her is a tip but first a little background about where it comes from. I have been a member of a very good internet group for making pens for 6 years and was a member of it's parent group for 2 years previous to that. The items we mail are not fragile, they are expensive. I locate sources for items, as an example for this group suppose I locate the direct manufacturer of Brinsea advanced incubators and can buy them for $25. but they require a minimum order of 100 incubators. I then let everyone order them from me, they send me their money and when I have 100 orders i buy them and ship them out to everyone. No profit on my part. In this way I have mailed well over 1000 packages in the past 7 years and this is on a part time sort of basis.
Alright with that sort of mailing experience i will say that lost or damaged packages are the exception (even rare exception) rather than the rule. But bad things do happen. So how do I manage lost packages without it costing me out of pocket when something is lost? remember I do all this non profit so the price of items has to account for all costs involved. I have tracked the rate of lost defective or whatever packages i have had over that time and now have a pretty accurate percentage of lost product. For me it is 5%. now remember this also accounts for defective merchandise and having to reship tools that are not sharp enough or whatever. Eggs have a big fragile factor that I do not deal with. But as for carrier damaged goods i would say add 1 to 2 percent to the cost of your eggs and that way when you have to replace an order such as this, the cost has been spread out but covered. I replace far more products do to bad products or my own mistakes than I do to USPS damage or loss. If you are going to guarantee that eggs at least make it to the incubator in one piece you need to track over time exactly what percentage USPS manages to damage. So far the system seems to work pretty good that people will buy eggs with no guarantee at all.
Alright with that sort of mailing experience i will say that lost or damaged packages are the exception (even rare exception) rather than the rule. But bad things do happen. So how do I manage lost packages without it costing me out of pocket when something is lost? remember I do all this non profit so the price of items has to account for all costs involved. I have tracked the rate of lost defective or whatever packages i have had over that time and now have a pretty accurate percentage of lost product. For me it is 5%. now remember this also accounts for defective merchandise and having to reship tools that are not sharp enough or whatever. Eggs have a big fragile factor that I do not deal with. But as for carrier damaged goods i would say add 1 to 2 percent to the cost of your eggs and that way when you have to replace an order such as this, the cost has been spread out but covered. I replace far more products do to bad products or my own mistakes than I do to USPS damage or loss. If you are going to guarantee that eggs at least make it to the incubator in one piece you need to track over time exactly what percentage USPS manages to damage. So far the system seems to work pretty good that people will buy eggs with no guarantee at all.
