How Not To Ship Computers 1554
jutus writes: "I recently relocated for work from Canada to Florida, and on a suggestion, shipped my equipment (well-packed), with UPS Ground. I've posted some images of the destruction my shipment was subjected to by UPS. UPS Ground does not insure international shipments, so basically I'm up shit creek, no paddle. They have been giving me the textbook run-around for the past week. UPS Canada blames UPS in the U.S., and you can imagine who UPS down here in the States blames. As of yet, UPS has not even attempted to negotiate any compensation for my loss due to their severe negligence ... For Gods sake, use FedEX." My luck has gone the other direction -- I've mostly had good luck with UPS and some misdeliveries with FedEx. Would be nice to hear from any UPS employees reading this about what could have led to the damage jutus illustrates.
Shipping Insurance.. (Score:4, Insightful)
funny tag? (Score:2, Insightful)
Funny? (Score:4, Insightful)
You need a
A video of this guy giving the local UPS delivery person a DDT would have been funny, but not a destroyed computer.
USPS for people in the US (Score:5, Insightful)
Never ship any delicate items via UPS Ground! (Score:3, Insightful)
In fact, you're lucky if your shipment doesn't magically vanish from the distribution hub.
I usually use FedEx when it absolutely, positively, has to get there in one piece. That being said, I have not been hearing good things about the new FedEx Ground (formerly RPS) service. Apparently the integration with FedEx has not gone particularly well, and they're not providing reliable service with low breakage risk.
Before using any carrier or service, it's a good idea to search Google Groups to see what the various collectibles groups are bitching about lately. And always, always pack your gear to survive a 3-foot fall into a concrete floor. If you catch yourself flinching at the thought of such an impact, you didn't pack well enough.
Re:You didn't buy insurance? (Score:2, Insightful)
I bet there's a way to recognize which box has extra insurance, and which one does not. So, screw only those that do not have insurance. If you do this a couple of times, then everyone will have extra insurance. This is like extra profit in their pocket.
I just buy the fact that they took your money to ship your product, and it's your fault if they screw. What kind of logic is that?
Re:You didn't buy insurance? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't use UPS for a host of completely separate customer service issues I've had with them, but one thing I've noted at their drop off point here in Minneapolis is that they don't accept sealed boxes. This is so they can check the packing material (and I assume other things as well).
The only way our poster really screwed up was to not save the boxes that his equipment came in, especially the G4 box. That would have been a much more secure shipment container than some left overs.
proper packing, expect this kind of treatment (Score:1, Insightful)
Usually we would unload boxes from 10 until 2 or 3 in the morning, and we had to maintain a full conveyor belt as we unloaded the packages. This meant we would work from the back of the delivery truck forward, tossing the boxes to the walkway between the trucks and the conveyor... we would *throw* the boxes on top of each other, so if there was a fragile computer in the back of the truck and then some metal trailer hitches (they weigh about 20 pounds apiece), then the hitches got tossed on top of the computer. Then the boxes would get tossed on the conveyor as quickly as possible, sometimes they get tossed all the way from the delivery truck to the conveyor (about 15 feet)! This would happen at every delivery hub along the way as the package worked it's way across the country! It doesn't matter what is written on the boxes, unless there is a 'heavy' sticker on the package, and we can't physically throw it on the conveyor.
So, when I ship something now, I first wrap it in bubble pack... so thick you cant see what's inside the bubbles. Then put it in a box with foam peanuts filled to the top, then put it inside of another box! fill this box with peanuts also! I haven't had anything get damaged with good packing, even though the outer box is sometimes completely destroyed!
I used to work for a courier... (Score:2, Insightful)
Quit whining, Mac user! (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh, boo fuckin hoo.
Your "well packed" equiptment was apparently expensive enough for you to whine about, but not expensive enough to insure, and ship appropriately. What sort of idiot ships a fragile, ESD sensitive, vibration sensitive, humidity sensitive $2000 piece of equiptment via UNINSURED UPS Ground?! Its rediculous to assert that UPS doesn't insure internationally. Go look at their webpage! You just didn't want to pay extra to have it shipped the way you should have shipped it! You likely went as cheaply as possible, and subjected your machine to two or three weeks of abuse in the system when for a few bucks more, you could have done the job right!
If you actually looked at UPS's website [ups.com], and saw their rates for an example journey from Montreal to Miami, you'de know how much your decision to go cheap cost you. You probably payed $78, the cheapest possible rate for a 25kg package measuring 40cm x 40cm x 40cm. For $40 more, you could have had it delivered in 3 days guaranteed and insured for $2000.
For every fuckup any shipping company makes, they do the job correctly a million times. You voluntarrily elected to subject your machine to the equivalent of "riding in the cattle car"...What did you expect?
In other words, it's not UPS's fault that youre a dumbass...And a cheap dumbass, at that.
I Don't Trust Anybody... (Score:4, Insightful)
...to move the following of my personal stuff:
We recently moved and let the gorillas move everything but the things I listed above. Sure I had to rent a small truck but nothing was damaged. It was well worth the small cost.
Many years ago, a ``professional'' moving company found a way to severely dent a peuter plate wedding present given to me by the EE faculty where I was teaching. It was packed in the middle of a bunch of china which miraculously managed to survive the move. Of course the moving company found some reason that they weren't liable.
Use palettes (Score:5, Insightful)
This assures no human will try and lift (and possibly drop) it, and that they will have to handle it with a palette lifter.
Also, have the UPS associate inspect your packaging before you send it off, so they can't complain about improper packing. There should be 6" between your cargo and the container wall packed with shock absorbing material.
As for the claims, yes they can take months. It's much better to prevent damage entirely and dummy proof your package by attaching it to a large object like a palette.
How do we know this is a legitimate story? (Score:2, Insightful)
So where's the scan of the UPS invoice? I shudder to think that pictures alone are enough to convince people of the guilt of a company, when not one of the pictures indicates the company did indeed ship the equipment after all.
Problem is, they DO insure internat'l shipments! (Score:5, Insightful)
Caveat expeditor.
UPS + Electronics (Score:3, Insightful)
I work in a small computer store that gets the majority of its supplies by UPS.
If it wasn't for the quality of the packaging supplied by most computer equipment manufacturers, I'd suspect a significant portion of the equipment would be damaged in transit.
The items in question were all shipped from a national wholesaler (techdata) via UPS. A motherboard I recieved had a partially crushed box. I've seen Athlon processors arrive in dented boxes. Some of the boxes look like they have been torn apart. However, the parts usually arrive in working order, despite the damage.
To UPS, its just a package, that is handled and moved by a bunch of low-paid workers who have no interest in treating your package with TLC, and the management doesn't seem to add any accountability. Until management cares enough to track where and when the damage occurs, and uses that information to remove the problem employees, nothing will improve.
Just my $.02
How did the computer get to you originally? (Score:2, Insightful)
I've shipped all kinds of computers, monitors, and other peripherals (even ceramics, large mirrors, bottles of wine, and antiques) domestically and internationally by package services, container freight, as checked airline luggage, by truck, and just plain old mail. Plenty of damage to the boxes, but no damage to the contents *ever*.
They may take up space, but the original shipping cartons are designed to take the punishment. If you don't want to, or can't keep yours, get one that some new purchaser has just gotten rid of. If you can't do that, pack properly.
Use bubble wrap, lots of it. Get styrofoam from the trash somewhere. Nest packed cartons inside of cartons. Pack the cartons full. If the contents are even slightly loose (as these seem to have been) then "Contents may settle during shipping." Look in you next box of Triscuits and checkout the dust at the bottom.
Insure everything that is of any value to you.
If the contents are valuable, isn't it worth an evening of your time to do it right?
It's not UPS vs FEDEX vs whatever. They all hire cheap labor to do something as quickly and cheaply as they can. They all suck at babysitting your plastic knick-knacks. Shipping companies do not care about your personal possessions. You do. Take some responsibility.
Or now that you're in America you can sue. Good Luck!
Re:You didn't buy insurance? (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because this poor sod was naive doesn't mean it's ok for people/corporations to take advantage of him.
Your arguement is just about as lame as the classic "it's her fault she got raped, she shouldn't have been walking in the park at that time of night!". Obviously someone beat the shit out of his gear. Anyone with half an ounce of common sense can see that this was not accidentally dropped but literally worked over. Look at how extensive the damage is... you would have to go out of your way to break something that badly.
I don't care what they put on their signs or in their small print. UPS should take responsibility for this and foot the bill.
Don't stuff boxes full of hardware. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see how all three would even fit in one box, as the box looks to be the size that a normal monitor (plus copeous styrofoam blocks that the manufacturer uses (hint, hint)) comes in.
Did you just pile them in with some newspaper and think that it would be okay? In general, 'fragile' or not, expect your box to get dropped from 4 or 5 feet a few times in transit. Basically, there should never, ever be direct contact between your valued hardware and the interior of the box.
As for insurance, that's a different issue. I hope you get your money, but it reminds me of a friend who says he wouldn't mind getting hit by a car as long as he had medical insurance. Me, I'd prefer not to have the pain and suffering in the first place.
Re:Your Mistakes (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Your Mistakes (Score:2, Insightful)
The assholes are the fucktard managers who allow their employees to destroy the cargo that is placed in their care.
The assholes are the claims representatives who do their best to avoid processing claims for insurance that customers paid good money for.
Maybe if the floor supervisor and some of the managers at the UPS distribution centers got off their rears and kept the employees in line, this wouldn't be a probelm.
Re:Your Mistakes (Score:4, Insightful)
Two of them were Civil War Springfield rifled muskets. The other was a Army rifle from the Spanish-American war. They were three little pieces of history utterly destroyed by some moron like yourself.
Intolerant idiots like yourself are the ones who should be locked away from firearms. Not having the means to live someplace better than a trailer park does not make you a second class citizen.
Re:Your Mistakes (Score:2, Insightful)
Just because you are working-class does not imbue you with dignity; if they have a problem with UPS work conditions, they take it up with the management. That's why God created unions. Making the customers upset makes their situation worse.
UPS is a terrible service: they are always late, overpriced, and destructive. I have NEVER had a good experience with them. I'm shipping my pee in jars soon!
Re:You didn't buy insurance? (Score:1, Insightful)
2 cu ft = 2*12^3 inches = 3456 cu in
Dimensions of a G4: 17.0 x 8.9 x 18.4 inches
Add an inch all the way around, to get 19 x 10.9 x 20.4 = 4224.84 cu in.
An inch of padding would have been 20% too big to fit in your box.
Re:You didn't buy insurance? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want to ship a computer safely, its gonna take some work. DO NOT SHIP IT WHOLE. Take everything out, even the motherboard, although you can probably leave the CPU's on the MB, but not the fans.
Don't be lazy or cheap when it comes to this - as you have learned, its not worth it.
--
jeremiah();
=( (Score:3, Insightful)
HT
I WAS an Employee of UPS (Score:2, Insightful)
and MY GOSH THE THEFT RATE WAS THROUGH THE F*#KING ROOF!!! we had people stealing whole computers, clothes, jewlry, whatever was arround. Hell we even had an entire Mainframe "go missing" that was sent from IBM, and they fought that one for almost a year. your lucky you even got your computer. still though I would fight the @ssholes.
whoa (Score:1, Insightful)
E-Gads (Score:3, Insightful)
Now for my brief defense of UPS.
At work we frequently ship at least one RMA'd monitor back and forth each week to Gateway (we're in PA.) These monitors go into cardboard boxes that are very thin with nothing but foam support each end of the monitor.
I have never encountered any shattered monitors or DOA ones that don't work right out of the box. We've never received any calls from Gateway asking where a box might be either. For large 60 pound 17" monitors to travel halfway across the country in thin boxes with barely any protection and survive is amazing.
There are isolated incidents of jackasses in every industry everywhere. There has been a whole lot of generalizing in the discussion about how "every UPS guy" does this. Unfortunately, the number of comments like mine pointing this out seems to be less then people willing to hope on the bandwagon to trash UPS. I'm not denying these things DON'T happen, but I've never encountered any problems in numerous shipments with UPS.
Caveat emperor, insure.
Use 2nd Day Air (Score:2, Insightful)