Excessive security or good marketing?

[GoldieATX]

It cracks me up each time I see this. I get to work and find a medium size UPS box on my desk. Could be a number of things; I've received everything from client documents to live shrimp to gourmet bacon. Anyway, I open the box. Inside, I find a small size UPS box. Inside, a UPS bubble pack. And within that, a UPS flat envelope. By this time, of course, I know there's some fancy jewelry involved. That's how my newly re-sized ring arrived from DBL today (just as it did on original delivery).



So what's the practical purpose of this strategy? Is it just the security of disguising a small, valuable item in a larger package, one that will withstand shipping damage and will show obvious signs of tampering? Or is this perhaps some clever marketing scheme designed to build excitement and anticipation during the "reveal"? Probably the former; but mostly, it's just really amusing.

 

[Laila619]

It does seem like a lot, but it's very secure at least!

 

[bright ice]

Most every piece of jewelry I have gotten has been shipped this way

 

[Karl_K]

Third party Insurance company requires it.

 

[Rockdiamond]

Wait a minute- there was a ring in that box??

We were supposed to ship you some bacon

 

[John P]

Third party Insurance company requires it.

"Double-boxing" is required. Double-enveloping, or using a padded envelope further surrounded by popcorn/bubblewrap, is a good idea in general to prevent ring boxes, grading-reports, etc from smashing against each other in-transit.

...Some senders will also put clear packaging tape over the outer box ends. Pedantic senders do this for both the outer and inner-boxes - sometimes taping along length and height at the corners.

...The truly disturbed do all the above, add a layer of heavy, commercial-grade, biaxially oriented polypropylene tape and call every 20 minutes starting at 9AM (their time) to see if you got it yet.

I love my job

 

[oldminer]

The purpose of all this is to make it most difficult for the shipping company employees to rifle through the sealed outer box and extract the contents without any visible damage. It works, but it usually is a huge waste of resources. I have begun recently to only permanently seal the outer box. The inner box and the inner padded envelopes get a strip of tape over their entire open end to effect a total seal, but the person on the receiving end can simply slice the tape and re-use all the packing material for another shipment without any damage to the shipping boxes. It is just as secure, but does not waste every componenet used in the shipping process.
Its a green approach to what otherwise looks wasteful.

 

[Rockdiamond]

Good point Dave- re-using the outer box is a no no- as tampering won't be evident.
But inner packaging sure can be re-used.

BTW- We've taken to adding a lot of info on that inner box- and it's saved us a lost package already.
If the outer box is destroyed, and you have contact info on the inner box FedEx will call you.

 

[minmin001]

hmmm Houston, we have a problem... where are the pics. of the ring???

 

[LD]

I'd rather have the security and know my lovely ring was safe! You can always re-cycle the packaging.

 

[denverappraiser]

Another objective is to make the package look as generic as possible. A medium UPS package from XYZ Corp isn't recognizable as containing jewelry without a fair amount more information and it's tough to separate from everything else in the stream of packages that's possibly of high value. I've also seen people who put a catalog or magazine in the box just to make it heavier. Lastly, a bigger box is harder for a worker to quietly slip under their clothing and steal intact.


I also put full information all the way down in the package so that if the outer packaging is destroyed or damaged, the inspector can figure out where it belongs. I"ve never had this pay off yet but postal inspectors and others who are tasked with this sort of thing can be overworked and underpaid and you want to make it as easy as possible on them if a damaged box lands on their desk.


Starting immediately, I'm going to adopt David's policy of making the inner packaging easier to use for the people on the other end.

 

[Rockdiamond]

Great point Neil!
Of course our shipments say "DIAMONDS INSIDE- DELICATE- DO NOT STEAL" in big red letters on the outside of the box......NOT

Seriously, we have a discreet name (RDC, or Rock Corp) for certain purposes- but our shipments are not even allowed to have our real return address!
All for security.

Neil- all we did was tape a business card to the inner box- and that did the trick.

 

[GoldieATX]

hmmm Houston, we have a problem... where are the pics. of the ring???

See other thread with photos here:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/and-the-winner-is-dbl-old-mine-brilliant-photos.165285/


And another note on packaging, the guys at the UPS store got a kick out of my wanting to ship a box of Canon ink toner overnight. I put the ring box in an old ink toner box, resealed that, and I had that within a bigger Amazon.com box. But that one didn't fit well in the UPS box, so I was forced to take out the ink toner and just ship that within the medium UPS box. But when he saw the insurance value on the "ink toner," I had to casually evade questions about that ("um, it's a mineral sample...for a legal case...hard to replace."). It totally blew my cover and defeated my attempt to disguise the package as something generic. But to UPS rep Eric's credit, the ring made it to its destination just fine.

 

[Laila619]

Third party Insurance company requires it.

Huh, interesting.

I received a ring recently via Fed Ex, and the wooden ring box was all by itself inside a medium Fed Ex box, and that was the entire package. There were no other boxes or padding. I didn't think that seemed very secure at all. I wonder why this vendor sent it that way?

 

[Laila619]

hmmm Houston, we have a problem... where are the pics. of the ring???

See other thread with photos here:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/and-the-winner-is-dbl-old-mine-brilliant-photos.165285/


And another note on packaging, the guys at the UPS store got a kick out of my wanting to ship a box of Canon ink toner overnight. I put the ring box in an old ink toner box, resealed that, and I had that within a bigger Amazon.com box. But that one didn't fit well in the UPS box, so I was forced to take out the ink toner and just ship that within the medium UPS box. But when he saw the insurance value on the "ink toner," I had to casually evade questions about that ("um, it's a mineral sample...for a legal case...hard to replace."). It totally blew my cover and defeated my attempt to disguise the package as something generic. But to UPS rep Eric's credit, the ring made it to its destination just fine.

Haha! I sent a ring via UPS a few weeks ago, and I had it packed up tight in a large, plain brown box. UPS asked me what was in it, and I was stumbling and stammering. I had no idea what to say. It turns out they are supposedly obligated to ask what is inside the box. I finally came up with "art supplies." Oy. I don't like that they have to ask what's inside. The post office doesn't.

 

[denverappraiser]

hmmm Houston, we have a problem... where are the pics. of the ring???

See other thread with photos here:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/and-the-winner-is-dbl-old-mine-brilliant-photos.165285/


And another note on packaging, the guys at the UPS store got a kick out of my wanting to ship a box of Canon ink toner overnight. I put the ring box in an old ink toner box, resealed that, and I had that within a bigger Amazon.com box. But that one didn't fit well in the UPS box, so I was forced to take out the ink toner and just ship that within the medium UPS box. But when he saw the insurance value on the "ink toner," I had to casually evade questions about that ("um, it's a mineral sample...for a legal case...hard to replace."). It totally blew my cover and defeated my attempt to disguise the package as something generic. But to UPS rep Eric's credit, the ring made it to its destination just fine.

Haha! I sent a ring via UPS a few weeks ago, and I had it packed up tight in a large, plain brown box. UPS asked me what was in it, and I was stumbling and stammering. I had no idea what to say. It turns out they are supposedly obligated to ask what is inside the box. I finally came up with "art supplies." Oy. I don't like that they have to ask what's inside. The post office doesn't.

HSA makes them do it, just in case someone says it's a bomb or a bottle of toxic waste.