Well Something Has To Give
Purchased a computer system off fleaBay several weeks ago, and sure enough it arrived via UPS damaged. Seller packed both the monitor and CPU in the same large box (a food store type discar, that was barely closed on top), with another bit of box making inside with wadded newspaper as padding. CPU had a bit of old bubble wrap around it, but only just. Needless to say the CPU is dead and looks like it was whacked with a baseball bat. Am sending the lot back and contacting my credit card company to get my money back.
Am really sick of eBay sellers, especially on high final price items,scrimping on shipping materials, so items usually arrive damaged. Contacting UPS or the USPS to file a claim is not always the soluton as one must keep the original packaging. UPS has rather strict criteria on what counts as proper packing, and any old bit of tat laying around doesn't cut it. More often then not they will say the package was not up to snuff and won't pay, and who can blame them?
It wouldn't gall me so much, except that some sellers charge very high shipping AND handling fees, only to use either USPS free packaging, or any cheap box they find on the street,with newspaper (it's cheap, and usually always lying around spare).
I didn't have a box large enough for the monitor, but went out walking about on the scrounge last night, and found a HP desktop box in a building's recycling rubbish on the curb. Even better it contained all the styrofoam and bubble wrap needed to securely pack the monitor and CPU. The CPU went into it's own box, packed and secured with huge blocks of styrofoam, and bubble wrap. I used a U-line shipping box as well.
What these eBay seller's don't get, is something anyone who ships things on a regular basis knows; UPS, USPS and the rest chuck packages about like they are playing rugby! How many times has one carefully packed an item, gone up to the postal window only to have the clerk take the package and lob it several feet into a bin, and that is only for the start of the journey!