Shipping equipment (was: Re: Prepare to chuckle...)

[Richard]

In article <88994AB7-BBE5-4D5F-A48C-91B066D13648 at voysys.com>,
    "Marden P. Marshall" <mardy at voysys.com>  writes:

> How's this for a horror story?  A few months back, I bought a really  
> nice IMSAI dual 8" floppy drive system from someone on eBay.  It set  
> me back $2000.00.  A couple of weeks later, it shows up at my doorstep  
> via FedEx ground in a disturbingly small box.  I quickly open it up to  
> find that, other than a sheet of bubble wrap thrown on top, there was  
> no packing at all.  And as a result, the drive had taken quite a  
> beating in transit, resulting in one of the drive doors being crushed  
> beyond repair (http://web.mac.com/mardy/iWeb/floppy.jpg).  An  
> irreplaceable piece of computing history destroyed because someone was  
> too lazy to properly pack it.

This is why I always discuss shipping/packing methods with the seller
*before* they get my money.  If they don't answer my questions (only
happenned once on a 10 dollar QVT-101 terminal), then I don't pay.
Usually the discussion results in a dialog that either convinces me
they know what they are doing enough to risk having them pack it or me
telling them to take it to a service bureau for packing and shipping.
What good is saving me $25 on shipping if it arrives smashes?  Nothing.
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