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The CRPF "Bad Packing" awards

Started by Dan, March 01, 2009, 04:54:43 PM

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jsowers

If the seller simply put the handset inside that yellow metal holder and expected it to survive the trip, then it's bad packing. That handset should have been wrapped separately and packed outside the enclosure, if it was too large to fit inside with bubble wrap around it. The door can also be propped open a little, so the cord isn't severed. A phone should always be packed to survive being thrown around, although a bumpy ride in a mail truck could have done that.

You're lucky it only broke in one place, and that you have a decent seller who admits their blame.
Jonathan

GG



Ouchie!  Fortunately those handsets are fairly common so it shouldn't be terribly hard to replace. 

We need to create a standard practices doc with pictures, and post it somewhere such as on an Ebay forum, with a small enough URL that we can direct sellers to read that before shipping. 

Kenny C

Quote from: GG on October 17, 2011, 08:03:58 PM


Ouchie!  Fortunately those handsets are fairly common so it shouldn't be terribly hard to replace. 

They are hard to find for a reasonable price as long as I've been looking for one.
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

LarryInMichigan

Quote from: Kenny C on October 17, 2011, 08:06:15 PM
Quote from: GG on October 17, 2011, 08:03:58 PM


Ouchie!  Fortunately those handsets are fairly common so it shouldn't be terribly hard to replace.  

They are hard to find for a reasonable price as long as I've been looking for one.

You need to look in less obvious places.  I just got this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290617564589 today (for $22.50 with shipping).  The Kellogg phone shell is in bad shape (and made worse by bad packing), but the AE handset is pretty good.


Larry




stub

#229
LarryInMichigan,
                      Kenny doesn't have a e-bay account or credit card or a JOB ;D ;D!!!
                      That's the same way I find my spare handsets.    stub
Kenneth Stubblefield

boynblue27

Well after about 20 successful transactions on ebay finally got my first broken phone due to packing mistakes.  Seller simply sat phone in box and stuffed newspaper around it.  Handset was on phone and post office obviously dropped it on its side a bit hard and this is what happened.  Good thing it was only a 59 Ivory.  Hopefully seller will refund but I doubt it.  Think we should start a category for biggest packing blunders?  LOL


AE_Collector

Quote from: boynblue27 on November 04, 2011, 11:50:51 PM
Think we should start a category for biggest packing blunders?  LOL

I think you just did!

Someone posted a phone on the forum a few months ago that was broken in shipping the same way as yours is broken. Too bad so many phones are trned into "parts phones" due to poor packaging.

Welome to the forum by the way!

Terry

stub

#232
boynblue27,
                  Welcome to the Forum.
                 Here's one for me , newspaper packing-   :'(    stub                
Kenneth Stubblefield

jsowers

It took less time for me to get a damaged phone. My very first phone arrived damaged. This was about 1999 or 2000, when eBay was more like a community of people and the seller was very understanding and refunded half my cost. I glued it back together and gave it to my niece and she still has it.

It's happened more times than I can count since then and you just chalk it up to the risk of doing business with someone you don't know. I also send packing instructions most of the time. I try to keep it short and say "please wrap the handset separately from the base of the phone" and "please make sure there is plenty of packing in the box, so the phone doesn't move when you shake the box."

I also got a light gray 500 WY motel phone packed poorly and cracked in exactly the same place as your phone. See this link for a picture.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1382.msg17789#msg17789

There have been other threads about damaged phones. Here is a big one...

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4589.0

So welcome to the Forum. You've already joined the club--of broken phone collectors!
Jonathan

boynblue27

Well the lady was very nice and she did refund half the cost and I kept the phone so maybe I can repair it if not it is a '59 through and through so maybe I can find a matching cover for it.  If that had been a gray I would have been a little more upset.  Thanks for the advice I will be sure to mention packing instructions to the sellers from now on.

Mike

TelePlay

After getting about 100 phones undamaged (quite a run of good luck) the seller of this phone tightly wrapped the base with bubble pack. That forced the cradle down to the support. When wrapped in bubble pack, the bundle was 6 inches high. The box they used to ship the phone was 6 inches high. The result, half the cradle broke off. However, it didn't take much to break it because the cradle had already been broken and glued back together with a weak glue, which the seller did not disclose in the eBay listing. Seller refunded shipping costs. Why didn't they use a 10 inch high box? Who knows. The yellow item laying on top of the box extending over the phone in the picture is a yardstick showing the box height they used and the phone without bubble wrap in the cradle up, off hook, position. And, yes, I did ask the seller to carefully pack the phone.

GG



Ouchie!  Though, it appears that was originally a white phone that got a "sun tan," and I'd guess that white components are reasonably easy to find.

What I tell sellers:  "These are more fragile than they appear; I give extra-good feedback for good packing & shipping.  Please wrap receiver and base unit each separately in bubble-wrap and use a strong corrugated cardboard box stuffed with enough packing that nothing moves when you shake it.  Thanks (signed)."

Then in feedback I'll say something like "A+ for proper packing..." etc., so other folks here can find it if they check feedback.   

So far this seems to have worked.  For example a GPO 722 Trimphone that came packed as if it was a 332, which is almost humorous, but certainly better to open the box and laugh rather than cry.

The big shipping disaster in my life was the PMG Australia HES-2 (same as GPO HES-2, 2 line + 10 station) in GRAY bakelite that was packed loosely with newspaper and arrived with one side of the housing smashed out.   My repair on that is "pretty good" but still visible in places, so, "boo hoo (cussword!) hoo" for that one, and God Knows when another of those will ever come along. 

TelePlay, IMHO you were the victim of a misleading listing, and if I were you I'd demand a full refund, and even after you get it, note the misleading listing in your feedback.  For example, "listing failed to disclose obvious damage & shoddy repair, item poorly packed, arrived smashed, price refunded." (or ...."seller refused to refund.")   People should *not* be allowed to get away with those kinds of shoddy practices, particularly if they use all kinds of flowery language in their listings. 

TelePlay

Received a 302 in a Styrofoam box with hardly any material protecting the phone inside the box.

Fortunately, the Bakelite handset was on the opposite side of the hole in the box and fortunately, again, the missing corner was at the front right corner of the metal shelled 302. Could poke my finger through the hole and touch the phone, and move it around.

Fortunately, no damage to either the handset or the phone. Had it been thermoplastic, that front right corner may have been damaged.

Sent the seller a message telling him of this issue and suggested a better way to pack phones for shipment. And, yes, I did ask the seller to wrap the handset and phone separately, not ship the handset on top of the phone and to make sure the phone and handset could not move around in the box in the payment message area.

1946 base and network with a 1950 ringer.

LarryInMichigan


TelePlay

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on January 05, 2012, 10:09:32 PM
Did the phone stay cold at least ;D

No, all the ice water leaked out . . .  ::)