PDP11 Redux, or Behind-The-Scenes Bull

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Sat Feb 23 16:58:08 2002

On Sat, 23 Feb 2002, Mike wrote:
> On Saturday 23 February 2002 04:33, Tothwolf wrote:
>
> > Nah, I'm referring to a guy who doesn't know how to pack a box, and
> > didn't give a final shipping quote before sending stuff off. The
> > shipping ended up being over twice what the original quote was, and a
> > fair amount of what arrived in the boxes were broken bits of plastic
> > and scrap metal. He *knows* who he is for sure now ;)
>
> This is why I haven't shipped anything yet. Old machines aften look
> pretty bad in the first place,someone expecting a "new"apple II may be
> upset when it is covered with stickers and grime. We can see through
> that when we describe it, but maybe not when we first pull it out of a
> box.

Personally, I don't care about stickers and grime. It isn't that hard to
clean equipment if it needs it.

When someone takes perfectly good drives and boards, packs them loose in
boxes, puts a sheet of bubble-wrap on top, does not bother to tape the
boxes properly, and does not tell me when shipping was nearly twice what
it was supposed to have been, I have a major problem with their shipping
abilities. At least one box came open in transit too, as it had *tons* of
USPS tape all over the bottom seams. There was no reason to ship stuff in
multiple boxes either, which is what caused the shipping cost increase.

Was I really expecting too much of the shipper to pack stuff in such a way
that the shipment would arrive intact? I even asked the guy before he
shipped stuff if he knew how to pack everything and had packing materials.

> I've also had troubles shipping with UPS. They've delivered parcels
> and weeks latter sent a bill saying that the shipment was COD. The
> stuff wasn't worth the cost.

The boxes of stuff I received were not worth their shipping costs,
especially since so much was damaged. I paid the shipper anyway, but I am
very unhappy about it.

> Is there a good FAQ yet on packing and shipping?

I found some via Google awhile back when someone asked me once. None of
them were perfect, and didn't really cover packing computers and computer
parts.

-Toth
Received on Sat Feb 23 2002 - 16:58:08 GMT