[geeks] Ebay. Aaaagh!

[Bill Bradford]

On Mon, May 20, 2002 at 06:48:43PM -0700, Peter L. Wargo wrote:
> Chan is a "packing pro" - in the distribution biz for 15+ years.  She 
> and I agree, our loal place is quite good at packing - I've never had a 
> shipment damaged through them.

Okay, how should I go about packing/shipping a full A5000, if/when I decide
to sell one of mine?  Suggestions appreciated.

I *stay away* from MBE.  They're nothing but crooks, and charge way too much.
I took a SBus framebuffer to them last weekend to ship, because my favorite
drive-thru-and-walk-in postal place was closed... I sent it Priority Mail.
This would have fit without a problem in a (free!) Priority Mail box, and I
already had it bubblewrapped.

The guy took it, put it in a *bigger* box, put about 3 inches of peanuts
around it, then charged me $1.50 for the box (it wasnt a USPS box) and 
$1.50 for the packing!  What should have been a $5 or so total (at the other
place) ended up being around $8.50.

They charged me $50 *just to box/pack* an Ultra30 once.  They then wanted 
$65+ to ship it via UPS (which is funny - they have the highest UPS rates,
and UPS *owns* them!).  I said "no thanks", paid for the packing, put it
in the back of Amy's car, and we drove it down the road to my "normal" 
pack and ship place, where they chewed me out for not going there to 
begin with (I've been using them for 4 years now), and then charged me $40
to ship it (they would have only charged me around $25 for the packing).

I only use MBE when NOTHING ELSE is available now.

Bill

-- 
Bill Bradford     
mrbill at mrbill.net 
Austin, TX