TechTools Archives: Re: Shipping delicate test equipment...

From: John Robertson <jrr_at_flippers.com>
Date: Tue Apr 23 2002 - 08:02:50 EDT

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How about we take pictures of bad shipping practice results (open the box and find....) and we can create a "shipping" page for the archive that all can link to that can be sent to sellers of equipment to help avoid these fishing floats? Send me an email with a description and picture or two and I'll try and set up a nice page on flippers that all can link to that will help cover this issue. 
Or, conversely, has anyone spotted a good "How-to" page on shipping that we can link to? 
 
John :-#)# 
At 08:54 AM 23/04/2002 -0500, Vidpin Amusements wrote: 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>I purchased a Sencore CR7000 from ebay.  It was shipped to me in a big box 
with 2 pieces of newspaper, and a fishing float.  Needless to say... It 
arrived with a cracked case, and unoperational... 
Callan. 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kurt Mahan" <kmahan@xmission.com> 
To: <techtoolslist@flippers.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 3:17 AM 
Subject: Shipping delicate test equipment... 
 
> 
> I had some bad luck with a 3 box shipment (monitor, cpu and parts).  The 
> monitor had the misfortune of having a fork lift put through the box 
> pretty much dead center.  "ouch".  The box the cpu was shipped back in 
> (a fairly large unit) was in the orignal factory packaging.  Well, the 
> box showed up back at Tektronix with the corners rounded.  And when they 
> opened the cpu box they poured out the pieces -- due to the really rough 
> handling, the power supply (an old linear one) had torn loose and bounced 
> around.  The third box was just fine.  It had the mouse and keyboard in 
> it. 
> 
> Well, the Tek rep was totally pissed 'cause it was a loaner unit and 
> he really needed it back.  He was pissed, that is, until he found out 
> that we'd insured the shipment for $25k.  He loved us after that.  (this 
> was back in the late 80s). 
> 
> The current damage that I see is small boxes that seem to get run over 
> by the fedex truck.  Customer calls up and says "it's smashed".  The 
> worker dudes are sneaky.  They'll usually put all the pieces in a new 
> box and send it on its way.  But they use the old waybill, which typically 
> shows up the tire treads just fine.  No way to protect items from that 
> kind of abuse. 
> 
> The best advice to give to people is to always SAVE the packaging until 
> you've determined if it's broken or not.  Also if you see obvious damage 
> to the boxes make the delivery dude write a report on it.  Otherwise 
> there is no proof that THEY caused the damage.  But it is tough to 
> get fedex/ups/whoever to pay for a poorly packed box.  No matter what 
> THEY did to it.... 
> 
> The other thing is to know who fedex/ups believes to be the "SHIPPER". 
> Obvious you say.  Not really.  When you ship through a Mailboxes Etc. 
> or Office Depot then they are the shipper.  Until such time as you need 
> to find out who it is -- like if you need to start a trace.  Then, well, 
> good luck in figuring it all out.  The amount of crap they make you go 
> through is impressive.  But if you're nice to the ups/fedex folks and 
> don't go ballistic they will typically try and help you out (at least 
> that's been my experience).. 
> 
> Kurt 
> kmahan@xmission.com 
> 
> 
> > 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. 
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Received on Tue Apr 23 08:02:50 2002

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