Right and wrong ways to pack a phone for shipping

McHeath · July 11, 2009, 10:54:24 PM

Our own Dennis Markham sent me a cover for a 554 this last week. Here is how it was packed, which is a model to us all of the right way to do it:

McHeath · July 11, 2009, 10:55:40 PM

Then there is this way, it's amazing the phone was not smashed into a million little bits:

JorgeAmely · July 11, 2009, 10:59:08 PM

MCHeath:

The heat from southern CA, is it affecting you? No picture.

Dennis Markham · July 11, 2009, 10:59:17 PM

Thanks Heath. I have seen some much better jobs of packing that that. I really like it when people double box them. They put the body of the phone in one box, and then wrap the handset in bubble wrap and put them both in another, larger box. That will definitely keep the handset from crashing into the phone.

I'm glad the cover arrived OK and that you are able to utilize it. Thanks again for the compliments.

Jester · July 12, 2009, 12:32:40 AM

Since we're on this subject, Dennis,
How did my packing measure up on that dial assy. I mailed you? Honesty is appreciated-- I can take it!!

foots · July 12, 2009, 12:50:44 AM

I agree with McHeath, Dennis does a good job of packing phone parts. Btw, Dennis, I've put your handset and cord to use on my newest SC 1243.

Dennis Markham · July 13, 2009, 12:05:13 AM

Stephen I hate to say this.......I don't remember.

I mean, it was great! ;)I know you won't believe this, but on occasion I open a lot of stuff and I AM getting old. The mind doesn't work as good as it used to. (It's always fun to blame things on middle-age. Ok, post middle age). I know your packing job was excellent because the item arrived in one piece---safely nestled in a box full of protection!

Jester · July 13, 2009, 09:17:32 AM

Dennis,

I figured a retired public servant would still have his well honed powers of observation & recall working for him! All kidding aside, though, your statement makes sense. I have had many things shipped to me over the years, and, while I can remember some clever packing techniques & some real care taken on some of the parcels I have received, the only ones I can remember in almost every detail are the handful of disasters & near disasters that have come to my mailbox or front stoop.

jsowers · July 13, 2009, 04:50:47 PM

In case anyone doesn't know, that yellow 554 picture happened to me. Here's another one for the bad packing books and you can see the same steps in the background. Two soft plastic 591s packed in the same flat rate box. They're not packed, they're SHOEHORNED! I have trouble fitting one phone in one of those boxes and this seller, a woman if anyone wants to know, managed to fit two in there. And yes, the aqua blue one cracked on the front.

I almost always take pictures of the box when I open it, unless it's from someone I know. Just in case there's damage, I have a record of how it arrived. And I do send packing instructions. Sometimes they go ignored.

Dennis Markham · July 13, 2009, 05:12:51 PM

Unbelievable! Even more so that your seller and McHeath's is one and the same person. What is the eBay seller's name? It would be nice to know when someone is thinking of buying a phone from this person.

McHeath · July 13, 2009, 06:09:41 PM

I got another 554 in the mail today, from Canada with that fabled black switchook, and it was in a surprisingly small box. Okkkaaayyy....

And in one lower side of the box is a nice clean puncture hole about the size of the nickel.

I open it up and there is a lot of foam paper on top, then the phone underneath with nothing around it. Pure luck that the item that punctured it did not hit the phone, and pure luck that the phone was not damaged.

And I even sent Hobiesports packing instructions.

A curious phone I might add, original date of 1965 and a refurb date of, get this, March of 1997.

jsowers · July 14, 2009, 09:26:43 AM

Quote from: Dennis Markham on July 13, 2009, 05:12:51 PM
Unbelievable! Even more so that your seller and McHeath's is one and the same person. What is the eBay seller's name? It would be nice to know when someone is thinking of buying a phone from this person.

Sorry, Dennis, I guess I didn't make it clear. The yellow 554 picture is my picture, re-posted by McHeath. He got it from another thread about 554 switchhooks and didn't mention whose it was, so I did. It's not the same seller as the blue and pink phones, but both bad packing incidents happened to me. The steps you see in the background of both pictures are my front steps. I hope that clears it up. I probably have more pictures of bad packing, but those are the two worst.

McHeath · July 14, 2009, 11:08:46 AM

Yeah sorry about that, I should have said where I grabbed that picture of the yellow phone in a box. It's a great picture of how not to pack anything of value and mail it. I guess that many people just think of these old phones as unbreakable, so just drop it in a box and mail it, they will be fine. Those two 500s stuffed into a box together are typical probably of how most people see these phones, "Huh, you can't break these things, just stick em' in there and send it!"

Dennis Markham · July 14, 2009, 11:17:21 AM

I don't know what I was thinking. Obviously the seller wouldn't have taken any photos. Duh. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

McHeath · July 24, 2009, 10:45:41 PM

This is not about a phone, but is about poor packing for shipping. My son bought a new, to him, computer and it arrived minus the promised RAM memory. So they shipped the extra RAM right out, and it arrived today, loose in a cardboard box! Came halfway across the US rattling around in a box, amazing it worked. What gets into people so that they think they can just toss stuff in a box and ship it?

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Right and wrong ways to pack a phone for shipping