Shipping delicate test equipment....

I don't know what you folks experience is in shipping stuff, but I just bought one of the Ariums on eBay and when it arrived it was a bit broken up inside - see small picture - so I sent the following note to the seller of the next Arium I won:
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"Might I ask you to pack this securely? I just received another Arium that I had won in a previous auction and the two circuit boards inside the unit had broken their pc card edge connectors due to shock in transit. Plus the handle snapped one of it's lock buttons and the rear of the unit was bent a bit. This WAS packed in a big box with lots of chunks of foam...

If possible I would ask you if you could please remove the two (or three?) small PC style circuit boards that are in the center of the unit and pack them with the pods. Then could you pack the Arium in it's own box, filled with peanuts, then place that box in a larger one, then the pods (and possibly the two/three boards) would be packed in a second smaller box and placed with the boxed Arium in the single bigger box that is also then filled with "peanuts"? I hope that is not inconvenient for you. But I really would like this to arrive in working condition. And it is somewhat fragile as I have found out to my dismay. I won't hold you responsible at all for shipping damage, we all take our chances, as long as it is well packed - that is reasonable, isn't it?

We have shipped many items using this method including Pachinkos ( lots of plastic bits to break off) and old pinball backglasses and none have broken in transit."
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Comments? Any one else have nasty surprises when they opened a box? I've had the points snapped off of probes, pins mangled on pods etc, so I am careful to describe recommended method of packing to sellers of equipment. for example - the Fluke Pods, it is IMPERITIVE that the plugs are taped after locked into the self test socket on the pod. Shipping tape works very well.

John :-#)#
Received on Mon Apr 22 23:17:58 2002