Shortly after I started bidding on eBay back in the 90's, I quickly learned that many of the sellers are not knowledgeable equipment shippers. My very first experience included a shipment from Britain of a very expensive communications receiver where the seller simply wrapped cardboard around it and dropped it off at the local shipping store. After sustaining a couple of damage incidents from things like this, I quickly started emailing a boilerplate clause after paying for the item stating how I wanted the item packed including types of packing and minimum clearances. I always asked for double boxing with at least 3 to 4 inches of dense material between boxes for the more heavier items. Packing requirements varied for the size, weight and type of items. And I was surprised how the sellers would work hard to meet those requirements.
In a few instances where items weighed upwards of 100 lbs, I would obtain dimensions of the item(s) being sent, create a cardboard mockup of approximately the size and profile of the item, have my own container foamed-in-place at a local "friendly" company shipping department (paid them a few $$$) and send that container to the seller to use to ship the item to me. Now, after over 700 purchases on eBay, I can safely say that I have only received less than ten or so items that contained some form of damage. Never underestimate the transportation companies and their propensity to damage equipment. I had a piece of military electronics shipped from the east coast in it's original shipping container that consisted of 1/8 inch aluminum plate on the inside and outside of the container with 3/8" plywood sandwiched in between. The unit itself rested in a retainer of rigid foam at all corners that spaced it approximately 1-1/2 inches from the inside walls to absorb shock while in transit. The shipper placed the container and its contents in a cardboard box with reasonable packing. All told, the entire weight of the shipment was around 50 pounds. When received, I opened the package and found that the entire container apparently had received what was estimated to be a 15 or 20 foot drop onto concrete (probably off of a conveyor belt on to the floor) driving the front panel knobs of the unit entirely through the inside aluminum, the plywood and the exterior aluminum of the shipping container. The knobs were literally sticking out through the exterior of the container!! The transit company (UPS) tried to tell me that it was "poorly packed" for shipment. Greg On Mon, 10 Sep 2012 23:16:55 +0100, David Kirkby <[email protected]> wrote: > I hope the list admin does not mind this email, but I think it will be > useful to any time nut buying test equipment from eBay. > > orzel-enterprises sells electronic test equipment on eBay. I would > advise anyone to think twice before purchasing from him. This is how > he shipped a vector network analyzer and S-parameter test set which I > won on an auction for $2750. It was shipped from the USA to the UK. <Remainder snipped> _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
