Not Enough What! On Empty Shipping Boxes Coming from West

Some law libraries have been experiencing, ah, problems with West's shipping boxes. They're empty! Thanks to CRIV taking action, West figured out why.

Dear Colleagues:

I want to thank you for your recent comments alerting us to the issue of customers receiving empty boxes from us. In response to your feedback, we have examined our processes; following is a summary of the root causes and resolutions we have implemented.
 
We believe the primary reason for the empty cartons was inadequate carton glue. We have since worked with our adhesive vendor to implement changes to our packaging and shipping process to ensure the correct glue is available and properly applied.

We also found that the book feeder on the packaging line occasionally misfeeds books, causing empty boxes to be sealed and mailed. To remedy this, we installed an electronic eye on the machine to detect boxes without books and remove them.

Lastly, we contacted the United States Postal Service (USPS) to understand the USPS package handling equipment and processes that could impact the integrity of our packaging.

I appreciate the feedback we have received from this group and apologize for the frustration this issue has caused. Please know we take your comments seriously and are working to remedy this situation.
 
Anne Ellis
Senior Director, Librarian Relations
Thomson Reuters

(Emphasis added.)

Thank god. I thought I was just receiving from West print products that were invisible to the human eye. [JH]