My experience is you can mark anything you want on the box/tube. UPS can find a way to destroy what you ship. I shipped rods to my fishing destination as apposed to flying with them. That worked great. Shipped them back. When I got my tube there were foot prints all over it and the latch was broke. Called UPS they stated they insure the contents not the packaging. Oh well they have a monopoly. What are you going to do. I have bought many blanks and never have received a broken one but sometimes the packaging is pretty mangled.

Regarding the Fantasista I got from STP, I like it so much that I am planning to order the 7' medium, also. Heres the 6-10ML. I fished it a little yesterday evening and it has VERY impressive sensitivity.