Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: ravnen on January 07, 2007, 04:26:03 PM
-
Recieved a package in the mail some days ago contaning several nice amiga stuff. A picasso card, bvision, ppc accelerator, and mutch more.
It was packed in a cardboard box (one of those really thin boxes).
Well I opened it up just to see that the person had used no antistatic bags and used more cardboard to keep things in place.
This resulted in some capasitors beeing ripped off the picasso and the graphics output of it is now crap (the card is now on its way,properly packed, to Mr. Jacques Boulet for repairs), the bvision is also dead (when I put it in the ppc card the amiga just refuses to power up, I've tried cleaning the connectors and stuff, but no luck, any ideas?).
Anyway. Cardboard against cardboard in the mail does build up statics, so people, please use proper packing material!!!
:madashell:
-
When will they learn :cry:
-
The same here, I got a cyberstorm 060 from Belgium sent in aplain crappy air packed envelope with NO anti static bag. Luckily it seems to be functional though one of the capacitors on the scsi extension was ripped off on one leg. I resoldered it but didn't try if it works. Probably ok. Too much hassle to sent the board back. Gives me the creeps when I think that I paid about 250 Euro for the deal and it could have gone wasted so easily ! Can't understand the reasoning behind cheapstaking on 10$ material and risking a 350$ deal.
-
Ouch :\. Hope you can recover the cash you paid for those cards.
-
That's why you ship insured and remind the shipper to use anti-static bags.
-
I generally specify that the sender must disassemble parts, close in individual antistatic bags, and wrap individually with bubble wrap, then pack together in bos with filler. Haven't received damaged components yet. Most people don't mind the extra effort if you ask. You shouldn't really trust that a sender will have any sense or usefull experience in such things.
That said, really sorry to hear your loss. I would be most irate. Hope the devices can be fixed, as it's really a lot of (potentially) nice stuff.
Good luck.
Oli
-
Through a convoluted arrangement, I once got three rare-ish Pentium "Overdrive" CPUs mailed my way.
I only wanted one, but the sender, a professional(!) component sourcer insisted on sending three to improve my chances of getting a "good one."
Well... three massive ceramic chips (remember, the Overdrives had the big integrated heatsink) in one plastic box (there might've been a token piece of foam, but nothing enough to prevent lateral movement), and there was only one good one left by the time the package arrived.
I don't think the guy is in business anymore.
-
I just bought a a2000 on auction.. 20-30% of the keyboard buttons was plainly broken off, the floppy drive was not screwed on properly so it was laying in the box ontop of the mobo itself. Luckily the a2000 seems to work just fine but it is sad that the keyboard is completely unusable. I guess i need a adaptor of some kind to be able to use a pc keyboard?
-
My first Amiga 4000 came to me with a WarpEngine 4040, shipped to Florida from Louisiana.
Originally, the seller had a Video Toaster system in it, and he told me he would be removing it and I would be purchasing the 4000D without it. Not a problem.
What he didn't tell me was that he was leaving everything without screws and proper attachments. The hard drive and its bracket were left to roam freely (which he put, by the way, on the Zorro slot side of the daughterboard.)
Needless to say, the WarpEngine needed repair, some parts on the motherboard were broken off, and a Zorro slot was chipped. The guy, of course, simply dropped off the face of the planet.
I traded in the board to Software Hut for a refurbished replacement and was able to perform the repairs on the WarpEngine.
I've been lucky that, in most cases, things I have bought since then have been shipped responsibly. Though on a couple of occasions I have had to say a couple of prayers upon opening a box :-)
-
I used to work in shipping/receiving and system integration at my company. Approximately 25-35% of the shipments received (and sent!) were "impacted" in some way, as in the boxes were damaged. The contents were not often damaged since they were packed well (Sun ships power cords in individual boxes). Sometimes they were though, such as by being "forked" or dropped off a truck.
Stuff sent from HP, Sun, etc always came packed to an almost ridiculous degree. Whereas we would order, say, 5 ATX cases from Newegg...they would ship these in the manufacturer boxes and 2-3 would be dented, occasionally plastic parts broken off, etc. I would expect better from Newegg but they just keep RMAing them in the same boxes. People send stuff packed like they're going to drive it down the street themselves and they don't realize the hands, belts, trucks, planes etc it goes through to get to its actual destination...
One thing that really helps is to note that most boxes only survive one transit. People keep using boxes over and over, but they lose their rigidity quite quickly (especially cheap ones).
I've happily never had bad experiences with Amiga stuff, although BOTH my A4000T and A3000UX were packed very poorly.
-
I guess most of us have a horror story. I bought an A3000 that came so bent out of shape that the case is useless, the PSU was broken, and chips were laying all over the interior of the "package". I kept it, because it had 3.1 ROMs (that somehow survived) and most of the chips were the latest versions (DMac, etc.) but I still don't have a working A3000.
I'm afraid to purchase computer parts from an individual these days!
-
I bought a A2000 for $25 on ebay and it arrived in shambles. It did work but the case was bent and front face broken in pieces. I complained and the seller refunded every cent! I managed to get it running by purchasing some parts like a new face, LED panel, etc.
-
When I worked for STAR Systems, Tandem once sent us a pair network cards ($10,000 pieces of hardware for Tandem K2 systems) in a flimsy cardboard box without astatic bags. The heavy-duty steel bracket on one of them had dug a crater into the back of one of the other boards.
Needless to say, back they went with a couple of nasty phone calls chasing after them.
-
An inexpensive one: I bought a couple of cheapo old SCSI hard drives from TradeMe (NZ's eBay equivalent), and they arrived without the terminating resistor packs. The seller was kind enough to send these on when I queried it, but he unfortunately just stuck a few in a standard envelope... End result: envelope containing snapped pieces of resistor packs!
I guess it didn't occur to him to tape them to a bit of cardboard first! D'oh!!!!
- Ali
-
Had a CyberstormPPC arrive damaged through the post, however it wasn't the senders fault and very well packed.
Seems with some postal companies it wouldn't matter if the item was sent in a reinforced titanium box, they could still manage to destroy it's contents upon delivery :roll:
-
The best one Ive had was an Oktagon 2008 card, it was wrapped in a piece of cardboard (top and bottom open) with the floppy loose, pinned between the cardboard and the card.
No external packaging or anything.
When the postman arrived he was holding the floppy in one hand and the card/cardboard piece in another.
lucky for me it did work although I have no idea if there was a manual. (Or better yet a piece of paper telling me what he had entered as the login on the card, so I wont enable the card's login software in case I cant un-enable it.
Other than that all my Amiga stuff has been good.
I did order stuff from Eclipse computers and they posted the computer case on its own, it arrived smashed, the side was bent, all the supports on the top inside of the case were bent, totall writeoff. They exchanged it no problem but those boxes are just not ment to be posted without being put in another box.
I post a lot of stuff and the Royal Mail seem to be good but I had to post a large order once and couldnt use them, out of the four £100 units I posted (Next day although they never collected until the day after) two arrived smashed.
These are units covered in moulded poly supports in a box with padding around it (Normally paper) in a double walled box, it must have taken a hell of a bang to break about five inches in to the box.
-
B00tDisk wrote:
...
----------------
Socialism: Work hard for nothing.
Communism: Twice what you get from socialism.
Hum - some 20 years back - when the iron curtain still existed - I visited my grandparents in East Germany (ex GDR).
When I took a taxi there one day, the driver asked me if I knew the difference between capitalism and communism.
I told him that I did not know and he said:
"In capitalism people get ripped off by other people.
In communism it's just the other way round..."
:-D
-
Yes I know how you feel, 2 years ago I won an Commmodore MPS 1230 from eBay.
The person sent it to me in a very big jiffy bag.
Needless to say when it got here it was damaged.
Some just dont have a clue do they.
Yes it is very anoying.
I wander how they would like it if they got a package in the same way?
:pissed:
-
Had a CyberstormPPC arrive damaged through the post, however it wasn't the senders fault and very well packed.
Seems with some postal companies it wouldn't matter if the item was sent in a reinforced titanium box, they could still manage to destroy it's contents upon delivery
Reinforced Welded Titanium is about right! :) Having worked one summer handling cargo for UPS I have personally witnessed -- even participated in -- the abuse of parcel shipments. Your best defense, frankly, is insurance. Aside from that, I recommend double -- even triple boxing sensitive cargo and, of course, anti-static bags for electronics! I can't emphasize enough the use of thick, sturdy boxes! Shipments are stacked right on top of one another -- in the order recieved. Bad news if your Picasso IV arrives right before someone's piano! Also, use a fast shipping service. The longer it is in the system, the greater chance it has of being abused. This all may seem obvious, but as this thread proves some people still need to learn.
-
I won a VTR on ebay for my Video Toaster system two years ago and when it arrived it was totally damaged and unusable. The guy boxed it up with no padding or bubble wrap. UPS must have dropped it off the truck face first as the entire face was cracked and buttons and switches were snapped right off.
I had to go through ebays legal system and after about 5 months of fighting with the seller he finally gave my money back.
-
I've got the best story, most of all. I bought an a2000 from same chap and when I got it, it didn't power on. When I got the said package, there was a MASSIVE dent on the side and a "damaged" sticker on the side. So, pissed, I sent it back to UPS, along with a complaint. Now, nothing was wrong the computer, aside from it not powering on. I assumed that it was a PS issue, since the insides were *VERY* clean.
Months went by.....
Then, I got a notice that I had missed a package from UPS. The next day, I received a box. When I opened it, I was mortified. It looked as though the computer's floppies had been kicked in. The entire computer was unsalvagable, except for maybe the chipset. It was a wreck. To make matters worse, the box was filled with packing peanuts, which were all inside the computer *AND* they didn't even fill enough peanuts to secure the computer. No, instead they took the ORINGINAL box, cut it up and shoved it on top, to hold the shipping box's "shape".
So, I called UPS, complained, time and time again, but they did nothing,'cos *I* hadn't insured it. It was ridiculous. It was damaged in THEIR care and I was out 300$ for a dead, useless paperweight that I didn't need. The only reason I bought the thing in the first place, was 'cos I want the Bars and Pipes manuals and the seller wouldn't just sell me those.
This was back in 1997. Needless to say, I STILL refuse to use UPS. As far as I'm concerned, they still owe me 300$.
:-(
-
Methuselas wrote:
I've got the best story, most of all. I bought an a2000 from same chap and when I got it, it didn't power on. When I got............
So, I called UPS, complained, time and time again, but they did nothing,'cos *I* hadn't insured it. It was ridiculous. It was damaged in THEIR care and I was out 300$ for a dead, useless paperweight that I didn't need. The only reason I bought the thing in the first place, was 'cos I want the Bars and Pipes manuals and the seller wouldn't just sell me those.
This was back in 1997. Needless to say, I STILL refuse to use UPS. As far as I'm concerned, they still owe me 300$.
:-(
I also refuse to use UPS. I have had the best luck with DHL - At least in this area they are the best, by far!
-
Well, here's a good story to try and lighten the thread up a bit. :)
KinHell, of this forum, has an ad on Amibench with lots of A4000-related goodies for sale.
I bought his mint condition A4000 motherboard, and it arrived in a tailor-made box. And when he described it as "mint", I haven't seen a better usage of word; it really, actually is >mint<.
The board itself was wrapped, first in a static bag, then in a bubble sleeve. Then it was packed in those polystyrene packing peanuts. The box was padded with an inch of foam all around. Then the box was taped up, and he'd even put "slice here" in various places to show me where t open it!
Finally he (very, very neatly) wrapped the box in brown paper.
Totally flawless, and very nice guy to exchange emails with; I'd love to do business with him again.
Thanks, Charlie! :-D
-
Bummer....
I hope you get compesated for it.
This is like submerging in a sumbmarine and leaving the windows open. :destroy:
-
On the other hand
check out
http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/sgidepot/feedback.html
read the comments, especially towards the end. Ian really does know how to pack.
"After dinner I managed to open the box.
Scene: a boy sitting in front of a big package with a cutter and a pair of scissors..
Damn Ian, I was going to use a chainsaw to open that box :D ...this really is a packaging resistent to a 30000ft drop :D"
"In fact with this packaging I think the only way to damage what's inside would be to throw the box of the truck and back up over it a couple of times.... and it would have to be a big truck too :-)"
" About the package: 1. yeah i really needed 10 minutes just to open the base package.."
I've bought from Ian, and beleive me, opening a parcel from him is no mean feat. They are bloody impregnable!
-
A few years ago, I bought a 12" PowerBook G4 from some lady in vermont. She just stuffed the laptop in an unpadded fiber envelope. One of those envelopes that is like less than 1mm thin but impossible to tear, no padding whatsoever. She shipped it standard USPS.
I was blown away when I got it. I couldn't beleive somebody could be that retarded. She shipped it with the powersupply in the bag and a blank recordable dvd disk in the jewel case. The disk and case were shattered and all over the insides of the bag.
By some miracle, the laptop only had a small dent in the back, and was other wise perfectly fine. Ive used it every day for the last 3 years. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of laptop with all metal enclosures.
-
Beware of UPS also.
Around 95 or 96 I sold my A4000. I called up UPS to find out if they had any requirements for how it was sent. They told me as long as I double box it, it was okay with them.
so, I put it in it's original box, which still had the foam to make it snug. I put that in a bigger box so it was totally surround by packing peanuts.
Well, apparently the person at ups didn't like me, because by the time it got where it was sent, it was in 1 box, missing it's software and mouse. =(
She also changed my address so the COD check didn't make it to me.
I went down to UPS to complain when I figured out what happened, they didn't care. They told me to call their 800 number and wouldn't even let me get the name or employee number of the person who took my package.
Well, I got them back. After spending 4 weeks trying to get my COD money, and be given a number to call, where I had to leave a message, and never got a call back. I finally had gotten them to cut me a new check, which I ended up getting the same the day the original one made it to me (with my correct address written over the old one). I cashed them both. Funny part was, when they kept calling me to talk about them, I never called them back. Wonder how they liked that? =)
that wasn't the only problems I had with ups, just the last time I had problems with them. I won't use them now.
So, I sold my A4000 for $1400, with $700 paid up front, the rest c.o.d. I made a bonus of $700, but I did have to buy and send a new mouse and software to the person who bought the system from me.
-
d0pefish wrote:
Well, here's a good story to try and lighten the thread up a bit. :)
KinHell, of this forum, has an ad on Amibench with lots of A4000-related goodies for sale.
I bought his mint condition A4000 motherboard, and it arrived in a tailor-made box. And when he described it as "mint", I haven't seen a better usage of word; it really, actually is >mint<.
The board itself was wrapped, first in a static bag, then in a bubble sleeve. Then it was packed in those polystyrene packing peanuts. The box was padded with an inch of foam all around. Then the box was taped up, and he'd even put "slice here" in various places to show me where t open it!
Finally he (very, very neatly) wrapped the box in brown paper.
Totally flawless, and very nice guy to exchange emails with; I'd love to do business with him again.
Thanks, Charlie! :-D
Awww Dale.....ur makin' me blush! :oops:
Thanks fella! :-D
-
I've never really had a disaster with receiving stuff to be fair...
Although once I sent a computer to a friend of mine, fully wrapped in bubble wrap and padded with packing foam...
Somehow it arrived in a totally different box with no padding! I was stunned!
When I send out parcels I tend to wrap them in loads of anti-static bubble wrap. (A bit more expensive than normal bubble wrap, but it saves me having to find an anti-static bag...) and then put it in a box...
Occasionally on bigger items I do tend to be guilty of not packing them quite as well as I should.. Or if I don't have a box big enough I tend to just wrap it up and hope for the best! So hands up, I'm no saint with it...
-
If you ship anything UPS pretty much plan on it being thrown across a room or dropped from a 2nd story ledge.
I know people that worked there that can confirm this. They said they used to kick the boxes extra hard if you wrote "fragile" on it.
-
This vid shows a UPS guy toss a box a good 12 feet towards a door.
Youtube Video, UPS man throws package (http://youtube.com/watch?v=xcIOy6XcM3s)
-
Ack, I wish I could say I never have had problems with shipping, but.....
Had to send off one of my 4000's for repair. When it came time to send back to me, the guy packed it quite well.... double-boxed, 4000 wrapped in plastic so no 'peanut problems' ample styrofoam inserts, etc.
I should have known what was going to happen when the 4000 took 1 MONTH to go from Kansas to Wisconsin....
When the 4000 finally came, there was a 1 foot hole torn out of the box.... The front bezel of the 4000 was broken off, floppy dead and loose in the bay, and the tray of the CD-ROM was in pieces... This was via DHL... Well, I was able to file a claim (it was insured, yay!) and a few weeks later, I had my 4000 working again....
-
@ravnen
I always worry that stuff I ship is going to break. I guess some people just don't care at all. :-(
-
Here is another one. Back in 1995 I had my A2000 shipped from Whichita Falls, TX to Tacoma, WA via USPS. (I moved) I sent it ground and insured it for $600. It took a month to get to me, (got lost) when it did USPS dropped it off on my door stop and when I opened the door I was in shock! It looked like someone rolled the box down a hill for 1 mile. Filed a claim and got my money. Turned around and bought a brand new 2000 from my local dealer for $350. ;)
-
Most recent one was an LCD which arrived with the screen scratched from a packing staple... nothing to protect the screen at all.
Cool thing is they gave me store credit for the purchase price, AND let me keep it. (Pretty rare it works out that well.)