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The CRPF "Bad Packing" awards

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

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RotarDad

#435
Here's one I got very cheap on EBay.  Seller had 100% positive feedback but only charged about $7 shipping.  I knew there was packing risk at that price, but I gave the seller my standard "please pack so handset does not contact phone body" message and left it at that.....  Just a USPS bubble bag with no other protection except for "fragile please" written on the bag..  To his credit, my instruction was followed..... 😎. Amazingly, the phone survived undamaged (an NE '73 500Y hotel phone in nice shape).  I'll add another post with before and after resto pics soon....
Paul

poplar1

Around 1992, all residential customers who wanted to stop paying quarterly charges for their AT&T leased phones were given Tyvek (bullet proof?) mailing envelopes to return them to the lone remaining AT&T service center (in Atlanta) for residential phones. The soft plastic 500s often arrived in a million pieces. Not that it mattered, since AT&T was selling them for 11 cents a pound to Applied Components Inc. (ACI shipped most of them to China, but we bought some for $1.50 each.)
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

RotarDad

Interesting story, poplar1 - Thanks for sharing that.  The economics didn't support any better treatment of the phones, since the goal was to simply to remove them from service since they weren't going to be leased anymore.  I hope you found a nice one or two during that time.  I've often wondered about the stories behind the thousands (millions?) of these bell phones that survived.....
Paul

oldguy

Like you stated Paul, he followed your instructions, the handset wasn't touching the body of the phone :) :)
Gary

.....

I got this in the mail today.

I bought it off a guy on Kijiji for $10.00 CDN and he agreed to mail for postage and packaging.
He said postage was $15.00 and that's about right.
Then it was $10.00 for the packaging. Ok I thought fair enough he has to buy the packing stuff, pack it and take it to the post office.

Wow $35.00 CDN / $25.62 USD Super deal for a 1967 NE 1554BQ1A or so I thought.
The packaging material he got was just the box and the tape.

The phone needs a good cleaning and the handset cradle is a little bent from the shipping.
Could have been worst, I got lucky on this packaging job with not a lot of damage. 

Jim Stettler

For $10.00 packing, I would of expected a better packing job. I would swap the cradle vs trying to bend it back.


JMO,
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Key2871

Paul, you got lucky.
Doug, I wonder if he could have maybe found a slightly larger box, depth wise. Boy the things people do and say, yea it will be fine.
I do have to admit I'm guilty too, but for the most part, I do try to pack things well.
KEN

Jim Stettler

Looking closer at the photos. it appears that switchhook kept the phone centered and prevented it from getting housing damage.
I would contact the seller, explain the issue and ask for a refund of the $10.00  packing price. You should be able to find a 554 parts phone with a nice switch hook for $10 or less.
JMO,
Jim S.
If he doesn't want to, maybe follow up with  the link for this thread regarding the phone.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

jsowers

You're lucky the handset didn't beat up the housing, with not a single shred of packing material. First and foremost, you should have sent packing instructions, and for $10 you were due more than this pathetic packing job. You need to tell the seller to wrap the base of the phone separate from the handset with bubble wrap and to be sure there is plenty of packing material in the box, so the parts don't move or hit each other.

You can't assume any seller, except maybe a long-time phone collector, will know how to pack a phone. They're very unusual--heavy yet delicate--and most people don't realize they can self-destruct inside the box.

I wonder if most postal employees in the US would even accept this box, with the phone poking out of it like that? That tape over the part that stuck out is kind of amusing. As if that would protect it from a heavy box being laid on top of it.

What you received is a damaged phone and the seller owes you at least half the cost back and the $10 packing charge back. I don't know what the rules are for Kijiji, but this seller needs negative feedback if at all possible and you need to file an "item not as described" if that's possible and initiate a refund or whatever you can get. You didn't buy a damaged phone and that's what you got, and it's the seller's fault. Don't let the fact that it was a relative bargain stop you from getting a refund. Other people need to be warned about this seller's packing or lack of it.
Jonathan

.....

There is no feedback for Kijiji, It is buyer beware. You are buying at your own risk when asking them to ship. Kijiji is meant to be pick up at the sellers.

I have 2 more phones coming this week. Both off Kijiji. Each of the sellers assured me that they are well packed.
One is a Centurion Rotary Payphone and the seller said he took it to UPS store to have packed and shipped.
The other is a 1938 Ivory Diakon GPO 332 phone. The senders father had this phone for over 50 years and she said that it has been in the family home all her life. So she made sure it was well packed.

Jim Stettler

Doug,
You are on a roll. You are finding really cool stuff.
JMO,
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Key2871

My wife was trained by UPS how to pack fragile items when she worked in shipping, so they should have done a good job packing that centurion. But the white phone looks sharp, hope she does in fact pack it well. It'd be a shame if something happened to that one.
KEN

Butch Harlow

I had hoped I would never have to make an entry in this thread. But, I guess it was inevitable. It's kinda sad it had to happen to a phone that was a gift from my dear old mom. This was a disaster from the word go anyway, in part because the post office really hates me. They have refused to ship packages to my home address for years now, and also refuse to give package notifications. I have complained so many times in person that I am banned from the branch office. I have written the postmaster general and my congressperson. Never gotten more than an automated response and no improvement. However, this one is all on the seller. My mom forgot that I have packages sent to my office address, and sent it to my home. So it got returned to New Mexico, all the way across the country. Then it got reposted and sent to my work address. The seller used the smallest possible box and just two chunks of styrofoam. Naturally I got a box of plastic bits. However, because it's a quality Western Electric product built with pride at a time when quality meant something it still works fine. Behold my sadness:
Butch Harlow

tubaman

Sorry for your loss Butch. :'(
It just amazes me that anyone thinks that packing something loose in a box is a good plan.  I have had no end of things from eBay sellers that are just rattling about with no padding whatsoever.  Miraculously the majority manage to survive, but quite a few have not.
I always assume that any package is likely to be dropped or thrown at some point in its journey, so ensure that anything I pack is well padded and has good clearance from the sides of the box. I then always give the box a bit of a shake and if anything moves I will add extra padding.

SunriseEarth

Well, looks like it's time for my first submission to the "Bad Packing" awards.   My fiance decided to get me a Snoopy Animated Telephone for my birthday.   I'm not very into the novelty phones, but it was a cute one.   The eBay seller shipped it in a very large box and wrapped the phone only in postal paper!   The box itself was broken when it arrived.   Shockingly, the only visible physical damage was to Snoopy's sunglasses (one of the arms broke off).    Needless to say, the animation did not work at all.     

I'll get some pictures up later.   Ugh. 
Tony Stokes

TCI Member; ATCA Member #4893