Is there anything I could have done to avoid this?  Seems like they tossed something very heavy onto it.

      

This is the first time I've had a tree destroyed during shipping.

This was a Peter's Honey. :(

ohh, that is sad.
I'd go to the office and complaint, then demand for explanation followed by apologies and compensation by USPS.

Yes. I will certainly file an insurance claim.  Priority mail includes $50 of insurance.   I'll refund the cost to the buyer, and the bottom part of that tree will probably put out new growth anyway.

Been there with the PO. They do bad things to plants.

Would ups or FedEx be better? Though a little pricier.

I do not think one is necessarily better than the other.  Packages get stacked on top of each other.  Stuff shifts around during transport.  Things get crushed.

I guess the big red FRAGILE written on every side of the box means nothing to them. Lol

Hey James,

Sorry to hear the news. I shipped a few trees last week to someone in Florida and they were damaged pretty badly by USPS. Thankfully only one of the three trees were severely damaged. This was the first time I've had a problem. Just file a complaint online and it should get resolved within a month.

Did you have luck with the Dr. Gowaty cuttings? If you need more just let me know.

All the best,
Charles

I just started sending live figs in the last month or so.  Now you're scaring me.  I don't see how one could pack it any better other than to put it in a rigid container.

Frustrating at the very least...but, I see two trees for the price of one.  Root the top, and continue to grow the bottom, which already has roots.

It is aggravating, though.  It could've been worse.


Frank

I have never had them damaged like this but I have had them left outside in the hot sun most of the day.

Can also try a sturdier box, I usually go with a corrugated cardboard box instead, more rigid.  I don't know if it would have helped in this case, looks like it had been tossed around or something heavy fell on in.

I have had damaged boxes with UPS, but nothing that severe. Had several with USPS and lost packages, as well.  UPS hasn't lost anything, yet. FedEx overnight is great, but ground service had a way of taking 8-10 days for a 4 day trip. The ground service just doesn't care about travel time.

I got one in the mail like that 2 weeks ago.  The mail man actually placed it in my hands like that!  I asked him what happened.  He said; "all boxes are thrown around".. ..."senders need to do a super job to keep them from getting crush by packing them stronger"...."we got too many packages to move and can't worry about them getting crush"..."its the nature of our job".

I said to him....."and you wonder why folks don't use the mail service that much anymore?"  "you guys are a joke!"  He told me to file a damage report at the post office----the US Gov is cheap and you get what you pay for.

I had this happen a couple times to trees I shipped as well.  It's no big deal.  First off, you can file a claim and get $50.  Then, the tree will probably come back anyway.  So it's like having your cake and eating it too. 

People complain that it's too expensive to ship things.  If they took additional measures to ensure nothing ever got damaged, that might double the cost of shipping. 

There are options for shipping very delicate items where they take great care.  These options are much more expensive. 

Like someone said, you get what you pay for.  Personally, I would rather a package gets destroyed occasionally than pay twice as much. 

If they can't get the job done the right way, then step aside and let someone else take over. We do not pay to have packages crushed or look like they have been put through a compactor. I do not remember the USPS advertising their shipping conditions as: $20 perfect condition.... $15 slightly damaged.... $10 severely damaged....$5 may not arrive!

I think this has happened to all of us a time or two.  I had many boxes arrive at my door step looking just like yours, usually the tree isn't damaged inside but I had a pastiliere from rain forest arrive and the tree was in 2 pieces , snapped about halfway. The tree is growing good now but  I hate getting a package that looks like it was dragged behind the mail truck to my house.

Those pictures are pretty convincing. Hopefully you wont have issues with the claim. You'll have to show them some paperwork to prove the value. I had to jump through some hoops before with valuation. Not a plant, but a used car part from a seller online.

Even if only 2, 1, or 0.01% of the packages have a problem, it is still a staggering number. For Fedex and UPS, as well. Let me know if you guys accomplish your work accurately better than 98% of the time. I might hire you. Hell, even the best batter in the major league hit 36.6% of the times at bat...

Find out who the driver was to that delivery.
He should be DINGed for being so unprofessional. Leaving a package in that condition and no comments attached to it is not acceptable!

The advantage to using USPS is Saturday delivery and possibly cost.

The disadvantage is demonstrated in the pictures.

Probably too much defending of shipping companies in this post, but I've got enough experience in that field that I figured I'd share my thoughts.

Enigma and Rob appear to have this pretty well figured out. I worked for UPS for seven years both as a package handler in the sorting (warehouse) facility and later in management during and for several years after college. While I can't write definitively regarding the USPS, I doubt they operate all that much differently in their package sorting and transport facilities than either of their private competitors mentioned in this thread. There are rules about package handling and they are generally obeyed by the employees, who I would imagine would like to keep their jobs. But you are talking about a very large volume of packages making their way through these facilities out of trucks/bins and onto conveyor belts and down chutes and stacked into trucks or airplanes to later have the process performed in reverse. In cases of non-air delivery across several states or across the country this process can be repeated two or three times. There are many opportunities for things to go wrong and for packages to be damaged, destroyed or even to disappear entirely. That most of us have had few problems with damage to the live plants we ship despite the process they endure in transit (and the above doesn't really come close to describing what it's like to watch the controlled chaos that is an active package processing facility during peak volume times - the logistics are daunting) is a testament to the hard work done attempting to preserve the integrity of your packages by the vast majority of employees in these organizations.   

Suggesting that no packages should ever be damaged or their contents destroyed or that companies/govt organizations that do should close up the shop and make way for companies that can do it better is fine, but ignores the fact that such is already the case as far as competition. UPS and FedEx as well as other, smaller package transport companies are privately held, yet they still damage items shipped with them just like the USPS. Perhaps they have lower damage percentages, but I doubt those numbers are out there for comparison. The USPS is also much less expensive for most shipping options. There will be the occasional damaged package as long as items are shipped in boxes that can be damaged and are packaged in a way that allows their contents to be tumbled around inside...or until we all have private transporters ala Star Trek. I wouldn't hold my breath on either development.