I have confirmed with UPS that it is their goal to open and inspect 100% of the packages they handle from individual shippers (folks like you and me). The pretense is that they want to make sure we're packing correctly and that the contents won't endanger their employees.
I suggested that neither the Postal Service nor Federal Express seem to be having any problem with their employees being injured by packages and asked for statistics regarding their problem such as how many incidents had occured in the last year, etc., and also some general description of the nature of the problems they were having. I was told that no such information is available.
I suggested to them that this policy is an open invitation to employee theft and that I couldn't possibly ship anything valuable or desirable via UPS knowing that it would be fondled by a lowly clerk. Except in a case of a clear emergency (such as a package with smoke coming out of it), only sworn Postal Inspectors are allowed to open US Mail, and then only with a warrant. UPS's reply was, "Gee, we hadn't tought of that. We'll forward your suggestion on to our management."
I also suggested to UPS that by requiring their employees to open packages, they could put their employees in very bad legal situations and create terrible misunderstandings and troubles for their customers.
Consider, for example, a clerk who opens a package being sent from Miami to New York in order to make sure it's "properly packed." Inside, amidst a flurry of packing curls, the clerk finds a large zip-lock bag containing a suspecious white powder. If the employee just repacks the box and looks the other way, that employee could now be criminally guilty, an accessory to drug smuggling. His fingerprints are on the bag. He could seriously go to jail.
So, he asks the lady submitting the package, "What's this?"
She says, "I don't know. I'm just an office temp working at this 'Acme Imports' place this week while their regular assistant is on vacation. The boss told me to take this box down here and send it."
So, the clerk now as to call the police and report the suspecious situation. If he doesn't, he could become part of a crime. The police are going to arrest the poor office temp, get a warrant for the man who told her to mail the package and a warrant to search his office, car and home.
Eventually, the lab results will confirm that the bag contains expensive, custom-blended mineral bath salts that the man was sending to a certain lady "friend" in New York.
But, this information doesn't arrive soon enough to keep the police from bringing the situation to the attention of the man's wife in Miami as they arrive to search her house. She now thinks that her husband has been making all those trips to New York to smuggle drugs. Wait until he has to explain the truth to her... it'll be even worse.
But, again, if the UPS employee had ignored the suspecious situation, he could have gone to jail. On the other hand, if I was the man who just had his business searched in front of important clients, who's house was searched, who's marriage is now in serious trouble, and who's reputation has been ruined because some UPS clerk couldn't tell bath salts from cocaine, I'd sue UPS big time! Sometimes, it's best just not to know things.
UPS's response was, "Gee, we hadn't tought of any of that. We'll forward your suggestions on to our management."
This policy is also an open invitation to fraud. For example, I could UPS several pieces of common jewlery and one ring with no stone in it to a friend. The UPS clerk would open the box, find the items properly packed, tape it back up, and send it on its way. When it arrives, my friend could say, "This package has been opened while it was in UPS's care. See, the tape doesn't match."
And the UPS man would say, "Yes, so what? We open lots of packages. We try to open every packge."
"So what? I'll tell you so what! The flawless 2 carate diamond is missing from this ring. See, you can see that the setting has been forced apart."
And what recourse does UPS have? The box was clearly opened while it was in their care.
UPS's response was, "Gee, we hadn't tought of that. We'll forward your suggestion on to our management."
My guess is that "we'll forward your suggestion on to our management is just a bit bucket. But, it certainly makes you wonder what these people are thinking with.
The Hope Diamond was sent the the Smithsonian via the US Postal Service.
Right now, I couldn't possibly send anything valuable or desirable (such as a collectible knife) via UPS.
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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
