[rescue] Some people should never be let near a computer...

[Robert Rose]

<rant>

I've been looking for a couple of Alphastations for quite a while now (to 
run OpenBSD on), I won a 100MHz 'station200 on ebay, beautiful, sweet 
machine, but somewhat slow, so I was trolling the newsgroups and noticed an 
AlphaServer 400 4/233 for a couple of hundred dollars in Melbourne (about 7 
hours drive from me).  I sent the requisite email for further details and 
was sufficiently impressed by the seller so I arranged for him to ship it 
to me sight unseen.

Can you see where this is going?

It eventually turned up (late) and I was suspicious when I heard a rattle 
from inside the cardboard box.  On opening, I found it had been packed with 
exactly one block of foam approximately the size of a regular paperback 
novel to absorb any rough treatment during shipping.  Compared to the THREE 
layers of bubble wrap the 'station200 had arrived in, I was not happy.

Once unpacked, attempts to open the case required about 2 hours to gently 
prise the side off because the previous owner had decided to secure it with 
blu-tack.  On further inspection, the blu-tack was actually to keep the 
front plastic panel on as every one of the securing clips had been broken 
off.  The case is also so badly bent, I don't think the side panels will 
ever be able to go back on.

Inside, the source of the rattle was found to be the drive sled holding the 
floppy drive (now damaged beyond repair) and one hard disk (working) which 
was sitting on top of the CPU heatsink, since it hadn't been clipped in 
properly.  The drive sled had also slightly dislodged all 4 SIMMs, which I 
wouldn't discover for another couple of hours.

The other surprise inside for me and the reason the thing was so damn heavy 
was a big, ugly RZ74-E disk that the previous owner decided to throw in, no 
doubt to increase the shipping costs I had to pay.

I've since managed to (1) get the drive sled clipped in, (2) rip out the 
RZ74, (3) remove the blu-tack and front plastic, (4) reseat everything that 
can be reseated and get it to power up, (5) boot OpenBSD.  All up, it's 
been two weeks (evenings and weekends) spent making the thing work.

</rant>

I haven't said anything to the seller yet, I'm unsure just where to start 
and how much of this (a) I should have expected and (b) is going to benefit 
me from bringing up with him. Opinions?

Rob.