the UPS guy who wanted to critique my packing job

so I'm shipping a painting to a buyer, right, my first sale in like two months that's actually a decent chunk of change, and I've spent 45 minutes bubble-wrapping this thing like it's a hostage situation. I get to the UPS store and the guy behind the counter watches me put it on the scale and goes "you know, you really should be using a rigid mailer, not a box, the box is gonna shift around in transit." and I'm like oh okay thanks but it's already packed pretty tight, I've got foam corners, it's fine. and he just WOULD NOT let it go. he's like "I ship art all the time, you're gonna get a claim" and starts telling me about the proper way to do it while I'm standing there with my debit card out. like sir I did not ask. I did not come here for a consultation. I came here to pay you $18 to put a sticker on my box. I know he was probably trying to be helpful but I was this close to being like "okay and how many watercolor paintings have YOU shipped that were still wet this morning and you stayed up too late stressing about the corners", I didn't say it because I'm a coward but I wanted to. anyway it arrived fine. no claim. I'm gonna frame that delivery confirmation and put it on my wall.

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13 comments

Ramesh Jha·3d

This made me smile, not at your trouble but because I know this feeling very well ji. When you are sending your own work, something you made with your own hands, the packing is not just packing, it is care. You have done it properly with foam corners, that is the real thing. The box shifting, I have sent many paintings this way, if you pad it well it will reach safe.

The UPS man perhaps meant well but he does not understand. For us, every painting we send is a piece of our tradition, our family. You bubble wrap it like a hostage, that is the right way. Better to over-pack than to get a claim.

Hope your buyer receives it safely and this sale leads to more for you. 🙏

Roman Petrak·3d

The counter guy's wrong anyway. Rigid mailers are for prints and posters. A stretched canvas in a rigid mailer is asking for a corner to punch through. Box is right, foam corners are right. You did it proper.

The only thing I'd add is tape the box seams like you mean it. Not one strip. H-tape every seam. Most claims I've seen aren't from bad padding, they're from boxes coming open.

Dani OkaforOP·3d

oh thank you, that actually makes me feel so much better haha. I was standing there like... I literally watched a youtube tutorial about this last night?? but yeah I did H-tape the seams, I learned that one the hard way a few years ago when a package arrived looking like it had been through a war and the bottom was just... open. never again. so at least I got that part right 😅

Dani OkaforOP·3d

thank you 🥺 "the packing is not just packing, it is care", that's exactly it, I couldn't have said it better. and you're right, the foam corners and bubble wrap and H-tape, that's all love, that's me wanting this thing to arrive like it just left my table. the UPS guy meant well probably but he doesn't know how many hours I sat with this painting, he doesn't know I named it after my grandma lol. you get it. what kind of stuff do you send out? I'd love to see your work sometime

Giulia Bruno·3d

There's something about shipping your own work that turns everyone into an expert, isn't there. I've had framers, gallery assistants, random people at the counter all tell me I'm doing it wrong. And the thing is, they're sometimes right, but it's never about the packing. It's about the vulnerability of sending something you made out into the world and needing it to arrive intact, and that makes you hypersensitive to anyone implying you haven't protected it enough.

The rigid mailer guy probably ships prints in tubes all day. A painting is different. You did the foam corners, you know what you're doing.

Tomáš Havel·3d

The rigid mailer guy ships prints in tubes all day, that's his world. A painting with actual surface, actual weight, that's a different animal. You did fine.

But you're right about the real thing. It's not about the foam. It's that you made the thing and now it's in someone else's hands and the only thing between it and a forklift is your bubble wrap. Of course you're sensitive. Any artist who isn't a little nervous handing their work over has stopped caring what happens to it.

Dani OkaforOP·3d

honestly thank you for saying that because I've been replaying the interaction in my head for days like "but what if he WAS right" even though I know he wasn't 😭 and yeah, that second part kind of got me, I hadn't thought about it that way, but you're right, the nervousness IS the point. if I ever just toss a painting in a box and don't care how it lands, that's when I should quit

Dani OkaforOP·3d

okay first of all THANK YOU for validating me on the rigid mailer thing because that part was bugging me the rest of the day, like wait, am I the idiot?? I'm not the idiot. and yeah, the vulnerability thing is so real, I literally put my hand on the box before he sealed it and was like... please be safe little painting. to a UPS guy. who was watching me. and I did not care. because that painting and I have been through things together haha. but you're so right that it makes you hypersensitive, every comment about the packing reads like "you don't care about your work enough" when really I care SO MUCH it's coming out of my ears

Jaden kimbro·3d

Hell yeah, glad it got there safe

Camille Laurent·3d

bof, you know how it is. the moment someone tells you you've done it wrong you start doubting yourself even when you know you did it right. that's just the human condition I think. glad the painting made it.

Dani OkaforOP·3d

bof thank you for saying that because I keep going back to it like a weird little bruise I can't stop pressing 😭 and you're right, the moment someone says it you just unravel even if you spent 45 minutes on that thing. it's like oh great now I'm gonna be thinking about this at 2am. glad it's over and the painting's in one piece and I never have to see that guy again honestly

Dani OkaforOP·3d

RIGHT?? the relief when I saw the notification that it arrived was actually embarrassing, I think I let out a breath I'd been holding since I dropped it off 😭 honestly I might frame the delivery confirmation more proudly than the painting at this point

Dani OkaforOP·3d

the UPS guy really had me questioning my entire life choices for a second there and I am so glad I was stubborn about it because that painting showed up perfect 😭 honestly I think there's something about the first sale in a while that makes you extra protective of it too, like this one HAS to go right. what do you paint? or ship, I guess, if you've been through the ringer too haha