Pickups you wouldn't take...

Yep. Uncrated machinery, especially if it overhangs off the pallet is just asking for a claim.

 

A couple weeks ago I refused my first shipment. The shipper placed a bathroom vanity on a skid and said here ya go. The vanity wasn't wrapped with anything just sitting on top of the skid and it was painted pure white. To add insult to injury it was going from Gwinn, MI to Phoenix,AZ. I told him it would look like mashed potatoes by the time it reached its receiver. I took pic and sent them to my dispatcher and they agreed with me and thanked me for avoiding a claim

 

I've got several stories of refusals, but if you don't mind, @MACK E-6, I've got a story that could be a good lesson about being vigilant when picking up.
Back in my last year of LTL, I was making a delivery to a small business in a mini industrial park. It was a ground drop, and the only person there was the receptionist. I had about 50 cartons on a pallet, weighing 1,700 pounds, and the delivery receipt listed it as FAK (I don't remember the freight class. It may have been 70..?)
So, I start breaking down the pallet to hand truck it in, and guess what I find? Flammable labels on each carton. It was adhesives. The shipper was very careful to make sure the labels had all been turned in before they wrapped the pallet.
I stopped what I was doing and called my dispatcher, asked him to pull up the OBL, and read off the description. Sure enough, they had it listed as FAK. I told him what it actually was, and he just about had a stroke. This freight had traveled from the east coast to the west coast, on multiple trucks.
He thanked me for the info, and said he was going to call the shipper. He was definitely not happy.
I would have loved to hear that conversation.
It's always a good idea to be ready to question a shipper.

 

I'm really surprised that nobody has mentioned this pickup;

 

Anything for TQL !

 

The woman in Big Don's post above is Lizzie Velasquez.

"Lizzie Velasquez was born with neonatal progeroid syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that gives her an aged appearance. It affects her face, muscle tone, brain, heart, eyes, and bones, and also prevents her from gaining weight - meaning that at 5'2", the Austin, Texas, resident is just 63lbs.

As if all of those struggles weren't enough for Lizzie to face, she also became the victim of cruel YouTube commenters who branded her the ‘ugliest woman in the world’ when she was just 17. But instead of letting that moment define her, Lizzie has become an activist against online bullies....."

 

Made General Dynamics remove the batteries from a load of fighter jet seats before they put them in my box once. I figured that if the little rockets weren't armed, I wouldn't need to placard.

 

Refused? How about a load of empty five gallon metal buckets with lids on them? On a flat bed! Not nested, not banded, not shrink wrapped, not palletized, just loose and stacked on top of each other. The shipper wanted the entire pile hauled and it would have been 14 feet high front to back on a 45 foot trailer.
The driver said that there wasn't enough rigging in the whole world to tie down that mess. I believe him.
Ready for the good part? The shipper wanted to pay us by weight. If my figuring was right it came out to about 40 cents a mile.
We have what we call the HELL NO list for shippers and customers. The bucket guy is on the list now.