The phrase 'Please Do Not Bend' does not apply in the UK postal system. This is for three reasons....

1. The majority of postal staff fall into two catagories. The uneducated and the imigrants. The former have no formal education and are unable to seek full-time employment elsewhere in society. Most of them have no motivation either. The latter are motivated, but generally cannot read or write in english and are oppressed in the postal system employment hierarchy by the uneducated white masses.

2. The majority of postal staff have neither the time nor the money to buy products that have to be posted to them. And those who are, are put off the idea, because they work in the post office and see what happens to packages. So damage to packages happens because the majority of postal staff are jealous that the rich can afford to have people post things to them.

3. The postal staff who walk the streets delivering items have a mundane and boring life. Every now and then they come across a package that will not fit through a letter box, and in these instances the challenge of figuring out how to get the package into the hole in the door far outweights any reason or logic in the postman's brain.

I hope this helps people when they package goods for delivery in the UK. I am lucky in that I work from home and can answer the door to the post creature.

"Do Not Bend" is often wishful thinking on our side of the pond, too. Even in my tiny little suburban neighborhood, the quality of the postal service often depends on which carrier is handling the route that day. Some are very good and very careful ... some, not so much.

I've said it before but it bears repeating - My postman is a HERO - nothing too much trouble and care taken with every parcel I recieve. Perhaps I'm the lucky one! (BTW I think that some postmen consider the words #do not bend' something of a personal challenge!)

That's why in the few auctions where I was concerned about bending, I asked the sender to factor the cost of a box into S&H.  A sturdy box says "suck it" to the bend-happy postal worker.

chromaticknight wrote:"Fragile" = How far can I kick this?

No, no...Fragile, it must be Italian or something...

Does putting 'Photos Do Not Bend' work any better? (barring this is not send out of country). I think I've only had that on a package a few times and it was always delivered to my door.

ShaneG.

Cardboard doesn't really help if it's a book sized package. Take a piece of cardboard that size and try to bend it - unless it's magical cardboard that I haven't seen yet, it just folds. It makes it a little bit less likely to bend, but if someone is actually *trying*, it's not going to make any difference at all