Okay, some people should not be allowed to ship stuff...

[Akiko]

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:

[Oli_hd]

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.

[Dandy]

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

[swift240]

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:

[stopthegop]

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.  

 

[tonyvdb]

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.

[Methuselas]

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$.

 :-(

[motrucker]

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!

[d0pefish]

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

[DaBest]

Bummer....
I hope you get compesated for it.
This is like submerging in a sumbmarine and leaving the windows open. :destroy:

[alewis]

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  ...this really is a packaging resistent to a 30000ft drop "

"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!

[koaftder]

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.

[nyder]

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.

[Kin-Hell]

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

[BinoX]

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...

[spihunter]

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.